The Checklist of Life & Investing: For The Year 2023 & Beyond

The year 2021 was unforgettable and so was the year 2020. The routine, peaceful life was shaken up by the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything was sudden and unexpected. New vocabulary got added to our small world. Words like corona, quarantine, remdesivir, work from home (WFH), lockdown, and hand sanitizer became new normals. The scary sound of the ambulance siren still reverberates in memory. There were queues of dead bodies awaiting the funeral. It was traumatic. This was once in a lifetime experience. Many of us have lost dear ones. We are lucky to survive and still be around to live another day.

The year 2022 was relatively calm and peaceful for India but not for the rest of the world. Dramatic events like the Russia-Ukrain war, the rising inflation, and the probable recession in the US and Europe have influenced this year. We can not remain immune to such global events for a long time. It is bound to impact us sooner or later. Hence we should prepare ourselves for any such adverse eventualities.

Life is a mystery. It surprises us every moment. Every day dawns with new experiences. These instances are not always bitter. In fact, most of the time, these are the pleasant ones. However, a few moments do pose a lot of challenges. These are the testing times. Such an ordeal does not last forever. In fact, these are divine blessings. They test our character, our tenacity. They offer us the opportunity to become better human beings and enhance our spiritual understanding of life. The one who learns from them will surely succeed in life.

Investing and life go hand in hand. We invest to live a happy life, and if we desire to live a happy life, we must invest. Life without appropriate investment is like living on an oxygen cylinder. Hence, I couldn’t restrain myself from adding a few snippets on how to live a happy and meaningful life. So, this is the combined checklist about life and investing. Go ahead, read and inculcate these behavioral traits. If you do so, you will never be put on an oxygen cylinder for the rest of your life.

We pray and sincerely hope that the new year 2023 will bring good health, a lot of wealth, and happiness for all of us. To ensure this, we must prepare ourselves in advance. If we follow the wisdom of Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet, I am sure we will sail through effortlessly. Hence, to simplify the process of preparation, I have drawn a checklist for investors. The checklist is inspired by the book “Poor Charlie’s Almanack, the wit and wisdom of Charles T Munger” and the wisdom of Warren Buffet.

Checklist for Life:-

• Assume life will be really tough, and then ask if you can handle it. If the answer is yes, you have won

• Life will have terrible blows, horrible blows, and unfair blows. Doesn’t matter. Some people recover and others don’t

• Spend each day trying to be a little wiser.

• Recognize and adapt to the true nature of the world around you; don’t expect it to adapt to you

• Avoid dealing with people of questionable character

• Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading and cultivate curiosity

• Acknowledging what you don’t know is the dawning of wisdom

• Stay within a well-defined circle of competence

• Reputation and integrity are your best valuable assets and can be lost in a heartbeat

• One of the greatest ways to avoid trouble is to keep it simple. The system often goes out of control

• Envy, resentment, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thoughts

Checklist for investing:-

• Successful investing takes time, patience, and discipline. No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time

• The most important quality for an investor is temperament and not intellect

• It is remarkable how much long-term advantage one gets by trying to be consistently not stupid instead of trying to be intelligent

• Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world, never interrupt it unnecessarily

• The big money is not in buying and selling, but in the waiting

• If you are new to the stock market, it is advisable to invest in mutual funds through a Systematic Investment Plan. Continue investment as long as possible. Longer the better

• Avoid speculative activities like intra-day trading, future & options. And yes, please stay away from cryptos. Warren Buffett said,”It’s a rat poison squared.”

Wishing you and your family a lot of wealth, great health, and an abundance of happiness for the new year 2023 and beyond !!!!!