🪙 The Golden Rules of Investing – Part 1: Be Like Adam, Not Sam

Alright my corporate warriors — now that we’ve agreed that creating assets is cooler than flaunting liabilities, let’s talk about how to actually do that. Let me start by saying this loud and clear: 👉 "Your money should work harder than you." Yes, while you’re stuck in that daily 9-to-whenever loop, your money should be grinding in the background — earning more money. 💡 Rule #1: “Save before you spend, not the other way round.” It’s like the airplane oxygen mask rule — secure your future first, then flex. Let’s revisit our bros Adam and Sam, remember them?

🚗 Scene 1: Sam’s Saga of the Swanky Sedan Sam’s inner voice says: “My colleague just bought a car. If I don’t get one now, I’ll be the only guy still hitching rides. Shame!” He gives in to peer pressure (oh that monster) and swipes into a ₹10 lakh car loan. Flash forward – He’s got monthly EMIs of ₹16,000 and that ever-smiling dealership guy didn’t mention the surprise costs: Insurance renewal (₹25,000)

Annual servicing (₹10,000+)

Petrol prices (you don’t want to know)

He’s now basically working for his car. One missed EMI and boom, hello credit score doom.

💼 Scene 2: Adam’s Art of Acing Finances Meanwhile, Adam is chill. He still uses Ola/Uber/Metro and keeps his ₹20,000 monthly savings intact. Instead of spending, Adam invests: ₹10,000 in Mutual Funds (diversified, managed by professionals)

₹5,000 in Public Provident Fund (PPF) (government-backed and tax-saving)

₹5,000 in Fixed Income Bonds (safe, steady returns)

Over 2 years, his discipline builds him a tidy little corpus of around ₹5 lakhs. Now here’s the smart twist: Adam doesn’t rush to blow it all on a car. Instead, he invests this full ₹5 lakh into a corporate bond that gives him a 10% annual return — paid out monthly. 🧮 Let’s break that down: ₹5,00,000 @ 10% per annum = ₹50,000 per year

Monthly interest income = ₹4,167 approx.

That’s enough to cover the EMI on a small to mid-range car loan, without Adam touching his salary. So now: 🚘 He buys the car (maybe even gets a loan — why not, his investment pays the EMI). 💸 His bond pays him every month. 😎 And he gets to enjoy his new ride without burning his salary or stressing about repayments. “His assets are now funding his liabilities. That’s not just smart. That’s baller.”

🔁 Full Circle: Instead of being enslaved by EMI like Sam, Adam built a safety net first. He flipped the script. He made his money work so he doesn’t have to.

🔍 Let’s Simplify the Jargon:

Term	What it really means
Liability	Anything that takes money from your pocket (like loans, EMIs, credit card bills)
Asset	Something that puts money into your pocket (like investments, rental income, interest)
Depreciation	Fancy word for "losing value over time" — like your car or phone the moment you buy them
Debt Trap	The vicious cycle of loan → EMI → another loan → stress
Compound Interest	When your interest earns more interest over time — money snowballing
Corporate Bond	You lend money to a company, and in return, they pay you regular interest — higher returns than FDs but with slightly higher risk

🔑 Moral of the Story? “Don’t buy things to impress people who don’t even notice your EMI schedule.” Invest first, spend later. Let your money age like fine wine 🍷, not fizzle like soda 🥤. You see, wealth isn't built through luck or lottery — it's built with rules, discipline, and smart choices. 💥 So what’s next? In the upcoming posts of The Golden Rules of Investing series, we’ll dive deeper into: Rule #2: “Start Early, Compound Deep” — the magic of compounding

Rule #3: “Diversify like a Buffet (not the food one, the Warren one)”

Rule #4: “Emergency Fund: Your Financial Umbrella” ...and many more game-changing principles.

💬 Got a money dilemma or want help building your Adam-style investment plan? Drop a comment — let’s decode finance, one rule at a time.