In a recent blog, I spoke about how in 2020 you can give yourself the gift of changed behaviour, which can enable many positive outcomes in your daily life.

Another 2020 resolve really needs to be to understood is wealth creation, and hence, investing slightly better. When it comes to investing, the one thing that does make the biggest difference to outcomes is your behaviour.

Behaviour is the focus of my discussion with Gaurav Rastogi, founder and CEO, Kuvera.in.

Gaurav spoke to us at length about how certain nudges help in moulding positive behaviour, and why it’s absolutely crucial to understand the impact of compoundingCompounding is the concept of earning return on both your principle investment and your profit. It is a way of calculating return that assumes you pull back your return till yesterday and remain invested so that any change in value... on your investmentAn investment is made to give you a return. You make an investment if you use your money to buy either physical assets like property or financial assets like bonds and equity with an aim to receive income or gains... returns.

1. We begin by talking about why behaviour matters. Gaurav tells us about what ‘behaviour gap’ means.
2. The conversation then flows into the territory of actually understanding where you are investing, rather than just chasing returns. This is where Gaurav explains about the magic of compoundingCompounding is the concept of earning return on both your principle investment and your profit. It is a way of calculating return that assumes you pull back your return till yesterday and remain invested so that any change in value....
3. In this next part of the conversation, I ask Gaurav about nudges by advisors to actually change investing behaviour towards making the most relevant product choice, rather than doing what everyone else is doing. If we just do the latter, more often than not, inappropriate choices get made and the investing experience turns sour. To avoid this, can online and human advisors create the nudges towards good investing behaviour?
4. After that long discussion, it’s time to talk about the most popular investing habit in India – buying fixed deposits. Fixed deposit returns are sub-optimal in the long run and they are not tax-efficient, yet many investors begin with this product and stick to it for way too long. The only viable explanation is perhaps the comfort of defined return and defined period return – certainty. Can market-linked investments like mutual funds compete with that?
5. This is the crucial question that’s on many investor’s minds.
   How can robo advisors impact behaviour? Don’t we need a human advisor to handhold us through times of panic and euphoria?
   Gaurav takes the criticism head-on and also talks about the public scrutiny of the quality of advice that emanates from a robo advisory platform.
6. Finally, Gaurav discusses investor behaviour experiences on Kuvera.in. He shared with us about how SIPs are created and how long people stick with them.

Hope you find this discussion useful in moulding your own behaviour positively when it comes to making the right investmentAn investment is made to give you a return. You make an investment if you use your money to buy either physical assets like property or financial assets like bonds and equity with an aim to receive income or gains... choices!

Let’s make 2020 a happy investing year!