Financial independence lessons in a “Xerox shop”!

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal

Published: January 30, 2021 at 10:42 am

Last Updated on February 12, 2022 at 6:14 pm

In this article, Venkat describes how an incident in a “Xerox shop” changed his outlook on financial independence and financial literacy.  Venkat, 32, changed his perspective towards personal finance when he came across the idea of FIRE – financial independence and early retirement.

He then invested more than ten hours as a hobby and went on to clear the Level one NISM exam for investment advisors. After achieving financial independence in the next 7-8 years he wants to educate young and old about the importance of money management. Over to Venkat.

I understood how important financial literacy is, in a Xerox Shop! A few months back I went to a xerox shop and gave my Aadhar card for photocopying to an Old gentleman. Since he was around 70+ he was struggling to adjust the brightness.

Suddenly a person in mid-’40s came running into the shop and started thrashing the old man & abusing him and went all of a sudden. I was shocked and asked the old gentleman about that person and how can he behave like this.

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This response from the Old Gentleman shook me – He said with tears rolling down his shiny cheeks, “ He is my son and I am a retired accountant from a private company and gave all my final settlement & savings to my only son. Now post getting my money, he made me a labourer in his Xerox shop and always abuses me physically & mentally”.

This made me think about how Personal Finance Illiteracy is creating such havoc in this society. More than 75% of divorce in India is in some way or other due to personal finance mismanagement. The root cause for this misery was financial dependence.

Financial Independence: Planning is Paramount

Even though I did my MBA & working with an organization as a director planning for the growth of the organization, I have seldom thought about my own personal finance growth. That’s when I was fortunate enough to get guidance from vlogs of Pattu Sir, Subra Sir and many more personal finance experts and created my own balance sheet, cash flow, expense tracker & created a goal-based portfolio with a clear investment philosophy for each goal. 

I have created a customized strategy by separating my two critical long-term goals – financial independence & Retirement. I am very clear that the reason I wanted Financial Independence is to ensure I do something I love without worrying about the income while at the same time my family is not compromised on the quality of life.

I arrived at a target corpus for Financial Independence that can provide me 25 Times my current annual expense & this will be from the age of 40 to 60 where I will be earning at least 50% of my annual expense (anything more is a bonus which will be redirected to my Retirement kitty). My retirement goal is after 60 where I have planned for a target corpus of 40 times my current annual expense and at this time my only source of income will be passive through my investment corpus.

I also have other long-term goals like my daughter’s higher education & marriage along with short term goals like doing a part-time PhD, home loan repayment before my financial independence & international vacation every three years.

I have an asset allocation strategy for each of my goals listed above spanning across all the 4 major asset types like equity, debt, gold & real estate. I have ensured the allocation of Real Estate & Gold does not exceed 20% for any of the goals.

I am confident that I will be financially independent by 2028 when I turn 40. I got myself certified as an investment advisor by NISM to ensure that I have the necessary skills to be a financial planner. I also have a career plan after FIRE where I would want to be an evangelist of personal finance going to schools & colleges to educate youth on personal finance & financial independence. I firmly believe that the world around us will be a better place if every youth is trained in personal finance & the importance of financial independence !!!!

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