Bengaluru IFA, R Subramanya of Abundance in Life has launched a book titled ‘Awaken the Millionaire Within: 21 Powerful Money Secrets’. The book is a guide on practices investors should adopt to create wealth and lists 21 secrets that have saved Subramanya from bankruptcy.
What motivated you to write this book?
At a very tender age, my parents had to sell our house to pay off debts. While I could not grasp the gravity of the situation then, I could clearly see that my parents were miserable. It made me realise that while money is not the root of all evil, the lack of it is. This motivated me to achieve a better life. I had many well-wishers throughout my journey; I was able to achieve financial freedom at 48.
However, my journey has not been an easy one. I faced bankruptcy five times during my life. Each experience made me smarter and stronger. So I decided to create a structured road map to financial freedom based on my learnings and consolidate them in my book.
Can you share any learning with us?
A vivid memory from my childhood is of my father’s salary day. Every month, after receiving the salary, my parents used to sit on the floor with a piece of chalk in hand. My mother used to write down the expenses for the month and my father used to set aside money for those expenses. Invariably, there would be a shortfall and my mother would plan on how to make up for it.
This helped her make projections for the entire month. I learnt the importance of budgeting and planning looking at my parents.
Can you briefly describe the book for our readers?
Since I feel that story telling is the best way to teach important lessons, I have shared stories of two of my clients Ganesh and Anil to explain the 21 principles in the book.
Ganesh approached me soon after he started earning. His story talks about various principles millennials should follow to balance expenses and savings.
The second client Anil came to me when he was reeling under debt burden. His story broadly covers the roadmap to get rid of debt.
Why should advisors pick-up the book?
While there are many books in the market that talk about the outer game of money such as which products to invest in, there are hardly any books, which deal with the inner game of money, i.e.how our mind influences us to take wise or unwise money decisions. This book deals with the inner game of money. To give an example of inner game, if you buy a brand new laptop and install Microsoft Excel in it, it will be able to handle all excel functionalities. However, if you ask the laptop to perform adobe functions it will not be able to perform them. Our relationship with money is defined by our upbringing. We behave as the society teaches us too. Through this book, advisors can help clients learn better habits to manage money.