4 Timeless Investing Lessons Inspired from Holi

The festival that the country eagerly looks forward to has arrived. Holi, also known as the festival of colours, marks the beginning of the spring season.

It's the most cheerful festival celebrated in India wherein people smear each other with different colours and sort out the differences they had between them to start afresh.

This Holi, investors can reboot their relationship with their investments. This article talks of 4 timeless investing lessons inspired by Holi.

Different Shades

The first investing lesson is inspired from the thing that is integral to holi - colours.

Do we constrain ourselves on using just one colour while playing holi? No, right.

On the day of holi, our body is smeared with every colour out there. We look no less than a rainbow, don't we?

If we do not constrain ourselves on using diverse colours, then why do we constrain our investments only to one asset class.

Why invest only in equity or gold or FD? Add all shades of colours in your investment portfolio be it equity, bonds, FDs, gold etc.

Diversification is the solution to the risks entailing investment in a particular asset class. It helps an investor to minimise his risk by investing in a mix of safe and risky assets.

So the lesson here is to diversify your investment portfolio and not to stick to any particular asset class.

Let Go the Ego

Holi is celebrated to commemorate the victory of Lord Vishnu over the demon king Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu had a boon which made him virtually indestructible.

The demon king was blinded by his ego and thought of him as superior to everybody, even the gods. However, Lord Vishnu in his Narasimha avatar ripped open the demon king.

Investors have an important lesson to learn from the demon king. An investor must not let his ego get over his head.

An investor blinded by his ego won't accept his mistakes. Thus he would fail to learn and progress ahead in his investing journey.

To progress ahead, an investor must accept his mistakes and learn from them. This helps an investor to take course corrective action with regards to his investments.

So the lesson here is that an investor must not associate his ego with his investments if he wishes to make it big in the investing world.

Calm amidst Chaos

Maharaj Prahlad, son of Hiranyakashipu, was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. He disregarded his father's dictum and refused to accept him as his lord.

Angry at his son, the demon king sanctioned his son's death warrant. The king got his sister Holika to kill him.

Holika had a special cloak which insulated her from fire. Therefore, she was asked by her brother to enter the burning pyre carrying his son along with her. Maharaj Prahlad chanted the name of lord when he was taken to the burning pyre.

As the event unfolded, the unexpected happened. Holika was burnt to death while Maharaj Prahlad emerged from it unscathed.

There are two points that an investor must take a note of.

• Even in the face of death, Maharaj Prahlad didn't budge from his stance and demonstrated unflinching faith in his devotion towards the lord.
• He maintained his composure amidst the chaos.

An investor must have unflinching faith in his investment decisions.

This unflinching faith goes a long way. It helps an investor to overcome the external noise that has the potential to influence his decisions.

It helps an investor to maintain his composure when the markets are extremely volatile.

Last but not the least, it helps an investor to stick with his investments for long and create wealth for himself.

Preparation & Hard Work comes before Rewards

No festival in India is complete without sweets. During holi too, a range of sweets and delicacies are being made across the country.

Devouring these sweets and delicacies is easy and doesn't take much effort. However, making these sweets is time consuming and a herculean task.

The preparation for making these sweets begins a day before the festival is celebrated.

Extending this analogy to investing, investors must understand that creating wealth is an arduous and long term process. It doesn't happen overnight.

Before an investor gets to reap the sweet gains on his investments, he needs to put in a lot of hard work.

He has to put in hours on researching stocks he is interested to invest in. Thereafter, he is required to be patient amidst all the noise and stay put with his investments for years. Only then an investor gets to enjoy the fruits of his hard work.

So, an investor should be prepared and ready to put in the hard work before they enjoy the rewards.

Closing statements

These investing lessons are something to ponder upon and abide by if you are dead serious about your investments.

We wish you a colorful, happy and safe holi.

Happy investing!