Mistakes I made with money in my 20s

Actions that I take to correct those mistakes in the early 30s

A thread...

I grew up in a small village in India.

My father is a private teacher & debt was our asset, unfortunately

Hand to mouth existence.

One of the reasons I always hate money.

I think so, Money is the main issue of all problems we had with neighbors, relatives, or in general

I never make a genuine effort to understand. how to maintain and grow it.

Post my 12th standard I moved to big cities to work on our family dream aka IIT engineer, you know how it is in an Indian family.

But I failed & again we are in more debt.

After two years of the stupidity of the Rat race, I joined a private college & things going on, pressure on me to get a job asap so that I can repay the debt.

Luckily I got a job on campus & moved to Chennai

But wait It's COBOL time & due to 360* change in my life

I should have focused more on repay the loan but I was not happy with the job, I again started & luckily find soon & moved to Gurgaon.

I took loans to buy a car & bike.

Never consider the price deprecation of these products.

I didn't take into account inflation

Whenever I made any extra cash, instead of paying off the loan, I again buy another liability.

I changed jobs & convinced myself that I would make money enough to pay for my loans.

This never happened until the time I feel lost in terms of money.

That's what I did!!!

Time to buy a house now as usual peer pressure but this time I never wanted to make the same mistake.

I read more & more books on investing/ money.

I took a consultation from many money firms.

I read a lot on Quora

I talk to peer but you know 95% doesn't understand money.

I attend a lot of investing seminars.

Hired an asset manager & basically went in-depth about how money actually works for us.

Self-exploration is a key asset

I answer lot of questions on quora

I decided, will not buy a home until I have a 50% down payment & plan accordingly

I fired that asset manager soon as I didn't like his approach.

I invested in all asset class

Equity | Gold | debt MF | Index | FD.

Every class is important.

Choose based on your goals.

Don't go with adverstiment.

I discouraged my wife/mom from investing in FDs and buying gold.

It was their investments that saved us.

Many times in life.

While I knew how to make it, I never understood how to keep it. How to grow it.

Today I think I know some better ways to manage money.

If you have excess cash, wait.

Wait for the right opportunity & markets to drop.

The price you buy determines your return.

Last year I buy my house with more than a 50% down payment & I did it.

But wait it's not the end.

Few lessons which are really important to understand here.

-Liquidity is critical.
-Compounding takes time. A lot of time.
-Taxes are a thing.
-Inflation is a thing.
-In your 20s, Live within your means.
Pay your bills, and then pay yourself by saving & investing.

-Do not take loans for your desires, they are just show off.

- Take loans only for things that appreciate in value. Education. Maybe a house. Only one! but again try to give down payment as big as possible.

-Explore, learn & respect all asset classes.

I'm 33 but very strict with personal finance basics:

- Only home loan debt
- Investment in Stocks/MFs/FD/Gold
- Personal Health Insurance
- Term Insurance
- 1-year Liquidity in Savings

The plan is to re-pay home loan debt in the next 3 years & I will be free.

Takeaways:

-Don't Hate money secretly, Learn & Understand it.

-Debt-free is stress-free.

-Never took loans for your desires.

-Equity is the best investment.

-Money buys freedom.

Cheers!! Understand your Money.