Gardening and Investing, A journey of patience and resilience
Nothing teaches you patience and resilience more than nature. I love nature and dream of having a house surrounded by a beautiful garden with lots of flowers, plants, and birds. Aah, the thought itself is so pleasing.
Now coming to reality, I confess I killed a lot of plants. It is said that 75% of the house plants die due to over watering.
I started my gardening journey about 12 years ago. I would pass by a nursery, see a pretty plant, pick it up. I would just water it every day, thinking that it needs to be fed every day. Not understanding that not all plants need to be fed every day. There was no thought process or method to my plant care. So then one day I googled, how to become a good gardener. And to my utmost surprise it said,
- Learn about your plants
- Have a plan (summer plants, winter plants)
- Be consistent
- Have Patience
- Have the right Tools
- Start with easy growing plants
- Keep an eye on them for pests
- Keep pruning
I read this and re read it. I found so many similarities between gardening and investing. Another realisation hit me, both gardening and investing journey starts with hope and aspiration.
Just like gardening, before starting your investment journey, learn the basics about it. What are the various financial products that are available for investing, risks involved in these products, time frames required for their growth etc.
Begin with an investment plan, answer why, how and what. Why do you want to invest, what are your goals or objective of investing? How much will you be investing, will it be lumpsum or SIP? Consistency is the key, decide on a frequency for investing, just like in gardening, we cannot water one day and then leave it indefinitely, you have to be consistent.
Plants respond to the change of season by losing their leaves, flowering, or breaking dormancy. In the same way, your investments respond to the market conditions. All you need to do is nurture them through all the seasons. This requires patience and an understanding of the seasons and your plants or investments.
Plants can get infected by pests, so you need to periodically keep checking the leaves, soil, etc. Similarly, you need to review your investments on a periodic basis to see for any under-performance or even over growth and take corrective actions for it.
I used to get scared to cut the branches of my plants fearing that they won’t grow back. But on the contrary, they grew better and bigger. So keep pruning the plants, it stimulates growth and makes it thicker. Same goes for investing too, keep pruning it, don’t over diversify, focus on few products that you understand and meets all your objectives.
Plants are resilient and at the same very forgiving. I have seen my plants wither and dry when I go on a holiday and my maid forgets to water them in my absence. I once again nurse them back to good health, by pruning and watering, believe me this requires patience and persistence. The same applies to investing as well, if you neglect it, there are high chances that the investments will languish, but the moment you take appropriate action, it will show results.
The joy you feel when you see the flowers bloom or a new leaf grow or a fruit grow is what makes it all worth it.
People say, you need a green thumb to be good at gardening, I don’t agree with it. I believe that both gardening and investing needs knowledge, patience and perserverance. It begins with a hope for a bright and colourful future.
You reap as you sow in both gardening and investing.
