Category: Stories

Rs 3.5 Lacs to Rs 400 Cr – Naturals Ice-cream Journey of 40 yrs!

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

You must have surely had an ice cream at Naturals!

But have you taken any inspiration from its story for your own financial journey?

Today I want to give tribute to Mr. Kamath for building Naturals Ice Cream and share some interesting numbers and their overall journey of building a Rs 400 Cr brand. This story can surely help you learn about long-term compounding and apply some of it in your own wealth-creation journey!

How Naturals grew to 400 Cr branch in 40 yrs!

A Friday night of 17th May 2024 – as I was sitting to watch a nice movie with Natura’s Mango ice cream tub in my hand, my phone’s notification beeped. 

The notification was of Mr Raghunandan Kamath, founder of Naturals ice cream, passing away!

A man who failed 3 times in 10th standard, with no money of his own, takes a loan of Rs 3.5 lakhs from his brothers as first investment and goes on to create a Rs 400 crore ice cream brand!

As an investor, here’s how you should study this company. 

Suppose you have Rs 10 lakhs, at what stage would you invest your money with Mr Kamath

 

What Mr Kamath lacks

  1. No fancy college degree
  2. No big family business background
  3. Doesn’t understand accounts and taxes
  4. Doesn’t speak a polished English
  5. Doesn’t appear in newspapers for interview
  6. No pan India presence
  7. No fancy excel sheets to justify high valuations

 

What Mr Kamath has

  1. Intense focus on customers
  2. Has a cult-like following from his customers, just how Apple has
  3. Focussed on the quality of his product 
  4. Spends most of his time in the production of ice cream
  5. Designs his own ice cream machines
  6. Understands the fruit market intuitively
  7. Keeps trying new ice cream flavors
  8. Only in a niche market

So now, when you read the rest of the story, keep assessing in your mind if you would have invested in his company.

By the way, it took Mr Kamath 40 years to go from Rs 3.5 lakhs to Rs 400 crores! Don’t look ath the returns, look at the time invested.

Honestly, when I’m asked to define Mr Kamath and Natural Ice Cream in a single frame – then for me, it’s just Customer Obsession!

Brief history of the company

From a single ice cream parlour in Juhu, Mumbai opened in 1984, Naturals has grown to 135 ice cream parlours across India today. 

This might not seem like impressive growth, but it is fairly remarkable in the Indian context, where a majority of domestic brands have only a regional presence, due to inadequate infrastructure. 

Moreover, Naturals made a conscious choice to be the best rather than the biggest.

Let’s talk about the founder – Mr Raghunandan Kamath

“In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.” ― Octavia Butler

Born in 1954 to a fruit vendor in the Puttur village of Mulki, in Karnataka, with a family of parents and 6 siblings. He lost 2 of the siblings because the village didn’t have adequate maternity services; sometimes the entire family would suffer from typhoid and there was no money to medicate them.

At twelve years of age, in 1966, Raghunandan moved to Bombay to stay with his brothers. The brothers had moved before his arrival, to work in the hospitality industry.

Unable to catch up with the English curriculum in Bombay, he flunked his tenth board exams three times, eventually giving up. 

By then, his brothers had started a small Udipi—one of many South Indian eateries opened by those from Udupi, a town in Karnataka—called Gokul, which served ice cream along with regular fare such as idli, dosa, and the like. Ice cream was a small, less important part of their business.

In 1983, he married at age twenty-nine (considered late in India then), and he found the courage to back his business vision. As the brothers were planning a separation. Mr Kamath took full advantage of the independence and borrowed Rs. 3.5 lakh from his brothers and friends, and decided to start the ice cream venture.

Back in the 1980s, Bombay only had one, Yankee Doodle, which wasn’t a stand-alone parlour but part of Hotel Natraj.

This is a hallmark of visionaries who are slightly crazy.

Despite knowing these challenges, Mr Kamath saw an opportunity. He opened his first 400 sq feet store in Juhu Koliwada. The location had adequate parking, which was crucial back then because customers preferred being served in their cars.

Thus Naturals was born!

Initially, Naturals offered five flavours—sitaphal (custard apple), kajudraksh (cashew-raisin), mango, chocolate, and strawberry. Production happened in the back of the shop, and the two-hundred-square-foot front-facing area was used for serving. For seating, there were six tables in the verandah.

Just rewind your lives a bit

You are living in the 1980s. 

  • Televisions are a luxury
  • Telephones and Mobile phones are the hallmark of success
  • ACs are not common. 
  • Cars were less in number.
  • Mumbai Pune Expressway is yet to be built.
  • Amitabh Bachchan is your superstar.
  • Indian cricket team wins the 1983 World Cup
  • Sachin is yet to play his first game
  • Modi is still figuring out his career in politics

And yet, there is one man who thinks Bombay is ready for an exclusive ice cream parlour.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

― Steve Jobs

And because it was Juhu, Bollywood celebrities like Dimple Kapadia, Jaya Bachchan, Raj Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, and others became customers.

“Customers are the best teachers – Mr Raghunandan Kamath”

Mr Kamath would often seek feedback from his customers. They would suggest different flavours and what they would like to eat. Mr Kamath would work on it diligently. At one point, his unique flavour of Wild Mango became the bestseller across the city.

He would never keep his ice cream for more than 2-3 days because it would lose its freshness.

Caring for the customer began at the procurement level. When buying fruits he always paid for quality. Each fruit was purchased only from the particular region where it grew best. This approach ensured uniformity in the quality of fruit and hence also the flavour, all year.

The culture of customer obsession only increased over time even when it seemed detrimental to the business of Naturals. 

 

Mr Nitin Churi who runs a franchise of Naturals shared a beautiful incident 

“One time, we were waiting for delivery from the factory, and as soon as the tempos [a type of small goods carrier popular in India] reached, Kamath sir sent them back, ordering the entire consignment to be discarded. Later he shared that three days ago the factory staff couldn’t find one screw belonging to their machine. He suspected it may have gone into these ice creams and didn’t want to risk the customers’ safety.”

Personal Finance Implications

Now, when you are reading this story with the eye of the investor, it’s a no-brainer.

But trust me, it’s hard to spot such entrepreneurs early because they defy every rule.

So what should an investor do?

Firstly, invest for 40 years. If not 40, then at least go for 20 years.

Second, have a proper advisor in place because you need someone in this journey to spot such opportunities in the mutual fund space or direct equity.

Thirdly, create an entire portfolio. Not just 2-3 stocks. For even Mr Kamath his superstar ice creams can be 10 or 15 odd but he has tried 1,000 (thousands) different varieties and flavours along the way.

No one has the insight to only look at what can work and invest the entire money straight away.

Fourth, TRUST your advisor in the journey because you need Resilience along the way.. 

Here’s Resilience from the viewpoint of Mr Kamath

Mr Kamath had to undergo severe losses at times. These challenges came in multiple forms. Let me list down a few.

  1. A relative starting a competing ice cream parlour after learning the tricks of the trade from Naturals
  2. Income tax raid that hit the cash flows hard
  3. Machines that changed the taste of ice creams and the write-off on loans
  4. Finding good franchisee partners

 

These challenges may sound easy today (in 2024) for a young entrepreneur who is looking for collaborations. For a young businessman who is born in post-liberalized India, getting access to land, labour and capital is relatively easy. 

When you consider the onslaught of private equity funds and venture capitalists, the ability to network and scale has become much better.

That’s why in the hands of the second generation Naturals is growing much faster than it’s ever been. 

And one key reason for this growth is attributed to the resilience of Mr Kamath during difficult times. He evolved as an entrepreneur and Naturals earned a place in KPMG’s 2018 customer experience report because its customers rated it highest on personalization, time and effort, and integrity, and marginally above the sector average on resolution and empathy. 

At the centre of it all, it was his childlike curiosity.

A few years back in an interview with his son Srinivas when asked about his father, he replied, 

‘Full of ideas, he doesn’t stop thinking about how to pack better, how to take Naturals to the next level. . . Before you know it, he’ll have a carpenter create a prototype for some machine. Sometimes, as early as seven thirty or eight a.m., he calls me to discuss ideas, and his focus rarely slips, be it following up or implementation. It gets too much to keep up with him sometimes; he still has tremendous capacity. I wonder whether I’ll be able to live up to that level of entrepreneurship.’

May this kind soul rest in peace!

Jinay Savla, Jagoinvestor

9 Money Lessons from Jyoti after she lost her Husband (Real Life Story)

Posted on by Nandish Desai

Here is a real-life sharing from one of our clients on personal finance lessons she learned after she suddenly lost her husband. We asked her to jot down her journey for the benefit of other investors and we thank her that she agreed.

Over to Jyoti Iyer ..

—

Hi Everyone,

I am here to share my story and personal finance takeaways with all of you. I want to thank Jagoinvestor for giving me this opportunity. I hope my words and sharing make a positive difference in your life and do share the article with more and more people in your life.

Here is my journey………

A daughter of an honest middle-class gentleman meets the son of retd. army personnel through Shaadi.com both in mid-30 get married in 2007.

Like every service class people, life begins like earning saving and living within the means. A lovely daughter is born to us in 2008. We started investing (rather than putting) money in FDs, Insurance policies, and Gold as when suggested by insurance agents or at the financial year-end to save taxes, big-ticket purchase only during Diwali (as would get a good discount).

During this time my husband Raj asked me to take care of our financial papers, our educational documents, and other documents, to pay bills and maintain records of it.  During sorting and filing of our records, I found many mismatches, as he is South Indian, they don’t add surname, in some documents he had his surname mentioned and some didn’t somewhere his name was misspelled.

Personal Finance Lessons by Women

Updation of documents

It took around 2 years of time to set the record straight including mine like adding my name in ration card, updating PAN card (name and address change) bank details (name and address change), marriage certificate, updating nominations in our important documents, the opening of a joint account, etc. Also, he encouraged me to do online transactions for utility bills and booking of FDs rather he was in favor of doing all the things which were technology-driven.

All this led me to think about how to save for our daughter’s education, marriage, and retirement. I had always heard from my masi that it’s the woman of the house who brings up the family. What she meant was with sheer grit and determination a woman can make her family prosper by contributing or earning extra income, proper saving & investing (gold & real estate), and strict control on spending or indulges. Another relative once said that she invested in MFs and stocks, and she is eating the malai now (reaping benefits). This remained at the back of my mind and the Quest to know about mutual funds began.

The Learning phase

I started reading articles in TOI and then shifted to reading ET wealth. I was hooked and eagerly waited for Monday, especially loved the Family finance section- in this a family’s current assets, liabilities, and investments breakups were given and as per the goals of the family how investments can be rearranged & done to achieve those. Week by week used to read them and was motivated. This led to a discussion with Raj and finally decided to give it a shot.

I communicated with the ET wealth team, they agreed to do a photoshoot and the article was published in Jan 2014 that how to balance and reorganize our finances. Somehow, we could not muster the courage to do all the rebalancing it was difficult to do away with multiple existing policies and settle down for one or two good ones. (Old habits and notions die hard). later started researching more on the internet reading blogs and articles stumbled upon Jago Investor and stuck to it.

What I liked most was it’s true to its name many articles were an eye-opener and the language is Simple English. This made me attend their Bootcamp online, finally, when I was convinced, I registered for a live workshop conducted by them in Mumbai July ‘15. After the workshop we were confident and finally started our investment journey with them.

How our life took a turn.

Fast forward 20-21, due to covid, the market was down we feared for our investments but still continued doing regular investments (SIP).

On July 21 we booked our 2nd home, myself and Nandish were against dipping from our investments, but Raj was of the opinion that it’s one life and how much are we going to keep on investing,  when to enjoy the fruits of it, another argument by him as you are there to save and we will build this corpus again I am earning ( probably was expecting a raise in salary in coming years) so don’t worry.

He was extremely happy and proud of me he said Mom (ma-in-law) would have been very happy and proud. Nandish’s view was by the year-end we could have achieved our target which was initially planned for ten years.

Life took an ugly turn on 4th Sept 21, Raj started vomiting very badly he was unable to speak, his hand started twisting and he was unable to sit, then I called our neighbor requested him to arrange for an ambulance, and immediately shifted him to the nearby hospital. Even in the ambulance he vomited and still was unable to speak.

After initial diagnosis and CT report Doctor said it was a paralytic attack. Either he to be operated or given injection (blood thinner) operation was ruled out as they did not have neuro dept. So, it was decided to give him the injection. In the meanwhile, I informed his friend and him to his other friends. They all came immediately and took all charge each one used their contacts and references took 2nd opinion of the best doctors available in Mumbai.

It was decided that he be shifted to a better hospital where neurosurgeons and other facilities are available, even they contacted and consulted the best Neurologist in the city finally took the decision to shift him to Fortis Kalyan in the middle of the night. They took all precautions, handled his discharge, and got admitted to Fortis.

I take this opportunity to thank our neighbor Mr & Mrs. Satpute, Raj’s friends Sachin, Shailendra, Ashish & Pratik, My Chanda Masi, and Ramesh Mamaji, My cousins Nitin, Ghana Bhaiya, Mom, relatives, and our daughter who stood by us like pillars.

Those six days were a roller coaster ride hospital staff would call me to ask me to sign papers as they would be giving a certain injection or treatment. Every day it was new hope sometimes and complete despair at other times. Even the treating Doctor said we have given the best possible treatment to him, now if his body responds to treatment even 10% of it, we will take him out from this and the recovery path would be longer it could take 8-9 months.

After hearing all this a sudden chill ran up my spine. I started thinking about how I will manage things cost of medicines rehab expenses plus our regular expenses etc thinking about all this I became numb.

I discussed his health condition with his boss Denis and requested him to grant medical leave he also assured me not to worry till the time he recovers and join back, they will continue with his salary. It was such a relief.

I take this moment to thank Mr Denis and his staff from Dubai and Management & staff from his head office in Leer, Germany.

Whenever I used to visit him in the hospital seeing him lying down tied with all the gadgets it was painful to even the beeping sound of the monitor was deafening, standing aside his bed I would murmur please wake up please open your eyes if not for me but at least for Hirono(our daughter).

Each passing day was difficult. There were some or other complications which affected his organs; it was from bad to worse.

On the 10th early morning, the inevitable happened. He had a cardiac arrest. Doctors gave all possible treatments to revive him but couldn’t save him.

We lost him forever. We miss his laughter, sense of humor, and love.

The next steps…

After 15-20 days, thought of doing first things first like taking xerox copies of the death certificate, PAN Card, Aadhar card, started applying for the insurance claims, also informed Nandish to stop SIP, surrendered his credit cards. Also applied for a legal heirship certificate. Here I would like to thank Pathakji and his team for giving proper advice on legal matters.

The only liability was the car loan which we bought in 2019. Brainstormed with many ideas on how to use the car to repay the loan, discussed with Raj’s friends, my cousins and Nandish finally came to the conclusions to square it off. Here I would like to thank Nadir (ex-boss) who purchased our car and thus could square off the loan.

Didn’t face many difficulties in claiming insurances as only one required a notarized indemnity bond and in others I was the nominee. But term insurance took a lot of time for the settlement also was asked to submit many documents like death certificates, KYC documents, medical records, cremation certificates, salary slips, employer’s certificates, leave records, bank statements and many more. It was quite intimidating and overwhelming to fill out that form Nandish helped and explained how to go about it.  After submission was anxious as the company goes through a detailed investigation. Still, it took 3 months of time for the settlement.

Now the majority of the settlements in place, Nandish has helped in chartering a financial plan for our future, which will take care of emergencies, income, and growth for the future.

Seeing and experiencing these events throughout my life I am motivated to help others in making proper financial decisions in one’s life. Hence, I took the NISM VA exam and now am a certified professional.

9 Key take always from my life situation

1. See that you learn the basics of personal finance

There are many who avoid learning about personal finance. I invite everyone to learn the basics, be on websites like Jago investor or other platforms but see that you learn the basics of personal finance.

Learn about different avenues of investments, insurance so that you can manage your finances and live powerfully. There are professionals to help but as an investor, it is your primary responsibility to know the basics of investments.

2. Discuss Finances with your family members:

In our Indian families, people avoid discussing money and finances. Well, that is where all the problem lies, that is where personal finance conversations take a back seat. I invite you to have a discussion about money, investments with your family members. Spread the awareness amongst your family members. Take the lead in your family to educate more and more family members about personal finance.

3. Encourage women to participate:

I urge women to take charge, I urge women to take active participation on the personal finance front. My life situation taught me to be in charge of money and finances and I do not want other ladies to learn about personal finance only when life forces them to learn. Whatever may be your educational background, it is extremely important to participate actively on the personal finance front.

4. Data is GOD, keep data impeccable:

Make sure your data and documents are impeccable, there are no spelling mistakes and important information like the nominee name is updated. Trust me it takes a lot of effort when data and documents are not kept impeccable.  You have to invest your time into making changes and it drains your energy.

All the KYC-related documents should also be thoroughly checked and kept updated so that the transition remains smooth.

5. A Joint Bank account and a joint investment account is a must:

Husband and wife should have a joint bank account and investments should be done jointly. This helps them to have a smooth transition if something goes wrong with one of the partners.

I was about to handle my investments smoothly because of the joint arrangement. It was a great help and so I have added it to my list of leanings.

6. When it comes to insurance, look for accuracy:

My greatest learning is to buy insurance under proper guidance and do not focus on saving money. If the information filled by the online call center is incorrect you can face a lot of issues at the time of claim settlement. We bought an online term plan and it was hard to figure out things.

I was guided by Jago investor in this matter, initially, I was told after 180 days I will get the insurance money and the investigation also took a lot of time.

Make sure you buy life and health insurance from someone you trust and make sure you do not hide any information from the insurance company. Even at the time of claim settlement make sure you do not hide any information.

7. Start investing early:

Start investing early; I know you must have heard the same from Jago investor and from many other people. It is very important to start early so that with a small amount also you are able to create a bigger corpus. In the process of wealth creation, it is more about time than the amount you invest.

8. Operate from the plan:

Operate from the document or the plan you get prepared for yourself. I have made a commitment to help more and more people to have their planning exercise done. I will continue to share my journey so that people start planning their finances. I know the importance of planning and having a mentor.

Nandish is my mentor and I know he will make me win in the game of wealth creation. I also, wish to coach people in their finances, with this article I am announcing myself to be the most powerful financial independence coach. I will help more and more people to reap the benefits of planning.

9. Stay in the game

Personal finance is a game played with the tool called consistency. If you start investing stay consistent, if you start insurance stay consistent in paying the premiums. If you get your planning done see that you stay consistent with your plan.

Conclusion

My Mentor, Nandish Desai asked me to jot down my learning and to share the same with the world. He encouraged me to write the points so that the learnings stay alive and they also help and inspire others. I have shared my heart with the world through my learning and I will now be helping others in shaping their financial life. I will help others to transform their finances.

Note from Jagoinvestor/ Nandish Desai

Hey Jyoti Ji, thanks for opening up and sharing your heart with all of us, thanks for your generosity and courage. I literally had tears when I read the first draft, so happy to see you sharing and growing as a wealth coach.

A lot of people think you need a lot of knowledge and certifications to become a wealth coach, in fact, what you need is a commitment to serve and nothing else.

I am sure you will do wonderful as a wealth coach, I will keep helping you from time to time to help you set up your practice

– Nandish Desai

How I survived a Credit Card fraud today! – Experience Sharing

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

One of my Twitter followers Mr Ravi shared with me a potential credit card fraud attempt that he survived. I would like to share that with you all with his permission.

RBL Bank Credit Card OTP-Fraud

Here is goes

—

I hold an RBL Bank Credit Card along with a couple of others.

Today, I got a call from a mobile number 6391504865. The person was speaking fluent English and claimed to be from the RBL Bank. He asked me – at the time of getting the card whether I was told if this card is lifetime free or there will be a joining fee. Then he asked if I was actually given the credit limit which I was told. Till this point, I answered the questions.

Then he told me that the bank is offering me a credit limit increase of 1 lakh if I want. And then asked – “Please confirm if the PAN number I am telling is correct.” Then he told me my correct PAN number. He further proceeded saying that he was sending an OTP which should be shared with him for authorisation of this limit increase. Here comes the scary part. I received an OTP from the legit RBL messaging service (VK-RBLBNK) from which I usually receive the transaction messages. The content of this SMS was as following:

“234567 is OTP (one time password) for updating your RBL Bank Credit Card settings.”

Just to ensure that this is indeed a fraud, I asked him to tell me my existing card limit before I share the OTP. He couldn’t answer it well and started beating around the bush. I told him unless the SMS mentions that this OTP is for credit card limit increase, I will not share the OTP. I asked him to send me an email from his RBL email id about this. He said yes and hung up the phone.

Mr Ravi, soon after the fraud call connected with RBL bank customer care (fraud detection department) and came to know that it was indeed a fraud call.

Here is one more similar kind of incident

RBI credit card fraud

PAN and Credit Card Leaked

It’s very clear that all his details were with the fraudster.

No one asks for any OTP for increasing the credit card limit. It’s always informed to you by SMS, or you get to see that message when you log in to your banking portal. The OTP which was generated was surely for some other purpose (like transferring money or authorising some purchase).

So beware if you get a call for increasing your credit card limits and the other side has your PAN, Card details, Card current limits, etc. They might be a fraudster

Make sure you never share the OTP with anyone overcall. There are many youngsters who may be new to how a credit card works and fall for this fraud. Looks like Jamtara Gang is back with new tricks.

His original sharing was posted here and some part of it is reproduced with his permission

Have you faced any kind of credit card fraud ever? Can you share in the comments?

10 unconventional financial goals which we came across from investors!

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today I want to share something interesting with you. I recently asked my team to share with me some very unconventional and “hatke” financial goals of our clients.

Generally, when we all talk of financial planning, we feel its just about the boring-sounding goals like Retirement, Children education, Children marriage, Buying House & Home Renovation etc. But its not true. We all have very special and unconventional dreams which we want to achieve. So I just compiled some unconventional goals of some of our clients.

Unconventional Financial Goals from Investors

Here are 10 unconventional finance goals of some of our clients which my team was able to recall.

1. Taking a 2 yr break from work

One of the clients has a goal of taking a 2-3 yrs long break from his work. He wants to explore what he is good at or not?

He is great at his current job and love doing it. But somewhere deep down he wants to know if there exist other areas of life he can make his profession and that is not possible unless he takes a very long break.

He was already working from last 11 yrs and within next 4-5 yrs he wanted to take a big break for 2 yrs, so that he can pursue his interests, like travelling, writing, research, volunteering or other activities and also take some quality rest. I know this sounds a bit risky, but its his life and we better not judge others decisions.

2. Send Parents on a World Tour

One of the clients wants to gift her parents a world tour (travelling to different destinations in 5 yr period) and wants to create a big corpus specifically earmarked for this goal. Her childhood was full of struggle and her parents almost never took vacations. But now she is earning well and she wants to pay back to her parents in whatever way she can.

She wants to now create a big corpus in a few years, which can be used for regular international tours. I think its a wonderful thought. Somewhere deep down we all want to do this for our parents (and many do), but she chose to make a financial goal and work towards it

3. Reach financial freedom by 45 yrs

Generally, every investor has “retirement planning” as a financial goal, but few of the investors also want to achieve financial freedom much earlier than retirement.

Some people want to get financially free at age of 50, but folks from IT background always mention the timeline as 45 yrs.

Financial Freedom is a situation where you have not yet retired from work, but you have enough investments which can generate “enough monthly income” to support from financial life for the next 20-30 yrs.

4. Dedicated Corpus for Skill Upgrade

We had this amazing client from Bangalore, who was very sure that if you want to excel and do amazing in your career, you have to deeply invest in the constant upgrade of your skills.

So he wants to create a dedicated corpus which he can dip in every 1-2 yrs and do some courses/workshops for skill upgrade. It can mean taking up online certifications, go for specialized weekend courses in IIM’s (you can pay a fee like 80k to 1 lac and take these courses).

I think this is a sign of high-quality people who think like this for their career enhancement.

5. Medical Expenses Corpus for self/parents

This is not very rare, but not very common too.

Off late we are seeing many investors who want to create a dedicated corpus for the health-related expenses of their ageing parents and even for themselves. In many cases, people do not get health insurance for their parents because of some illness history and these people want to be prepared for large expenses and creating a corpus solely for that.

Even if you have health insurance, many times it may happen that due to emergency you will first have to incur the costs from your own pocket and then you will apply for reimbursement. So this kind of emergency medical corpus can come handy at that time!

6. A road trip from India to London

Check out these 2 bikers from Bangalore who went to London on the bike and travelled 23,500 KM .. It was a dream come true for them. I watched their story and I also felt that someday I want to do it too.

But one of our clients actually has started planning for it, but not on bike!!. He will take a tour package and travel by bus.

There is a dedicated travel agency (https://bustolondon.in) which has started India to London Tour and it costs whooping 16 lacs (one side). However, its a 70 days journey and crosses 18 countries and I am sure this will be a trip of the lifetime!

India to london trip in Bus

7. Start Farming

Some investors are very sure that they want to get into farming after they reach the age of 50 in their corporate jobs and some have actually bought the land already and want to create a corpus to give their farming dream a serious shape.

They want to do the setup and also give it the of business. Most of these investors are clear that they don’t wont to be in jobs till 60th yrs and would like to move on to farming much before that. I am not sure if this will turn into reality for most of them or not. But there is no harm in trying out!

8. Legacy for future generations

Some clients also mentioned their strong desire to create a legacy which can be passed on to their next generation. They were not talking about the properties which will go by default to their family. Here they wanted to create a sum of money within a specified time which will be passed on to their children or grandchildren apart from the properties

9. Business Setup

A lot of investors who are in jobs also want to shift their careers at some point and want to move to business by the time they are in their mid 40’s or 50’s and they have already started accumulating money for the business setup.

A big chunk of these investors are from IT background and they often tell us that beyond 50 yrs they feel it’s going to get tough in the software industry and hence they want to plan out things for their future. Business is not a cakewalk either, but at least they are thinking of their plan B.

10. Charity / Social Work

Very less number of investors actually think about this, but some investors also show a strong desire to create a corpus which will be used for charity purpose itself. Many of our clients have shown deep interest in charity goals. Here are 2 of them

Example #1 – Create a pool of fund to do ongoing charity

One of our clients told us that since his college days, a close group of 5-6 friends had decided that in future they would like to keep doing various social work like for poor kids, senior citizens etc. Now, this clients wants to set up a 25 lacs corpus which will be used solely for this cause.

Example #2 – Create a Hospital in my village

One of our client comes from a very small village and now doing very well in life. His dream is to make a hospital in his village to serve his community and give back to society.

11. Buy a Harley Davidson (Fat Boy)

One of our client’s dream is to go on a  long vacation and cover the whole coastal belt of India. He wants to do a solo trip but on a Harley Davidson bike (Fay Boy Model) which will cost around 18 lacs in today’s terms. He has already started saving for this.

buy a bike harley davidson

What’s your “Hatke” financial goal?

Can you please share one unconventional financial goal for which you would like to plan out?

Also, I would like to hear how was this article and if you enjoyed it?

Are we rich or are we poor? A readers story

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

”Are we rich; or are we poor ?”……..

This was the question my daughter framed when she was old enough to seek pocket-money. Instead, we chose to keep money in a safe spot for ALL expenses including household and my job was to keep replenishing it.

It was tricky to deny them a fixed amount with peer-pressure from more affluent classmates. When there was a new doll in stores, a visit to a wholesale market helped them understand the cost of impulse purchases and buying-convenience. My wife till date does not know what was my salary at any stage and we spent money carefully all along.

The mindset developed helped the family is not seeking the best cars, or stay on in my father’s house in the upmarket part of the city.

NOTE : This is a personal money story of Mr. Vijay, a regular reader of this blog.

A little bit about my family

My parents landed in Delhi from Pakistan after 1947 and my father took up a job in a respected school. Funds were just enough to meet basic needs and did well enough in studies to have a choice of engineering colleges. Opted for a local one to save on expenses and on graduation joined a leading Indian engineering company.

As a sales engineer for a product that went to all large industries, got a good exposure to the insight of businesses and economy. Working in a highly diversified company meant interaction with colleagues serving other industries in the age when financial newspapers only reached senior people.

That was a good grounding for the stage when you have to choose between hundreds of listed companies and there was only market grapevine to go by.

Investment in policies and loans I had taken

Apart from the life insurance policies taken very early in career, never looked at this avenue for savings or investment. This was about the time old MNCs were forced to go public and have held on to many of the purchases made in that era. Once the potential looked visible, branched out to the secondary market to plough savings.

More often have gone for non-family companies, but not necessarily international MNCs. Probably the most successful investments have been in Indian companies that grew to be successful in the developing countries.

The only time I took any loans was against LIC policies in the era when you could just withdraw a good percentage of your year’s contribution at low rates, and the cumulative figure just reduced the maturity amount. Such were the amounts which went into equity and there was never even thought of taking a loan to acquire assets.

My first capital purchase of Rs.3500 for a Vespa came out of mortgaging with my father a yearly scholarship for engineering studies.

How my wife build her own portfolio

In the days when people made uncles & aunties open bank accounts to put a maximum number of IPO applications, my wife’s portfolio started building up. Resisting pressure for short-term gains, built further on it by capitalizing gifted funds from the family. When the valuation reached lacs, made her purchase the flat we were living in to have a steady rental income.

She built a portfolio again and then invested in the post office/bank FD’s to get tax-free income. Once we could see surplus funds, I decided to go for forced-savings by opening Recurring Deposit accounts every April. This has been a major advantage as I have future savings earning interest at 9 – 9.5 % and maturing to give me tidy sums for holidays across the world and even gifting it for our grandchildren’s education.

The next phase of my life

When in my fifties, salaried people became better off and I got the opportunity to head a small MNC’s Indian operations. There was more to save or we could have raised our standard of living. We chose to calibrate lifestyles at what we could support after retirement, for which I had an age of 58 in mind. And that was exactly when I left my last 9 to 5 job to work on short projects and supported NGOs from my savings.

In stock-selection, we have taken the route where long term economy is important, not the market. Playing contrary to “100 minus your age in Equity ” has assumed that investments are for the family, not individual. Accordingly, self and wife have Demat accounts with a spouse as 2nd and one daughter each as 3rd holder.

At 72, I should still be able to manage things for another 10 years but this would allow us to pass on the investments to them by a change in the order of names. It can be at a stage when we want to go into the next stage of retirement, or earlier if any of them need over Rs. 4 Crore each in their accounts.

My portfolio churn is limited to under 5% over a year; more often when FDs are maturing and equity may be doing better. I prune a holding which has done well and its weightage in total can be brought down.

Identifying a BUY candidate for a ‘switch ‘ transaction, would track the movement of the two stocks, disregarding index movements, and choose the time to switch. Most such transactions have happened when good companies have disappointed for some transient reason.

If I could go back into time, like the characters of science fiction movies, would I do things any differently?

At the micro-level, I would have picked up an additional 50 M&M shares at Rs.27 in the 1970s. I had asked for 50 but the broker picked 100 by mistake, and I had no funds to spare.

That Rs.1350 would have been worth about Rs.8 Lacs today. At the macro level, I feel that my occupation as a project manager has made me think ahead of major decisions. Once having done that, second thoughts have limited space.

I wanted to share one more thing. When I received nearly Rs 5 Cr from the sale of family property, allocated all of it to my daughters. For one, a purchased a flat while the second got it in cash. Since I have enough to live on , felt that it should be invested by them to suit their needs

 

And what more I would like to do?

Too many of us are too busy at the height of a career to develop interests that will keep them usefully occupied in the latter half of their retired life. Going to the bank or post office is no longer an option and you cannot travel all the time.

So people in their late fifties need to be helped by their employers in finding the traits that will keep them from coming in the way of their housemaids. I would be happy to be part of such an initiative.

There is the acute failure of financial planning among people in the fifties and would love to be part of groups analyzing the basics of inflation and the effect of longer life-spans on savings.

The height of it is the Bollywood blockbuster of 2003 (Baghban) showing a retired bank manager splitting from his wife as they had no roof over their heads after helping kids with their savings.

–

Let us know if you have any thoughts coming up after reading this money story?

From “ZERO savings” to “Debt FREE house”

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Here is an interesting financial journey of one of our readers who went from “zero savings” to “debt free house owner” .. I would like to handover to him directly so that he can share more about his journey and thought process.

—

Hello All, Rahul here.

I was born in typical middle-class family where my father has spent around 32 years serving as professor in government college and mother is housemaker. I have completed my Masters in computer science and secured a job in multinational IT company.

All is NOT set

Like everyone who enters in his first job with good company after completion of college, it was looking “All is SET”. But when I started looking around and inside, I was feeling that something is not what I was expecting. My salary was finishing by mid of the month.

Savings were ZERO.

zero savings and investments

Rest of the month was either going on credit-card or killing daily needs. When I looked around in first year of my job, I found that I am not the exception and same is situation with all my colleagues who joined with me. Also, in first three years after talking with my school and college friends I observed that situation is same across almost all my friends either they were doctors, lawyers, IT engineers or self-employed who were earning excellent amount.

What was wrong?

Self-Realization

Fortunately, from my college time, I had ample amount of interest in finance specially in wealth management. I realized at that point of time I read multiple bogs and books on personal finance but never applied them. Once I started my job and money started flowing, I thought irrespective of my low expenses – money would be over one day and that was devastating thought.

I have never saved for future in first two year, borrowed by credit card and in next month paid all my expenses which were already done in past.

Before I move ahead, if you think changing habits and continue progress on this is easy please see below video link:

Implementation

My wealth issues provoked me to jot down each basic principles of personal finance three times and started following them. Those were :

Step #1 : Saving

As per basic rule of personal finance I changed my equation from :

Saving = Earning – Spending to Spending = Earning – Saving

In summary I need to save before I spend. As soon as I would receive my salary 30% of that I would save, 50% would be for necessities and rest 20% for splurging (for different people percentage would defer).

Step #2 : Start Investing

As I was avid reader on personal finance it was known fact to me that only saving is not going to help me. Inflation would eat all my savings. My savings needs to grow. It needs to be invested at some place where even if I am not present my money is growing.

Initially I invested in tax saving instruments like PPF, NSC, ULIP policy. At the end of fifth year of my job I realized that even though I am saving tax that become my main focus instead of investment. I need proper solution which solve my both the goals.

Step #3 : Equity investment

Meanwhile in addition to different blogs like JagoInvestor (www.jagoinvestor.com), I read three books which completely changed my view on wealth (which was money till then). I read them again and again and implementation of lessons in those completely changed my life.

Book one : The Richest Man in Babylon – I was (few of) in luckiest people who came across this book. When implemented lessons in this which are given in form of stories, I was able to grow my wealth, was more wiser while handling my finances and had tools like life insurance, medical insurance to safeguard it.

Book two : The Intelligent Investor – When I read this book first time I was not that much convinced (as Warren Buffet was) but this book has done wonder in my life.

I tilted towards my favorite investment instruments – Equities/Share market. I re-read that book and took multiple lessons from it specially “Margin of safety” and “Theory of Mr. Market who is manic-depressive with his estimate of the business’s value going from very pessimistic to wildly optimistic.”

I have started making good fortune with this. My investments were growing and wealth was generating more wealth without much of my active presence. Still I was feeling that I am making lots of financial mistakes. I have closed my ULIP policy as that was one of my worst financial mistake.

Still I was loosing fortune. Stocks which I was selling on 20-30 percent profit were becoming 10-12 times of my purchase price while many of my stocks were sitting idle in my portfolio either with zero or negative returns.

Here I came across something which changed my investment approach completely. I got my (imaginary) mentor “Charlie Munger”. I heard speeches of Charlie Munger” and finally read his book :

Book three : Poor Charlie’s Almanack – After listening and reading to Munger I found where exactly I was lacking. Ideas were not complex, but I never realized I am in simple but wildly affecting traps. Those were “Heuristic Biases” .

Those were as simple as If I am trying to search a flat for rent, broker would show me first two flat which I would directly reject (broker already knows that) and in last would show which I would exactly looking for. I would say immediate ‘Yes’ (hindsight bias). If he might have shown me last flat as first I might have asked to show him better flats. Same things were happening in personal finances as well.

My so called financial advisers (originally salesmen) were showing me financial products which they know I would reject and later showing something for which I would say …Yes….and would later realize, in market hundreds of much better options were available.

I started grasping different biases which impact our financial decisions like confirmation bias, red queen effect, social-proof which are close to hundred and still practicing them.

Now I have a solid Value Investor portfolio with which I say “Value Investment plus approach”. In addition to cigar butt approach it has margin of safety of Graham, growth prospects for which I paid more and management quality as top three priorities.

After 12 yrs, How it helped me?

Life after Debt

After 12 years of IT experience and practicing savings, investment and controlling different biases I have benefited on all aspects of my life :

  • On financial front I am feeling completely secured. Bought a two bedroom flat in Bangalore for which completed EMI in in first 7 years.
  • On personal front I have happy married life with my wife and kids as I am assured on their future needs and able to spend more time with them
  • Iam not limited to single occupation. Both active and passive wealth systems are working for me. I am practicing financial instruments, learning cutting edge IT technologies (if thrown out of job, I can go in teaching) and learning how to cook healthy food.
  • I can return to society what I received from them. In addition to social charity for needy people, I am managing finances of my close friends and relatives

8 lessons for Jagoinvestor readers

Manish always kept his first priority as benefit to readers of Jagoinvestor. He requested my learning from above journey which can help his readers. Below are the pinpoints which I nailed down on my desk. Hopefully it would be useful for you as well :

Lesson 1 : Spend less than you are earning irrespective of in which job/occupation you are. Save and invest some money every month before expenses.

Lesson 2 : Create an emergency fund. The fund should be ideally equal to 6 times of your monthly needs.

Lesson 3 : Buy life and medical insurance. Life insurance plan must be pure term insurance plan. Strictly NO ULIP, no Endowment, no Money-Back, no Child Plans.

Lesson 4 : Before starting any investment in direct equity try with selected mutual funds.

Lesson 5 : Equity must be necessary component of your portfolio. None of the fix return instruments like FD, NSC, Bonds are going to make you wealthy. Take calculated risk in equity (share market) with keeping important point in mind “Liquidity should be always available for your daily and emergency need”.

Lesson 6 : Don’t jump in to F&O segment of share market. You can never predict share market direction in short term. Option can hedge but you must have at least ten years of experience in value investing.

Lesson 7 : Keep learning and IMPLEMENT them.

Lesson 8 : Practice controlling biases which are negatively affecting you. As Munger says “Practicing few hundred biases would make not only a successful investor but a successful man (woman).

Happy Investing friends!!!

Do share your thoughts about my journey in comments section.

His journey from 0 to 1000 crore (What you can learn from Master Equity Investor?)

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

The article is close to my heart.

In the article, there are no tips and tricks on how to make 1,000 crores overnight. The article is about engaging with some powerful questions and not trying to find an immediate answer to create wealth.

ramdeo agarwal and motilal oswal

The article is not about creating crores, it is about shifting your focus from markets to learning from the master investors- All I want is a shift in your mindset. Markets will continue to rock, your only job is to work on your mindset to create massive wealth.

How Investors should think when markets correct?

Right now a lot of investors, advisors and mutual fund companies are focusing only on the market volatility, Fall in NAV, portfolio return, some think markets are like a bloodbath, some are in the mood of stopping their SIP, some are in the mood of redeeming money, sharp corrections, on the other side mutual fund companies and advisors are asking investors to stay patient with their investments and encouraging them to invest more.

In short, some are positive and some are extremely negative about the situation we are into.

But……

There is very little focus on how master investors think when markets correct. There is very little focus on inspiring the wealth creation journey of master investors. There is very little focus on how successful or master investors behave and act during market turbulence. We all start from zero and it is important to think and observe winning or master investors as we continue to walk on our journey of wealth creation.

Wealth Creation Journey of Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal

In the personal finance world, I have many teachers, there are many master investors from whom I continue to learn and get inspiration from. I am always like Eklavya, who keeps learning from different teachers from a distance and I will always continue to learn and absorb the maximum I can.

Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal is the Co-founder of Motilal Oswal group of companies, his journey of wealth creation transformed after meeting his mentor Warren Buffet. I never miss to read his wealth creation studies and there is not a single YouTube video I have missed in which he has featured.

I got an opportunity to be in the same room with Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal Ji in the US, my friends took a picture with him but I did not. I was having thoughts like, let me first do something amazing in life, let me create immense wealth using equity as a vehicle, let me help others to get wealthy by educating them on equity investments.

I should perform as a student first and earn the privilege of sharing a photo with him.

The POWER Questions I engage with about my teacher ( Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal Ji) are?

  • How does he (Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal) create wealth?
  • How does he maintain his conviction in the equity market?
  • How he stays on the court, no matter where the markets are?
  • How does he build his business empire around equities?
  • How does he stay so consistent with his investments?
  • How does he deal with losses in his portfolio?
  • How does he feel when he makes huge profits?
  • How does he stay committed to the process of wealth creation?
  • How does he practice the power of compounding in his day to day life?

Initially, I was busy to get answers to the above questions but after hearing and reading about Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal and his style of investing I came to know that the real secret is not in getting the answers, the real secret is in staying engaged with the questions, it is about staying engaged with the journey of wealth creation. It is about having your own investment philosophy, it is about allowing the power of compounding to do its work.

It is about finding your own process of wealth creation and keep refining it. It is about doing something over and over and over and over again and if something does not work for you, you make changes in your process and continue to move forward in your journey of wealth creation.

zero to thousand crore journey of Ramdeo Agarawal

Most newbie investors feel and think that master investors have something SPECIAL in them, they do something special to create wealth, they have some special knowledge or special skills. In reality, the only thing special about them is they do not look for ANYTHING special. They master consistency, repetition and stay focused on their path. They won’t allow any kind of outside noise to deviate them from their journey of wealth creation.

I invite you to read the pdf if you have read it before I invite you to read it once again. The PDF is old by now his personal net worth must have crossed a few more thousand crores. While you read to keep the above questions in front of you, do not look for special qualities or some special information from the pdf. From time to time we will continue to share other master investors from whom we can learn and inspire from.

Teacher and His Meditation Student:

Lastly, I want to leave you with a conversation, a student had with his meditation teacher.

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, “My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I’m constantly falling asleep. It’s just horrible!”

“It will pass,” the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. “My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, and so alive! It’s just wonderful!’

“It will pass,” the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

The market correction will pass away!

You have the power to create massive wealth

You really have the power to create massive wealth, almost everyone starts from zero or from a scratch and on one fine day they become an inspiration for others. Choose to be an inspiration to others, the article is not about Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal Ji, or how much money he has made.

It is about learning from the master investors and taking your financial journey to the next level. Create your financial journey more meaningful, stick to your mission of wealth creation and if that’s the game you will never bother where the markets are going. You will see every situation as an opportunity to create wealth.

Invitation: Check your Financial Health score?

(Check if you are capable to build Rs.1000 crore net-worth or not?)

Invitation to Check your Financial Health Score: During Diwali everyone gets HIT by the euphoria of shopping and buying new stuff, we invite you to check your financial Health score this Diwali, all you need to do is leave your details in the below link and my team will help you to check your financial Health score out of 100. After checking the score you will gain clarity on areas which are not working and areas which call for your immediate attention.

How an IT engineer tripled his networth in 8 yrs – An exclusive story

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you want to read the story of an investor who has tripled his net worth in just 8 yrs and learn about his great skills in financial planning?

We bring you the money story of one of our readers from Pune, who agreed to share about his life journey and his achievements. Over to him …

—

Hi Manish

First, let me start by thanking you and Jagoinvestor team for running this great learning portal (Jagoinvestor) and giving me an opportunity to tell my money story which may help some of the readers.

A little bit about my family

To give you some quick background on myself, I live in Pune and I am an IT architect by profession working with Wipro. I come from an upper-middle-class background with my father (passed away last year) been a banker and mother being a housewife.

Money Story

I also have a younger sister who has been married and well-settled. I have been married with a 4- year old kid now and my wife takes care of the home.

My childhood experience with money

My introduction to money management started at a very early age. My father and mother were always advising us both kids to spend it right and all genuine/reasonable demands were met. However, we didn’t get any pocket money any time as we had been asked to ask for our needs and no money was just given to spend as we like.

Even during my teens, we had a simple practice of giving complete account to mother/father for the money that was given to buy any items.  So, I have always valued money to be spent and would continue to do that with my kid.

My father was also a good investor in his time even with no internet and mobile phones available. He had invested in some stocks, some land/flat, FDs and PPF during my growing up days. As a kid, when I used to see him receive cheques for shares dividends for paltry sums, I used to ask him what is this that you keep receiving. He used to tell me that you will understand more with time.

So, curiosity started very early.

I got a job in Bangalore

My hands-on work in personal finance and financial planning space began when I started working in Bangalore at a very low salary (~10K in hand) and was always trying to see the best I could make out of it in terms of savings. To me, money saved was always money earned.

penny saved is penny earned

So, I looked upon all possible legal ways of reducing income tax to start with and then investments in other avenues. It also gave me a great boost that all friends used to ask me on how best to save taxes. Later, I did the same even when I was outside India by understanding the IT laws of that country and ensuring I only paid required taxes.

Expanding the horizon

As my interest grew in financial planning, I started covering all bases including insurance policies, PPF investments. Interest in investments led to Stocks, MF, real estate and eventually Portfolio Management Services (PMS).

For fixed-income instruments, I keep some investments in Sukanya Samruddhi, NPS, Fixed Deposits and of course PF. I had created cash inflow/outflow projections for the next 20 years and my estimated expenses at various stages considering inflation.

This has led to investing as per goals at various stages like buying flat, child’s education expense at age of 15, 18, 21 and then marriage, retirement corpus, etc.

My Financial Achievements

From where I started (10K per month salary with zero bank balance) 15 years back to today with well-over 6 figures take-home salary, of course, the salary has grown many folds but then expenses have too. My net worth has tripled in the last 7-8 years (my salary went up by 50% in that time), Stocks/MF/PMS portfolio stands over 1 cr, 2 flats owned.

Money attracts money and so, more investments I made, more returns I got. I bought a flat with no home loan a few years back because of the investments made and that gave me great satisfaction.

My Equation with money

In one sentence, my equation with money is to maximize my potential. Be it earning through all legal means or maximizing returns on my investments. Money has and will always be important to me just like others. Having enough money to me means all needs (and not necessarily all wishes) at different stages are met with ease.

Spending money to me means that every rupee spent is worth the object to be bought. When I meet either of these, I am a happy and content man. If I fail on either one, it’s not losing money which troubles me but it’s the standard/process that I couldn’t follow which led to the loss of money.

How my perspective towards money changed

My primary experience with money is that you need to be diligent with money management. When I was not diligent enough with a couple of investments, I made bad calls and lost money. Similarly, informed decisions in investments have given me substantial returns. Like other aspects of life, Wealth creation takes time and knowledge.

You have to be alert and keep reading to understand views from experts. Blogs like Jagoinvestor help a lot when you start on this journey.

Money is not everything as they say but not having enough money brings everyday problems, I believe.

money and happiness

People crib about not earning enough but they don’t know how to manage and invest what they are earning which leads to higher dissatisfaction. Then come compromises on various needs that have a butterfly effect on other aspects of life.

I have seen someone in my family who has retired from a very high post in Income Tax department, still doesn’t even own a single house and not enough retirement kitty which shows not being diligent enough with money management. He lost money in bad investments with no tracking and his family simply loved spending on shopping time and again.

Then came excuses and defensive attitude. That’s the worst case of lack of money management that I have seen around.

Summary of learning

While I am still learning, there are some experiences/habits/ which have helped me and would like to share –

  • Cover your bases – Before you invest, make sure you insure yourself/family with the right policies for Life, Medical, Critical diseases, House and Car (in that order).
  • Start Early – It’s been said multiple times that when you start early, the magic of compounding works big time. Make sure you start the habit of saving and investments early even for small amounts. Remember it is a habit and with time, you can increase investments. I started at the age of 23 with saving not more than Rs 1000 in taxes but the habit was developed.
  • Ask/Look for help – Solid financial planning is not everyone’s cup of tea. Leave it to experts (check with Jagoinvestor team) where required and don’t hesitate in paying small fees for that work. You also get paid for the job that you do because of your skillsets.
  • Track your net worth – It is critical to track your net worth i.e. difference of assets and liabilities. Similarly, track your cash (FD/Savings Acc, Liquid Funds), fixed (real estate, PF/PPF, NPS) and variable assets (Stocks/MF/PMS/Gold). I try to maintain a healthy cash balance too.
  • Return on Investments – Your investments should grow when you sleep. Make sure there are no dead investments. A lot of bank balance in savings account looks good but it is detrimental to wealth creation and leads to “money erosion”. Ideally, Your investments should take care of at least your regular payouts i.e. Loan EMI, Credit Cards, Policies premium.
  • Track your monthly expenses – I have created a simple excel sheet to track all expenses in a month. I then bucket them in real expenses, Liabilities payout (Loan EMI/Insurance premiums etc) and investments (SIP, Endowment Policies, NPS, Sukanya Samruddhi etc). The idea is to capture % of your income from getting allocated to these sections and avoid unnecessary expenses. Typically, I average 35% in expenses, 35% in liabilities, 25-26% in investments and remaining as just savings.
  • Share with spouse – Share with spouse details of your bank accounts with passwords, complete details of assets and liabilities. You never know when would they need it suddenly and you may not be around. Trust me, it becomes impossible for someone new to find all your investments. I have created simple excel sheets, keep updating them and share them with my wife. I store all physical documents in one place.
  • Diligence in money management – As there are no shortcuts, make sure you read enough and then make informed decisions. Respect your hard-earned money.
  • Wealth Creation – The key is to create wealth over a period and increase your net worth. We are not born millionaires.
  • Aspire, not greed– When you see someone successful/failure in money matters, try to learn. Aspire to be successful but don’t envy or have greed. Don’t lose night’s sleep because everyone makes mistakes. There’s always a chance to make a comeback but with patience and again, no short cuts. I learned this from my father who made all right investments but was still very detached emotionally from those investments.
  • Follow the right processes and money will follow – Wealth creation is a result or even a by-product (if you may). Following right processes of money management will lead you on the right path.

So, that’s it, folks. I hope my story helps some of you and you can benefit from learnings/best practices I shared. I would like your views on areas that you think I might be able to do better in money management.

What is your money story?

I hope everyone has learned a lot from his story.

If you want to write your money story, Leave your details here and Jagoinvestor team will get in touch with you with the next actions.

Rags to Riches money story of Mohit (Employee vs Entrepreneur mindset)

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Mohit, one of our readers has agreed to share his rags to riches story which will help a lot of you to build the mindset to become rich and do what it takes. Over to Mohit.

—

My story is going to be about two generations and how each view, treats and values money differently. Some background first…

Imagine sitting under a lamp-post or under the stair-case of your palatial home (shared) for your studies, way back in the 1970s? Sounds like a scene from a Bollywood potboiler? Well, this was exactly how my father scrapped through his school and college education.

rags to riches money story

He was born to a joint-family that had a huge house but no income. A vain father, no mother and zero income; my father’s money story is a true rags-to-riches one in the sense that he had absolutely no support and progressed on scholarships by his college to complete his degree.

Also in true Hindi-film style; the love of his life (then) rejected him for lack of money.

How my father got his first job

In the 1970s, a generation waking up to the post-independence yet pre-liberalized era of working; he got his first job in the then Hindustan Computers (HCL) under its founder, Shiv Nadar. He still remembers fondly that his employee code was 0002, i.e, he was HCL’s second recruit.

My father faced such money hardships in his childhood that the only objective in his life was to acquire wealth. But there were no equity markets or organized financial planning back then. One invested in real-estate of whatever surplus they had, and he was no different.

My father started his own business

After a brief stint with HCL, my father decided to venture out on his own and set up a small logistics company (for the uninitiated, logistics is responsible for import of goods in India from a foreign-country and vice-versa), and again as my father fondly recalls now, the first month’s profit he made in 1980 was fifty thousand rupees!

That was more than what he earned in his five years in his job! Therefore he immediately recognized that business is the way to be if one wants to make more money.

job vs business - which one gives you more money?

From the early-1980s to the early 2000s, i.e. in a span of 20years, he made the tables turn in his favor and even though he did not make an Ambani out of himself; he acquired a 9-digit net-worth starting from absolute scratch. As much as I am proud of his achievement, I objectively analyze his money journey and mistakes in following bullet points –

My analysis on my father’s money journey – “Achievements and Mistakes”

  • He was never a big risk-taker. So his entrepreneurship success is a bit surprising (no risk = no gain) to everyone. Yet as a close observant and first-hand beneficiary; I attribute it to immense HARD WORK! Really he amplifies the cliche that there is no substitute to hard work. I have seen him work weekdays and then Sundays too.
  • He made some mistakes in businesses like a factory went wrong, but he knew what his A-game was and stuck to his guns. Often people over-diversify (even in investments) but he invested his majority time to the business he knew best.
  • He had absolutely no knowledge of shares. But he did make some IPO investments on advises etc but they never yielded any returns. It happened with endowment plans from LIC etc.
  • At the “right” time, he made some real estate investments, which paid off big-time and are the real reason behind his swelling net-worth.
  • The best part was – he was never a miser. I don’t recall a single day during my childhood when we felt we were missing anything for lack of money. He spent on cars, jewelry, travel, and the typical good things of a lavish life.
  • Typical old-school style, he kept his entire money either in property or in spending; which I often remind him as a mistake.

Cut to 2004 – This is where my own money story begins.

Having seen his business success story (which as a child, I often took lightly. I didn’t quite acknowledge that making money is this difficult), I had a few things clear to me –

  • Born to such a successful person, the benchmark was quite high.
  • My mother kept reminding me the importance of money during my growing up years, and so, making huge money was always a priority.
  • I was eager to get out of the world of business and take our net-worth to the next level, i.e, 10-digits!

Just like my father, I knew business was the way to be and set-up my venture in December 2004 (although I had a kickstart – firstly space was provided by him, secondly I didn’t have to be the breadwinner).

Again the first few months were so profitable that my self-belief was sky-high. In fact, I became over-confident, or maybe a better word would be snotty. Yes, today I can admit it; even though back then I didn’t realize it. So I set-up another business. And then another.

I wanted to become super-rich and in super quick time that I started losing sight of value-addition by my business. I learned 2 important lessons.

Lesson # 1: Never take things for granted

A couple of years later, my businesses started going downhill. I had to shut down a couple of them and like my father before me, I focused on the A-game. Thankfully a new trade-lane emerged in India and my business and money-journey started improving brightly.

As it became more consistent, I again ventured out in a couple of new fields. Whatever surplus I had, I either put in my businesses OR in bank FDs. Looking back, I am shameful to admit but I didn’t utilize India’s maturing equity markets especially between 2008-2010 period.

In late-2013, I had my first brush with mutual funds. Through a banker (I still credit him for bringing me to equity), I made my first SIP and my first lump sum mutual fund investment. Because the markets grew rapidly since Modiji came to power, my investments swelled handsomely.

And that’s when I made another mistake – I shifted all my FD money into equity. My 7-digit portfolio was 100% equity, full of mutual funds, NFOs, direct stocks, you name it!

Lesson # 2: Take financial planners seriously 

Thankfully, better sense has prevailed since then and I have deliberately re-designed my portfolio with a 50:50 equity: debt allocation in late 2017.

As things stand today, I am doing two businesses and while the first one is doing great, second is still in nascent stages. My money is invested in these two, with no investments in real estate or FDs. A third stream is markets (as shared above, 50% equity and 50% debt) with running SIPs.

As of March 2018, I am proud to share that my own net-worth (not counting father) is nine-digit itself and the aim is to attain 10-digits by 40 (I am 34 now). That’s when I shall hang-up my boots and stop working for money.

getting rich quote

Am I happier today because of my high net worth?

Personal happiness is a state of mind. When one is feeling rich (not only money-wise but overall), then one is bound to feel happy too. In that sense, I do attribute a lot of my happiness to my growing net worth.

I have never been too much into ‘brands’ or ‘consumption’ per se, yet it is mentally comforting and moral-booster to see your net worth grow. So yes, I will agree that happiness levels have increased definitely with growing money in the bank.

However, there is a very thin line to be identified here. One tends to cross that line unknowingly (as I did at the little success at the beginning of my career). If one gets obsessed with their money-success, then it captures your mind.

You start expecting more out of yourself every day, and in the process – keep pressurizing yourself. So the trick is to find the “right balance” and acknowledge that you are separate from your “material success”. Appreciate the money success, yet keep reminding yourself that it can all go wrong tomorrow – so don’t bet your life on it.

Rich have their own set of problems

A lot of people tend to feel that their problems will vanish once they get rich. This is largely true as well, however, once you settle into “the rich” life, a different set of pressures and problems will take over. Your lack of resources for foreign travel or a Volkswagen car; will be taken over by problems of beating your neighbor’s car or foreign travel with a business-class flight etc.

My point is – money problems will disappear temporarily but new ones will soon take their place. To counter it – always try and live a lifestyle one-level below the one you could afford. If say (in the Indian context) there could be five levels of income, and you are on the fourth level, then try to deliberately follow a lifestyle you deem fit for third-level income.

Those ways, your ‘money problems’ shall always be 1-step behind you.

10X money definitely can bring 10 times comfort or even 10-times security; but definitely not 10 times happiness. Unless again, your life is one-dimensional (i.e. only about money) which is definitely not the case with anyone.

Some money lessons out of my own experiences

  • Don’t become a philosopher, before you become rich. Nobody listens to a poor philosopher. This implies that one needs to get rich (whatever an individual’s definition of rich maybe) in life, to be taken seriously. You can reject the notion of “money is not important” only after you have conquered it.
  • Beyond your line of work (business, job, professional – whatever it may be), you need to develop a passive income. It can be through equity markets, interest income, rental or combination of all. One must aim that such passive income can match their monthly-expenses at some point in their life (earlier the better).
  • Do not consider your ancestral wealth as your own. At best it should be your fallback option. I speak this not only from my own experience, but n number of observations out of families around me. By the time you inherit it, you have lived past your prime life (i.e. past your 20s and 30s, even 40s). Also, you have to carve your own identity and make your own money for improving your self-worth.
  • Living on debt or on a monthly paycheck-to-paycheck can be mentally demoralizing. One must have a decent amount of savings tucked-up somewhere, to live with dignity and a sense of security.
  • And finally, DO NOT think of money as the only thing in life. One must value the balance of life very highly. It is of no use to have a high net-worth when you are occupied with it 24*7 or are living an unhealthy lifestyle plagued with physical problems. Always try to create equilibrium between money/income, health, close-ones and entertainment (travel, a hobby or something etc). I especially emphasize the last one as I have known people who are so much into their careers that they do not know how to spend their spare time, or what to do on their weekends except watching tv. That is quite sad.

Let me know what did you learn from this money story?

What is your money story?

I hope everyone has learned a lot from his story.

If you want to write your money story, Leave your details here and Jagoinvestor team will get in touch with you with the next actions.

Money story of Mr Rajat – How they lost major part of their wealth overnight

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today we are going to look at the Money story of Mr. Rajat Agarwal. He has been kind enough to share his story in detail and we all will learn some important aspects of financial life from his sharing.

Over to him…

I was born in 1982 into a wealthy Marwari joint business family, with combined sales of about ~5500 Crs (as of 2017). My father retuned to India in 1980 after completing his MBA from the University of Austin, Texas and was asked by my grandfather to start an aluminum extrusion company, which was founded in 1981.

Money Story of a family who lost their money and business

The aluminum business was in addition to the joint family’s other businesses like – Transportation, Gases, Steel, Power, etc. My mother was from an average middle-class family which helped keep my brother and I grounded in reality while growing up. Even though we had domestic help all the time, we were taught to do our work on our own and not depend on anyone for daily chores.

My father always made it a point to schedule monthly short vacations and longer annual international vacations and spend a lot of time with the family each evening – playing cricket, watching movies, taking us for sports activities, etc.

Luckily I grew up in a wealthy family

As it was a joint family (until the late ’90s), we did have a budget to adhere to, but it was more than sufficient to have a comfortable upbringing. We never splurged on luxury items – the only cars we had back then were Maruti’s and a Contessa.

Having said that, my father never compromised on vacations wherein we used to always stay in the best of hotels and fly business class to international destinations.

My first Pocket Money

I started getting my first pocket money once I graduated high school and started college. This is the first time I experienced the joy and thrill of money and what it actually symbolized. Until then, everything was provided for and I had never felt the need to ask/save money.

Getting Pocket Money

I had the same experience after completing my undergrad degree in 2004 in Boston, USA. My father made it clear that from this point on, I would have to provide for myself. This was one of the most stressful periods I had experienced to date. I spent weeks doing interviews and a few part-time jobs until I finally landed my first full-time consulting job after 3 months of graduation. I was working 10-12 hours a day, hardly meeting friends and spending my weekends just trying to recover from the grueling week. Though it was really hard and painful at the time, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it prepared me for the tough times that were just around the corner.

I started my earning through family business

After working for 4 years in the consulting role, I returned to India in 2008, joined the family business and started working under my father. Based on my experience with money in the US, I was adamant that I will draw a salary based on my education, experience, market trend etc and will pay for all my personal expenses other than housing as I was still living under the same roof as my parents. This is also the time I got married, which again is a life-changing experience and taught me a lot more about money than I had hoped for!

And then we lost major part of our wealth overnight

Due to various events between 2008-2011 the aluminum division was declared an NPA overnight, resulting in our selling the company 100% to a Japanese conglomerate by 2013. This entire experience of losing most of the family wealth overnight and having to sell the company and my house in Bangalore, which I had bought in 2008 upon my return, further made me realize the importance of savings.

Big loss in business

My father never separated business and personal finance and therefore after almost 30 years of running a business, he did not have any personal savings to fall back on. I was glad that I made the right call in 2008 of drawing a salary and keeping my personal income personal.

I had started reading Jagoinvestor around 2010 and was following a disciplined investment approach through SIPs in Mutual Funds, Gold ETFs, PPF, etc. Most importantly as I was drawing a formal salary based on my worth, the Japanese acknowledge this during the transition and made me an attractive offer to stay back as a Director for India looking after daily operations.

Money is very important, but finally, a means to an end

My first experience with money was when I started getting my pocket money after high school. Then in 2004 when I started my first job and again in 2013 after having sold the aluminum business and going from a promoter-director to a salaried director.

I don’t harbor any specific fantasies about money and realize that it’s a means to an end. Yes, money needs to be appreciated, valued and respected. It is important to save for the future and have an emergency fund. It is important to be aware of the reality that nothing lasts forever and one can lose assets, jobs, health overnight.

Being able to lead a healthy, comfortable and dignified life and giving back to society is what is most important.

Unfortunately, the world we live in today does not give us the luxury to harbor idealistic beliefs such as this. Money is and will always be the most important thing in life as it akin to the blood in our veins or the oxygen in the air.

My parents point of view towards money

Both my parents always respected money and never splurged on wants. However, they used to always tip heavily at restaurants, travel tours, domestic help etc and it gave me the feeling that they never had a desire to accumulate wealth.

Money and Wealth

I have come to believe that money/ wealth only come to those who desire it and plan for it.

Money – Now and Then

In both phases of life, I knew that money was and is important, as it was the only way I could fulfill my needs and wants. It’s just that when I was in high school, my inability to fulfill my needs and wants to effect only me and now when I am 35, it affects my family, domestic help or anyone dependent on me.

As one grows older, the number of people dependent on us also increases and so does the importance of money!

How do I look towards people having more or less money?

I think less/more is a function of income/expenditure and savings/growth. It’s a very subjective notion.

For example, I know people living contently earning 50,000/month and earning 50,00,000/month. Each one is wired differently and if one has the desire to grow financially, they need to make a conscious sustained effort and not leave it to chance.

The biggest mistake people make with money

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make wait a lot and not start saving at a younger age! I know so many people at the age of 21-25 who are starting their first jobs and they just don’t believe in or understand the concept of savings. I think its a big mistake! If you cant save much, that’s fine, but at least start with some amount and start building the discipline.

In the US for example, parents demand that their kids start paying for their own expenses from the age of 16 and by the time they are adults, most of them come to appreciate the magic of savings and compounding!

How money is linked to happiness?

I think for one to embrace happiness, the person needs to be in a peaceful state of mind. For one to be in a peaceful state of mind, you need to be healthy, provide well for your family and have a fallback corpus for the unknowns which again requires money

How I’m feeling after writing my money story?

Writing my money story makes me more determined in continuing on my path of spending intelligently and looking for more ways in which I can contribute to today’s youth who are just joining the job market by helping them understand the value and the various avenues available to them for saving and investing.

What is your money story?

I thank Mr. Rajat to share his story on this platform. Hope everyone has learned a lot from his story.

If you want to write your money story, Leave your details here and Jagoinvestor team will get in touch with you with the 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?