Year 2006 : The year of the Serial Blasts

I hold a new surname, a new residence address, a new email and a newer email signature. From being 'Sayli S. Mahajan' I am now 'Sayli A. Yadav' ! Well, like any new bride, these were some of the most simplistic things, I had to get accustomed to. The more complicated ones, as they did in each bride's case, unfolded, as I spent time with my new found family and more often than not, willingly integrated them in my lifestyle. So effortlessly, that when I visited my parents for the first time post marriage, my mother said - "Everything from the nails of your toes to the strand of your hair is a changed Sayli!" And I had'nt even realised that the transformation was so swift. As a mother she could only stand back, admire and take pride in the new version of her daughter - as flamboyant as ever, less of a rebel and god-willingly, a little domesticated - Just the right balance of salt n sugar in a glass of lemonade!

As I observed the run up to the marriage on both the sides, my very neutral lense, couldn’t ever overlook one fact - it does not matter if you have a son or a daughter. The truth is, if you are born in an Indian middle-class family, chances are that the parents will slowly start to plan for their children's marriage as much as they did for paying up for their education. While the mode of funding the gold purchases was selling stocks for my parents, for my in-laws it was in exchange of the bits they accumulated on each 'Gurupushyamrut' / the three and a half auspicious mahurats of (Gudi Padwa, Akshaya Tritiya, Dassera, Dhanteras).

Throughout our courtship and the year that followed, one thing was very evident - Abhi and Me took a liking to great clothes, exotic food, dignifying simplest of days, wining n dining and basically spending our way to credit card bills through the tons of shopping n pub-hopping we did. We never really discussed money or finances. Until one day, we had an ugly discovery over our financial priorities being dramatically misplaced in each others views - Abhi wanting to buy a brand new car and me wanting to invest in a house! My shock only amplified, when he mentioned he intended on buying a new 'Honda City' as his first ever car ! We had obviously discussed his fondness and dreams of owning one, while we courted. But I had never imagined it to be our first big purchase in the initial year of marriage.

The tussle was fairly evident to the extent that my mother-in-law had to get involved. My father played it down and made it all seem so trivial stating - it's not as if you're staying on rent, neither as if you have no roof on your heads, so buying a house could wait. He went onto say, that for any normal man Abhi's age, owing a car is a very identifiable dream! At this point I thought to myself - why should his words come as a surprise, after all, here is man who himself had changed 5 cars in a span of less than one and a half decade! Also, one of the reasons I had fallen in love with Abhi, also had a lot to do with the fact that my Dad took a liking to him first and I would never doubt his choice of what "goodness" meant! So it wasn’t any surprise that I took his word for it and was more than happy to contribute my minuscule bit towards our first big buy !

So here we were in the middle of 2006, looking at our sparkling new 'liability' and making future plans of building a new 'asset' !

Life is not all Black and White. The beauty of 'Life' lies in making sense of the Grey's in the background 😉! 

A picture taken with our Silver Honda City - at the onset of Abhi's Birthday in 2007 outside the SOHO Toscana Lounge in Kalyaninagar...

Year 2005 : Smitten forever…!

It had almost been, a year being away from home and I had already made yet another painful transition from Secunderabad to Chennai, leaving behind a girl gang I had come to love in a matter of days of staying together. It was heart wrenching, settling farther away from home, paying for every single thing from drinking water to laundry ! But I soon started to find solace in a place where I never had to bathe with 'Hot' water, where I would wake up and go for a jog by the beach, return to do an intense ab workout, put on the Gayatri Mantra as I got ready for work, devotedly light up an essence stick and a diya to do my daily pooja as I soaked in the power of the hyms and was all recharged to take on the day in my stride !

I had come to love myself, to love the city and to B.L.A.Z.I.N.G.L.Y love my routine, which I thought, was the most balanced life I've ever lived ! I remember telling my mother, that I wouldn’t mind marrying a south Indian and settling down to retire by the beach side in Chennai.  She said it's not going to be long before you start to feel home sick - and like always, she was right !

Just as quickly as I had fallen in love with my new found freedom, it was time to un-settle myself, with the thought of getting married and it being arranged, just meant I was flying back home sooner ! I was leaving behind memories of half a year, of being surrounded by peers - almost all of the seniors in the integration practise had returned/were being posted abroad for long/short term stints working with onsite clients. Which also meant, I was surrounded by at least a dozen folks who were sitting on high net worth's just 2.5 or 3 years into their careers..!

I've never been happy being dumbfounded while others carried on with intellectual conversations. And when men make money, they talk a lot about where to put their pennies. If not participate/contribute to those conversations, I had to at the least, comprehend the jargon around stock market investing and the likes ! This was the anniversary year of me being a tax-paying citizen of my country. Introducing myself to investments was relatively easy - I just familiarised myself with the tax declaration form and had a long hard look at section 80C. I then started to research each instrument in my free time from PPF/VPF, NSC, ULIP, ELSS, Endowment plans to even Home Loans. A lot of websites came to my rescue - from moneycontrol to valueresearch, from personalfinance to msn money. My leisure reading on weekends was dedicated to picking up and reading magazines like Outlook Money (apart from the ones on GoodHomes and Good Housekeeping).

Working in Tidel park in Chennai, made it easier to gain access to a broker - Centrum Finance was located on  the 1st floor of the same building where I worked for a while. These guys were the first ones to help me with investing in tax savings mutual funds -a.k.a ELSS.

There were three close friends who critiqued my investing decisions at that point in time:

Seema : She believed that buying NSCs from a Chennai post office was a bad idea, since I may not be in Chennai when it matures - I was never going to return to the Teynampet Post Office to redeem the investment six years on.

Krunal : Who felt insurance and investment should be separate and I should instead, start to build up a decent equity portfolio. 

Santosh : Who felt a ULIP investment was expensive when compared with the total contribution vs. the administrative charges and future returns.

I have a lot to thank them for, for contributing to those views! But like always, I went ahead with my gut. 

It truly proved to be one landmark year mixed with lessons in investing to experiences of being Smitten - by someone Tall, Dark and Handsome. Literally my knight in shining armor, the one I had pictured in my mind as a young school girl, a gentleman who charmed me with his quiet demeanor, who sat in my room as a stranger and said "its ok if you can't think of anything to share, you can call me if you wish to speak.. once you are ok." - and I thought "Wow ! This has got to be Him !! Here is my Prince Charming! Finally !! 😃"  

Abhi and me courted each other for 9 long months before we tied the knot on December 25th and ended 2005 with eternal vows !

Yes, I digressed - it was supposed to be a post on my financial timeline, but 2005 was a landmark year, which can never be complete without the mention of a love story that began, the mention of "The" man who took my heart away and a year that taught me that everyone from my friends to my mother were indeed right !

A picture taken at Ravi n Rasika's wedding reception in January of 2008 !

Year 2004 : Turning vegan in the year of the Tsunami .. !

I had 2 choices in the January of 2004...!

One : Stay back in Pune and take up a job with Tata Technologies, which was a result of my Dad's influence being associated with the Tata Group.

Two : Ride high on the fact that I had cleared an Open House, to get employed with one of the top 5 IT companies in India -  all on my own merit ! My Father of course, made that choice a lot easier for me, by allowing me to get out of my Home Town and experience life on my own terms .. !

So here I was in Hyderabad, staying as a PG in the Cosmopolitan area of Begum Peth in Secunderabad with make-up loving & extremely pure-hearted girls of Mumbai ! :) I was now going to earn almost double the amount compared to what I started out with, in Pune.

However, funding expenses as a result of staying away from home, made me feel the salary was still quite meagre. This time, I ensured that my purchases were reflective of my earnings, in line with my monthly budget, and yet very tasteful. I bought a modest pure silk saree for my Mum from Nalli Silks.  I even remember returning my Dad's cheque of INR 5000 which he had handed over to me as contingency funds - I did make him so proud for a change ;) …!

It was also the very 1st time I owned a cell phone and shopped for 'only' branded clothes. One day when I stepped out shopping with a bunch of friends and picked up this Pendant and Earrings set made of white sparkly stones, Santosh instantly commented "You can't fake these for Diamonds !!". Now, ME, being the rebel I am/was, went ahead and bought it! But that statement had a profound impact on me and would shape my purchase of jewellery going forward ! N oh.. It's also worth mentioning that on our very 1st official outbound event with fellow Entry Level Trainees, both Santosh and Myself were voted to be the best dressed - so surely, the comment had been made from the Male best dressed to another female who was perceived to be best dressed and ought to have been taken seriously !

So what does that have to do with Finances you wonder ? Well it's this...  

When you cannot afford what you love or aspire to own, you must settle for an affordable classic - and I settled for the 'Timeless Pearl Studs' !

(somewhere in the September of 2013, anchoring the Vodafone India IT Townhall, I had a chance to sport this astoundingly beautiful set of pearls gifted by Abhi in 2011 when I returned to work from a sabbatical of 3 years & the ring of course is what I robbed from my Mother ! ;)  ) 

Year 2003: Crash of the space shuttle or the Year of the cease-fire ?

The Americans were recuperating post the dot-com bust that followed the Y2K scare. To make things worse, the 9/11 attacks had intensified the 2001 recession.

As an aftermath, the days of 100% placements at PICT had sunset. I was coming to terms with the fact that I had not landed a placement through college. I graduated with a distinction, and my maternal uncle helped me take up my 1st job. For contracting as a programmer with the National Informatics Center (NIC), INR 7000 was what I earned as my 1st salary! 

My 1st purchase was 3 months into working ! 14K blown off in less than 45 minutes, on "couple watches" for my Parents. Later that week, my parents take me to the Titan showroom to return the watches and buy gold instead, from Tanishq (thankfully, both being TATA enterprises made the exchange possible).

I had learnt my first lessons in managing money - A penny invested, is wealth multiplied ! The price of 10 gms of 24 carat gold was Rs.5,600 in 2003 - Today it is Rs. 42,430 ! A whooping 657% return on investment ! 

As I look back today, the seeds on living minimally, by refusing to buy more of what you already have and making wiser financial decisions were sown by my parents almost 2 decades ago. It has in a lot of ways, paved the way for a Minimalist Lifestyle, which I have repeatedly struggled to adapt, but have been proud of the fact that I've never let go off my attempts !

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In a hope to do more of what I love, more of what gives meaning to my life, more of dedicating time to what I do for a living vs. what I do for Joy, more of trying to influence people positively through my experiences, more of hoping to help people live better... a series of posts on the "Financial Timeline of My Life " so far.. this was the first of those series and I hope if you dint find something you already knew, you at least found a way to teach it to your children ! :) 

Stay Tuned, Stay Safe & Stay @Home ! :)
-Sayli
(sending you love n hugs from the 'Corona Virus' Lockdown of April 2020)

A Maniac Monday Massacre

Call it “A Blood Bath on Dalal Street” or ‘Financial Wipeout’.. Every Black Day on Dalal Street had lessons to teach us – the sooner we forgot the more intense the pain has been.

It is now that you realize, that just as you had Career Goals / Personal Goals it is equally important to have financial goals.

And if the word “Goal” just made you feel sick then lets call it “identifying a purpose for earning money”. Very obviously we all earn to: get married, support a family, maybe retire early, go on a vacation abroad etc etc

But when you write down and set aside an explicit amount and associate it with an appropriate investment vehicle for that purpose, you would never wear an expression as horrifying as those outside the BSE did, on yesterday’s Maniac Monday Massacre when the markets world over fell and all the Stocks in Sensex and Nifty closed in Red.

For those who may be completely unaware of the term “Investments”, here are some pointers that worked for me since Year 2004!

1: Keep a Track of your Spendings: you can record your spendings religiously just for a month to analyse where you could cut expenses. Expenses have to be realistic and not exhorbitant since what you may be affording now you may not necessarily be able to afford it 25 yrs down the line. So it always made sense to be wise early on to enjoy similar status for as long as you lived.


2: Never Take on a Debt that is more than 40 % of your take home Salary: Your EMI’s towards Home Loan, Car Loan, Personal Loans etc should never be more than 40% of your earnings – else you are sure to loose sleep over your Financial Standing. If it is, then it makes sense to consider liquidating some of your savings/investments to get rid of that debt.

3: Diversify your Portfolio: Never put all of your savings in just one instrument eg: only Equities or only Debt or only Real Estate or only Gold.
There are online Risk Analyzers that determine your apetite for Risk and suggest you a Percentage Portfolio Allocation in each of the above which you can adhere to. But a thumb rule for equity works well: exposure to equities = 100 – your age. 100 – 26 = 74 % So early on in life you could do well with having a major portion of your savings in VALUE Stocks and give them a time frame of 10-15 years to grow and eventually reduce your investment in markets as the older you grow the lesser your apetite for losses.

4: Benefit from the Power of Compounding: Investing regularly in MF’s through the SIP route is the best way to benefit from this. Also if you invest for eg: 30K in PPF, make sure you park this 30K in the beginning of the Financial Year into a Liquid Scheme [Debt] and then liquidate this amount to deposit it in the PPF account in Feb. This way you make your money work harder and stay away from volatility that you would otherwise be exposed to had you set aside this amount in stocks – also liquidating would be difficult since timings the markets is impossible.


5: Don’t Invest Just to Save TAX but to create Wealth for the Long Term: Investments in Section 80C right from PPF, ELSS, Insurance Premiums can each be linked to more than one of your Financial Goals of Providing for retirement, preparing for your Child’s Education, Protection for your Loved Ones etc etc

6: Medical Insurance is Extremely Important: It comes at rock bottom prices but could save you from the biggest financial drain in the event of a tragedy god forbid. Yes the company does provide for one but if you were in between jobs or rendered jobless tomorrow and had health problems then this is the vehicle that sees you through. A cover of a 1 Lakh for a Year comes for as cheap as 999 which by any standards isn’t a huge amount at all.

7: Do not time the Markets and Allow your Investments sufficient time to Grow: If you have identified sectors that look promising for the long term, identified just 2-3 best companies within these sectors that look optimistic in their growth & developments, invested in them at the right price, accumulated stocks of these on dips and waited for a feasible horizon of 3-5 years and even more you are sure to look like a contended investor and not like an apprehensive trader who looses sleep on every downturn.

As an expert rightly said “Such is the way of Financial Markets that a few Participants will go down under and never be able to get back to the market again, but most will survive. The pain will linger for many months, maybe years, but lessons have to be learnt.”

With an optimistic outlook for the teary eyed, the weak at heart - the financially wiped out families…

Signing off,
~ a long term investor in value stocks.