“Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now” – is a repeated
question these days. Some of us might have even thought of, where he/she would be
in 25 years.
In the year 1923 a group of rich/powerful/influential
business leaders met at a hotel in Chicago to discuss business and future
trends. Let’s see where they found themselves in 25 years
|
Name
|
Status -1923
|
Status 1948
|
|
Charles Schwab
|
President - Bethlehem
Steel (World’s largest steel company and heavy manufacturers)
|
Lived the last 5 years of
his life on borrowed money and died
|
|
Samuel Insull
|
President of World’s Largest Utilities
|
Died in France, penniless
|
|
Howard Hopson
|
President - Electric Gas and Co;(Largest Gas Company)
|
Went Insane
|
|
Ivar Kreuger
|
President - IMCO (World’s Largest Company; 1923), Co-founder -
Kreuger&Toll
|
Committed Suicide (suspected murder)
|
|
Leon Fraser
|
President - Bank of International Settlement
|
Committed Suicide
|
|
Richard Whitney
|
President of the New York Stock Exchange
|
Released from prison to die at home
|
|
Albert Fall
|
US - Senator (New Mexico)
|
Pardoned from a federal prison, to die at home
|
|
Arthur Cutton
|
Biggest Stock Speculator (Wheat)
|
Died insolvent
|
|
Cosabee Livermore
|
The Great Bear of Wall Street
|
Committed Suicide
|
Evident Cause
The Great Depression – the market crash in the year 1929
Today we live in a fast paced era. A Business/Entrepreneur,
in the initial days, experiences frequent rough tide. A series of Ups and Downs
in the financial market, which could collectively amount to the blow of the Great
Depression of 1929.
What’s your Plan to
Survive?
If your answer is – “Rush to the nearest CA”, well, think
again.
Don’t you think that the above set of great leaders, did
never hire a big team of CA’s, to advise them?
Irrespective of how much money you have and how much you
make, your choices decide a lot. Remember ‘A Fool and his lotta money make a
great Party’. And if you want to
entertain finance companies and advisors for security, well……………
This reminds me of one of the amusing stories of Entrepreneur
that I covered. An Engineer by qualification, is now pretty proficient on QuickBooks.
He does not seek help to understand – tax structures, payment structures and
other Govt norms. What instigated this learning? It was a heavy penalty paid,
for a miss by the accounting team.
Hence, hiring an MBA (Fin) or a CA does not always solve
your money anxieties. As a business owner, it’s imperative to have the knowledge
of how money works. And again, how money
works and how the Financial markets react is not the same.
You choose
So is there a course or a college or a book – that teaches
us the money game?
The answer is – none of them, singularly. It’s mostly a mix
of – experience, interpretation and clever choices.
And in the context of
clever choices, I present you with 2 friends –
Friend 1
Friend 1 finished her Chemical
Engineering, but instead of M.Tech , joined MBA (Finance) in a renowned college.
Reason, in her own words – “What is more interesting than making money”. She works for a bank and lives in a
hostel. She worked out contacts in the
affluent class and sells them property, which is quite far away. Her earnings include salary and commission
from property sales.
Friend 2
Friend 2 and his wife have
both graduated with an MBA(Finance). They
bought a duplex house in the suburbs of the city, connected through a bumpy road.
Both of them acquired decent jobs. The housing loan amounts to half their
combined salary and stretches to 30 years. They are young but do not indulge,
to manage with the little after paying loans and bills.
If one of them is to be your Financial Advisory, who would You Choose?