You can also explore the full reader story archive. Do contact us, if you have a story or know of a friend’s account that the DIY community would benefit from. Editor’s note: To preserve the emotions of the author’s journey and their thinking process, reader stories are published in an as-received format including the references to freefincal – which we are grateful for and unfortunately cannot be edited out without modifying the spirit of the article.
My name is Virendra. I am 30 years old, married with a working spouse. One day while watching YouTube videos about finance, I got a recommendation about freefincal and since then, not a day has gone by where I have not watched/read freefincal videos and articles.
I had assumed that index funds are the way to go with getting on average 15% returns at low cost. (how silly that sounds). Reading your articles, watching your videos gave me a good idea where I stand. I was nobody. Had no idea about financial goals and how to plan them. How to reduce risk (why it’s important) I was mesmerised by content you had posted. Lessons learnt were, 1. higher risk doesn’t mean higher returns and
That is when I started becoming serious about goals. I have a habit of writing down my expenses to every penny I spend since last September. I was actually very proud of that habit but when I read your article that tracking expenses are of no use, instead, track investments I again felt lost. Tracking expenses at least helped me to see how much I spend and where. Miscellaneous was always the column with the highest spend.
I put these numbers in the freefincal DIY retirement calculator and was shell shocked to see the final amount needed at age 55, which was more than 5crs. I couldn’t believe it and did that calculation, again and again, to see the amount increase by little but never came down. That is when I realised the importance of financial planning.
Freefincal made me understand financial literacy is very important, and that is when I started planning for retirement and future need of my children. Considering my retirement at age 55, I understood I have time on my side and can plan accordingly. We got married a year and a half ago and have no children as of yet. But as per your advice, I have made two portfolios one for retirement and one for future needs of my child/children.
I got how much I need to invest every month from your calculator. I have decided to have one aggressive hybrid fund, one nifty index fund and one nifty next 50 index fund as my equity portion of the portfolio is 40-40-20% for both my goals. I know there would be overlap between a large cap index fund and aggressive hybrid fund, but I am ok with it till 45% for the downside protection it would provide to the core of my portfolio. For the debt part, I am using ten years constant maturity gilts for my retirement.
Till now, my portfolio is debt-heavy with only PPF, which I will use for my children need as debt component. It will be very hard to make this allocation even close to 60-40 because of considerable amount, but I will try to do it as quickly as possible.
I chose all my funds by doing inky pinky without considering star ratings. (I am a good student I guess).
I have made an excel sheet to track investments from this year till 2045,
the year when I will turn 55. I am going to try and increase my investment by 5% every year. I am going to start with 70% equity and 30% debt allocation for both my goals. Every five years, I will decrease equity allocation to make sure that as I near my goals, I do not hold high equity portions. I have assumed returns of 10% from equity and 8 % from debt (very high) for the sake of calculations in the hope that at the end I will have enough corpus for my needs. I did this with my wife by my side, and she also understands how to invest. I kept the retirement portfolio under my name and children portfolio under her name to make her equal partner in everything we do. I am not doing SIP on my name, but I have a SIP on her name just to make her less burdened to manually invest every month.
We have considerable health insurance from our employer 12 Lacs to be precise, and I have got a term life insurance of 2cr. I also have direct equity which I am building for growth and gives me good liquidity.
Before doing this planning, I have kept aside emergency fund and have a small SIP with an arbitrage fund apart from above-mentioned funds in the same. My goal is to make sure in the coming ten years, I am worth half of my term insurance value and should not need an emergency fund after that.
Right now, we live in a rented house, but we will plan to buy a house soon. Both my parents are government servants who will have considerable pensions after their retirement; hence they won’t be financially dependent on me. (Rather will be moral support for me). They will live with me after their retirement.
I am not sure if I am suitable for passive investment, but I am willing to find it out.
I hope to control my emotions rather than emotions controlling me. I hope to be rich one day with a bit of luck.
Please join me in thanking Virendra for sharing his journey and in wishing him the very best in future.
Have a question? Subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.
Hit 'reply' to any email from us! We do not offer personalized investment advice. We can write a detailed article without mentioning your name if you have a generic question.
Join over 32,000 readers and get free money management solutions delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to get posts via email!
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.Our new course!Increase your income by getting people to pay for your skills!⇐More than 700 salaried employees, entrepreneurs and financial advisors are part of our exclusive community! Learn how to get people to pay for your skills! Whether you are a professional or small business owner who wants more clients via online visibility or a salaried person wanting a side income or passive income, we will show you how to achieve this by showcasing your skills and building a community that trusts and pays you! (watch 1st lecture for free). One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos! Our new book for kids: “Chinchu Gets a Superpower!” is now available!Both the boy and girl-version covers of "Chinchu Gets a superpower". Most investor problems can be traced to a lack of informed decision-making. We made bad decisions and money mistakes when we started earning and spent years undoing these mistakes. Why should our children go through the same pain? What is this book about? As parents, what would it be if we had to groom one ability in our children that is key not only to money management and investing but to any aspect of life? My answer: Sound Decision Making. So, in this book, we meet Chinchu, who is about to turn 10. What he wants for his birthday and how his parents plan for it, as well as teaching him several key ideas of decision-making and money management, is the narrative. 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 their young age. The importance of money management and decision making based on their wants and needs. Very nicely written in simple terms. - Arun.
Buy the book: Chinchu gets a superpower for your child!How to profit from content writing: Our new ebook is for those interested in getting side income via content writing. It is available at a 50% discount for Rs. 500 only! Do you want to check if the market is overvalued or undervalued? Use our market valuation tool(it will work with any index!), or get the Tactical Buy/Sell timing tool! We publish monthly mutual fund screenersand momentum, low-volatility stock screeners.About freefincal & its content policy. Freefincal is a News Media Organization dedicated to providing original analysis, reports, reviews and insights on mutual funds, stocks, investing, retirement and personal finance developments. We do so without conflict of interest and bias. Follow us on Google News. Freefincal serves more than three million readers a year (5 million page views) with articles based only on factual information and detailed analysis by its authors. All statements made will be verified with credible and knowledgeable sources before publication. Freefincal does not publish paid articles, promotions, PR, satire or opinions without data. All opinions will be inferences backed by verifiable, reproducible evidence/data. Contact information: letters {at} freefincal {dot} com (sponsored posts or paid collaborations will not be entertained)Connect with us on social media
Published by CNBC TV18, this book is meant to help you ask the right questions and seek the correct answers, and since it comes with nine online calculators, you can also create custom solutions for your lifestyle! Get it now.Gamechanger: Forget Startups, Join Corporate & Still Live the Rich Life You WantThis book is meant for young earners to get their basics right from day one! It will also help you travel to exotic places at a low cost! Get it or gift it to a young earner.
Your Ultimate Guide to Travel
This is an in-depth dive into vacation planning, finding cheap flights, budget accommodation, what to do when travelling, and how travelling slowly is better financially and psychologically, with links to the web pages and hand-holding at every step. Get the pdf for Rs 300 (instant download)