7 Money Lessons I Learnt From Pattu Sir (And What They Did to My Finances)

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal

Published: August 30, 2026 at 6:00 am

Last Updated on August 30, 2026 at 4:50 pm

In this edition of the reader-story, “I’m 38 years old today, working a private sector job, and living in a Tier 1 city on rent with my spouse and our 4-year-old kid. Around 2021, I stumbled upon Pattu Sir’s videos. Luckily, I had a light workload at the time and binged his entire YouTube channel — in less than 3-4 months, I felt I had gathered information that would otherwise have taken me a decade of slow learning. In hindsight, those videos played a huge role in shaping my thinking and the decisions that followed. Today, in sharing my financial journey from the last 5-6 years, you’ll also get a glimpse of what I learnt vicariously through Pattu Sir’s videos.”

Editor’s note: Apologies! It is embarrassing to run an article that seems quite self-indulgent. I wasn’t aware of the reader’s plan when he agreed to contribute.  I decided to go ahead with the story because the reader made the effort to write this specifically for the reader story series, and as a matter of policy, we do not dilute the reader’s voice.

About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives, which benefits us all. Some of the previous editions are linked at the bottom of this article. You can also access the full reader story archive.
Opinions expressed in reader stories do not necessarily represent the views of freefincal or its editors. We must appreciate multiple solutions to the money management puzzle and empathise with diverse views. Articles are typically not checked for grammar unless it is necessary to convey the right meaning and preserve the tone and emotions of the writers.

If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. You can publish them anonymously if you wish.

Please note: We welcome articles like this from young earners who have just started investing. See, for example, this piece by a 29-year-old: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns. We also have a “mutual fund success stories” series. See, for example, how mutual funds helped me achieve financial independence. Now, over to the reader.

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First, I understood the role of a financial planner — and only after I got one did I realise I actually needed one. Even if you’re clear in your head about your financial plans, a financial planner gives them structure, method and meaning, and helps you cut out the noise. My financial planner has played a big role in ensuring the discipline & method I’m sticking to today. Another move, unrelated but just as important, was onboarding my spouse into this journey — that has been a huge booster.

Second, I focused on the basics. I got my insurance in place—both term and health insurance with decent coverage. I also built an emergency fund, invested entirely in an arbitrage fund: the first few lakhs are earmarked for job loss (6 months), the next few lakhs for a medical emergency (even though I have decent health insurance, I don’t mind keeping a buffer on hand), and the last few lakhs for a one-year career break, should I choose to take one (I have saved for job loss and medical emergency, and I am still accumulating for a career break).

Third, my wife and I keep our investments simple:

  • 2 index funds for long-term growth (retirement)
  • 1 hybrid equity fund for downside protection (retirement)
  • 1 flexicap fund for long-term growth (our kid’s goals)
  • 1 balanced advantage fund to guard against a negative sequence of market returns
  • 1 arbitrage fund for the emergency fund
  • 2 maxed-out PPFs as the fixed-income portion

Fourth, I now invest roughly 50% of my salary every month (steadily increased from 20% to 50% over the last 4-5 years). I try to increase my investments by 10% each year, but in years I can’t, I don’t stress over it — I’m already investing about 50% of my monthly take-home pay.

Fifth, I understood the power of long-term investing. I learned to separate the controllable from the uncontrollable, and started focusing on what I can control — how much I invest, how early I start, and how long I stay invested — instead of chasing returns. I keep my portfolio simple and goal-based (every investment is earmarked for a specific life goal), and I don’t chase trending opportunities. Discipline and consistency will beat any asset class.

Sixth, I moved closer to my workplace to improve my quality of life. Less commuting means more time for my health, family and hobbies. Yes, I pay a premium in rent for this, but if you’re disciplined about long-term investing, this kind of qualitative improvement in quality of life only complements it. This is underrated.

Areas I’d still like to work on:

  • Living more frugally: Our family’s aspirations and living standards have risen to a point where I find it difficult to cut expenses and live more frugally. To counter this, I’m making sure our lifestyle expenses don’t increase significantly from here on, and I treat investing the first ~50% of my monthly salary as non-negotiable — so that even if I overspend elsewhere, it doesn’t hurt my investments.
  • Rebalancing my portfolio: So far, I’ve focused only on front-loading investments and haven’t really paid attention to periodic rebalancing — something I plan to start looking into in early 2027.

Lastly, for my peace of mind, I don’t track returns, and I don’t follow fads. I believe my portfolio has been built with a lot of planning and care, and now it’s my turn to service it — giving it the time, discipline and consistency it needs to grow. Of course, if there’s ever a red flag in the portfolio, I’ll seek my financial planner’s help.

Thank you, Pattu Sir, for all you do!

Reader stories published earlier:

As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2024 edition: Portfolio Audit 2024: The Annual Review of My Goal-Based Investments. We asked regular readers to share how they review their investments and track financial goals.

These published audits have had a compounding effect on readers. If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. You can also publish them anonymously.