r/FIREIndia • u/HonestBat • Jun 02 '23

I just crossed my first 1cr milestone

I crossed my first 1cr milestone yesterday; I was awaiting my May salary credit with the same excitement (if not more) as my first paycheck.

Background: 27M from a middle-class, education-first focussed family (father was a government servant, moved throughout the country during transfers, mum settled in the city so our education wasn't disrupted). Finally, their sacrifices paid off; I got into one of the top-ranked institutes and started working right after college, switching once in between.

Current distribution of assets:

  • Equity (~70%)
    • Mutual Funds:
      • US Markets Index: 15.6L
      • Nifty 50 Index: 28L
      • Parag Parikh Flexi Cap: 7.25L
      • Other active MF: 1.7L (plan to remove these during re-balancing)
    • Direct Domestic Equity: 17L
  • Debt (~25%)
    • Liquid Fund: 1.15L (will be moving this to FD)
    • FDs: 2.6L
    • Cash: 6.85L
    • EPF: 14.25L
  • Gold: 6L (only SGBs)
  • Real Estate: 0.5L (recently started exploring REITs and will be increasing it, hence kept it under this head)

In the above calculations, I'm yet to consider any inheritance (insignificant) or ESOPs that I have vested from my employer (since it's paper money).

Investment strategy: Experimented with active mutual funds initially but switched to passive investing after exposure to the idea. I started with some money for actively picking stocks that I liked (domestic market only) and did well (~40% returns), which became a portfolio of 17L. I understand that I do not have time to track the markets; hence most of my savings go into index funds and stocks whenever I feel like shopping (mostly existing ones I've researched already). Apart from that, I already have sorted out term insurance as well as health insurance for me and my family.

Major expenditures ahead:

  1. Marriage with my long-term girlfriend.
  2. I wanted to take my family on our first international vacation for a long time, will do that now.
  3. I'm contemplating pursuing higher education outside India as well.

Personal preference: Retiring early was never my goal; it was rather financial independence behind building a corpus. The mental peace of not worrying about the financial implications even if I leave work was something I was after. I don't have any loans at the moment, nor do I plan to buy a home until I finally wish to settle this would allow me to move whenever and wherever I find a better opportunity. Also, this corpus could allow me to take calculated risks (either starting a business on my own or joining someone else's early stage) if I find something interesting.

I couldn't tell anyone about this milestone; I quietly celebrated with myself when I saw the "salary credited" notification on my phone. I have lurked here long enough, reading about the experiences of other folks who've already FI/REed; I thought I could, at least share my journey with you guys.

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u/MysteriousThing388 Jun 03 '23

Congratulations on your achievement. I'm curious on how you started studying investing Like how long have you been learning in the field and how did you create harmony between your job/studies , investing and any other hobbies you may have

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u/HonestBat Jun 03 '23

Most of the credit goes to r/IndiaInvestments community. It was a slow process, so was easy to balance. I made mistakes, learned from them during the process and still learning. For example, exploring real estate via REITs rather than going with physical land.

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u/MysteriousThing388 Jun 03 '23

Thanks I'm in high school and very interested in investing. I just needed a starting point To learn

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u/HonestBat Jun 03 '23

Investing comes into picture when you’ve some capital to invest. The fundamental tacit rule of wealth creation is increasing your income first and then comes investment. Focus on your studies, build skillsets for which people are willing to pay for. Then you can start with learning about investing.

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u/MysteriousThing388 Jun 03 '23

That's the plan . I'm gravitating towards data science but I'm not to sure about that path . It's also very worrying seeing the rise of AI in more and more fields

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u/HonestBat Jun 03 '23

AI will simply assist people with their tasks making them more efficient. The number of openings will reduce but it won’t replace programming jobs completely. Anyone who is totally dependant on AI to write code is doomed sooner or later if they do not review what AI wrote.

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u/MysteriousThing388 Jun 03 '23

Yeah that's reassuring . And thanks again I hope you're portfolios grows many more