Is audible similar to reading a book?

“Audiobooks are like cheating”, someone mentioned to me once. She meant they’re not really like reading a book. Technically she was right. Listening to an audiobook isn’t the same as reading a physical book.

People learn differently. There are 8 different ways to learn. Audio and visual both works for me. Human beings have been sharing information orally for tens of thousands of years, while the printed word is a much more recent invention.

Few things I have observed, while experiencing both physical books and audiobooks and they are as follows:

• You want to feel a book? Get the essence? Hold a physical copy of the book or a kindle
• Want to kill time productively? Audiobooks should be your friend
• Multitasking? Listen to audiobooks while jogging, running, cooking food, washing dishes, etc.
• I always listen to fiction books on Audible. For non-fiction I prefer to sit down with pen and highlighter to take notes, which I couldn’t do while listening
• Audiobooks are relatively quicker. You can also increase/decrease speed according to your choice
• Comprehension wise audiobooks should be avoided. Hence a novel is preferred for audiobooks

A love of reading shouldn’t have parameters or rules as to what type of reading “counts.” Personally, I have found an immensely rewarding common ground in my reading life with both audiobooks and reading. Each creates differing experiences and memories, but neither is better or worse than the other. I can’t imagine my reading life without an abundant mixture of both audiobooks and reading.

Why I do not read all my messages and why you shouldn't too

Look, I acknowledge this is not a very popular opinion. I feel guilty when I do not respond as quickly as the concerned person would have wanted. I also admit that I feel insulted when someone doesn't text me back right away.

My WhatsApp unread chat count

As you can see from the screenshot above, I have too many unread messages. Yes, I know it is 'too many'. Some may feel it's too messy or I am too unorganized.  But before you judge me further, let me clarify few things:

1. I am part of many WhatsApp groups where both way interaction is not required; groups where information related to jobs are posted. I can share any information about job vacancies (if I have) and choose to ignore the rest of the message (since I am not the recipient)
2. Most of the unread chats ended with "okay", "fine", "Thank you" and other such concluding remarks. I choose to not open the chat to read them. Those are anyway seen from notification panel
3. I could be at work. I choose not to get interrupted while I am at work. Text messages are a high value interruption, especially if we respond to each other right away
4. There are many family groups, uncles and aunts who keeps wishing everyone Good morning and good night. I can choose to ignore those kind of messages without any repercussion
5. Too many festive greetings. Some friends and groups are there only to wish festivities. I look away from those (well most of them, not all)
6. I may not be in the mood. I could be a bit cross with certain things in my life and I may not be in that situation to respond emotionally
7. One very important reason of not responding it soon enough is that phones and messages were made for me, and not the other way round. I don't want to be slave to a mobile device. When I find time I read text message. It could be on weekends, or later in the day

It's not like I am too busy. I am very much active in the chats where my attention is required. But the good thing is that I can choose the time and duration of this wonderful technology. The technology does influence us how we think, but let it not drive us crazy. I do respond to each text, wherever required. 

In no way I am defending certain people who:

• Is too lazy to respond
• Reads the message and ignores and never replies back because they 'forgot'

See, it's your life and you only get to live it once. Live it to its fullest. And it’s too short to worry about people being mad that you don’t reply to their text right away.

How to start investing in stocks?

For a few months till now, I have been having a lot of discussion with many of my friends on stocks, share price and about finance in general. See, a lot of people in India are not financially literate. In fact, India hovers at around 24% in financial literacy rates, which compared to 55 per cent in developed countries, is woefully insufficient. I too would consider myself among the unfortunate 76% illiterate in finance. But things have changed a bit in the past 1 year. Our life revolves around a lot of things related to finance and hence it is incumbent upon all of us to educate ourselves with regards to things related to money. I have previously written a post about how important it is to be financially literate, you can find it here.

Basic points to act upon while being in 20s and 30s

Lack of knowledge in money, loses money. We are unable to save, and even if we save, we are not able to invest it further to make it grow. Now, these are the points which hurt us a lot. We may not be earning much, but if we are aware of things which I am going to mention now will help to alleviate the money problems.

• Start saving. No matter how tough the situation is do save whatever you can
• From the part of saving, keep investing your money
• There are several places one can invest money on. Mutual funds, real estates, PPF, Fixed Deposit, Stock market, etc.
• To me stock market is best place to put your money in. Because for others we need more knowledge and in some case we need more money. In stock market, we may even start with 200 INR or less
• Play a long game. Invest for long term - don't even think about getting back the money before 10 years. Power of compounding will take effect and you will be surprised. Experienced people say that compounding is the 8th wonder of the world

Why to invest long term?

 - No need to track the stocks regularly

 - Tax benefits

 - If you don't sell every now and then, you save a lot of transaction fees

 - In the long run, worrying about loss fades away as its proven without a doubt that Indian market has grown over a period of time(factually beyond 7 years, it has surely given profits)

Once you make up your mind that you're going to invest in stock market, what do you do? Of course you need a demat account from where you can buy and sell your shares. There are several stock brokers which provide demat account, few of which I am listing below. Charges of having an account is different for different brokers (check out the cost online - freely available in several places including YouTube). 

Zerodha
Samco
Upstox
5paisa 

Groww

HDFC, ICICI, Motilal Oswal, etc. also provides demat account. But, I have preferred Zerodha for my demat account as the charges are very minimal to none. Complete tutorial to open stock investing brokerage account | Ankur Warikoo Hindi - YouTube

Once you have finalized the stock broker, next step would be shortlist the company in which you would invest. Again, there are several ways to shortlist that and I would highly recommend you to learn that on your own. Do watch some videos on YouTube, there many good presenter who have done a great job in making it easier for us common people. 

Few tips to identify a good company which would grow in the long run and hence give good returns:

• The company should have been in existence for at least 10 years
• The revenue growth should be at least 10% year on year
• Market capitalization (price of stock multiplied by number of stock of that company) should be more than 100 crores
• The company should have good brand value
• The company should have a competitive edge
• Understand the business and make sure you are aligned with the company's vision and mission

You should also check for other fundamental details of a company before shortlisting a company. This video would be very helpful - Investing In 20s Simplified | Top 3 Tools For Fundamental Analysis Of Growth Stocks - Ep. 3 | 2021 - YouTube

There's a free stock market classes, do watch it here - Playlist by Pranjal Kamra

I have shortlisted few stocks, which I have invested in and also plan to invest in future:

• Hindustan Unilver
• TCS
• Reliance
• Infosys
• Mindtree
• IRCTC
• Pidilite
• Nestle
• Zomato
• Asian Paints
• LT
• DMART
• Titan
• Relaxo
• Deepak Nitrate
• Navin Fluorine
• Laurus labs
• Ultratech Cements
• Marico

These are just few among 1000s of companies listed in the stock exchange. As advised earlier, do your own research, get comfortable and invest long term.

Do reach out to me on Twitter if you have any questions.