I have been a follower of Freefincal for 3+ years now and have immensely benefited from Pattu sir’s articles and fellow reader stories. I wish to share my journey, which I hope will help someone just starting their financial journey.
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 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.
I started my first job at 21 after completing my engineering at a private college in South Tamil Nadu. I lived frugally in the first few years in Chennai, sending most of my salary back home to repay my educational loan and cover home expenses. After closing the loan, I joined an MBA program by availing another loan and used the EPF balance I had accumulated in my first job for personal expenses for 2 years.
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At 26, I passed out with a decent salary, which allowed me some disposable income. I prepaid the loan by making additional payments each month. Higher salary came with higher tax, hence I started looking for tax saving options and ended up opening a demat account to invest in ELSS, as that ‘gave’ the highest return with the lowest lock-in. I invested the minimum required to fill the 80C quota.
I got married the next year, which wiped out any savings I had accumulated until then. Pressure from parents & in-laws to buy a house meant that I started looking for a flat in Bangalore with no corpus. I paid a token advance for a flat, sold some family jewels and pledged the rest to prepare for the self-contribution payment. As fate would have it, the loan was not approved because of a few legal gaps with the property that builders couldn’t address. I got back most of the token advance, luckily, and, under family pressure, invested the money from the jewels in a plot near my hometown.
I made more mistakes in the next couple of years by investing in IPOs and stocks based on colleagues’ tips. I made profits with some and losses in others. Overall, my broker consistently made money. Chasing higher returns, I also invested in the ‘last 1 yr highest return’ funds, which were often thematic, opportunities/small cap funds or the top-rated funds. I learnt about funds’ performance going through cycles only much later.
After a gap, the family again started pressuring to invest in real estate. I started saving this time in debt funds (corporate & gilt) to create a corpus, and bought another plot at age 30. Instead, had I invested in equity during this time, I would have benefited from the post-COVID bull run.
I switched jobs in 2020, and during that time, I came across fin-influencers on social media. I watched countless videos that gave me too many ideas, I started multiple SIPs – some in index, factor-based, fof, intl funds – you name it, and I had it (portfolio had 30 MFs at one point). I did weekly SIPs to ‘average’ my cost, learnt about technical analysis, tried my hand at day trading, options/futures, etc. Thankfully, my fear of loss meant I allocated very little corpus to my trading adventures and stopped them once I realised I was wasting time and money.
After my son was born in 2021, I started researching more about long term investing and building wealth. I covered some basics, like Term insurance, health insurance for my mother & emergency fund. I stumbled upon freefincal, which helped me to understand the importance of retirement planning, asset allocation & risks. Some of Pattu sir’s videos were eye openers; his Tamil videos give the feeling of a father teaching his son. In the last 3 years, I have stopped chasing returns, consolidated my previous equity investments, and invested consistently with a goal-based plan. Here’s my audit.
Goal #1 – Retirement/Financial Independence in 2040
Before using a retirement calculator, I assumed 1 Cr would be the dream corpus for retirement. Post calculations, factoring in moderate returns and higher inflation, I found out that I needed much more for a comfortable financial independence (~10Cr)
Numbers have been modified to show only the growth from the 2023 base. The current corpus is 19% of the goal in present value terms. Current Equity: Debt is 55:45 (95%+ large cap (Nifty 50 index majorly) and 5% Mid/small cap). Planning to reach 60:40 in 2026.
I have been able to increase my investments aggressively thanks to job changes & above average salary hikes since COVID. I’m currently investing ~20% more than the required monthly investment. I’m not sure if I will be able to keep up the same pace in the future, but – Make hay while the sun shines!
Goal #2 – Son’s college education in 2040 (1Cr)
I had initially thought of going with a unified goal plan, but this year, I have switched to investing & tracking them separately to keep it simple. I will have to revisit the corpus required based on my son’s interests in high school. For now, I’m assuming he will do a Engg course in a private college. I have invested only in Equity MFs to date and plan to add debt from 2026.
I have also booked a flat in Bangalore now and will be moving to our own house after living on rent since childhood in 2026, which is a big milestone for my family. Overall, despite making multiple mistakes early on, I was able to get back on track thanks to course corrections along the way and increased income.
Goal of giving back to society: Coming from a middle-class family with no ancestral wealth, I have made it this far thanks to the education I received and my mother’s support. For the last 3 years, I have been supporting a girl child through Melvin Sir’s program to give back.
Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2026!
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.
- 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.
- Twelfth 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
- Sixty-first audit: Minimalism, Index Funds, and Staying Calm: My Investing Journey at 28
- Sixty-second audit: Building Wealth and Breaking Barriers: How Swati Took Control of Her Financial Future
- Sixty-third audit: My financial journey: How I missed the Compounding Bus!
- Sixty-fourth audit: My MF investment journey: From thematic funds to a 3-fund portfolio
- Sixty-fifth audit: From Debt to ₹1 Crore Liquid Net Worth: My Journey of Financial Awareness.
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.
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Now watch Let's Get Rich With Pattu தமிழில் (in Tamil)!About The Author
Dr M Pattabiraman giving a lecture
- 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 14 years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. He has over 28 years of teaching and research experience. He is also a public speaker and keynote presenter.
- He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free, AUM-independent investment advice.
- Connect with him via @pattufreefincal on X LinkedIn YouTube
- Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books.
This book helps you ask the right questions and find the right answers. It also includes nine online calculators to create custom solutions.
(2) Gamechanger: Forget Startups, Join Corporate & Still Live the Rich Life You Want. 
Both the boy and girl versions of "Chinchu Gets a Superpower".
Most investor problems stem from a lack of poor decision-making. We made bad decisions and money mistakes when we started earning, and we spent years undoing them. Why should our children go through the same pain? What is this book about? As parents, what if we had to groom one ability in our children that matters not only for money management and investing but for every aspect of life? My answer: Sound decision-making. So, in this book, we meet Chinchu, who is about to turn 10. The story follows what he wants for his birthday and how his parents plan it, while also teaching him key ideas about decision-making and money management. What readers say! 
Feedback from a young reader after reading Chinchu Gets a Superpower!
Must-read book even for adults! This is something that every parent should teach their kids right from a young age. The importance of money management and decision-making based on their wants and needs. Very nicely written in simple terms. - Arun.
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