"Do you think there are any specific habits that make some people more successful with money than others?" This is a question that a lot of clients ask us.Initially, we avoided saying much as we did not want to make any general statements. As we moved around the country and met a lot of successful clients, we realized that there are certainly some differences in how financially successful people manage money vis-a-vis the not so successful. We came across a lot of people earning high salaries but who were always short of money as well as people with average salaries but always had money on hand. We were able to discern certain patterns which we would like to share with you:

1. Surround themselves with positive people. They tend to stay away from negative people and negative thoughts and do not listen to reasons why something cannot be done. They spend most of their time with people with a can-do attitude who find ways to make things happen.

2. Are not held back by failures. They use their mistakes and failures as stepping stones to success rather than obstacles or reasons to stop trying. Rather than running behind achievement, they spend a lot of time putting in the necessary efforts towards achieving their goals. Too much achievement can result in fear of failure.

3. Manage their time effectively. Hours, minutes and seconds are non-renewable and precious resources. They set their priorities and passionately focus on them. Successful people tend to limit their screen time (TV, video games) compared to unsuccessful people. There is nothing inherently wrong with watching TV but it tends to take up a time which can be better spent exercising, reading or learning something new.

4. Ignore the opinions of others. There is no compulsion to keep up with the neighbors. Limited exposure to mass media and advertising allows them to be more productive and not get influenced by cultural norms. They do not follow the herd while taking investment decisions. Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, stays in a 5 BHK house bought in 1958 for $31,500 and currently valued at $700,000. People with trendy lifestyles and the latest fashions tend to be usually short of money.

5. Have a sense of direction. There is purpose to their actions. There is a reason why they work hard, save money and invest wisely. Their daily actions are aligned with their long term dreams and goals. People who are always struggling with money have no direction and idea of what they want from life.

6. Focus on the big wins. They pay attention to the details and develop smart saving habits, but are not paisa wise and rupee foolish. While they may save money on the small things, they do not sacrifice on critical wants like housing, food and income. While the not-so-successful people end up wasting away their paisa and rupees.

7. Do difficult things. They work harder, longer and smarter than other not so successful people. They are willing to sacrifice today’s small comforts for tomorrow’s gratification and big rewards

8. Make their own luck. They keep their eyes and ears open and are constantly aware of what's happening around them. They recognize opportunities as and when they come and boldly seize and act on them before the others do.

9. Believe they are responsible for their own future. Any given situation, whether difficult or easy, is nobody’s fault and may be beyond one’s control. What is controllable though is how you respond to it. Successful people do not react to any given situation but respond pro actively and productively.

10. Grow and change over time. They are willing to adapt, evolve and appreciate different points of view. They are constantly acquiring knowledge and learning from their experiences with a view to change and mold their minds in the right direction.

Most people (including most of us) practice only a few of the above mentioned habits but not all. The most successful people we have meet practice all of them and the not-so-successful people do none.

To conclude, people who are successful with money and life take what they do very seriously. They treat their life as a business and behave as the CEO and CFO with the goal of “growing their business” over time. Your personal wealth is your real business, everything else is supplementary and supportive. Please nurture your business very carefully.

We all want to give the best to our children. We feel that our children do not need to go through the same experiences, difficulties and compromises we had when we were children. And true to our wishes, our children have experienced a very comfortable life where things have been very easy for them. They have been exposed to social media and television at a very early age and have huge aspirations and dreams.

Perhaps one concern we all have is that real life is tough and our children need to realise that. They need to realise the amount of hard work and effort that goes into earning money. As parents, we all wish that our children are much more sensible and careful when it comes to dealing with money. However, this is not something that will be easy for you. Inculcating the right understanding, respect and value for money and developing the right habits from an early age will take time and patience on your part, perhaps many months and even years. In this article, we will explore a few of the ways we can let our child on the path to financial literacy and right habits.

Things to do ...

1. Recording: The first step which everyone should do is to ask and teach the child to record all his/her spendings. Please do not comment or make any negative observations here as the child may stop recording those things or hide them from you. Let them record everything without fear. There are many mobile apps which help record expenses or instead this can be done the old way – pen & paper or diary.

   Motivate them to keep track of their spendings and give them pocket money with the small condition of maintaining the records and sharing it with you for next pocket money. Once there is a track of spendings over a few weeks /months, ask them to make observations. Take a back seat and let them self learn.

2. Budgeting: Once the children are habituated to keeping records, budgeting should come naturally. Follow a fix periodical pocket money /budget for them. To begin with, this can be for say a few days for small kids, then for every week and slowly progressing to å monthly allowance for more mature children. Once the children are habituated to keeping records, budgeting will be very easy as they know they have to live within that budget for the rest of the period. Just ask them their daily balance without making any judgements or comments. Your role should only be to be strict while giving your pocket money. Ask your children for any major events in advance and adjust your pocket money in advance but not post the event.

3. Patience: An essential element of learning is patience and this has to be inculcated slowly. There can be many ways of teaching this. For example, if your child has asked for any particular toy or gift, let them wait for it. You may either give an appropriate future date for the same. Alternatively, you may divide the money and pay them equally over many days while asking them to save the same. Eg. If a toy costs say Rs.2,000, pay them Rs.100 daily for 20 days and make them wait slowly till the full amount is accumulated.

4. Saving: Savings is the most important habit one should focus on developing. With basic habits of recording and budgeting, savings should come easy with patience. Show them how they can cut few corners /spendings and save more. Motivate them for saving with some extra rewards from your end once their savings targets are achieved. For eg., if they manage to save 20% of their pocket money, reward them with say extra 20%. Motivate your children to save larger amounts for bigger and bigger gifts/events. For eg., if they have managed to save say Rs.3,000 for one item/gift, instead of going out and spending, show them better options of say Rs.5,000 and ask them if they would like to have that. Put in your rewards as well. Let them take pride in saving big and then spending. From toys to cycles to electronics to even bikes, this habit can be great learning for your child.

5. Responsibility: Letting children learn with some real responsibility is a good way to teach them great values. One can begin with small responsibilities like caring for toys, asking one to get repairs for broken toys, caring for small pets like fishes in your aquarium or birds or other big pets like dogs for teenagers. Pets can be a very good way to develop empathy as well. Put as much responsibility on them as you can. Try not to interfere even if things may start looking bad, let your children take responsibilities and learn the consequences of not doing what is needed. Of course, you can lend a helping hand when the child is doing something. You may even give the responsibility to say buying food and other things for your pets to the children and allocate a budget for the same.

6. Participating: As your child grows and learns, start involving them in planning your household expenses. Let them also have their own share of inputs on things like outings, entertainment, purchase of electronics, holidays, etc. Value their inputs and discuss options. For eg., if they want holidays at some premium location, ask them if they are ready to forego /cut some spendings and wait longer? Also start to involve them in sharing and monitoring things like investments and insurance. Teach them as and when you start sharing. Slowly ask them to maintain all your financial records and documentation. Also let them participate in your meetings with your financial advisors /insurance advisors /tax consultants, etc.

Lessons and habits learnt at an early age stay for a long time in our lives. For our children who are exposed to a virtual world almost all the time, the realities of life need to be taught within our comforts as parents. Early lessons in money management and instilling the values of understanding of the importance of money, money's real value, patience, delayed gratification, etc will lay a strong foundation for financial well-being in life. This is of utmost importance for your child, even more than any educational course he/she may wish to pursue.

Systematic Investment Plan or SIP as it is commonly known, is an investment plan (methodology) offered by Mutual Funds wherein one could invest a fixed amount in a mutual fund Scheme periodically at fixed intervals – say once a month instead of making a lump-sum investment. The SIP, as we popularly know it, is the ideal way to invest in mutual funds, especially for retail investors. Over the years, it has proved itself as the preferred and the best way to create long-term wealth, without affecting their day-to-day lives.

 Why SIP?

The benefits of having a SIP are well-known among investors today and you are not alone. As per the latest available figures from Association of Mutual Funds of India, popularly known as AMFI), an industry body, there are about 2.98 crore or nearly 3 crores SIP accounts in India through which investors regularly invest in Indian Mutual Fund schemes. The SIP method of investing has been gaining immense popularity in the recent years.

 AMFI data shows that the mutual fund industry had added, on an average, 9.55 lacs SIP accounts each month during the last financial year (FY2019-20), with an average SIP size of about ₹2,850 per SIP account. Today investors are investing about ₹.8,518 crores per month in mutual funds through SIP route. In April 2016 this figure was only about ₹.3,122 crores. That's a growth of nearly 2.7 times!

 The reasons why almost every prudent investor is today thinking of SIP route are multiple. The primary advantage being that helps in Rupee Cost Averaging. In simple terms the Rupee Cost Averaging means that you are investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals ensuring that you buy more shares of an investment when prices are low and less when they are high. Think of it as buying say gold every month of a fixed amount. As gold prices fluctuate, you will be buying less or more of gold every time. When you do this for a long period of time, your average purchase price of gold per gram or tola will be much lower to the prevalent market prices in future. That leads to better returns over time.

 Another reason why people prefer SIPs is because it help in investing in a disciplined manner without worrying about market volatility and timing the market. SIP also offer great convenience. The SIP instalment amount could be as small as ₹500 per month. There is also the option of choosing the right frequency – say weekly, monthly or quarter and also the preferred SIP date from the multiple date options given by fund houses. As compared to lump sum investment directly in an equity fund at any particular date, SIP is better since that risk of market fluctuation is reduced. However, this is subject to market conditions and also individual investment horizon.

 What is Step-Up SIP and why is it needed?

 Step-up SIP, also popularly known as top-up SIP, is an automated facility through which SIP contribution can be increased by a predetermined fixed amount, or a fixed percentage, at periodic intervals. Thus, with a step-up SIP, the SIP amount increases automatically at a pre-defined rate and period. For example, a person who is investing ₹10,000 every month via a SIP can opt for a step-up plan and ask the fund house to increase his SIP amount by say Rs.1,000 every year.

In a normal SIP done today, of say Rs.10,000, will remain at Rs.10,000 even after say 5 or 10 years. But during this time your savings potential and your goals /aspirations would have also increased. Since most people are too lazy, to voluntarily increase their SIP investment contributions very year, their SIP contributions will likely remain stagnant. They would fail to integrate their income growth with their investment plan. And one fine day the investor will realise that he has lost on the golden opportunity to save more through SIP in past so many years. This is where step-up SIP steps in as an automated function and facilitates long-term wealth creation. Over time, as your circumstances change and your income grows, you are likely to have more money available to invest. The step-up SIP will take care of your growing savings potential and evolving financial goals with time. 

In short, if you continue investing with a fixed SIP amount, then you are not taking a wise move and loosing out on the wealth creation opportunity in equities in long term. You need to opt for a Step-up SIP. 

SIP Step-up can be done quarterly, half-yearly or annually. It can also be planned as a fixed amount of increase or a fixed percentage of SIP amount. For example, you can either increase it by say Rs.5,000 every half year or say 10% every year. The increase in the SIP amount should ideally is based on your expected rise in income and your requirement for achieving your financial goals. Just to add, even big financial goals, which look unachievable today or command very high fixed SIP amount today, can be expected to be achieved with a smaller but a rising SIP.  A Step-up SIP is necessary to fulfil goals faster, with a bigger corpus than planned and also get returns that counter inflation.

 Why much can I benefit?

 Step-up SIP incorporates the power of compounding so that the investors can reach their financial goals sooner. It works wonderfully well in long term. Here is a simple comparison for how much wealth can be potentially created with step-up SIP. We consider that the starting SIP is of Rs.10,000 monthly and the expected returns is of 12% annualised. Step up

As you can clearly see, the step-up SIP can greatly benefit wealth creation and will give compounded benefits especially over long term. The difference over a normal fixed SIP is staggering in long term.

  Just to summarise, topping up an SIP offers the following advantages:

• Adapts to your rising income - you can plan an increase in SIP in line with your income and savings potential increase every year - either in fixed amount or percentage. We would prefer you decide on a fixed percentage rather than an amount.
• Achieve goals faster - step up SIP would bring big financial goals within your reach and/or help them achieve faster.
• Helps fight inflation - Many investors choose to increase their contributions to stay in line with inflation. As inflation consistently erodes the value of your money it may be wise to raise contributions to an investment plan for the long-term.
• Allows you to keep investing in an existing plan rather than open a new one - This facility also saves you from the hassle of managing multiple SIPs. A rise in income need to be systematically invested. But looking for a new investment opportunity is tedious and time-consuming. Instead, topping up an existing investment could be the most efficient option.

How to start Step-up SIP?

SIP is a very convenient method of investing in mutual funds through standing instructions to debit your bank account every month, without the hassle of having to write out a cheque each time. The step-up SIP works in similar fashion. While starting a new SIP, an investor can choose the step-up option. While completing the form, the investor is required to enter the initial amount, step-up amount, step-up frequency. This is operationally very convenient and easy so let us not bother too much about same.

However, we would suggest that you talk to your financial advisor /mutual fund distributor today on your financial goals and your investment plans to not only start a normal SIP but a step-up SIP.

Happy investing.