Language of Money - Series 1C

Are you not bothered about your money?
Talk of interest rates coming down had started by July and after October 2008 was clearly audible. All an investor should have done was to read local newspapers. As noted earlier, all of you must have read the news but the problem is how to use this bit of information to your benefit?

Here, before going any further, I would like to focus on the importance of education and self-reliance. Many a times investors say: we don't understand even the basics of investments, forget the finer nuances; that's why we rely on external support of experts.

My point here is that if you do not understand, fair enough, but at least the so-called experts (on whom you rely) should have told you to enter gilt funds in July 2008 because they understand the dynamics of interest rates and rise in bond prices better than you do.

And more importantly, they should have warned you about not entering in December 2008! Reasons can be a plenty, but the bottom line is that nobody can ever (ever) love your money more than you do.

If you are not bothered about your money, do you really think somebody else will be?

And as I said earlier, forget what others say, tell or do if it's your money, you should take charge. Simple. Get up and get going!

The only way to do so is to understand the language of money. It's simple and once you understand it's addictive. Making money is a process not an event and the earlier we start learning the language the better it is for us.

In the next article we will focus on some important terms that we regularly hear and we will slowly build our foundation for understanding and interpreting financial jargon ourselves, including how we had the indications about this debt market rally and the subsequent fall as well.