“I created 1.5 crores in last 7 yrs” – here is an Inspiring Money Story !
POSTED BY ON January 17, 2018 COMMENTS (91)
This time we are going to share money story of another reader of ours (Name not disclosed as per request). This person is from Bangalore, belonging to the middle class and is now working in the US from the last 2.5 years. He is a regular reader of this blog and agreed to share his money story with a bigger audience.
Over to him…
When I was Growing Up
Born and Bought up in Bangalore, I have spent ~30 years of my life in Bangalore and 4 outside of India. Yes, I have seen Bangalore go from a quaint friendly place where I could cycle 20 km in 30 odd mins through peak traffic, be out any time of the night, ask strangers for help to the current madness on the streets.
My parents were both employed in Banks. My sister and I were never left wanting for anything that would enrich our lives. Looking back; there are things that are more evident to me now with some wisdom that I have gained.
My dad standing in ration line 20 odd years ago for necessities like sugar, our first vehicle – A Luna if anyone remembers, the frown and anger (a reflection of his inability to shell out more cash ) when I asked for something by the month end.
Our Financial life improved with new Pay Scales
Things improved significantly around 10 years back when with new pay scales and an open economy, and a mortgage that was paid off, my parent had more disposable income and could get us (almost) anything we wanted – All I wanted was 500 INR per month pocket money when I was in engineering.
We did have a very sheltered life though. My parent’s primary focus was to get us educated and to ensure there are no stones unturned in giving us a quality education
I completed my BE in Computers Science and after 3 years of work experience, completed MBA from a top 3 business school in India
The Financial Struggle – Money Matters
Unfortunately, like most Indian families, this education never covered financial education. While it’s easy to now look back and fathom what my parents underwent financially when we were growing up – I still remember an incidence when I was in high school and I wanted a quiz book which costed around 5 INR (yes, 5 INR . Not a typo).
My father had told me he can only get that after a week (payday) and I had thrown a fit calling him names (I was a mean teenager). That night, when I was miserable for shouting at my father, I walked towards his bedroom to apologize and I could hear him almost apologizing (sobbing) and informing my mother that he couldn’t get what was necessary for me.
This incident for some reason stuck with me through.
I have seen poverty up close through my relatives and some of my friends (while we were relatively bit better). When I was in 5th, I realized that a friend of mine wasn’t able to pay his school fees for the month. It was Rs 30 per month (I studied in a small govt aided Kannada school) and I had asked my mom to pay his fees which she graciously did until he completed his schooling!. Experiences like these made me dread having less money than what was necessary to sustain and to some extent experience life
No money matters discussed openly!
Money matters were never openly discussed and this translated into my spending habits in my initial working years. I was making around 25k take home a month ( a princely amount on 2007 ) and I just burnt through all this – Food, gifts for friends. Zero savings except for a ULIP plan of 60k per year and a couple of LIC plans based on relatives recommendation.
Fair to say that when I wanted to complete my post-graduation, I had to borrow the ~15 lacs for my MBA from banks and relatives and also withdrew the 1 lac I had in PPF
3 years of work and negative 16 lacs to show for it!
Then my financial life took a new and positive direction
During MBA, thankfully, I ran into some good, positive money minded individuals, courses, blogs (Jago investor and Subra money for example) which opened my eyes towards my financial fallacies.
27 year old, out of MBA school and 20 lacs in debt, with a salary of ~1 lac per month, I ensured that I paid off the debt in 2-2.5 years ( I had a consulting stint for 6 months in Canada that helped). My parents btw thought I had gone cuckoo in trying to repay my loans early and selling off my non-performing ULIPS and LIC plans (at a loss).
Now, 7 years later, with 7 more years of work experience, I have more than ~1.5 crores in assets. I don’t own any real estate and am looking for the best investment. I am not in love with Bangalore anymore, as I used to and the area I would like to stay is way-way-way beyond my reach.
Here is my current breakup
| My savings | Amount |
| 401(K) (retirement saving in the US) | $55000 (Rs 33 Lacs) |
| Mutual funds (in the US) | $35000 (Rs 21 Lacs) |
| Liquid cash (in the US) | $50000 (Rs 30 Lacs) |
| Mutual Funds in India | Rs 55 Lacs |
| Stocks in India | Rs 3 Lacs |
| PPF | Rs 21 Lacs |
| Fixed Deposits | Rs 10 Lacs |
| Total | Rs 1.73 Crores |
Let me share how I started my savings
Once I started saving money, they were always in small amounts. The guideline was to keep aside 15-20 % take home income into savings right away. This was apart from the mandatory cuts like PF from pre-tax income. Just think that your take home is 15% less and stretch the rest of the money for your needs. Else, your monetary demands will always stretch to match the supply.
I was surprised at how quickly they all add up. Investing in PPF is a good example.
It’s surprising to see that I have 20 lac in that debt-like instrument. Or the mutual fund which was mainly based on small SIPs of around 20-25 k per month, to begin with. With the way markets have behaved over the past years, they quickly grew and have resulted in the current amount.
Over a long-term, a small investment on a regular basis can create huge wealth .. below is one small example of it.
I have learned that the difficult part is to start and I maintain disciple in investing systematically. Once you do that, they give you some surprising results.
My next 6 yrs plan
I intend to not touch my Indian mutual funds, invest another 50 lacs there over the next 6 years and just let it marinate and grow over the next 20-25 years when I retire.
These numbers indicate that I am potentially ahead of some peers in the income and asset curve in the same age range
Money for me now is a means of where I want to be in 20 years from now while enjoying life on the way and being able to help everyone who matters to me. I hope I am able to use money as a tool to enrich not just my life but many others – Next stop, for now, is a small home of my own.
How important is money in life?
Currently, Money is a contributing factor for peace of mind.
I’m glad that I can provide for my family, spend some good amount, have a security blanket in case of emergencies, help my family and potentially don’t have to worry about money when I retire.
It’s not the end at all but is a means to achieve my goals. I know people romanticize having less money, but having stared at poverty up close in many cases, I can tell for sure that it’s always better to have enough money to ensure peace of mind. At the same time, the definition of “enough money” keeps changing. In college, 500 INR per month was enough money.
First job – 7000 per month for the first 6 months was enough for me to live like a king. My salary jumped to 25k per month and 3 years later and I thought I ruled the world. This is how I felt!
Now, with 15x – 20x that income, I am still not sure if it’s enough money (especially as I plan my retirement and my child’s education 15 years from now). I am still trying to find my answers there. My wife calls me a compulsive worrier and over thinker and maybe that’s true.
I started educating others on money
When I meet my friends with less money than me or family members with less money, my first thought is how to help – not necessarily financially, but in terms of education. But it’s not always easy. I tried educating my uncle on how his LIC policies are a bad investment and he can look at markets and MFs as he’s retiring 20 years from now and I was snubbed as a know it all in some circles.
I also donate at least 10k a month or two into micro ventures such as https://www.rangde.org/ to ensure I can contribute some way and make a difference in some small way. One of my goal, when I retire, is to ensure I have enough money to generously help those in real need
Don’t make stupid mistakes when it comes to money
When I see my cousins burning through their money in their 20s with no investment or investing in something just for the sake of 80C, friends buying the latest gadget (iPhone upgrades every year ! ), spending insane money on cars, to me it looks like people are finding happiness through small things which is never-ending.
There will always be the next thing that money can buy. I don’t want to judge anyone. Maybe they know something I don’t. But I find this very running after materialist things/brands and spending without a thought about the future very concerning
My younger cousins make fun of me (all in good humor) for not wearing branded clothes. But I am glad in the “cheaper” clothes that keep me comfortable and have never understood why I should pay 5k for a pair of Nike floaters
I am glad to share my story
After I shared my story with all readers on Jagoinvestor platform, it bought back so many memories – I’m literally in tears thinking about what our parents had to go through to get us this life that we now take for granted. I feel lucky to have such parents and in general to have been bought up in an environment that could get me to where currently I am.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my experience with you ! and I request all readers to share their own money stories with all of us, there is so much to learn and know how others have lived their financial life and think about money matters.
What is your money story?
If you want to write your money story, Leave your details here and Jagoinvestor team will get in touch with you with next actions.
What do you think about my money story? Did you enjoy it? Can you share your views about money and how it changed over the years?
This is an inspiring story. Any chance we may get an update on this as it’s been 4 years now please ?
For the comments stating he made the cash because he’s outside India, 99% of NRI folks I know are deep in debt and no where close to financial success. They just drudge along from one paycheck to another
Not sure if the author will be interested to share again .. it becomes a tough task
Regarding your comment. NRI or non-NRI .. many people have good or bad financial life.. There are enough NRI stories where they made a lot of money and were financially successful.
Very Good massage for live life.
Thanks
I have been a regular reader of Jagoinvestor and was first introduced to it by my younger brother when I moved back to India in 2007 at the age of 25. I was immediately drawn by the clear and simple language which made it easy for me to quickly grasp all the financial concepts and jargons. I then bought 3 books from the website and read each one 2-3 times and started planning my financial future. I feel that I have been selfish in that, I have only received from this website and all the comments posted by other users and felt compel to share my journey to give back. Here are some of the major activities I undertook during the course of the past few years which has resulted in my saving about 1.2 Crs since 2010:
1. I come from a Marwari business family and the concept of drawing salary as per the market norms was non-existent in our firm and family. I insisted and had several rounds of arguments with my father that I will draw a salary based on my education, background and last drawn salary in the US (adjusted for cost of living in Bangalore) and prevailed
2. Within a few months I opened a Sharekhan account and started buying large cap stocks by reading the various blogs on this website
3. Once I had accumulated enough savings, I switched to a MF SIP with Sharekhan and recently with Bajaj FinServ. Through a lot of effort I switched from saving after spending, to spending after saving
4. I created an excel file and started monitoring all my monthly expenditure to the last detail – groceries, broadband, cell phones, 4G data cards, iPad data card, fuel, salary for driver, maid, cook, netflix, amazon, apple subscriptions etc and realised that I am spending a lot of money on duplicate items
5. I did the same analysis with multiple credit cards
6. Through careful analysis, I was able to save almost 25,000/month in unnecessary expenses – credit card fees, club memberships, various data cards, various online accounts – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple, Hulu, Music streaming services, Membership to Microsoft, Dropbox, Evernote etc etc
7. Once I cancelled all memberships I immediately created another SIP of 25,000 so that I don’t end up spending this additional savings and instead it contributes to my long-term wealth creation
8. Through careful planning and meticulous analysis, I went from spending 60% of my salary to 45% of my salary and increase my savings by 15%
9. I even made a budget for weekly and monthly personal expenditure and created a RD for annual international vacations. Some other cost savings were done by utilising Ola for daily work commute instead of my own car and driver wherein I saved Rs 10,000/month
Hi Rajat
Thats a great story 🙂 . I am sure there is a lot more in details 🙂 . You have done a great job at optimizing things .. I am sure if people do the exercise like you did, they will save atleast 2-5% if not 15% like you 🙂
Manish
Can I survive with 1.5 crores rupees without any other source of income?
Only if your monthly requirement is close to 30-40k .. and no other expenses other than daily spending will happen out of corpus!
Manish
Nice Article…Very motivational story
I never read this type of story, this is a magical story ever read till now.
Thanks for your comment pradeep kumar .. Please keep sharing your views like this..
Manish
this story inspired me , i am also thinking to be a millionaire, doing too much hard work ,even day and half night in my blogs,sometimes i just lost my hope, but this type of stories motivated me again and again.
Hey celebritiesinsider
Glad to know that you liked the article.
Please share it on your social media profile so that it can reach more and more people !
Manish
thank you so much for sharing this info…its helpful..great blog
Thanks for your comment monali .. Please keep sharing your views like this..
Manish
Wonderful blog post with lots of insights
Welcome !
really a nice story of motivation. Thanks to the author for sharing.
Looking forward to your next post.
Welcome !
Glad to read this story.Very good planning..
Thanks
Truly inspiring, thanks for sharing your story, shows a lot of courage and perseverance.
Thanks
C. Vikram
Heart touching story. The one who invest according to Human Life Value ratio, (atleast 15% of total salary) from the initial sages of starting the job, can easily become double corepati at the time of retirement.
Nice and helpful story, as this serves as an eye-opener for novice investors who is spoiled for choice with a variety of investment options in their mind and really confused with what to choose from.
Glad to know that !
Thanks for sharing your experience – its an eye-opener to some of our personal investing habits due to a lack of financial knowledge. Though I spend frugally and save in fixed deposits – I realise its not earning me enough interest as compared to mutual funds
A good article thanks for sharing… Couple of points. Actually we don’t know the CAGR of the investment the author had done in US, had it been done in India in the same period what would be the delta in networth. I am asking this particularly because the Indian market has done quite well, especially in the past 2-3 years. Also a concentrated portfolio with cherry picked portfolio or alternatively money invested with well known PMS providers would have definitely doubled your wealth in a very short span say 1-2 years. On a personal note my portfolio with PMS (24 Lakhs invested in Sep’16) is worth now (49 Lakhs) and my friend who invested around 50 Lakhs is already sitting on 1 Crore. (1.5 years)… The Indian market is throwing up very good opportunities to retail investors now and I guess would be the best choice in my point of view. The Key is you should have a concentrated portfolio of say 12-15 stocks. I have a question too, I have PPF of say 10 Lakhs in India but I am an NRI for the past 10 years so what is the way forward for this PPF investment, should I withdraw all of these and put it else where. Please advise.
Hello Sairam . Thanks for the note . I did have a look at PMS and honestly , haven’t understood the difference between a well managed equity mutual fund and PMS . PMS is essentially again a collection of equity mutual funds from multiple depositors ? Also, the fees around PMS seemed very high . Can you clarify here ? or maybe I can request Manish to help us understand this better now or in a future post
PMS is different from mutual funds in terms of regulations and how they work. The best thing you can do is to just watch this video below to understand the difference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFQhKpzUg0
Manish
Nice story. I like it.
Congrats, lots of discussion on the US income, time and money accumulated. The essence is every individuals needs would be different, you might not the need the same amount of money during retirement as the OP. He might have accumulated 1.5cr in 7 years, you and me can do it 10 years, why bother?
But credit and the learnings should be that he paid off the loan, sold his lic policies, invested in debt and equity at an early age and hadn’t invested in real estate yet.
Glad to know that !
Thank you for the comment , Santosh . Couldn’t have paraphrased it better myself . Also, want to clarify to the larger group that this story wasn’t supposed to highlight one person’s money journey so far and the emotions attached to this colorful piece of paper. Its not supposed to be an example or a benchmark . If anything, its a post to understand from my money mistakes and improve
As ur NRI how u invested in PPF and Mutual fund from her, can u suggest. and how much monthy you put in MF and who was broker .
He might have the PPF before he became the NRI (he is just 2.5 yrs old NRI) ..
Hello Avi ,
Until 2017 , an NRI could continue to invest in an existing PPF account . This has changed since 2018 and I probably won’t continue the PPF investment as it now only provides around savings bank rate for NRIs.
I haven’t invested in Indian Mutual funds since I came to the US . The FATCA rules are simple too painful and expensive – both time and money for me to manage . Hence , the investment in US mutual funds . I would have loved to continue investing in Indian mutual funds though
Thanks for sharing
Author seems to be US resident from tax perspective . how does it work from tax and compliance perspective as he is investing in Indian stock market when most of the Indian fund houses do not accept and US has crazy PFIC and facta rules
He has recently become NRI .. and Few mutual funds accepts mutual funds investments from US and Canada residents …
Hello MG ,
I haven’t invested any amount in Indian mutual funds since I moved to the US . All Indian investments were from my time in India . The crazy taxation laws that you mention are the sole reason for that 🙂
Please let me know how get quickly in less time Rs.1crore by investing Rs.50Lakh. Please advise.
Assuming a 12% return on average.. one can double the 50 lacs to 1 crore in 5-6 yrs !
Before we hail this story as the most inspiration story of this decade, I think it’s very important to highlight that he saved this amount of Indian rupees thanks to his foreign earnings in dollars. This is a huge point of contention as most Indians having a debt of 20 lakh after passing out of college will never be able to get anywhere near 1 crore in savings even after 20 years, let alone 7 years.
20 lakh is a substantial amount of debt for a fresher to bear and since interest on loans also compound against you, you ultimately end up paying double that amount. To overcome that disadvantage and then save 1.5 crores with cost of living being so high is next to impossible with indian wages even if you happen to work in a very high profile job. This is only realistically possible with a US job and some good saving habits from early on and I know quite a few NRIs who have done it.
So my advice to indians who are not in his position despite saving every last penny you can, don’t think of yourself as a loser. I know you are doing the best you can. Keep saving and target to reach your retirement goal by 60 years of age instead of losing your mind thinking how you can do it in 7 years. And most importantly, keep enjoying life without compromises because we don’t know if we will even live till 60.
Definately the author has some advantages on his side, and sure we have no idea of some problems he might be having on his side as well.
We all are blessed with some thing great in our lives and we have few curses. This money story is not written by author to make others feel like they should catch up to his level, neither is his story an indication of what can be achieved in 7 yrs.
Its just one person life sharing on what happened in his life and how it moved. I am sure most of the people who read this story take this story with positive inspiration and learn and enjoy from what author has shared.
Manish
Hello Ananda ,
Thanks for the comment . If I take my classmate(s) as the sample group , then I dont think I’m an exception . Most of my classmates with similar loan amount were able to repay in 4-5 years . I probably went the extra mile and tried to live like a hermit the first 2-2.5 to pay off this loan . You got it right on with the compounding and hence it was critical that I pay off the principle as soon as possible before the interest starts to accumulate and grow I still remember the despair and fear looking at the debt number and after one year , how it seemed like I had hardly made a dent in the number in spite of throwing everything into it .The 6 months in Canada helped of course – I ensured I lived minimally , shared a room at a hotel to save money and threw everything I made / saved into the loan .But even without this (extreme? ) step ,many of my batch mates were able to pay off in 5 years . I guess the take home is , if I can do it , anyone can
@Ananda Rajan
I wrote the Early Retirement article published here on JagoInvestor last July.
I too was an NRI, now returned to India.
But I did not mention that in my article because I knew it would distract people from the main message of saving at-least 50% of your salary each month.
1. You should compare this NRI author with a double-income household working in IT in bengaluru/pune where husband and wife each bring in Rs.1 lakh/month. I know Indian households where one spouse’s salary is used for house EMI and the other spouse’s salary for expenses. If this double-income couple saved Rs.75,000/month in mutual funds then @ 12% CAGR they would have Rs.1 crore saved in the same 7 years as this NRI
That is compounding & equity returns at work.
2. If households in India can afford to pay EMI of Rs.75,000 per month on a Rs.75 lakh house loan then they can invest the same amount each month in equity too. Most people in India are saving a lot each month but in the wrong manner as EMI which this NRI smartly avoided.
3. You say people in India don’t earn that much.
But I’ve recently hired IT people in Pune & Bengaluru with minimum take-home pay of Rs.1 lakh/month for 5-7 years experience. That’s when I realized that such high salaries are the norm in Pune, Bengaluru etc. You have to agree that the past decade or so has been lucrative for IT and MBA people working in India.
4. Quite a bit of people reading this blog are high-earners early in their careers in IT, MBA etc
It is possible for them working with their spouses as a team to emulate this NRI’s impressive achievement.
5. Lastly, you are discounting the fact that cost of living is also high for NRIs as it is denominated in their foreign currency. So unless you are consistently frugal, you won’t be able to save much. What is impressive about the author is that he has consistently saved for 7-9 years which requires determination.
I will definitely consider this as the “inspiration story of the decade” for young people entering the workforce
We need inspirational stories like this because IT & MBA jobs are no longer secure that you can hope to work till age 60.
Hi
Nice article – just curious did the author buy any house in USA or just staying in rental house
I will let the author reply on this ..
Hello ,
No . I haven’t purchased a house in the US . I don’t know if i’ll Purchase a house here either since my plans 3 years with regard to my location from now are unknown
Great story. Am in USA too and finding it difficult to invest in Indian Mutual Funds as many fund houses are not accepting investments from US NRI. Could you please share how you are able to invest in Indian Mutual funds from USA?
Hi Siva
Only few mutual funds accept investments from NRI right now like L&T and UTI .. and they too have some amazing funds.. We handle a lot of NRI clients .. incase you are interested to talk to our team assuming you want to invest in mutual funds through Jagoinvestor Platform .. Do let us know or just leave your enquiry at https://www.jagoinvestor.com/mutual-funds
Even when the author started working in 2007, PPF cannot have 21 lakhs. Looks like his ppf his pretty old….
Yes, it might be … also it might be 1.5 + 1.5 for wife too .. 7 * 3 = 21 lacs .. just guessing !
Hi Rachit ,
Manish is right . Since I loved PPF as an instrument , apart from my own PPF , I also had my wife ( then fiancé ) create a PPF account that we could invest into . Please also don’t forget the interest from PPF annually that adds to the final number . Complete 21 lacs is not my investment but the final amount in these accounts as of date
I think the most important point is “Earn more and spend less and Invest more Minimize expenses” is what made the author to create such wealth goal!
Thanks,
Shravan
Thanks for sharing that !
Interesting Story! Thanks for Sharing the author his story!
I think the quote “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” by Benjamin Franklin’s phrase is applicable for all the Wealth Management.
Thanks,
Shravan.
Thanks for your comment
Great story and congrats to the author on the success. Question regarding the mutual fund investment in India – was the 20-25k investment per month steady throughout the 7 years or did you gradually increase it over time?
Let author reply to your points !
Hello MG ,
Thanks for the question . The initial year , it was around 25k per month and I gradually increased this every year – with every salary increment .
My total investment into mutual funds were around 38 lacs as of 2.5 years ago . They have grown into the current amount since .
This investment on an average comes to around 75 k per month for the 4.5 years in India .
While I don’t remember the exact amount , the last year in India , I was doing around 1lac in SIP monthly
At age 34 any persons portfolio will be majorly salary savings rather than investment returns (unless you hit some jack pot in direct equity or have a successful startup). The money is due to education in IIMA/B/C(assuming) and dollar earnings. The author did right in accumulation phase and will reap rewards in growth phase in the next decade of his life.
At 39 this is the year my investment returns were more than my takehome (2017 market helped). I was I think 36 when my investments for the year were less than the returns for the year. This is because the 5K you invested when you were 25 would have grown 10 times but your salary would have grown more than 10 times so the investment is still more.
Thanks for your comment. I will let author add his comments in reply to yours !
Hi kalyan ,
This is useful to know . Thanks for sharing this
Congratulations.
Thanks for sharing your life history on Finance.
This is boost people like us who hesitate and give reasons for saving even 5000 INR per month.
Spending on costly clothes and living for society I always hate.
Need to start my investing in Mutual Funds started only before 2 years.
Glad to hear that !
Wonderful.
One of the things that young people today can do is learn from the mistakes that your closed ones did.
Before asking “which is the best mutual fund” or “should i buy this stock” kind of questions. Look at your parents, look at your relatives and try to not make the same mistakes again, some common mistakes like not saving enough, not keeping a good emergency fund, not falling for wrong products, not getting tempted by peer pressure .. etc etc… that itself will take your financial life to another level
Very good point !
My only doubt is how he is able to deposit Rs 21 Lacs in PPF in span of 7 years? Really inspirational story.
Hello sudhindra ,
I have answered this question in one of the comments above . This includes my spouse’s PPF as well
This is very inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing. I love reading blogs on Jago Investor and it has been so far one of the best learning curve.
Glad to know that Rashmi
Would you be interested in sharing your money story ?
Thanks !
How this guy made 21 Lakhs in just 7 years in PPF ?
He has started working since 7 yrs .. PPF might be old or husband + wife with full contribution .. you never know!
A very Inspiring story.
Yes agree for people spend money on unwanted things.
Plan for SIP wisely.
Excellent
Welcome !
I agree with the writer, however I feel you should also enjoy life. What if I die early, then the amount will be passed to my kids just to make them spoiled brats. I personally feel we should save good money along with enjoying life. If people think it’s practically not possible then they are wrong. Enjoy investing n enjoy life.
Thanks for your comment Vasundhara
Why do you get the feeling that he author is not enjoying life? I think he has not mentioned anything on that front? I will ask author to post his comment on this point.
Manish
This article does’t say not to enjoy life. Life comes once. Enjoy it. But probability of living longer is higher than dying young. If we don’t save/invest in inflation beating financial assets then, we need to compromise with our retirement life style. Let us enjoy life and retirement is part of life. Retirement is not just an event
Thanks for your comment ..
Hello Vasundhara ,
I’m the author of the post . Thanks for taking time to read and providing feedback . I realize that I probably come across as a stingy middle aged guy who torments his wife for every dollar she spends . I can assure you that its nor true 🙂 . I only focussed on the saving and investing part as that was the focus area here .
I do try and enjoy the money . We take frequent vacations , eat out once a week if not more ,go out every weekend – so on . Over the past 5 years , we have taken a “foreign” vacation pretty much every year .
But there is a limit on how much I’m willing to spend on things I deem as luxury . For ex : When I wanted to purchase a SUV after my son was born , I narrowed down on a 35k$ car which was luxurious enough and was super safe for my family . The bank and the car dealership wanted me to buy a 75k$ luxury SUV instead as that was what my income was “eligible” for . The luxury SUV is a want where as a safe and reliable SUV was a need . I do try and make such distinctions . I hope this addresses some part of your question .
Thanks again
Can you do a calculation , excluding the foreign earned money. Dollar money changes the whole game.
yes, the dollar money changes the whole game. If you exclude it the game changes, but the game is still amazing ! . The focus of the article is only to show someone personal money story and how they view the area of money. While the author has shared his networth , its mainly to add to the story ..
Manish
The title quoting in networth Rs for money invested in $’s was a click bait. A missell in Financial jargon 😀
The majority of money was made by author when he was in India .. he just become NRI 2.5 yrs back .. which adds to his speed obviously .. and truth is unless we write some click bait titles, people do not click and come to read these stories from email newsletters.. so yes, I accept that allegation 🙂
This is very different from the other story posted and I quite enjoyed this . However , what are your thoughts on this Manish or Jago investor team ? As a 28 year old , is this number a good benchmark for me to target when I am 35 ? Where do you think this person will be in 20 years and what can we learn from this ? Really curious to understand an expert opinion on the story
The author might be working with a good pay and have travelled to US and earning in dollars which is adding to the networth at a faster rate, but you have to appreciate that its the attitude towards money which is the HERO here.
I suggest do not make these numbers as your benchmark .. because everyone has their own situations, their own expenses and life. You should just target things based on your situation. I suggest you should mainly target to save 30-50% of your income if possible and create a better networth than today.
Manish
Thanks for the response , Manish . I read this article multiple times and going through this , one factor that I missed initially was the biggest investment that the author made . Earning 25 k a month , 10 years back , it must have been a difficult choice to spend 16 lacs , stop earning and study MBA . After this , his salary jumped 3-4 times and in 7 years almost 15 times ? That for me is his biggest investment and risk and not the $ numbers stated in the article .
Its pretty eye opening actually and is helping me evaluate where I stand . Thank you !
Very good point.. I also Missed it .. that makes sense
If you need a benchmark network by age and income, then pickup the formula from Millionair Next Door, or a modified version of it from Money Moustache. They work excellently well for Indian situations too and I have been following it.