How to align your career and finances

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

There comes a point in our lives when we truly know that we have mastered what we began doing as young beginners. This peaking of knowledge, skill and attitude is also the peak of our incomes in our professional lives. We may not see it very clearly, but years of applying ourselves to something yields great dividends and value to the human asset.

Just like the path of an equity stock, it remains risky and exhilarating at the same time.

We have the romanticism of youth when we start working. We are out there to change the world, and we think and feel infallible—much like an IPO (initial public offering). Campus placements are the first reality check.

Then comes the uninteresting job title and description, which is one among many. This is followed by the monotony of lower management tasks, which hits hard, like not being a blue chip yet. A few years later, we struggle with the transition from being an individual contributor to a team player.

We can’t collaborate with competitors and we seethe. By now, skills and attitudes have begun to matter more than the degree. By the mid-30s, we should ideally have found our bearings.

We know the kind of stock that we are.

The path our financial security and wealth take will map this trajectory of our professional success. Our income will offer a good indication of how well we have aligned ourselves to the marketplace for human assets, and how we play the game. What is interesting is that income is the outcome, not the causative variable.

The price of the stock reflects its fundamentals. We will discover that those who play the annual package game of switching mindlessly, suddenly find themselves lacking in strategic perspective and people skills. Those who have skilfully focused