Life & Financial Lessons that I learned from Gautam Buddha

 

1. Mindfulness: It all start in your head

          It is out mental state that drives our actions and which later gets back to use as consequences.  Buddha emphasized purification of the mind and adopting the eightfold path to create the right mindset through experimentation and exploration.  When we are mindful of our finances, our incomes and expenditures, our goals and ambitions, we naturally gravitate towards better decisions and reap its benefits in the coming time.

2. Kindness: Share your bounty

          We often falsely believe that the world is a wild jungle and that you have to be a fierce carnivore to survive and thrive, a belief system that creates unfulfilling, guilt-ridden, and disappointed beings. Buddha preached the virtues of kindness, of the 'live and let live' principle; to support the needy and help the poor. Therefore, if you have plenty, use some of that to alleviate the pain of the less fortunate.

3. Believe in Self: Self Dependent

          Everyone is born in a different environment with varied advantages or drawbacks, but with full authority to execute their present karma and march towards a better future or ultimately attain nirvana. In financial life, too, anyone can achieve the coveted financial freedom with rightful actions irrespective of the current situation of past mistakes. Just aim for your dream life and act on it with full vigour and faith.

4. Have healthy relationship with money and materials: Detachment

          Most of us are enamoured by material things likes bigger cars, houses or yachts, or with social or virtual status, or with pure lust for more money and wealth. Buddha stressed that unbridled desires ruin life experiences. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't aim for a comfortable and luxurious life; it simply means following a sustainable middle path where contentment and happiness are maximized.

5. Be responsible

          The consequences of our collective irresponsible behaviors have depleted water levels, polluted the environment, degraded the soil and exacerbated the suffering of other beings. Obviously, we need to secure the well-being of ourselves and our families first. However, with a little consideration about minimizing the harm caused by us to others, we will have a much more peaceful life and a vibrant co-existence.

6. Don't waste resources: Frugality

          Buddha preached 'simple living and high thinking; he emphasized that people should live their ethically while consuming lesser resources.  In finances, frugality is a virtue; living within your means while optimizing consumption and saving in the present leads to prosperity in the future.

7. Chase ultimate freedom: Purpose

          Lord Buddha encourage us to become seekers rather than followers; you should actively seek the answers to your unique questions instead of piggybacking on other's perspectives. You should sincerely take out some time to answer the question 'why you are here' or in other words, find your life's purpose. It will energize and propel you to the path of your own version of perfect life.

           In the end, it's our life; own it, set the sail on your personals voyage and navigate it through milestones that will give you maximum meaning and fulfilment.

Five Important lessons to Learn from the Market

1. Risk Management: 

Whether you are an options trader or cash market investor, risk management is the most important concept to deal with. You should always prescribe risk before entering the trade. Adjust position size so that the risk does not exceeds the prescribed limit. After entering the trade, you can either go for reward which could be double, triple or more than your risk OR you can trail your stop loss to go for larger gains, in case momentum is strong. 

2. Nothing works All the time:

A trader can utilize a custom system/strategy, can take discretionary decisions or use an algorithm to take decisions. But remember that noting going to work all the time. You bound to miss moves, exit early or get shaken out before the move actually starts. You need to think about longer term perspective. The opportunities that you missed were just a few of next 100 trades that you are going to take. But if you missing 6 out of 10 opportunities, you need to adjust your strategy. 

3. Start Small: 

If you are not so familiar with the stock market then you need to start with small capital. This will automatically reduce your risk and position size. Your profit will also be small but learn to make your calculations in percentage terms. First prove yourself that you are a profitable trader for at least 3 months, then increase your capital gradually. 

4. Deal with failures: 

As I said nothing works all the time. There will be losing days and losing streaks. It is very difficult to deal with losses when you are new to trading. But to begin with, minimal losses are easier to with. Imagine you started trading with Rs. 1 Lac and lost 10k on the very first day. I am sure that soon you will lose it all and then become an investor. Following risk management and developing strategy that suits you are not overnight processes. You have to develop discipline to follow them. Try to stay in the market for long time and it will teach you how to deal with failure. 

5. All strategies are not for everyone: 

You might have seen or heard about traders who made huge money using their strategy. But trust me, even if you get that strategy for free there are higher chances that you are going to lose. It is not just the strategy but years of hard work by the author that made it perfect for him. He would know all the nuances and the environments where it worked well. Also, the nature of strategy should be directly proportional to your personality. An aggressive strategy for one trader can be too slow for the other.