Don’t use credit cards like this!

Health is wealth is what we have been taught since childhood. The message is simple – fitness should be a holistic concept and both health and wealth are equally significant in this metaphor. Eschewing one for the other is bound to spell trouble for anyone. We have to care for our finances as we care for our body. Saving, investing for growth, striking balance between growth and safety, goal setting, achieving harmony between the goals and investment strategy, and retirement planning are all the different financial yoga postures that one should go through in life.

Significantly, without health one cannot enjoy one’s wealth. At a functional and mundane level, good health is necessary to amass even a small degree of wealth. Else, given the galloping cost of treatment, treatment can completely drain one’s savings and investments.

So logically, one needs to be healthy and mentally alert to be an intelligent investor. With time a bewildering variety of investment avenues are coming before investors.

Gone are the days of the semi-controlled economy when one had to be content with government-guaranteed debt products and occasional forays into the stock market that was often looked down upon in large parts of the society as a euphemism for gambling.

An ever-evolving world of stock market instruments such as futures and options, mutual funds are available for the retail investor who are flocking to the equity and equity-related markets as ducks take to water. The latest addition in this widening list is a cryptocurrency that is challenging conventional templates of returns.

But recklessness in investing can usher in unsustainable losses. One needs to exercise caution and temper one’s risk appetite. Just as one cannot keep exercising round the clock to keep fit, one has to find out the prudent limits of risk-taking.

As someone said, there are many things that are more fulfilling than money, but to access them one needs money.