Back when I was still in college, I stumbled onto Freefincal. I’d open one article, and the next thing I knew, I’d have 20 tabs open—each leading me deeper into this endless maze of personal finance. It was a strange obsession for someone who had zero money to their name.
I read, I learned, and ironically, I advised. School friends starting their engineering jobs came to me for guidance, and I helped them set up their SIPs while my portfolio sat empty. (Mine was a 5-year course in a different field, while most school friends had 4-year engineering degrees) It was a weird feeling—like being a coach who had never played the game.
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If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. They can be published anonymously if you so desire.
Please note: We welcome such articles 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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Once I graduated and started earning, things changed. My first step was investing in Niftybees. Simple, clean, and manageable. I had always been drawn to index funds—the low-cost structure, the “don’t chase the hot hand” philosophy. It seemed obvious to me: picking funds based on last year’s performance was a fool’s game.
I made some mistakes, too. I delayed getting health insurance longer than I should have (fixed that now) and skipped term insurance entirely—no dependents(unmarried), no urgency. I’m currently 28 and might get term insurance shortly.
Building the Portfolio
From the beginning, I wanted to avoid the common traps: the FOMO, the “hot” mutual funds, and the clutter of too many investments. Fund houses like Axis and Quant were the talk of the town at different points, only to fade into the background when their performance slipped. I wasn’t interested in that race.
So, I started with a simple, minimalist portfolio:
Niftybees – 40%
Motilal Oswal S&P 500 – 40%
Savings/FD/Liquid Funds – 20%
Then came Zerodha’s Nifty Largemidcap 250. I spent a lot of time thinking it through. I didn’t want to be the guy juggling 15 funds with a few thousand scattered in each. But this fund made sense—it struck a balance between the Nifty 100 and Midcap 150, with a reset baked into it.
I didn’t sell my Niftybees, but I redirected my new SIPs:
Zerodha Nifty Largemidcap 250 – 40%
Motilal Oswal S&P 500 – 40%
Fixed Income – 20%
I aim to maintain a 50-50 split between Indian and U.S. markets, knowing it gives me a broad, balanced exposure. At age 28, my current corpus is 7x of my annual expenses, and I’m quite proud of it.
I strongly believe in not doing something for the sake of doing it. For example, having a 10% allocation to gold. That’s not going to do anything for my portfolio except adding one more fund. In my mind either something should have 25-30% allocation or it should stay out. 5-10% allocation is just a waste of time and attention span. Maybe my views will change as I grow older or when my portfolio becomes significantly big but for now I want to keep it as simple and minimalist as possible.
I also don’t invest in direct equity because of two reasons. First, I don’t believe I can consistently beat the index returns. Secondly, even if I could, it would take a lot of my time and attention, and I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it on more than 10-15% of my overall portfolio. So again, even if I somehow beat the index by 5-8% on a satellite portfolio, which is 10% of my overall portfolio, it won’t make much of a difference. It won’t affect my wealth or financial status significantly. So, I avoid it altogether.
The Calm Before the (Inevitable) Storm
So far, the markets have been kind. I was around during the Corona crash, but my portfolio was tiny—there wasn’t much to lose. I haven’t yet faced a real gut-check moment, like watching 40-60% of my investments evaporate. I think I’m prepared to stay calm, stick to the process, to trust what I’ve built.
But honestly? We’ll see. When the storm hits, as it eventually will, I hope to keep my nerve.
Reader stories published earlier:
As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2023 edition: Portfolio Audit 2023: The Annual Review of My Goal-Based Investments. We asked regular readers to share how they review their investments and track financial goals.
- First audit: How Suhas tracks his MF investments and reviews financial goals.
- Second audit: How Avadhoot Joshi evaluates his investment portfolio.
- Third audit: How a single mom is on track to financial freedom
- Fourth audit: How Gowtham started goal-based investing & took control of his money
- Fifth audit: Why my financial independence & early retirement plans were postponed by four years
- Sixth audit: How Abhisek funded his marriage & is on track to financial freedom.
- Seventh audit: How Rohit’s early struggles defined his investment journey
- Eighth audit: Why my investments are still on track despite job loss and lower income.
- Ninth audit: How a retirement planning calculation scared me to take action
- Tenth audit: I made several investment mistakes but have turned my life around.
- Eleventh audit: My net worth doubled in the last financial year, thanks to patient investing!
- Update: How I achieved investing nirvana.
- Twelveth audit: My financial journey: from novice to goal-based investor.
- Thirteenth audit: My journey: from a negative net worth to goal-based investing.
- Fourteenth audit: From Fixed Deposits to Goal-based investing in MFs.
- Fifteenth audit: My 10-year financial journey – mistakes made and lessons learnt.
- Sixteenth audit (part 1): How I achieved financial independence without mutual funds or stocks.
- Sixteenth audit (part 2): Lessons from my financial independence journey and future investment plans.
- Seventeenth audit: How I plan to achieve financial independence and move to my native place
- Eighteenth audit: I used the current bull run to reduce my mutual funds from 14 to 4!
- Nineteenth audit: How a conservative investor created his financial plan
- Twentieth audit: I plan to achieve financial independence by 46; this is my master plan
- Twenty-first audit: I have made many investment mistakes but am on course to financial independence by 45.
- Twenty-second audit: I felt worthless six years ago but have achieved financial stability today
- Twenty-third audit: My financial journey was directionless until age 40: this is how I made up for lost time
- Twenty-fourth audit: Why I increased equity MF investments by 275% and reduced PPF contributions.
- Twenty-fifth audit: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns
- Twenty-sixth audit: I am 24 and started investing 1Y ago, but what am I investing for?
- Twenty-seventh audit: How we plan to achieve a retirement corpus 50 times our annual expenses.
- Twenty-eighth audit: I thought equity investing was a gamble, but now I aim to hold 60% equity for retirement
- Twenty-ninth audit: My journey: From 5 lakhs in debt to building a corpus worth six years in retirement
- Thirtieth audit: My investment journey: From random purchases to a goal-based portfolio
- Thirty-first audit: My investment journey: from product-driven to process-driven
- Thirty-second audit: How a young couple is trying to balance travelling and investing
- Thirty-third audit: My journey: From Rs. 30 bank balance to financial independence
- Thirty-fourth audit: Our journey: From scratch to a net worth of 18 times annual expenses.
- Thirty-fifth audit: From a net worth of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing
- Thirty-sixth audit: How I retired from corporate bondage at 46, two years ago!
- Thirty-seventh audit: How I learnt to keep it simple and build a net worth 19 times my annual expenses
- Thirty-eighth audit: How Abhineeth plans to achieve financial independence and build a house.
- Thirty-ninth audit: How Sahil plans to achieve financial independence by efficient tracking
- Fortieth audit: My Journey to a Ten Crore Portfolio
- Forty-first audit: Burdened with debt for several years, I am now aggressively investing in equity
- Forty-second audit: From Engineer to Librarian after Financial Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE)
- Forty-third audit: I lost six months’ income in F&O and ditched it for systematic investing
- Forty-fourth audit: My retirement plan to handle the harsh realities of the IT industry
- Forty-fifth audit: My investment journey: mistakes, 10 years of MF investing and recovery
- Forty-sixth audit: My MF portfolio is worth six crores despite multiple mistakes
- Forty-seventh audit: Saving, Investing, and Running Marathons: My 25-year Journey to Financial Independence
- Forty-eighth audit: Never Too Late to Start: How I Became Financially Savvy at 40
- Forty-ninth audit: My Investment Journey to a net worth 29 times my annual expenses
- Fiftieth audit: How I audit my portfolio without tracking returns
- Fifty-first audit: Financial Lessons Learned During and After a PhD
- Fifty-second audit: Investment & Financial journey of a 23 year old
- Fifty-third audit: The system I use to draw income and spend after retirement securely
- Fifty-fourth audit: From Start-Up Employee to Millionaire: A Success Story of Resilience and Smart Investing
- Fifty-fifth audit: 25-Year-Old Software Engineer’s Investment Journey: From Stocks to Mutual Funds and Beyond
- Fifty-sixth audit: Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
- Fifty-seventh audit: Navigating Market Volatility: How an IT Professional Transformed His Investment Approach for Retirement
- Fifty-eighth audit: How Sahil achieved a 10X retirement corpus by efficient portfolio tracking
- FIfty-ninth audit: How I achieved financial freedom by 45 without onsite assignments or ESOPs
- Sixtieth audit: Building Wealth on a Government Salary: Lessons Learned
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. They could be published anonymously if you so desire.
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About The Author
Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over ten years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.Our flagship course! Learn to manage your portfolio like a pro to achieve your goals regardless of market conditions! ⇐ More than 3,000 investors and advisors are part of our exclusive community! Get clarity on how to plan for your goals and achieve the necessary corpus no matter the market condition is!! Watch the first lecture for free! One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos! Reduce fear, uncertainty and doubt while investing! Learn how to plan for your goals before and after retirement with confidence.
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