This time in the reader story we meet young Vidur who has just started his goal-based investing journey. His attitude towards mutual funds and equity investing has changed from “it is gambling” to “I want to hold 60% equity in my long term asset allocation”.
About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives for the benefit of readers. Some of the previous editions are linked at the bottom of this article. You can also access the full reader story archive.
Opinions published in reader stories need not 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 necessary to convey the right meaning to 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. They can be published anonymously if you so desire.
Please note: We welcome such articles from young earners who have just started their investing journey. See, for example, this piece by a 29-year old: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns.
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We have also started a new “mutual fund success stories” series. This is the first edition: How mutual funds helped me reach financial independence. Now over to the author.
Sir, I want to publish my personal finance audit, and I want to give you a testimonial that you are a “digital asset” ( as I followed you from YouTube ) for teaching me investing.
Background: I’m a 27-year guy named Vidur, I completed my college degree in Mechanical stream in 2015. And joined a mechanical company for 9000/month salary
First 3 years, I don’t know anything about Saving or Investment and whatever salary I received was spent.
Next, I moved to another company with a higher salary and was keeping all the salary in a savings bank account.
My bike ( gifted by my parents )got stolen in the year 2017. And I claimed insurance and they gave me 70k, then it was also kept in the same savings account.
In 2018, Some of my friends were talking about MF investments and I asked my friend to get me a Demat account ( I don’t know at that time, MF investment doesn’t need a demat account ). Then opened a paid demat account with a discount broker and asked my friend what that name of the fund he was investing in ( his reply it was Axis mutual fund ) then I went Into that discount broker app and typed axis mutual fund and clicked the first option and made a SIP for 3000/month.
It was Axis focused 25 fund (G), I don’t know it was Direct or Regular.
SIP was kept ongoing for 30 months ( insurance money 70,000 was invested an additional 20,000 was invested ) it was grown to 1,18,000 in Jan – 2021 ( was not having any idea about the corona crash. ( Even don’t know the index went to 7000-8000 level ). Then I withdrew the amount and got another bike.
Then I thought not to play these MF games anymore ( as heard the stock market is a gamble ) and stopped investing.
Six months rolled over. Accidentally I saw your retirement planning video on YouTube Tamil version ( closed it in the midway felt it was boring, I didn’t know the importance of that ) then after someday again I saw that half played video and completed it. I understood the thing and some interest came in me
Then started watching all your Tamil + English videos gained much information and knowledge, then started to apply all the knowledge from July 2021, and
Started my long term investing journey.
( Your tea Kadai example cleared the functioning of the stock market and bond market ).
Editors Note: This is the full list of Tamil YouTube Videos. The relevant English and Tamil Versions of the videos mentioned are embedded below. For those who may not be aware, we have 1158 videos on YouTube (most of them in English!)
Retirement Planning: English Version
Retirement Planning: Tamil Version
Inflation – the tea shop example: English Version
As of now, having only one goal ( wealth creation or retirement goal )
Made an excel sheet with all the information to track the goal and amount invested every month.
My 3-year savings were kept in the savings bank account. From that 1 year salary is moved to liquid fund for an emergency fund
Then I created my portfolio with
Equity – Index fund + Smallcase
Fixed income – Gilt fund + PGINVIT
So my asset allocation is Equity 45% and Fixed income 55%. In the next 6 to 7 months I can bring the ratio to Equity 60% and fixed income 40%.
My friends are not aware of the importance of investing and I’m trying to push your videos to them to get the awareness personally I’m helping them to understand the context to kick start their investing journey.
Reader stories published earlier
As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2020 edition: How my retirement portfolio performed in 2020. 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!
- 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.
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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