Finance can be fun.
That is my core belief which I would like to share with all of you.
Lets face it, for most of us, the word 'Finance' conjures images of piling numbers, stuffy men in suits and suicidal stockbrokers who hang themselves by their ties everytime the stockmarkets crash. Not very 'fun' images at all.
Most of us choose to ignore financial dealings, putting their trust instead in financial institutions and banks to help manage our money for us. Some of us try to grudgingly make financial sense of our lives out of pure necessity.
But it does not have to be that way.
Finance, business and economy. They are part of the machinery that makes the world go round (other components include love, humanity and, yes, politics). Therefore, we can't escape having to deal with it. In this world of rising prices, failing economies and growing job uncertainty, financial knowledge becomes ever more important in our lives.
The problem is, most financial literature out there tends to be fairly bland, boring and (not to mention) bleah, with a few exceptions of course. Most of them are spot on when it comes to content but fail terribly in delivery, much to the detriment of the public.
What we need is a change in perception.
Imagine the finance world is Hollywood (or Bollywood/any given movie industry). You have your big international celebrities, or big multinational corporations whose every decision, partnership, project and (weight) loss or gain is monitored. Then you have your B-list celebs, or the small to medium enterprises whose fame and influence are mostly limited to their home country. They may be small, but they are famous in their own backyard. Moving on, we have the agents, or the Investment Banks, helping to advance the careers and fortunes of these celebrities by advising them what moves to make and what not to take. These celebrities also have their personal trainers, or Management Consultants, making sure they are trim and fit, cutting out any (organisational) fat that will make them slow, sluggish and unable to compete with the other 'celebrities' out there. Finally you have us, the people or the consumers, in constant awe and bewilderment of these giants yet deeply affected by the things they do or say.
So, with that image in mind, let us start devouring business news like celeb gossip, trawl the web for juicy exposes on multinational corporations like we search for the *ahem* juicy exposes of international celebrities and stalk the stock movements like we stalk celebrity movements today. (The author does not in anyway condone celebrity stalking or any inter-personal stalking of any kind, its an analogy. DUH!)
In the next postings to come, I will make sense of the latest financial buzz and advice and put it up here in a simple, readable and most of all, FUN format. Every now and then I will put up some 'educational materials' that should give you some knowledge and tools to better understand the financial markets.
So, until next time, happy funancing!
