Real financial freedom isn’t just about getting out of debt, doing what you want or reaching an amount. It is the number of days you can survive without you or any family member doing physical work, and still maintaining your standard of living.

With financial assets crashing this year, gold has come up as the winner. The last one-year return for gold has shot to around 27% in rupee terms. This then becomes even more enticing for those who feel they missed the gold bus.

As a long term investor, you need to be very clear about why you are investing in the Indian equity markets. If the logic is clear, one will normally stick with their investment plan and not get perturbed by market conditions.

The real challenge, after you know what needs to be done, is all about conquering your emotions. If you can understand yourself and conquer these emotions, your chances of being financially secure early in life will be much higher.

Along with lower annual inflow from your profession, your market linked investment values are perhaps looking lower too. What should you do about your market linked investments now?

Compounding returns, especially in growth assets like equity can help you create wealth provided you give it enough time and hence, start early.

The common refrain is, “I would have gotten better returns from an FD!” Considering many of these investors have earlier invested in FDs, or their parents have, looking at what their fixed deposit has given them and questioning the value of equity is not wrong, if one considers their point of view.

We have seen some people view stock market investing as a zero sum game – which means that if someone makes money, correspondingly someone would have lost. There is a sense of scepticism while investing in stocks, as if it is a gambling den.