Theory | wealthymatters

Learning From Levi Strauss

July 31, 2017 Leave a comment

wealthymatters “Real estate players gained from IT revolution, not engineers” – Screams the ET headline and continues…………

Former Karnataka IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni said the starting salary of an engineer in the year 2000 when he was holding the position was Rs three lakh, a figure which has remained the same even today.

“What about real estate ? Suppose you buy a real estate in JP Nagar in Bengaluru in 2000 and you want to buy now, what’s the difference?. It must have gone up eight to ten times. That means the fruits of our IT revolution has not gone to engineers, it has gone to real estate people,” he told .

But then what’s new? Different time, different place. But the basic story remains the same…..

During the California Gold Rush, Levi Strauss sold dry goods to miners. One of these items was durable trousers suited to the rough conditions in which miners worked in. This was the origin of jeans and the Levi Strauss brand.

Every time there is a Gold Rush of one or other kind, and there is always invariably one, if you are alert, there is always more than one way to make money.

Filed under Theory Tagged with California Gold Rush, Indian IT Revolution, Levi Strauss, postaday

The Source Of New Wealth

July 31, 2017 Leave a comment

Just so you know what to focus on and how best to deploy your time and energy to grow your wealth,the simplest and fastest way.

wealthymatters

Filed under Theory Tagged with how to grow your wealth, postaday

Life Of A Middle Class Indian Migrant Going Abroad

July 31, 2017 Leave a comment

MOST TYPICAL SCENARIO :
•Highly educated Indian from middle class family.
•Migrates abroad for lack of opportunities locally.
•Gets paid well, but lives in a pigeonhole.
•Gets adapted to cleaner environment, less population and a richer lifestyle there.
•Visits India for a month annually only to find the country a living mess.
•Returns abroad leaving back tonnes of chocolates, dry fruits, sunglasses, mobile phones, perfumes for drooling relatives and neighbours.
•After he leaves, family takes up home renovation, siblings’ wedding plans, donations to village temple etc.
•Guy’s next visit to India. Thinks of himself as a pro now. Visits native place. Buys agricultural land that nobody will till for a century to follow, so that he may build a farmhouse there on retirement. Gets it converted to NA eventually. Keeps paying heavily. Parents unable to find buyers for it.
•Next visit. Buys an apartment. Heavy EMI’s start.
•Guy’s fourth visit. Spends extravagantly on his own wedding to befit his emigrant status. Equally expensive honeymoon. All sourcing from his salary alone.
•Takes wife along. Shifts accommodation from pigeonhole to matchbox. Expenses add up. Three times as before.
•Next visit. Invests in stock market trade. Too smart to trust the portfolio to a professional. Family too naiive to handle it. Money goes for a toss.
•Next year. Has a kid. Education and upbringing expenses add up. In fact, that becomes the sole objective of holding on to his job thereon.
•Lifestyle has got upgraded. Family vacations to different continents are an annual feature. Anything lesser is so Indian.
•Can afford another child. Has another child.
•Children grow up and study in international universities. Settle there itself. Never to return.
•Guy retires and comes back to India.
•Zero pension. Bank balance decreasing by the day. Cannot downgrade lifestyle out of habit AND out of compulsion to maintain a certain ‘foreign return’ social image.
•Dependent on kids to take over from him.
•Finds his neighbours who spent their entire lives in India, as much settled (if not more) and living comfortably off their handsome post-retirement pensions.
•Starts providing professional expertise to Indian business startups to ward off sustenance concerns.
•Wants life to rewind and replay. -Amarpali Bhogle