From Mindhunter to Moneymaker: 5 Ways To Ensure Maximum Returns On Investment Netflix series Mindhunter teaches how investors need to always think ahead, anticipate and be ready for uncertainties

The recent Web series Mindhunter on Netflix is about two regular Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers who decide to take the help of incarcerated serial killers to gain entry into their minds. In the words of one of the officers, "How would we get ahead of crazy if we do not know what crazy thinks?" You may be wondering how is it related to investment. A lot, apparently! In the words of Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the greatest investor in the history of humanity, "the stock market is manic depressive" and you need to always think ahead to be ahead, just like those highly intelligent killers. The key words are uncertainty and anticipation, and following these steps will serve a long way in multiplying your wealth.

Have a bigger plan, and make investment a part of it

Financial planning is a bigger process of which investment is only a part, just like criminal psychology is a part of behavioral sciences. Understanding the subtleties of the mind and the language that never lies—body language—can keep you ahead in social scenario. Similarly, planning every bit of your financial decision-making helps you to grab opportunities before others or remain risk-free at dire times. A financial blueprint that provides elements of safe-investment, medium-risk investment and high-risk high-return investment can ensure you follow the first rule of smart investment: "never lose money'.

Precaution is better than cure

As soon as a crime happens in a locality, the first thing local law enforcement does is to secure the locality and especially potential victims. This "safety first' approach follows equally in the world of investment, and it begins with preparing an expenses budget. This helps to identify the investible surplus and also spending patterns. Armed with these two invaluable pieces of information, an investor can chalk out short-term and long-term financial goals, and plan the next course of "invest-igation'.

Secure the perimeter

Once the investigator knows the criminal's area of operation and is familiar with the initial information, his first priority is to secure the safety of vulnerable potential assets. Similarly, a smart investor should ideally look to secure some amount of their savings in safe, long-term investment avenues that offer tax savings as well. At the same time, a smart investor also ensures existing assets and health costs are well protected through risk-management tools, most popular of which is insurance. For instance, term plans are high-cover, low-premium kind of products that can be opted for, especially at the beginning of one's professional journey. As a thumb rule, it is generally advised to get a life cover at least seven times one's annual income.

Stay focused

Any crime leads to a lot of rumours. While an average investigator, or investor, will jump from one strategy to another, be desperate for the next hot tip and panic, the truly smart ones will stay focused during market fluctuations. The brightest minds try to anticipate their adversaries' next move. It takes time to learn the market behavior, but once you are familiar with it, you can only use it to your own advantage.

Always think of adding value

What to do after the killer's been caught or the money has swelled up? Do we let the perpetrator or the cash rot in jail and bank, respectively? No. We try to extract as much value as we can from them through re-investment in various sources, distributing them in the form of short-term high-returns (high performing equities), medium-term and long-term (mutual funds, PPF, etc) investments. As a smart investor or investigator, it is important to squeeze the resources available to the hilt, as only then can true optimization happen. Elementary, my dear Watson? Well, sometimes the smartest actions are fairly obvious.