Mad_About_Money_final April 2017 | Page 23

Mad About Money FINANCIAL RUIN NECESSARILY FOLLOWS FROM BEING FINANCIALLY WELL-OFF IN THE FIRST PLACE. THIS MEANS THAT IF YOU THINK GETTING A LOT OF MONEY WILL REDUCE ALL YOUR MONEY PROBLEMS THAN UNFORTUNATELY YOU ARE HIGHLY MISTAKEN. RICH PEOPLE GO BROKE TOO AND STARTING FROM MULTI- MILLION DOLLAR WORTH ATHLETES TO LOTTERY WINNERS, THERE ARE NUMEROUS EXAMPLES ALL AROUND US WHERE PEOPLE WHO HAVE A LOT OF MONEY WERE EVENTUALLY NOT ABLE TO HOLD ON TO IT, RESULTING IN FINANCIAL RUIN IN THE PROCESS. SO WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? WHY DO RICH PEOPLE GO BROKE? AND WHY CAN’T PEOPLE HANDLE MONEY WHEN ONE HAS IT? THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE – THE ALL TOO TYPICAL AND USUAL ‘NOW THE WORLD IS MINE’; SYNDROME. ‘WORLD IS MINE’ SYNDROME – WHAT IS IT? When you suddenly get your hands on a lot of money, be it an inheritance or a lottery win or even a business deal that went the right way, you feel that the world is yours! It can be of course, but you need to strategically plan for it! The ‘feeling’ per se can do more damage than good and more than often leads to complete ruin! Let’s see why and how. YOU TEND TO OVERSPEND ON YOUR ‘DREAMS’: Let’s face it, when you suddenly win a lottery and feel that the ‘world is yours’, what do you do? You go around splurging it on things which you have always dreamt of but could never afford. That luxury bungalow, the sports car, perhaps a world trip? So basically you just splurge it all off and get back to where you started from! Nothing can be sadder. If and when you have a chance of changing your life forever and maybe the generations to follow, you should sit back, plan and judiciously and intelligently categorize your spending so that some goes towards such things but mostly the money is used to make more money…so that the entire corpus doesn’t dry up and you can sustain your new standard of living! YOU TEND TO BECOME GENEROUS TOWARDS THE WORLD: After your inner need to show the world that you are rich, comes the next dangerous need – the need to be generous towards your near and dear ones. Many of your dear friends or family might be short of cash and in some kinds of a problem which would get sorted if only there was a little money. A little push in the new start-up business, a sudden medical emergency, a marriage, the list is endless. You might suddenly feel bad if you do not help them out in their times of need when you possess so much money. Well, sadly – this is yet another sure shot way towards financial ruin. Such benevolent acts unknowingly spiral out of our control and honestly, most of these you will perhaps never get back. Even if you do, it would be without interest or any other kind of ROI. So the ‘world is mine’ feeling can eventually make you a popper again if you don’t step on the brakes now. Remember, the world can be yours only and only if you can sustain this money. Get yourself a financial planner, categorise your money, divide it into chunks of savings, investments, debt payments and spending and then sit back and sip on that drink… finally you have done your best to make the world yours. 23