India 
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A farmer was digging a well in his field and had already dug eight incomplete wells. People saw that when he wouldn’t find water after a few feet, he would start digging another well. This continued and more than half of his field was dug up but still he didn’t find any water.
A wise man watching this said, “If he had put his entire energy into only one well, he would have got water long ago”
“But the way he is going, he will never be able to get water. This way, he is just destroying his own land.” the wise man opined.
As we saw in the story, the farmer was very impatient and did not dig the well deeper to get water.
Just like the farmer, many investors impatiently try to time the market and never let the power of compounding work over the long term.
Here are the three reasons why patience is a virtue for investors
- Timing the market is a losing proposition
- Short-term volatility is the basic nature of the equity asset class
- The magic of compounding works well only in the long term
Investing small amounts regularly over multiple decades irrespective of market cycles is the way to create wealth.
About the author
Satish Prabhu is an avid blogger and has written close to 300 blogs on the basics of investing. He prefers the short story-telling format for his blogs and writes motivational life stories which are then weaved to give a message on investing. While content writing is his forte, financial literacy initiatives are close to his heart. He feels that investors can create wealth not by investing more money but by improving their behaviour with money. His stories give the message of patience, perseverance and resilience, the keys behavioral traits to be imbibed by investors. He is greatly inspired by the book ‘Psychology of Money’ by Morgan Housel. You can read all his blogs on his LinkedIn page.
On the professional front, Satish is the Vice President & Head of Content & Direct Customer Engagement at Franklin Templeton (FT) Asset Management (India) Pvt. Ltd since December 2013. Prior to FT, he worked for 8 years with CRISIL Ltd. (a Standard and Poor’s Company) and for over 7 years with the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd. (SHCIL).
He speaks at various investor education forums, conducts knowledge sharing sessions, webinars, podcasts for investors, advisors, relationship managers, corporates, among others.
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