I see a lot of similarities between long distance running and financial planning. Both needs patience, resilience and discipline. Both are personal, its your individual goals and aspirations that you want to fulfill. A Marathon event could have runners of different levels and experience, so no point in competing with others. The competition is with yourself. The objective is to complete it and better your time each time you run. Each marathon run will give you a different high and sense of accomplishment.

The Financial marathon is also similar. The objective is simple, fulfill your life aspirations and achieve financial freedom. To have enough money so that you can lead a comfortable life without any compromises.

The journey for financial marathon is long. Ensure that you make it a pleasant journey by following the steps given below;

Build a foundation. The first step to the marathon is the most important. Don’t skip it, spend time on making a plan. No journey is undertaken without a plan. Fix milestones in this journey. Start with short term goals and move to long term goals. Just like for a marathoner, they start with small distances and as their stamina and resilience is built, they keep increasing their distance and speed.

Speed – Runners decide the speed at which they want to run and step it up as they feel comfortable with the pace. In the same manner, start with small investment amounts and step it up as you feel comfortable with investing and see your capacity to invest improving.  Step up or Top ups in SIP really help in reaching your milestones faster without you having to compromise on your lifestyle.

Build resilience – Marathoners cross train and do different kinds of workouts (swimming, yoga, cycling), so they work out different muscles. This protects them from any potential injuries. The same way you need to protect yourself by taking health insurance, life insurance. This acts like a fence around you and your family. It also allows you to invest freely.

Consistency & Discipline – You can’t suddenly get up one day and start running long distance, it needs to be practiced. Also, it cannot be sporadic, you need to be consistently training and running in order to complete a marathon in the time limit set for yourself. Similarly for your investments, it has to be consistent, planned carefully.

Nutrition – Marathoners ensure that their meals are wholesome, they plan their meals to include protein, carbohydrates, heathy fats etc. Same way as an investor you need to ensure that your investments are wholesome, they have diversified well enough to take care of all your financial needs.

At some point boredom will set in both for running and investments, marathoners are generally part of running groups. Be engaged with it, involve your family in the financial discussion along with financial advisor/trainer. Have conversations and discussions periodically to review the progress. They will be biggest beneficiaries and cheerleaders of the financial marathon.

In the case of a marathon(running) there are people along the path who cheer you at every milestone. , they will ensure that you don’t derail from your path. In the case of financial marathon, the Financial Advisor will handhold you through the journey, ensuring that you achieve your life goals.

Remember its a life long journey, make it pleasant.