#MyLongHappyLife

Take a look at the video above about a well planned life for a happy tomorrow. Now look beyond the fact that it’s an ad by Exide Life meant to sell insurance products.

I like the fact that at the end of the video,the wife asks her husband what he has planned for “now”. Planning out the future is important and wealth building for the future is good. Planning and making provision for future needs cuts down on unnecessary suffering somewhere down the line and ensures that ‘Kal Khoobsurt Hai’.

But living for the future can become a disease. If we accept that doing without and privations today are necessary for a better tomorrow and make a virtue out of doing without, in an attempt to save and accumulate, we merely make ourselves and others round us miserable, needlessly. Habitually doing without is often nothing more than a mentally lazy habit. By asking ourselves how we can have this or that thing and being creative and persistent, we can achieve a lot of things with very little money.

The art is in striking a balance. Figure out what makes you happy and make it a point to do these things as often as possible today and make certain that you build the means to continue enjoy doing them in future, that way you can make life one long vacation. Basically, just plan for happiness.

The video is right. It helps to keep a personal diary or scrap book or even a small note in your phone/computer of the things you wish to do and refer back to it periodically. The subconscious mind is a pretty powerful tool and it helps you manifest your dreams. Here is a little note I have of the things I wish to have.

As I consider all these needs of mine toys, I don’t have an investment plan for them. I will give them to myself every time I have a small windfall. But this was definitely not my approach a few years ago when I was planning for life goals. Then I was building funds to save for a house, a way to pay for health emergencies, a way to pay  living expenses, a down payment for a retirement plan, a way to pay insurance and investment instalments etc. I’ve just gotten rid of those spreadsheets as I now have inflation proofed income producing assets to pay for all my regular expenses and so can afford to retire as long as I don’t wish to upgrade my lifestyle.

So having secured the lifestyle I currently live, for the rest of my life, I now plan on going with the flow and giving my creativity full reign to live a hopefully long but definitely happy life. The one thing I am determined not to do is downsize my dreams and desires, for I believe these are my soul’s urgings, to help me walk the path I am meant to in this time. Somehow, somewhere along the way, the universe will ensure that I learn the lessons I need to. To keep the faith I have to merely revisit my past.

This was me a dozen years back. Then came the lakhs and the crores. Along the way came the realization that putting together my own business and investment opportunities is a lot more profitable than buying into another’s opportunity. I definitely enjoyed more control and that mattered to me.

I have no idea what lessons I will pick up in the next 30 years, but I do know it will have a profound effect in the way I see opportunity, risk, investment and business. But come what may, I have planned my daily happiness for life.