Why I am learning Ukulele

 I read an article in Hindu about people turning to low cost music instrument to ward off  the lockdown blues. 

I came across one instrument in that article which was Ukulele. 

It doesn't cost much so I went to a music shop and I bought it. 

Later I tried youtube videos and that did not help in my learning. So I searched and found a teacher nearby and he teaches both online and offline and its been a month now. 

Its fantastic!! every time I go he teaches something which seems overwhelming and then I practice it for a week and then go back  with confidence only to return with some other new overwhelming things.

But why Ukulele? or why a music instrument and why learn from a teacher and not online 

I have been trying my hand on many things over the years. 

I am a software guy by profession and I absolutely love it but I don't want  to do coding in my free time. 

I tried pencil sketching I absolutely love painting and sketching but have no talent for them though!

I bought a cheap Udemy course but never progressed on it and later enrolled to a painting class but had to stop it after COVID lockdown 

But what I like about playing music instrument as a hobby over something solitary like drawing or writing is it may open up me socially

And I dont know anything about music and its a ocean learning an instrument is a life long process. But even though its life long we get tangible returns in every training. There is always some improvement which is visible. 

Once when I was in US my client asked what do you do in the free time. He plays guitar and has a small armature band. I have nothing else to say other than watching movie 

Nothing wrong in watching movie though. But we need 2 kinds of entertainment one of them is passive like listening to music or watching movie but other thing is active like playing sports etc

Active engagement will make us feel more fulfilling. Even if you just watch a movie all alone, if you discuss about the movie with your friends its deemed as an active engagement since it has a social angle  

What if the active engagement has both fun and learning like learning music

Another example of active engagement is sports -> competitive, healthy, social, fun 

There is a nuanced ice break question 

"What would you like to do after doing what you have to do?"

And you don't have to answer the person who asks this question. You need to live consciously and make your choices deliberately. 

Don't be a commentator be a strategist

 If you are saying things are not going good. You are just saying what is happening now. Like a commentator or a newsreader. You reading out the news aloud does not going to change the situation. 

Accept that the situation is not helping your highest vision but then don't blabber about it on and on blaming yourself or others. 

Try becoming a strategist what is good right now, is this is a lesson to learn, at least you know that this is not serving you. 

Paint a vision on what you want to be or how you want the situation to be in the future. Be a strategist and not a commentator. 

And as soon as you have a vague steps to take. Immediately take the first step

I dont even understand what you are speaking about -JOMO its the coolest thing

 From Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) to Joy of Missing Out (JOMO )

There was a Tamil movie called Viswasam in which there is a scene where the Villain tells the Hero his designation and his business etc for say 2 minutes non-stop just to make the Hero realize how big the Villain was. The hero who is a simpleton from a Village says I am paraphrasing , "Do you know who I am. I don't even understand what you are speaking about. That's me".  

People in the theater erupt with applause for this dialogue since there is a coolness in JOMO. 

Lets embrace it, no more herd mentality, no compulsion to do the things everyone does. 

Lets do JOMO

How to get permanent change with external force

Very interesting to see Taliban taking over Afghan even after several years of being dormant. They were in sideline when US came and the moment US left they are back. 

So this external force is a wasted time, we are unable to bring change after applying external force for such a long time.

There is a science experiment about creating permanent and temporary magnet

There is a way to create permanent magnet and I think it makes sense to apply a high external energy to get a permanent change. 

We can definitely supply some external energy for temporary magnet but even there we need to make the temporary magnet more productive with less external energy as the time progresses. 

Why we are not able to solve this Afghan problem permanently?

But lets look at our lives and the lives we can influence. What we should do so that we have permanent changes without the need to supply a lot of external energy. 

How we can have an amplified return to the energy we put for reaching an outcome. 

On Affirmation for your future self

 Let's say you want to materialize something in your life like in 3 years you want to have x amount of money. 

Your affirmation should not be "In 3 years from now I will have x amount of money"

It should be "By July of 2024 I have x amount of money"

Did you notice the subtilties 

1. Have the exact date since if you are going to say "In 3 years from now" every day after 6 months it should have been "In 2 years 6 month from now.." but you don't generally modify your affirmation that you end up in no progress since the difference between today and the end date is constant

2. The first affirmation is in the future tense and the second one is in present tense.  The theory of expectancy should kick in and you already know it is happening.

3. Next comes how you say it. Feelings are important lofty goal but no emotion will not get you there. Say it with feelings. If you have an affirmation but it doesn't move you then please have another affirmation which moves you. 

4. Actions:  Many gurus says don't think about how to achieve your goals and affirmations how will take care by itself. Yes that's partially correct.. You need to get your why and then the what first and your incompetency of "How" it is going to happen should not reduce the loftiness of the goal. But once you have a vision you need to figure out the how, at least the first step. You are telling universe that you are doing your part and the universe can do its part. If you want x amount of money may be you should ask for a hike or upskill yourself for a promotion, change job, increase investment or reduce expense. You need to do something.

I deleted youtube app in my phone

Yes I did it and feel super awesome!

I used to burn sometime everyday looking at my subscription and the never ending list of suggested videos from youtube in my mobile its a distraction. 

I still have youtube in my smart tv and that's ok. Because its a planned downtime when I sit in front of my TV. But with my mobile since its handy and when I feel I needed to look for something interesting it kills the time 3 mins becomes 13 mins just like that!!

Anyway if I want to access youtube in my mobile I can still use browser and since it requires some effort I don't end up doing it and this helps me save hours every week. 

You don't need willpower to overcome addiction to distraction. You just need to setup your environment which benefits you and that's a smart way to becoming productive

Stocks vs Mutual Funds for people in high tax slab

 With the recent taxation for Dividents in India people who are in high tax bracket may end up choosing Mutual Fund (MF) vs stocks here are the reasons why you are better off with MF

1. You get taxed for Dividents and lets say you diligently try to reinvest you have to still pay brokerage and other taxes as part of buying you dont need to do that in MF

2. Its very difficult to track your investments may be you have several lakhs invested in many companies do you think you can do a rational choice when something goes up or down 

3. If you invest in MF you can do a predefined amount but the same thing is difficult in Stocks you need to get the exact amount which could be less or higher than your desired amount

4. Even lets say you were able to diligently invest in stocks how do you do portfolio rebalancing how  you are sure your stocks are in the right weightage when you have to book profit or loss tactically

5. All the above mentioned in #4 may have tax implications and that's bypassed in MF you don't have to pay tax 

6. Also MF with its volume may get better deal in rates then you as an individual 

Agreed that for a given investment you  are paying regular fees in MFs and if you can do all the investment yourself you may end up saving that cost but is that what you need to spend time on. 

If your regular job is not in stock market and something else will you not rather spend time on upgrading your skill and having good life experience, spending time with your family or will you be looking at stock market. 

You may have got 300% return in a stock investment but how much you invested say 1 Lakh!

Is that enough for your future expenses and retirement?

Do you have the guys to exit that investment and put all the money in the next stock (else compounding will not happen)

Mutual Fund is a passive investment for you and you are never going to be rich just by investing in MF. 

The critical part of any investment is the amount you invest and if you can manage your active part of earning good money taking care of yourself and your loved ones then you end up increasing the amount invested in good quality MFs and this will make you rich. 

Aim for 10% XIRR in MF equity and manage your life style and skill development and live well below your means. 

Have an aggressive % of investment target like 40-50% of your salary and that will make you rich in a tax efficient way.