We have been running the Question of Money series for 35 weeks. This will be the last episode of this season. We will be kicking off a new season soon.  

We started this series because we wanted new investors - young people who’ve just graduated and have gotten their first pay cheque - to know the basics about how to approach all things money, saving and investing.  

I was personally very keen to do this series because, when I started working in 1995, at the age of 24, though I was a finance professional, I knew next to nothing about investing. I spent the next 28 years of my career learning about financial products like shares, mutual funds, bonds, gold and insurance and writing about them.  

As I wrote about these products, I also became a big fan of the whole process of tracking financial markets, where something is always happening 24/7. I loved keeping tabs on what was happening with shares, bonds, interest rates, gold, etc. and finding the best times to invest in each of them.  

Soon I got far more interested in investing than in spending my salary. I also realised that it is not all that difficult to get wealthy even if you don’t have a big legacy from your parents – not Adani/Ambani type wealthy - but wealthy enough to be able to fulfil all your dreams, take good care of your parents, fund your children’s education and have enough for a comfortable retirement.  

I wanted to share all the mistakes I made and the learnings I had along the way so that young folks out there can start earlier and get to a Rs 1 crore figure on their net worth sooner than I did.  

Right at the beginning, we decided to keep these videos short – 5 minutes each – and pack them with as much information as we could.  The episodes so far have gotten nearly 20,000 views, with many people writing to us with their thoughts, questions and comments. 

For those of you who have missed them, let me summarise our three most popular episodes.  

Can you invest with Rs. 500? Many people put off investing because they feel they don’t earn enough to do it. But the most important secret to being a successful investor is to start early and be very consistent about it. The most important variable in the compound interest formula is not R or rate of interest but ‘n’ the number of years you compound your money. So, even if you have just Rs 500 a month to invest, do make a start. Bank deposits, post office schemes, mutual fund SIPs—you will find plenty of great investment products that let you invest Rs 500 or Rs 1000.  

A really popular episode we did was about how to avoid spending traps. Saving and investing are certainly far more difficult for you than they were for the older generation, because of the sheer number of temptations. Online shopping sites let you splurge without the slightest effort and UPI payments and card swipes are not as painful as withdrawing and paying in cash. So we have five tips to cure you of the spending habit. Set debits for SIPs or RDs at the beginning of the month. Check how your investments are growing, so it makes you happy. Censor your social media feeds so you don’t follow folks who blow up money or influence you to splurge and so on.   

Another good one was about Sovereign Gold Bonds or SGBs. SGBs launched 7-8 years ago have delivered returns of 15% or more to investors. SGBs are an alternative to buying gold bars, coins and jewellery. SGBs are issued by the Government of India at prices linked to the prevailing market price of gold. They also pay a 2.5% interest annually. At the end of 5 or 8 years, you can sell them back to RBI at the price of gold then. So you get returns equal to gold price gains plus interest. SGBs give you better returns than other forms of digital gold like gold ETFs. They are also a better way to invest in gold than jewellery.  

One episode that a lot of people liked was my sharing my own investment mistakes as a newbie. What I regretted the most was not starting in my early 20s, making ad hoc and impulsive investments and selling investments without really needing the money.  We will be back soon with the next season of Question of Money, where we will hopefully move away from the basics and address more complicated money questions.

Explore essential financial topics discussed throughout the series. For more in-depth discussions, check out the Question of Money YouTube playlist  

(Host: Aarati Krishnan, Producer & Edits: Anjana PV, Camera: Bijoy Ghosh) 

 

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