This year, so many have become first-time crorepatis or well-established crorepatis and have come forward to share their journey on freefincal in the reader story section. This is another such account.
Also see:
It is so wonderful to read these stories. All credit to their focus and discipline.
Yes, the bull market played a part, but let us not take anything away from their determined effort to enhance and secure their financial lives. If you wish to share your story of disciplined investing, you can send it to freefincal AT gmail dot com. You don’t need to be a crorepati or a lakhpati to send your journey. Process >>> Result.
Opinions published in reader stories need not represent the views of freefincal or its editors. We must appreciate multiple solutions to the money management puzzle and empathise with diverse views. Articles are typically not checked for grammar unless necessary to convey the right meaning and preserve the tone and emotions of the writers.
If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. They can be published anonymously if you so desire.
Please note: We welcome such articles from young earners who have just started investing. See, for example, this piece by a 29-year-old: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns. We have also started a new “mutual fund success stories” series. This is the first edition: How mutual funds helped me reach financial independence. Now, over to the reader.
I am a regular reader of freefincal blogs. I love reading people’s journeys to get some inspiration for myself. Today, I thought, let’s share my story with you. I hope you love my journey.
I am an engineer by qualification. I got placed in a very big company with a very good package in 2007. Getting 25k per month was big for me as I had no responsibilities. So, I started spending money on clothes, shoes and bags. My dad, who never asked me about my salary, always advised me to invest money in real estate or gold. But I ignored it.
I thought this was when I could enjoy and spend money on myself as we had always lived frugally. But because of my dad’s nagging, I thought, let’s invest a small portion and spend the rest of the money on my luxuries.
My dad used to invest in gold and real estate, but I never liked gold. We always lived frugally, and Because of my dad, I was well aware of the importance of money. But was confused about investing. One day, one of my friends asked me to open a Demat account. I researched it and went to one of the brokers’ offices for the same.
People working there insisted I invest in mutual funds, maybe for their commission. I was naive and agreed to invest 4k in two mutual funds. Icici Prudential and Franklin Templeton mutual fund. This started immediately with my second salary(August 2007).
I was regularly investing 4k in mutual funds. After 2.5 years, I got married. My husband worked in a bank, and I worked in a software company. We rented a house after marriage and started living our beautiful life. We used to spend much money on outside food, movies and shopping. Soon, we realised that our rent was very high, and with our other expenses, it was difficult to manage everything.
My husband was not investing in mutual funds or equity. He used all his savings for our wedding. We decided to invest more in mutual funds for our first goal, i.e. buying a house. I then increased my mutual fund amount to 8k, and whenever possible, we made a fixed deposit of the remaining amount.
We have decided to use only one salary for all our expenses, and the rest will go to savings. So, I started saving a portion of my salary in a fixed deposit. We only used my husband’s salary for all our expenses. My salary used to go into mutual funds and fixed deposits. We also wanted to plan our baby. So now we have become more responsible.
We started searching for a house, but real estate in Pune was very costly in 2010 and 2011.
We were disappointed because our budget was very low. All 2bhks at that time ranged from 40 to 50 lacs in hot areas. But our budget was only 25-28 lacs. We continued our search. Meanwhile, we bought our first car(2nd goal) i10 on loan. We could have bought a 2bhk flat costing 40 lacs with a loan, but since we were planning a baby, we thought if I sit at home to take care of the baby, then it should be manageable with my husband’s salary. Hence our budget was less.
Finally, in 2012, we came across an advertisement for a resale flat. It was very small with old construction and no balconies but was within our budget and in our favourite location. Somehow, with the help of our mutual fund and fixed deposit savings, we made a down payment and bought our first house.
I understood that mutual funds are indeed my best friend. It helped us in buying our first car as well as our first house. With my and my husband’s salary increments, we stepped up SIPs. We both changed our companies and got good salaries. I became more frugal and started saving aggressively.
I got pregnant in 2013 and delivered my first child in September 2013. I saved all my money from my salary since I got pregnant. The house was very lucky for us. But because of my husband’s profile, he was transferred to Mumbai. Now, managing a small baby with no help was very difficult. I resigned from my job and moved to my mom’s house to get some help. My husband started his hectic job and went down to Mumbai and Pune. Since the salary was good, we could afford to sit at home and care for my child. I had a good corpus now.
I realised the importance of money even more when I stopped receiving salary credit messages every month. I started living frugally and used to think twice before buying anything. The guilt that I was not contributing anything started giving me pain. My husband was working so hard for us. He used to come on Friday night immediately after office and go directly to his office on Monday morning. He used to travel by bus. He worked hard that time. So, I wanted to get back to work as early as possible. We wanted to have two kids, so I thought if I planned a second baby early, I could return to work after that and live guilt-free.
So we planned our second baby. In 2016, I delivered my second child. Though my parents were staying near me, they had a business to take care of and other grandkids, so it was very difficult for them to manage everything. Meanwhile, I started saving more money, whatever I used to get from my husband or as a gift for my kids. I hired a cook as it was difficult to care for two small kids without help.
Since it became difficult for all of us to stay like that, we decided to move to Mumbai. We shifted to Mumbai in 2017. We gave our Pune flat on rent and started paying double the rent in Mumbai. But at least we were all together. The kids were really happy. We all loved our life in Mumbai. I started using my savings for daily expenses as we were paying loans from his salary. I realised that I should do something to help him. But with two small kids, it was difficult to go out and work.
I started researching stocks and finally opened my Demat account (2017). I bought my first stock with 2000 rupees. I started investing in direct stocks whenever I had extra money, even if it was 500 rupees.
Meanwhile, my husband got a good bonus in 2018 for his outstanding performance. We prepaid our loan with a bonus and my savings, which I have been doing for many years. Now, we are debt-free. We also closed our car loan in the same year. We were very happy. I started mutual funds for my husband. Now, a good part of his salary was going into mutual funds. We started investing in NPS as well. I continued and stepped up my SIP and direct stock investment. My stock and mutual fund portfolio was growing every month. I used to track with eCAS statements. We continued our investments in equity.
My kids started attending school, but I wanted their education in Pune. We thought about this and decided to shift to Pune again. We already had our home there, so we were calm during this time. Just one day before Lockdown(2020), we shifted to Pune. Because of the lockdown for the next two years, my husband worked from home. He got his bonus again for excellent performance.
We saved a lot of money during lockdown as our expenses were limited. We saved the bonus amount, too. When we shifted, I asked my husband for two lacs to invest in direct stocks. He gave me two lacs rupees on the day the market was at its lowest. We had no idea. I researched ten stocks, and I invested in them in March 2020. When I opened my demat for investing, my portfolio was down 44%. Since the portfolio was small and naive, I did not think twice and invested two lacs rupees in one go. This was the turning point for my portfolio, as these two lacs helped me achieve my milestone faster.
Our house was very small, with no balconies. With two kids, it became difficult to dry their clothes, to have space for toys and cycles, and no space for playing inside and outside. We decided to buy a bigger house. We finalized one house in the same location. We also got admission for our kids near our new home. We checked our portfolios. We had many savings but not enough for this big house. We surrendered our LIC policies, and I withdrew all my fixed deposits and some amount from mutual funds. We did manage to make 20% of the down payment.
We finally bought a big house with big balconies.
We had very little money after our big purchase but continued our SIP. We were getting rent from our first house. I started investing regularly in direct stocks. We invested one bonus in our stock portfolios.
I did a small course of FnO but lost some money. I understand that only long-term investment is good for me. But I understood the technical aspects of chart reading, resistance, support, etc. I started doing swing trading and started earning some money. That gave me confidence, and I started monitoring the market from 9.15 to 3.30. Never missed a single day. I am still very serious about the market, so I open my laptop by 9, no matter what. This has become my daily routine.
I read a lot about stocks and invest accordingly. First time after leaving my job I earned some money doing swing trading and I decided to pay fees for my kids. We increased our SiP and direct equity. I also opened a demat account for my husband and invested money there. It has doubled since then. I chose the stocks for him. I make all his investments, whether mutual funds, stocks, NPS, or ppf.
I wait for an opportunity and only then invest in stock. Many of my stocks are multibagger now. Though my quantity is less. I learned from my experiences. I also got stuck in a few bad stocks, but now I can make decisions confidently and not repeat the same mistake.
My 2 lakh investment grew well. I added more money there. MF portfolio was more than doubled. The stock portfolio became bigger than my portfolio. We managed to go on foreign vacation multiple times. We go on small trips on weekends. We bought our second car in 2022. I am thankful to God for all the experiences. I learned a lot. Without compromising quality of life, we invest and save as much as possible. We never took money from our parents for a house, car, or anything else, and we are proud of this.
Finally, with god’s grace, on 13th June 2024, my equity portfolio(mf and stocks) reached the one crore mark. I became CrorePatni with the help of my husband and my savings habits. It has boosted my confidence so much, and now, finally, I can live guilt-free.
Reader stories published earlier:
As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2022 edition: Portfolio Audit 2022: The Annual Review of My Goal-based Investments. We asked regular readers to share how they review their investments and track financial goals.
These published audits have had a compounding effect on readers. If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. They could be published anonymously if you so desire.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over ten years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.
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