What Investment mistakes you made that you want others to avoid?

raksrules

raksrules

Oracle
In this forum, we have people ranging from all ages, be it under 20 years to may be even 50-60 years old (I think). Savings is what is taught to us right from beginning. We all may have made investments from advice from parents or self learning and all. But in the course of this, we may have made bad decisions with our money and that's how we learn.
Here you can tell something you did and would recommend others to avoid.

Here are mine..

  • Purchased house pretty late in my life after I turned 35.
  • Did not learn about investments and my dad handled all investments for me but never taught me about them so I am now learning everything myself by reading online youtube videos, /r/indiainvestments etc.
  • Started PPF very late in 2019.


Young people here, please do start SIP and see power of compounding help you in long term. Don't hope for quick money. This is a long game and don't run after short term profits. Learn learn and learn as much as you can. Explore resources. It will only help you and don't worry, mistakes will be made but you will learn.
 
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raksrules said:
In this forum, we have people ranging from all ages, be it under 20 years to may be even 50-60 years old (I think). Savings is what is taught to us right from beginning. We all may have made investments from advice from parents or self learning and all. But in the course of this, we may have made bad decisions with our money and that's how we learn.
Here you can tell something you did and would recommend others to avoid.

Here are mine..

  • Purchased house pretty late in my life after I turned 35.
  • Did not learn about investments and my dad handled all investments for me but never taught me about them so I am now learning everything myself by reading online youtube videos, /r/indiainvestments etc.
  • Started PPF very late in 2019.


Young people here, please do start SIP and see power of compounding help you in long term. Don't hope for quick money. This is a long game and don't run after short term profits. Learn learn and learn as much as you can. Explore resources. It will only help you and don't worry, mistakes will be made but you will learn.
Click to expand...
Can you share some good resources? I’d like to learn more to help me in the future.
 
Here are my highlights then..
  • Purchasing house right now at 37.
  • Have zero investments anywhere not even medical insurance but rely on my co. insurance cover Some lic that too managed by my father who does it for our entire family since decades.
  • No ppf no fd no shares or mutuals.
Now looking for quick suggestions into investments esp. which will guarantee me at least 30k income per month after retirement.
Heard some bank scheme where they will give lumsum of 1.5cr after retirement and 25k pm and this goes on after my death to my wife and there to my kids!

Got late in life due to lack of guidance + self risk + financial issues.
 
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nRiTeCh said:
Here are my highlights then..
  • Purchasing house right now at 37.
  • Have zero investments anywhere not even medical insurance but rely on my co. insurance cover Some lic that too managed by my father who does it for our entire family since decades.
  • No ppf no fd no shares or mutuals.
Now looking for quick suggestions into investments esp. which will guarantee me at least 30k income per month after retirement.
Heard some bank scheme where they will give lumsum of 1.5cr after retirement and 25k pm and this goes on after my death to my wife and there to my kids!

Got late in life due to lack of guidance + self risk + financial issues.
Click to expand...

I know people use NPS to plan for retirement as it has Annuity which gives you monthly pension. I don't have in NPS but I do have PPF where I invest every year. I don't do FD myself as interest rates are too low but my wife's father parks my wife's money from before marriage into FDs only as he has no idea about anything else and he was a bank employee and gets (not anymore) 1% extra interest rate.

I myself took medical insurance just 1 year back and before that was relying on my office insurance (which actually helped me a lot at one point). I had to take as my new company where I joined in 2019 has only 3L insurance.
Also I took term insurance just a month back, at age 37.
FXGalvatron said:
Can you share some good resources? I’d like to learn more to help me in the future.
Click to expand...

Youtube has lots of videos on learning various things. Don't go by videos that say buy this share or this mutual fund etc. Just focus on understanding concepts. I did not know what was LTCG, STCG and such so I just read and read and watched videos etc. to understand.
 
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One important picture I have for everyone here...

Nice Info.jpg
 
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Things I did good:

- Got early in equity (after 3 years of working) - both stocks and MFs. This helped stabilize my portfolio even in the COVID crash (was at ~10% profit)
- Started a SS account for my daughter - I know the rates can't match equity, but it's a stable investment for any need in the future
- Invested in Atal Pension Yojana - you get 5000 per month after a certain age. Not much, but money is money, and the baseline investment isn't much to begin with.

Things I still gotta do:

- Get a term insurance and medical insurance beyond what my employer provides (2021-2022 planning)
- Not in a house buying mood. Renting so far
- Increase investments in equity (only do lumpsum, not in favor of SIPs as I do feel timing matters)

Freefincal is an OK-ish source, but recently most of his posts are really....bad. There are more than enough rebuttals in r/indiainvestments, and the sub is a great way to learn. For anyone interested, check here: https://indiainvestments.gitbook.io/content/
 
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The worst regret was listening to my ignorant parents and not starting their health insurance when they were younger. Now I pay 60-70k per year for their health insurance coverage.
raksrules said:
One important picture I have for everyone here...

View attachment 102694
Click to expand...
After the recent crash of Gold prices, I don't think its a low-moderate risk investment anymore.
My preferred investment policy is ELSS, saves taxes, has relatively low tenure for a tax-saving scheme and also higher returns being linked to equity.
 
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Good -
Always took the SIP route for medium to high risk
Took a long term view on investments
Got into PPF and NPS early

Could have done better -
Always being risk averse; should have taken more risks early on
Should have managed investments more efficiently
Skimped on insurance - looked at it as more of tax saving instrument rather than insurance
 
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ibose said:
Good -
Always took the SIP route for medium to high risk
Took a long term view on investments
Got into PPF and NPS early

Could have done better -
Always being risk averse; should have taken more risks early on
Should have managed investments more efficiently
Skimped on insurance - looked at it as more of tax saving instrument rather than insurance
Click to expand...

At 37, should I still enter NPS?
 
raksrules said:
At 37, should I still enter NPS?
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Sure.. anyone between 18 and 65 can join. You can contribute upto 70. It should help add to your retirement corpus unless you have already planned it all out. The annual tax benefit of 50k is a bonus.
pauldmps said:
After the recent crash of Gold prices, I don't think its a low-moderate risk investment anymore.
Click to expand...
Short term maybe.. long term its still a good bet. Gold prices are up by more than 50% higher than what it was 5 years ago..
 
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raksrules said:
At 37, should I still enter NPS?
Click to expand...
Even I haven't entered NPS. The issue is that the NPS funds underperform significantly compared to any actively managed equity fund and then there is the lock-in and taxation rules which keep changing all the time. You are likely to get ore returns overall if you stay invested in an equity fund until retirement and it also provides liquidity when needed. The tax exemption does not overcome the deficit in returns.
 
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Very Bad: Had no clue about power of compounding until 2017.
Good : Started investing in equity and debt funds aggressively in Nov 2017 after a friend told me about it. Any members reading this thread should start investing today even with a mere Rs. 500.
Very good: Invested aggressively after the crash post covid last year. Did some reading on how economy falls after pandemics then shoots up with time and just did whatever I could. History repeated itself. It happened just like it has happened in the past. March April till year end 2020 when everyone around me was worrying about corona I was hell bent on working more and procuring funds to invest from wherever possible. I even enjoyed Corona beers as it was selling at half price just because of its name in Gurgaon ROFL. I am glad I followed my instincts.
Very good: Sold 40 year old gold kept in house when gold price was sky high and invested everything in mutual funds.
Good: Had a lot of fun last year. Enjoyed junk food/alcohol.
Bad: Ended up gaining 10 kgs now I weigh 90 kgs.
 
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bad: not starting early when my friends pushed me to invest. actually forced me to get sharekhan account in 2008. it is still sitting with zero balance.
good: finally started when a different friend pushed me. lectured me for straight 3 months.
made a shitton of money in 2020.
bought tsla with conviction and the same friend said you will need “do jigar” to put money in tsla.
learned and learning a lot about companies and “value”. also a lot of life lessons.
life is relaxing now. life is good.
 
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Worst decisions:
1.Buying two houses ( first one was 60 percent covered by wife) in two different countries ( could easily live with in-laws for 6 months)
And now, not getting any buyer to sell one in this economy.
2. Wasted a shit ton of money in audio gear for a home studio, made some money through it, but it will take 40-50 years to recover the expenses and I'm ****ing 43!!
ONLY ONE good decision: A college fund for the kid ( so he doesn't have to work like a dog like me while in medical school)
3. Disaster waiting to happen: An early retirement and a freakishly expensive glorified boat (literally EVERYONE is against it...and given the current circumstances, may chicken out)
However given our turbulent pasts ( alcoholism/ drug abuse/ divorce etc.etc.) we are very very lucky.
Back in India, LIC was my worst decision. In fact I've two matured LIC policies and a PPF account, but have no idea how to access them ( as I don't have a valid Indian passport anymore) the liitle bit money saved in India is probably gone (the hassles of going back to India and dealing with the bank officials is simply too much)
 
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red dragon said:
Worst decisions:
1.Buying two houses ( first one was 60 percent covered by wife) in two different countries ( could easily live with in-laws for 6 months)
And now, not getting any buyer to sell one in this economy.
2. Wasted a shit ton of money in audio gear for a home studio, made some money through it, but it will take 40-50 years to recover the expenses and I'm ****ing 43!!
ONLY ONE good decision: A college fund for the kid ( so he doesn't have to work like a dog like me while in medical school)
3. Disaster waiting to happen: An early retirement and a freakishly expensive glorified boat (literally EVERYONE is against it...and given the current circumstances, may chicken out)
However given our turbulent pasts ( alcoholism/ drug abuse/ divorce etc.etc.) we are very very lucky.
Back in India, LIC was my worst decision. In fact I've two matured LIC policies and a PPF account, but have no idea how to access them ( as I don't have a valid Indian passport anymore) the liitle bit money saved in India is probably gone (the hassles of going back to India and dealing with the bank officials is simply too much)
Click to expand...
Buying an extra house is one of the worst pseudo/farce investments one can do :P
Don't do PPF. Go mutual funds!
 
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