I have been advising my clients on finance for over 30 years; and have lectured in universities, B-Schools, companies and institutions on various facets of finance. I have conducted courses and workshops on money and finance for school children, teenagers and young professionals. The contents of this book come from my experience and the experience of countless people who shared and discussed their finances with me. These are pearls of wisdom that will stand by you for the rest of your lives. I design this book to lead you towards Financial Independence.When I wrote my book "Loads of Money, Guide to Intelligent Stock Market Investing" I received requests from many young friends to write a book for them which will help them create their financial-roadmap. There aren't many outstanding books written for young Indian readers. I emphasised in the earlier book that the best time to understand money was at the beginning of your career, or even before that, during your school and college education. I mean this book to fill that important gap. Money is so important to know about, that I feel this knowledge should be a part of school and university education, irrespective of your branch of study. Unfortunately, even the finance and commerce curriculum misses on this important skill and tries to teach the equilibrium theorem and the theorem of asset pricing. While these may be important concepts, the student needs something that he can put to use to create wealth for himself in the long run. If instead, we taught them to save and invest early, they might multiply the wealth that they accumulate in their later life. More importantly, they can achieve Financial Independence.Having written, spoken, and counselled about finance all my life, I realise people know little about finance. For teaching finance to their children, people dodge the question and sometimes tell them they will know when they grow up. That is right, we expect them to learn it on their own. This explains why people often mess up their finances. This book will be your constant companion, guiding you on every aspect of money, finance, and wealth creation. It will tell you how to find a balance between savings and spending, how and where to invest, how to get rich slow but sure way, how to set up realistic goals, and how to achieve them, how to prioritise your spending, why debt is bad for you and how to avoid getting into a debt trap, how to manage your own money, the importance of keeping a record of your transactions, how to stay away from Ponzi schemes and scams, and a host of other topics. While we primarily focus this book on young people, the philosophy applies to people of all ages. The principles enumerated in this book are eternal and are simple to understand. And there are not many principles to master. It will surprise you to know you have to learn just a few things to create wealth. People work hard but are clueless on how to manage the money and let it grow so it serves them in later life. I hope to create many financially independent people in India so they live the life you dream of; and the fruits of the prosperity of the country are shared by a larger share of the population. The best-kept secret about finance is that there is so little to know. Unfortunately, people don't learn those simple things and regret later. You may find many books dealing with some aspects of personal finance: books on investing, books on managing resources, books on personal finance. Unfortunately, those books do not look at the bigger picture. Life is hundreds of different aspects interconnected in a very complicated manner. All the connected parts need to be understood simultaneously. Your physical, spiritual, emotional, and financial health are interconnected so deeply that the failure of one may cause the entire system to collapse. This book draws your attention to all dimensions that will lead you to success.
