International Sign Language Day: Heeding to the signs of investing legends

Rank 7 | Warren Buffett | Company: Berkshire Hathaway | Net worth: $88.7 billion (Image: Reuters)

Writing about signs is a tough job because one can’t just simply get away with a furious, angry hand gesture, an exasperated eye-roll or a guttural scream in case words fail us, pretty much like our reactions when we see the markets temporarily in red or register a short-term loss in our portfolio, in case right? 

Words communicate, but actions and signs convey. And today, as we celebrate the international day of signs, it's only deserving to let the unlikely combinations of Warren Buffet and Barfi, Iqbal, and Icahn and Michelle McNally (Black) and Munger, comprehensively guide you through investing, and through our own impairment when it comes to heeding to sane, timely market advice. 

Because together, they make for an enviable, complete, and the best pair of teachers - the investing legends with their advice and these Bollywood characters, stellar representatives of the deaf and mute community, not with their dialogues, but with their profound actions and signs. Read on:

Buffett’s Barfi, Munger’s Michelle-ly advice
Remember Barfi’s love test, where he would enthusiastically chop up a lonesome, wooden light pole and stand beneath it, with the person he wished to test in tow, as the pillar seemingly came crashing onto them, except that it didn't! The idea was to see who would not desert him as soon as testing times came knocking. After all, everyone longs for a resilient partnership that stays through thick and thin? 

On March 23, 2020, the Sensex fell below 26,000 points, ensuing panic selling in the market, as investors thought that this was it. But almost a year later, the Sensex has zoomed to nearly 60,000 points (59,885), a nearly three-fold increase. Turns out, standing below the apparently crashing pillar of the market wasn't a bad proposition, given how it led to such a profitable, life-long partnership, both for Barfi and the investors! 

Buffett, in one of his quotes, advises us to develop a similar relationship with our investments. “If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes”, he says. With his favorite holding period being forever, it's not hard to decipher that staying invested in the market in the long term is the key to wealth creation. 

Per Sanjeev Dawar, a personal finance strategist, “Start early. Begin your personal finance journey right from the first paycheque. The direction is more important here than the speed”. 

In Black, the 2005 classic where Rani Mukherjee played a deaf and blind Michelle McNally, a devoted student, who remains steadfast, does not give up, and completes her graduation in her 40s-after 12 long years. It's indeed easy to give up on your investments when you see red, but as Charlie Munger, Buffet's closest confidante and partner puts it, “The big money is not in the buying or selling, but in the waiting.”

Your takeaway? Be patient in the market, and don't get worked up on temporary, cyclical crashes. Remember, long-term is the way to go! 

Iqbal I-Cahn, so can you! 

For all his deafness and silence, Iqbal’s fiery bowling in the 2005 titular film spoke volumes. Not one to give up on his dreams, he made his buffaloes field for him, got a drunkard champion ex-cricketer to train him, and ultimately, made his way to the national team.  He took the risk for his dreams and it paid off.

Long story short, as Carlos Icahn says, in risk, there is the reward. No one ever won big by playing safe in the market. And when you’re young, you have a higher risk appetite and can invest more in volatile instruments like equity, which promise higher returns, elaborates Nema Chhaya Buch, a personal finance professional. And since risk hai to Ishq hai, don't shy away from risking it in a calculated manner in the market, so that you can make the most of this!