In this edition of the reader story … It all started in 2010. I wanted to pursue engineering. I had scored around 90%, yet I joined a tier-3 college for my B.E. in Computer Science. Even today, I don’t fully know why — whether I failed to filter colleges well, or whether competition was already that brutal. What I do know is that this decision shaped the next decade of my life.
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.
As a first-year graduate, my tuition fee was reduced to ₹20,000 per year. That helped — but not enough to make things easy. I still remember visiting Anna University to choose my college, walking past multiple bank stalls, enquiring about education loans like a grown-up long before I actually felt like one. Eventually, I got an education loan from the Central Bank of India and began my journey.
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For my parents, spending ₹3,000 a year for our school education was manageable. Professional degrees were different. They were terrifying.
My younger brother joined a near-tier-1 college in 2012 for B.Tech IT. Same dream, same hope — but no first-graduate benefit. His fees were significantly higher, fully loan-funded. Two sons. Two engineering degrees. One household income.
That phase was the hardest.
Both my parents worked as tailors. Every single day, they gave me ₹30 and my brother ₹ 30 for travel. We had yearly local train passes, but from the railway station, we still needed a shared auto or a bus to reach home. That ₹60 a day wasn’t pocket money — it was a sacrifice. I remember it vividly. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
First Job, First Salary — and My Biggest Financial Mistake
In 2014, I joined my first company — a BIOS-related firm — with a salary of ₹3 LPA. It felt unreal. One year later, I tried to close all my parents’ smaller loans. Around the same time, my parents made a decision that most families like ours make when they see their children start earning.
We had a small house in North Chennai, originally bought by my grandfather in the 1960s. My parents wanted to renovate it and add a second floor. Earlier, they had already taken two loans — ₹3 lakhs and ₹5 lakhs — to construct the first floor.
This time, they took a ₹10 lakh loan to renovate both floors.
Financially, this was not a great decision. But I was young, inexperienced, and unaware. I didn’t read the loan documents. I didn’t question the interest rate. A year later, when I finally checked, the ROI was 11.9%. I was shocked — but by then, there was nothing meaningful I could do.
That loan is still running. It will end in 2030.
That mistake quietly rewired my thinking about money forever.
Career Shifts and Learning to Bet on Myself
I spent nearly four years as a backend engineer. In 2018, I switched companies with a salary of ₹8.5 LPA. Over time, I worked mostly as a full-stack engineer and later moved internally to a different business unit with a ₹15 LPA package, focusing primarily on cloud technologies.
This was a voluntary shift. Not for money — but to learn.
In hindsight, that decision changed everything.
By 2021, discussions about marriage began at home. I had savings of around ₹15 lakhs. My mother wanted to give 10 sovereigns of gold. I spent all my savings on my marriage. I borrowed ₹2.5 lakhs from a close family friend. I even withdrew ₹55,000 from my first company’s PF.
Financially, it looks reckless on paper.
Emotionally, it was worth everything. I married my wife — and year after year, my love and respect for her only grew stronger. Around the same time, she switched jobs, and her salary grew to ₹7 LPA.
We were building life together — slowly, imperfectly, honestly.
A Daughter, Two Job Offers, One Clear Choice
In November 2022, we welcomed our daughter.
At the same time, I was searching for a new job.
In December, I received two offers:
- A Bangalore startup at ₹33 LPA
- A Chennai-based company at ₹38 LPA (excluding stocks)
Comfort mattered. Family mattered. Chennai mattered.
I chose the second offer.
I went all-in on the cloud, worked harder than ever, and took on more responsibility.
The AI Boom — and Being Ready When Luck Arrived
When the AI wave hit, my company needed engineers who understood the intersection of cloud and AI. I was ready — not because I predicted the boom, but because I had invested years in fundamentals.
I was fortunate to have a manager who trusted me and gave me meaningful, high-impact work. That trust changed my trajectory.
Today, my salary is ₹53 LPA (excluding stock options).
Fixing My Relationship With Money (Slowly)
That old 11.9% loan still runs. I pay the EMI every month. I haven’t aggressively prepaid it — but it gave me a powerful rule:
I will never take a long-tenure EMI lightly again.
This was the only loan that was still running, and I closed my education loan.
After marriage, I started consciously stabilising my finances. That’s when I discovered Vijay Mohan’s YouTube videos. His explanation of the four stages of financial life — Accumulation, Growth, Independence, Abundance — resonated deeply.
So did the idea of delayed gratification.
We still live in a ₹20,000 rented house, the same one I moved into in 2021 before marriage. In 2023, instead of buying a new car, I bought a second-hand Honda Amaze from Spinny. Partly for financial sense, partly because I wanted to learn to drive without stress.
No lifestyle inflation. No urgency to “look successful”.
Where I Stand Today
As of now, my portfolio is roughly ₹1.03 crore:
- Mutual Funds: ₹51 lakhs
- 95% in a single Flexi-cap fund
- XIRR: ~15%
- 95% in a single Flexi-cap fund
- ESOPs: ₹15 lakhs
- XIRR: –15%
- XIRR: –15%
- PF: ₹19 lakhs
- PPF: ₹2 lakhs
My wife’s savings:
- Mutual Funds: ₹16 lakhs
- 100% in a single Multi-cap fund
- XIRR: ~13%
- 100% in a single Multi-cap fund
Closing Thoughts
This isn’t a story about becoming rich overnight.
It’s about parents who stretched ₹60 a day,
about loans taken without understanding,
about learning the hard way,
and about quiet consistency, beating loud ambition.
If you’re reading this while worrying about fees, EMIs, or whether you’re “too late” — you’re not. Sometimes, the journey doesn’t look impressive while you’re walking it. Only when you turn around do you realise how far you’ve come.
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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- 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.
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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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