Shantideva on investing !
Yesterday, by any parameter was a remarkable day, every year we get few remarkable days like this, sometimes the news is good but often not. Britain voted in favor of exiting the European Union and this brought down the markets the world over. This is like a country divorcing from a common union and will take years to resolve. Obviously, the markets were surprised and went down (some 600 points on Sensex in India). The whole day there were conference calls, research reports, endless discussion on TV etc. I stayed away from almost all except for one report which focussed on what exactly is meant by exiting the EU, as per the report it is still not official as once it is announced, Britain has to negotiate trade agreements separately with all the countries since now EU negotiates as a block. This will take years to resolve and in the meanwhile as an investor there are only two things that we can do
A. If markets fall a lot, see if we can invest more or
B. Do nothing since markets are where it was about few weeks back, they were much lower in February as China was slowing down.
These things will keep happening, it was Raghuram Rajan last week, China few months back and we are hardly 6 months into the year. Investing in equities is never smooth and that is why it gives great returns, If it were smooth the returns wont be this good.
Shantideva – a Buddhist scholar who lived in Nalanda during the 8th century said ” If you can solve your problem what is the need for worrying and if you can not solve it what is the use of worrying ” As investor we have very little control over what happens in the world but have control over our own emotions. Use it and invest wisely. Spend the time with doing what you love to do, save time and money !!