Ian Narine believes that we have been doing finance all wrong.
And he wants to correct that.
“I know that’s a bold statement to make but think about it. If it’s fair to say that 90 per cent of people have financial challenges, then how could we be doing it right when so many people are in difficulty?” Narine told the Business Guardian.
“We either blame people and say it’s their fault or we sit and think about what we can do differently to help more people improve their financial well-being. This is what I am trying to do,” he said.
And Narine is speaking from a place of knowledge and experience, as he has been climbing the ladder in financial services for more than 25 years.
Narine, the current chairman of the T&T Stock Exchange, has held top positions in the financial sector.
Over the past eight years, he has built a practice as an independent financial consultant. He has written a column for the Business Guardian for almost 20 years.
“Through all of this journey, something was missing. I hope to fill that gap,” Narine said.
And so Narine embarked on a personal finance project to try to make more and better quality financial advice available to a wider cross-section of the local public.
It is titled “The 1st Principle of Money.”
“If I can sum this up in one sentence, it is ‘Mastering the 1st Principle of Money’ is your path to wealth,” Narine said.
“Most people strive to be rich but if they understood what it means to be wealthy they would opt for being wealthy over being rich. They should strive to be both but being wealthy is definitely more important,” he said.
Narine breaks down the difference between being wealthy and being rich on the website for “The 1st Principle of Money” located at www.1stpom.com.
The website is also where interested people can visit to add their email to the pre-launch list to receive a special discount.
“Even if you are just curious, visit the website and join the list, it could be well worth your while because this is the programme you need without knowing that you needed it,” he said.
So why did Narine decide to do a programme like this?
Well, because he believes that in finance our natural tendency is to “skip steps.”
“We are always searching for more and we skip steps and look for shortcuts to get there. We want to get more money quickly,” Narine said.
“Since this is our natural way then marketers will pick up on this and also promise you more for doing less. Convenience in a product makes it easier to sell. So your natural tendency is to skip steps and then there is everything that you see and consume that is also designed to help you to skip steps,” he said.
Narine said while that may work in other aspects of our life it does not work when it comes to money.
“The more you skip steps, the shakier the financial foundation that you are standing on. When things don’t go according to plan, and over the course of your life they inevitably will, you must have basic principles that you have mastered that you can fall back on,” Narine said.
Narine said in other disciplines, such as sport, when things are not working out you are told to go back to the basics and work your way out and that will help you to come out of your rut.
But how many people have a money technique or a money system that works for them, Narine questioned.
“I am not talking about saving more or investing better. Those are outcomes. Your technique is the decisions and actions that you take in a moment to get to the outcome you want,” Narine said.
“Most people don’t have that. They rely on luck and chance. When it comes to money we have no basics in place. If we have nothing to fall back on then we end up anxious, frustrated, fearful,” he said.
And that’s where many people find themselves every day, Narine said.
Narine said the mistake that everyone makes is to think that money is “about the numbers and the math.”
“That’s just a small percentage of the equation. Most of money is about your emotions, behaviours, habits, and mindsets. Personal finance is 10 per cent math (finance) and 90 per cent about you (personal),” Narine said.
Narine said we have been ignoring the 90 per cent of the equation and that’s why so many people are challenged.
“How many people save money and then one day they see a large enough balance when they look at their statement and then decide they will spend some of it? That decision isn’t based on math, that decision is based on emotions. It’s not about whether it is right or wrong. I am just pointing out that most of our interactions with money are emotional and this side of money, what I call the human side of money is the part we all ignore. That’s why this programme is different,” he said.
Narine said we teach people what is a credit card and how to use it but that’s a “small almost inconsequential part of the story.”
“How many people run up credit card debt because they didn’t monitor their statement balance properly because they were scared to look at it? How many people freeze when they sit down to work out their finances? How many people just spend and hope for the best and say they will deal with whatever whenever? How many people try to invest but when the price of their investment.”