Personal Finance - 101

Being brought up in a Indian middle class family with public education, personal finance is a topic that evaded the dinner table conversations until my mid-20s. It was not until two years ago, in 2017, that I embarked upon the idea of exploring personal finance and managing money.

As part of this journey, I signed up for a job role with a private wealth management firm helping analyze, build and re-align family portfolios running into hundreds of millions of Rupees for almost two years. It was an experience that built strong foundations around building wealth, managing personal money, ring-fencing and protecting that wealth in cases of dire circumstances, and ensuring transmission of the wealth onto next generation.

Personal finance is not just about preparing budgets for self and for family but also about charting a plan of action to generate more income, meeting personal wealth goals, and ensuring a comfortable lifestyle even when the active sources of income dry out. It is not just retirement planning. The best time to start building your portfolio was 10 years ago. The next best time is now. As a 20-something in an ever changing world, with computers replacing low or mild-skilled humans, it is even more important to avoid debt traps, build multiple sources of income (active and passive) and ensure a healthy lifestyle.

In this section, I will journal the learning from last couple of years and any new developments that have taken place since. I hope to explore and educate anyone who is embarking upon this journey now and/or wishes to explore the concepts of managing money and taxation. I am not an expert, nor am I registered with any regulators in an advisory capacity. These are my personal opinions and learning. Use them at your own discretion.