Plan for Plan not to work as per Plan

   Of course you must be intrigued with the title itself, but unfortunately this is something which is very important and something that almost everyone misses to do. So what do we mean by Plan for Plan not to work as per Plan!

The simple answer to this is, work with margin of error or a safety net. Would like to quote a very famous saying of one of the world’s finest investors and also the richest Warren Buffet “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, again the principle here is don’t over rely on one income. Therefore always work with margin of safety.

One thing history has taught us, that we can’t rely on history. The world today is full of surprises, who would have thought at the time of the Second World War that one whole unit of German tanks that were needed the most couldn’t serve because while in the waiting, the mice had bitten away the wires. This just goes to show that at the time when the guys were designing the tank, mice chewing away the mechanics were the last thing on their mind around risk management. And that’s exactly the problem with most of us today, we always take history lessons to plan for future, whereas over and over again we have seen it never works and the future is full of surprises.

This brings us to the crux of our today’s article, you should always plan for the plan you have made to not really work according to your wishes. So if you plan that you want to become a Chartered Accountant by the end of 5 years, plan also if it doesn’t work. What if you meet with failure year after year, will you stay put or do something else. Do you want to be under qualified all your life, or want to take control of your life and do something solid with it.It is therefore important that you have a Plan B, something you can do if things don’t work out. So if CA doesn’t work out, can you do ACCA or CPA or CMA or CFA. These are all good qualifications giving you similar kind of career and growth trajectory.

So always have a plan B, ensure you don’t get emotional about your plans. The history has never been kind to people who have been too emotional with the way they want things to go, sometimes it takes you down with it. Make sure if you plan to buy a house in next 5 years, also plan what you can do if you aren’t able to buy that house. You may want to buy a house in Mumbai, but markets too expensive, not in your budget, maybe buy one in Pune and continue to benefit from price movements and rental income in the meantime. And this principle of Plan B can be applied to every single thing in life, at least most of it.

Therefore to sum it up, always have an alternative, and work with margin of error. Because it is not always going to work the way you want things to, therefore better to work with the reality and be more conscious that there’s always another alternative to work with. On that note, all the best on creating that second plan and let’s hope you don’t need to use it!

 

About Author

Zaheer Sayed, is one of the oldest ACCA members in India having passed out ACCA exams in December 2007 from London. Has vast work experience of over 16 years, having worked with Ernst and Young in Stat Audits to working as Associate Director at the UBS Bank, has in-depth knowledge of the finance and accounting world. On the academic side, has been teaching for almost 10 years, with ACCA teaching experience of over 6 years specialising in Reporting, Tax and Audits. Has also co-authored over 20 titles for a leading publication house in Pune on varied topics like Economics, Audit, Accounting, etc.