Final Up to date on March 26, 2025 at 6:15 am
I’m Rajkumar, a 40-year-old skilled who has been a part of the hospitality business since 2006. My funding journey started the identical 12 months, sparked by an early encounter with *Wealthy Dad Poor Dad* throughout my faculty days.
Although the guide ignited my curiosity, the fairness markets really captured my creativeness. I began small, with SIPs of Rs 1,000 per 30 days, steadily rising my contributions over time. Alongside SIPs, I dabbled in inventory selecting, typically guided by suggestions from mates relatively than any structured technique. My strategy was impulsive—shopping for randomly, promoting rapidly for small income, or holding onto losers till they turned inexperienced. Persistence was by no means my power. Over time, I invested in a number of poor-quality corporations, lots of which went bankrupt, however my journey continued.
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As my profession progressed, so did my capability to speculate. I clung to a easy but highly effective perception: if my investments exceeded my bills, I’d come out forward. My SIPs remained constant, at the same time as I saved experimenting with shares. In 2017, I moved to the Center East. The unstructured strategy continued till 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Through the market crash, a good friend who had launched his Registered Advisor (RA) providers satisfied me to affix him. It turned out to be an excellent transfer. Leveraging the downturn, my portfolio doubled rapidly, catapulting me into sudden wealth. However with this windfall got here a detour into harmful territory.
The speedy positive factors skewed my judgment. I fell in with the unsuitable crowd at work, who launched me to Futures and Choices (F&O) buying and selling. Initially, I made some fast income, however the tide quickly turned. Between 2022 and 2023, I misplaced a staggering Rs 1.93 crores. Worse than the monetary hit was the psychological toll. F&O turned an dependancy—consuming my ideas, wrecking my sleep, and derailing my focus at work.
I’d keep up nights monitoring US markets and SGX Nifty, haunted by in a single day positions. I couldn’t focus at work, and I began mendacity to my household about my monetary troubles, hiding the extent of my losses and my obsession. The dependancy grew so extreme that even on the day my mom handed away, whereas funeral preparations had been underway, I discovered myself glancing at my cell, checking trades. I really feel deeply ashamed of that second, however I’m sharing it brazenly now to point out simply how harmful this dependancy might be.
The fixed buying and selling on cell apps took a toll on my well being too. My weight ballooned, my stress ranges soared, and I used to be a shadow of my former self. Although I managed to carry my profession collectively, I spiraled into melancholy. This was, doubtless, the darkest section of my life.
In my seek for a method out, I stumbled upon the *Freefincal* web site. I devoured its articles and watched numerous movies by Pattu Sir, which shifted my perspective totally. I spotted my power lay in worth investing, not speculative buying and selling. Decided to rebuild, I immersed myself in studying—finding out firm valuation, studying extensively, and turning to YouTube for steerage.
Mohit from SOIC’s movies had been a revelation, opening my eyes to the facility of shopping for high quality corporations under their intrinsic worth. Over the following two and a half years, I made daring but calculated strikes within the inventory market. By God’s grace, my aggressive inventory picks paid off spectacularly, serving to me get better all my losses.
Round this time, I related with Mr. Sriram Jayram, a fee-only monetary advisor really useful by Freefincal. His steerage was transformative. He launched me to goal-based investing and restructured my portfolio, bringing my fairness publicity right down to 60% and allocating 40% to debt. From Pattu Sir, I additionally discovered the idea of index investing, which introduced me a way of peace I hadn’t felt in years. This balanced strategy gave me stability and readability. Trying again, one fixed anchored me by way of the chaos: my SIPs, which I’ve by no means stopped since 2006. They proved to be my monetary lifeline.
At this time, I stand with a corpus of Rs 7 crores, break up between fairness and debt, and fully debt-free. All I do now could be put money into just a few good shares and index funds—a easy, disciplined technique that retains me grounded. I share this story to warn others concerning the harmful lure of F&O buying and selling—a weapon of mass destruction for wealth, well being, and well-being.
My journey taught me invaluable classes: delayed gratification is a superpower, and the bliss of long-term compounding is unmatched. At the moment, I’m working within the Center East, with 20 years of my profession nonetheless forward. I plan to decelerate at 50 and retire by 52, taking life one regular step at a time. By coming clear about my struggles, I hope to encourage others to interrupt free from such addictions and discover peace in smart, long-term investing.
With Gratitude to Pattu Sir, Rajkumar.
Reader tales printed earlier:
As common readers might know, we publish a private monetary audit every December – that is the 2023 version: Portfolio Audit 2023: The Annual Assessment of My Aim-Based mostly Investments. We requested common readers to share how they evaluate their investments and observe monetary objectives.
- First audit: How Suhas tracks his MF investments and critiques monetary objectives.
- Second audit: How Avadhoot Joshi evaluates his funding portfolio.
- Third audit: How a single mother is on observe to monetary freedom
- Fourth audit: How Gowtham began goal-based investing & took management of his cash
- Fifth audit: Why my monetary independence & early retirement plans had been postponed by 4 years
- Sixth audit: How Abhisek funded his marriage & is on observe to monetary freedom.
- Seventh audit: How Rohit’s early struggles outlined his funding journey
- Eighth audit: Why my investments are nonetheless on observe regardless of job loss and decrease revenue.
- Ninth audit: How a retirement planning calculation scared me to take motion
- Tenth audit: I made a number of funding errors however have turned my life round.
- Eleventh audit: My internet price doubled within the final monetary 12 months, due to affected person investing!
- Twelveth audit: My monetary journey: from novice to goal-based investor.
- Thirteenth audit: My journey: from a adverse internet price to goal-based investing.
- Fourteenth audit: From Mounted Deposits to Aim-based investing in MFs.
- Fifteenth audit: My 10-year monetary journey – errors made and classes learnt.
- Sixteenth audit (half 1): How I achieved monetary independence with out mutual funds or shares.
- Sixteenth audit (half 2): Classes from my monetary independence journey and future funding plans.
- Seventeenth audit: How I plan to realize monetary independence and transfer to my native place
- Eighteenth audit: I used the present bull run to scale back my mutual funds from 14 to 4!
- Nineteenth audit: How a conservative investor created his monetary plan
- Twentieth audit: I plan to realize monetary independence by 46; that is my grasp plan
- Twenty-first audit: I’ve made many funding errors however am on track to monetary independence by 45.
- Twenty-second audit: I felt nugatory six years in the past however have achieved monetary stability right now
- Twenty-third audit: My monetary journey was directionless till age 40: that is how I made up for misplaced time
- Twenty-fourth audit: Why I elevated fairness MF investments by 275% and lowered PPF contributions.
- Twenty-fifth audit: How I observe monetary objectives with out worrying about returns
- Twenty-sixth audit: I’m 24 and began investing 1Y in the past, however what am I investing for?
- Twenty-seventh audit: How we plan to realize a retirement corpus 50 instances our annual bills.
- Twenty-eighth audit: I assumed fairness investing was of venture, however now I goal to carry 60% fairness for retirement
- Twenty-ninth audit: My journey: From 5 lakhs in debt to constructing a corpus price six years in retirement
- Thirtieth audit: My funding journey: From random purchases to a goal-based portfolio
- Thirty-first audit: My funding journey: from product-driven to process-driven
- Thirty-second audit: How a younger couple is making an attempt to stability travelling and investing
- Thirty-third audit: My journey: From Rs. 30 financial institution stability to monetary independence
- Thirty-fourth audit: Our journey: From scratch to a internet price of 18 instances annual bills.
- Thirty-fifth audit: From a internet price of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing
- Thirty-sixth audit: How I retired from company bondage at 46, two years in the past!
- Thirty-seventh audit: How I learnt to maintain it easy and construct a internet price 19 instances my annual bills
- Thirty-eighth audit: How Abhineeth plans to realize monetary independence and construct a home.
- Thirty-ninth audit: How Sahil plans to realize monetary independence by environment friendly monitoring
- Fortieth audit: My Journey to a Ten Crore Portfolio
- Forty-first audit: Burdened with debt for a number of years, I’m now aggressively investing in fairness
- Forty-second audit: From Engineer to Librarian after Monetary Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE)
- Forty-third audit: I misplaced six months’ revenue in F&O and ditched it for systematic investing
- Forty-fourth audit: My retirement plan to deal with the cruel realities of the IT business
- Forty-fifth audit: My funding journey: errors, 10 years of MF investing and restoration
- Forty-sixth audit: My MF portfolio is price six crores regardless of a number of errors
- Forty-seventh audit: Saving, Investing, and Operating Marathons: My 25-year Journey to Monetary Independence
- Forty-eighth audit: By no means Too Late to Begin: How I Grew to become Financially Savvy at 40
- Forty-ninth audit: My Funding Journey to a internet price 29 instances my annual bills
- Fiftieth audit: How I audit my portfolio with out monitoring returns
- Fifty-first audit: Monetary Classes Realized Throughout and After a PhD
- Fifty-second audit: Funding & Monetary journey of a 23 12 months previous
- Fifty-third audit: The system I exploit to attract revenue and spend after retirement securely
- Fifty-fourth audit: From Begin-Up Worker to Millionaire: A Success Story of Resilience and Good Investing
- Fifty-fifth audit: 25-12 months-Previous Software program Engineer’s Funding Journey: From Shares to Mutual Funds and Past
- Fifty-sixth audit: Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
- Fifty-seventh audit: Navigating Market Volatility: How an IT Skilled Remodeled His Funding Method for Retirement
- Fifty-eighth audit: How Sahil achieved a 10X retirement corpus by environment friendly portfolio monitoring
- FIfty-ninth audit: How I achieved monetary freedom by 45 with out onsite assignments or ESOPs
- Sixtieth audit: Constructing Wealth on a Authorities Wage: Classes Realized
- Sixty-first audit: Minimalism, Index Funds, and Staying Calm: My Investing Journey at 28
- Sixty-second audit: Constructing Wealth and Breaking Boundaries: How Swati Took Management of Her Monetary Future
- Sixty-third audit: My monetary journey: How I missed the Compounding Bus!
These printed audits have had a compounding impact on readers. If you need to contribute to the DIY group on this method, ship your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. They might be printed anonymously for those who so want.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and first creator of freefincal. He’s an affiliate professor on the Indian Institute of Expertise, Madras. He has over ten years of expertise publishing information evaluation, analysis and monetary product improvement. Join with him by way of Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You might be wealthy too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY traders. (2) Gamechanger for younger earners. (3) Chinchu Will get a Superpower! for youths. He has additionally written seven different free e-books on numerous cash administration matters. He’s a patron and co-founder of “Charge-only India,” an organisation selling unbiased, commission-free funding recommendation.
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Most investor issues might be traced to an absence of knowledgeable decision-making. We made dangerous choices and cash errors once we began incomes and spent years undoing these errors. Why ought to our youngsters undergo the identical ache? What is that this guide about? As mother and father, what wouldn’t it be if we needed to groom one potential in our youngsters that’s key not solely to cash administration and investing however to any side of life? My reply: Sound Resolution Making. So, on this guide, we meet Chinchu, who’s about to show 10. What he needs for his birthday and the way his mother and father plan for it, in addition to instructing him a number of key concepts of decision-making and cash administration, is the narrative. What readers say!


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