Start Small !! Start Early !!

So what do you think when you read this statement? Finances? Investments? Google thinks so too. It’s all about how people should start investing in long-term goals and build a retirement plan and how important it is to have a high corpus size by investing in a disciplined manner even if a small amount. There is lots of math given on whether you invest in 5 or 15 years and how much of a loss it is to your life. Further one talks about compounding and how a setback in the market does not impact you a lot. It makes a lot of sense and I would recommend it to every young person who starts their professional life,? I have a fairly decent portfolio thanks to Dad and all the Gujju uncles too.

But this is just your professional life, what about the rest of it? ? While one needs money to live, there is more to life than money.

Remember that childhood saying “Early to bed, early to rise, makes one healthy, wealthy and wise”. There is a health and wisdom or mind component and all three of those combined help lead a better life. While we talk about investing from an early stage, we don’t talk as much about investing early in health and mind. Eating healthy and taking care of your physical self exists and people focus on it but it starts a lot later too when the body protests after the 30s our mind is the one we neglect till we have a breakdown.?

Data post covid is show a high incidence of physical and mental health issues. Mental health is a huge and growing challenge globally. As per the World Health Organisation, 10.7% or 1 out of 4 people experience a mental illness. Millions of children under the age of 18 have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression. Cases undiagnosed are significantly larger.?According to the World Economic Forum poor mental health costs the world economy an estimated $ 2.5 trillion in 2010, which is projected to increase to $ 6 trillion a year by 2030.

Investing in care of your mind from the start like your wealth can make a huge difference to you and everyone around. One effective way is to give back. Recent studies have shown that philanthropy, volunteering or just engaging in the act of helping someone lowers your stress levels and improves well-being.

Giving back can have particular benefits for high-risk groups more prone to mental health issues, like seniors and teens. The teen years are the most difficult with hormonal changes, peer pressure and nowadays all the stress of excelling in everything. Also, the isolation of the youth with technology and the minimal social fabric around them further exacerbates mental health issues.?

So it is imperative to start early and start small to work towards investing in your mental health. Can be as simple as feeding that stray dog down the street giving a quarter of your paycheck every month to pledging to give away 50% of your wealth to charitable purposes. Each one of these things gives one a feeling of happiness, a little bit of that good, makes you better and so is an investment in your mental health.?

We at V-All are working with the youth demographic to give back at the early age of 15 through our internship pilots and overall platform. Small acts that they can engage and lead to further engagements that give them a feel-good feeling, provide them with 21st-century skills like empathy and logical thinking and help them build their impact portfolio which will lead to a good professional life too. Over some time, all of those small acts of goodwill compound to give a lot more peace and help improve one’s mental and hence physical health.?

Last week, my niece of eleven years started her journey of giving back with me to donate our hair to cancer patients. I have been doing it every three years for the last 20 years and she finally agreed to do it with me. Initially reluctant to part with her waist-long gorgeous hair, she got into the fun of it. While the cause was unclear for a child this age, it was good to initiate her on this journey. Considering her parents and their sustainable life in the hills,? she is already very involved in the community she lives in but this was my bit to start her on something small we can do together at regular intervals. We did not take a before photo but shared our after photo to inspire you to do something good today.?

There are small things each of us can do which barely make a dent in our lives but give us a lot of happiness, our huge grins in the photo just say it all. So tell me what is your good for this week ?? It's never too late to start so start small and start early.