There is no doubt about it . In this competitive era we are all knowledgeable in our area or at least strive to be . But in last many years in my travels and interactions i have observed a lacunae in understanding basic principles of other subjects . In this era its not a luxury but a necessity to understand few basics of other subjects .No one doubts the importance of learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation basics even if you are an IT professional or a mathematician . Similarly section 302 is familiar to most even though most are not planning to be a criminal :) (i hope )
Over the last 10 years my own experiences ,reading as well as a few courses made me realise a lacuna in many(not all ) of finance among people in healthcare field . Its funny to see at the intense hardwork put in for earning money is not reflected in a brief fundamental knowledge of finance . But without understanding basics of finance its not too difficult to lose most of that money .
I met once again a person who was promising me lakhs at 60 years . Yes I am talking about guaranteed returns of an insurance policy . All of you have encountered or even “invested “ in such policies . But one of the first lessons of finance is a concept of “future value “ and “present value “ of money . 10 lakhs promised a decade later doesn’t have anywhere near the value we expect considering inflation . Recently in one of my courses I did to learn finance for pharmaceutical company assessments it was surprising that this promise which most of us easily fall for is clearly explained in exact values . Simple Spreadsheet softwares which are easily available in home computer to everyone can clearly tell that we don’t gain much by investing in these policies . And those simple calculations aren’t rocket science even for a maths phobiac healthcare professional . Just one simple feeding of values in a spreadsheet will quantify which promises are real promises and which fall short in tripling or quadrupling our hard earned money .
Fear and greed are fundamental to human nature (yes I am also human J ) . These days with the choppiness of the share market even a casual reader of newspaper see those fancy numbers of sensex going up and down and say it’s a risky thing . But how many of us knows what is sensex ? How many know what does investing in a share entail . Many of us are business owners and how does that risk compare with risk of owning a share pharma share or otherwise . What is difference between a mutual fund and a share ?
Of course I may be wrong . All the healthcare professionals may have a deep understanding of finance fundamentals . But I still remember exactly 10 years back I was a reasonable expert in radiology fundamentals but zero in finance . But over the years with a little curiosity and some reading (its not that boring ) at least now I know how to preserve or at least not lose hard earned money . Yes finance is for finance professionals but its basics is a survival skill just like CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation ) .
Assuming a kilo of chicken costs 150 rs today and you keep that 150 rs in a savings bank and after 10 years with 5 percent interest and 10 percent inflation, how many chicken can you buy ? Too much maths … Forget it .. Can you buy a full chicken with the same money though its increased numerically with interest ? Send me your answers at drharoonstraining@gmail.com
