
Final Up to date on March 26, 2025 at 6:15 am
I’m Rajkumar, a 40-year-old skilled who has been a part of the hospitality business since 2006. My funding journey started the identical 12 months, sparked by an early encounter with *Wealthy Dad Poor Dad* throughout my school days.
Although the ebook ignited my curiosity, the fairness markets actually captured my creativeness. I began small, with SIPs of Rs 1,000 per 30 days, steadily rising my contributions over time. Alongside SIPs, I dabbled in inventory selecting, usually guided by suggestions from buddies fairly than any structured technique. My strategy was impulsive—shopping for randomly, promoting rapidly for small earnings, or holding onto losers till they turned inexperienced. Endurance was by no means my energy. Over time, I invested in a number of poor-quality firms, lots of which went bankrupt, however my journey continued.
Opinions printed in reader tales needn’t signify the views of freefincal or its editors. We should admire a number of options to the cash administration puzzle and empathise with various views. Articles are usually not checked for grammar until it’s essential to convey the appropriate that means and protect the tone and feelings of the writers.
If you want to contribute to the DIY neighborhood on this method, ship your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. If you want, you may publish them anonymously.
As my profession progressed, so did my capability to speculate. I clung to a easy but highly effective perception: if my investments exceeded my bills, I’d come out forward. My SIPs remained constant, at the same time as I stored experimenting with shares. In 2017, I moved to the Center East. The unstructured strategy endured till 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Throughout the market crash, a good friend who had launched his Registered Advisor (RA) providers satisfied me to affix him. It turned out to be an excellent transfer. Leveraging the downturn, my portfolio doubled rapidly, catapulting me into sudden wealth. However with this windfall got here a detour into harmful territory.
The speedy positive factors skewed my judgment. I fell in with the improper crowd at work, who launched me to Futures and Choices (F&O) buying and selling. Initially, I made some fast earnings, however the tide quickly turned. Between 2022 and 2023, I misplaced a staggering Rs 1.93 crores. Worse than the monetary hit was the psychological toll. F&O turned an dependancy—consuming my ideas, wrecking my sleep, and derailing my focus at work.
I’d keep up nights monitoring US markets and SGX Nifty, haunted by in a single day positions. I couldn’t focus at work, and I began mendacity to my household about my monetary troubles, hiding the extent of my losses and my obsession. The dependancy grew so extreme that even on the day my mom handed away, whereas funeral preparations have been underway, I discovered myself glancing at my cellular, checking trades. I really feel deeply ashamed of that second, however I’m sharing it brazenly now to point out simply how harmful this dependancy will be.
The fixed buying and selling on cellular apps took a toll on my well being too. My weight ballooned, my stress ranges soared, and I used to be a shadow of my former self. Although I managed to carry my profession collectively, I spiraled into despair. This was, no doubt, the darkest part of my life.
In my seek for a means out, I stumbled upon the *Freefincal* web site. I devoured its articles and watched numerous movies by Pattu Sir, which shifted my perspective solely. I spotted my energy lay in worth investing, not speculative buying and selling. Decided to rebuild, I immersed myself in studying—learning firm valuation, studying extensively, and turning to YouTube for steerage.
Mohit from SOIC’s movies have been a revelation, opening my eyes to the ability of shopping for high quality firms under their intrinsic worth. Over the following two and a half years, I made daring but calculated strikes within the inventory market. By God’s grace, my aggressive inventory picks paid off spectacularly, serving to me get better all my losses.
Round this time, I related with Mr. Sriram Jayram, a fee-only financial advisor recommended by Freefincal. His steerage was transformative. He launched me to goal-based investing and restructured my portfolio, bringing my fairness publicity right down to 60% and allocating 40% to debt. From Pattu Sir, I additionally discovered the idea of index investing, which introduced me a way of peace I hadn’t felt in years. This balanced strategy gave me stability and readability. Wanting again, one fixed anchored me via the chaos: my SIPs, which I’ve by no means stopped since 2006. They proved to be my monetary lifeline.
At present, I stand with a corpus of Rs 7 crores, break up between fairness and debt, and utterly debt-free. All I do now could be put money into a number of good shares and index funds—a easy, disciplined technique that retains me grounded. I share this story to warn others concerning the harmful lure of F&O buying and selling—a weapon of mass destruction for wealth, well being, and well-being.
My journey taught me invaluable classes: delayed gratification is a superpower, and the bliss of long-term compounding is unmatched. At present, I’m working within the Center East, with 20 years of my profession nonetheless forward. I plan to decelerate at 50 and retire by 52, taking life one regular step at a time. By coming clear about my struggles, I hope to encourage others to interrupt free from such addictions and discover peace in smart, long-term investing.
With Gratitude to Pattu Sir, Rajkumar.
Reader tales printed earlier:
As common readers might know, we publish a private monetary audit every December – that is the 2023 version: Portfolio Audit 2023: The Annual Review of My Goal-Based Investments. We requested common readers to share how they evaluation their investments and monitor monetary objectives.
- First audit: How Suhas tracks his MF investments and reviews financial goals.
- Second audit: How Avadhoot Joshi evaluates his investment portfolio.
- Third audit: How a single mom is on track to financial freedom
- Fourth audit: How Gowtham started goal-based investing & took control of his money
- Fifth audit: Why my financial independence & early retirement plans were postponed by four years
- Sixth audit: How Abhisek funded his marriage & is on track to financial freedom.
- Seventh audit: How Rohit’s early struggles defined his investment journey
- Eighth audit: Why my investments are still on track despite job loss and lower income.
- Ninth audit: How a retirement planning calculation scared me to take action
- Tenth audit: I made several investment mistakes but have turned my life around.
- Eleventh audit: My net worth doubled in the last financial year, thanks to patient investing!
- Twelveth audit: My financial journey: from novice to goal-based investor.
- Thirteenth audit: My journey: from a negative net worth to goal-based investing.
- Fourteenth audit: From Fixed Deposits to Goal-based investing in MFs.
- Fifteenth audit: My 10-year financial journey – mistakes made and lessons learnt.
- Sixteenth audit (half 1): How I achieved financial independence without mutual funds or stocks.
- Sixteenth audit (half 2): Lessons from my financial independence journey and future investment plans.
- Seventeenth audit: How I plan to achieve financial independence and move to my native place
- Eighteenth audit: I used the current bull run to reduce my mutual funds from 14 to 4!
- Nineteenth audit: How a conservative investor created his financial plan
- Twentieth audit: I plan to achieve financial independence by 46; this is my master plan
- Twenty-first audit: I have made many investment mistakes but am on course to financial independence by 45.
- Twenty-second audit: I felt worthless six years ago but have achieved financial stability today
- Twenty-third audit: My financial journey was directionless until age 40: this is how I made up for lost time
- Twenty-fourth audit: Why I increased equity MF investments by 275% and reduced PPF contributions.
- Twenty-fifth audit: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns
- Twenty-sixth audit: I am 24 and started investing 1Y ago, but what am I investing for?
- Twenty-seventh audit: How we plan to achieve a retirement corpus 50 times our annual expenses.
- Twenty-eighth audit: I thought equity investing was a gamble, but now I aim to hold 60% equity for retirement
- Twenty-ninth audit: My journey: From 5 lakhs in debt to building a corpus worth six years in retirement
- Thirtieth audit: My investment journey: From random purchases to a goal-based portfolio
- Thirty-first audit: My investment journey: from product-driven to process-driven
- Thirty-second audit: How a young couple is trying to balance travelling and investing
- Thirty-third audit: My journey: From Rs. 30 bank balance to financial independence
- Thirty-fourth audit: Our journey: From scratch to a net worth of 18 times annual expenses.
- Thirty-fifth audit: From a net worth of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing
- Thirty-sixth audit: How I retired from corporate bondage at 46, two years ago!
- Thirty-seventh audit: How I learnt to keep it simple and build a net worth 19 times my annual expenses
- Thirty-eighth audit: How Abhineeth plans to achieve financial independence and build a house.
- Thirty-ninth audit: How Sahil plans to achieve financial independence by efficient tracking
- Fortieth audit: My Journey to a Ten Crore Portfolio
- Forty-first audit: Burdened with debt for several years, I am now aggressively investing in equity
- Forty-second audit: From Engineer to Librarian after Financial Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE)
- Forty-third audit: I lost six months’ income in F&O and ditched it for systematic investing
- Forty-fourth audit: My retirement plan to handle the harsh realities of the IT industry
- Forty-fifth audit: My investment journey: mistakes, 10 years of MF investing and recovery
- Forty-sixth audit: My MF portfolio is worth six crores despite multiple mistakes
- Forty-seventh audit: Saving, Investing, and Running Marathons: My 25-year Journey to Financial Independence
- Forty-eighth audit: Never Too Late to Start: How I Became Financially Savvy at 40
- Forty-ninth audit: My Investment Journey to a net worth 29 times my annual expenses
- Fiftieth audit: How I audit my portfolio without tracking returns
- Fifty-first audit: Financial Lessons Learned During and After a PhD
- Fifty-second audit: Investment & Financial journey of a 23 year old
- Fifty-third audit: The system I use to draw income and spend after retirement securely
- Fifty-fourth audit: From Start-Up Employee to Millionaire: A Success Story of Resilience and Smart Investing
- Fifty-fifth audit: 25-Year-Old Software Engineer’s Investment Journey: From Stocks to Mutual Funds and Beyond
- Fifty-sixth audit: Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
- Fifty-seventh audit: Navigating Market Volatility: How an IT Professional Transformed His Investment Approach for Retirement
- Fifty-eighth audit: How Sahil achieved a 10X retirement corpus by efficient portfolio tracking
- FIfty-ninth audit: How I achieved financial freedom by 45 without onsite assignments or ESOPs
- Sixtieth audit: Building Wealth on a Government Salary: Lessons Learned
- Sixty-first audit: Minimalism, Index Funds, and Staying Calm: My Investing Journey at 28
- Sixty-second audit: Building Wealth and Breaking Barriers: How Swati Took Control of Her Financial Future
- Sixty-third audit: My financial journey: How I missed the Compounding Bus!
These printed audits have had a compounding impact on readers. If you want to contribute to the DIY neighborhood on this method, ship your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. They might be printed anonymously in the event you so need.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and first creator of freefincal. He’s an affiliate professor on the Indian Institute of Expertise, Madras. He has over ten years of expertise publishing information evaluation, analysis and monetary product growth. Join with him through 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 buyers. (2) Gamechanger for younger earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for youths. He has additionally written seven different free e-books on numerous cash administration matters. He’s a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation selling unbiased, commission-free funding recommendation.
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Most investor issues will be traced to a scarcity of knowledgeable decision-making. We made dangerous choices and cash errors once we began incomes and spent years undoing these errors. Why ought to our kids undergo the identical ache? What is that this ebook about? As dad and mom, what wouldn’t it be if we needed to groom one capacity in our kids that’s key not solely to cash administration and investing however to any side of life? My reply: Sound Choice Making. So, on this ebook, we meet Chinchu, who’s about to show 10. What he desires for his birthday and the way his dad and mom plan for it, in addition to instructing him a number of key concepts of decision-making and cash administration, is the narrative. What readers say!

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