About Me

To a large extent, my investment philosophy has been guided by the experiences I had in my childhood. These experiences have also led me to become the person that I am today, good or bad.

Family Background

I grew up in the middle class family in India. My dad worked as a professor, while my mom was a homemaker. College professors in those days (80-90s) earned little salary compared to doctors, engineers, or business owners in India. Plus, being the eldest son in his family, he had obligations to his siblings and parents. This is not to say we were poor, but he had just enough to put his three children through college and may be save a little.

Childhood

I received a lot of support from my parents during my early years in the school. I was somewhat troubled to see wealth and power inequality in India including my own extended family which ranged from poor to extremely rich. This inequality in treatment eventually became a turning point in my life. It provided me with a drive to succeed in school, attend a good college, and ultimately make a good living.

Education

I was studious during my school days. I worked extremely hard to get good grades. I managed to get admission into one of the top Government Engineering colleges in India where my tuition fees and living expenses were subsidized. During the second year of my college, I realized that I needed to differentiate further because everyone gets a bachelor's degree. I started preparing for the GRE exam. As soon as I finished college, without even wasting any time, I came straight to the US to pursue a Master's degree.

I loved every bit of my graduate school life in the US. It introduced me to the strong work ethic. The projects I worked on provided valuable practical lessons. I also loved working in the team environment. I loved professors who focused on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ rather than on the ‘what’. I got more out of my graduate school education than from the undergrad degree.

I am a strong believer in life-long learning. I read books on self-help, popular psychology, business leadership, personal finance, and occasionally fiction. Often times, I listen to audio books on my way to work. In 2008, I was reading so many books related to my profession that one day, out of the blue, I decided to get a second Masters degree. After dedicating 2.5 years of my life, I now have second MS degree and that too with a 4.0 GPA.

Professional Life

I graduated with my first MS degree at a time when the dot com bubble had just busted and nobody was hiring. After several interviews, I landed a job at a consulting company. After four months of struggle at this company, I was let go. While I felt sad, I also felt it was freeing because I wasn't enjoying my job at all. That employer had deceived me into thinking that he had several offices across the US and already had projects lined up for me to work on. This was not the case at all, but rather the consulting company was fudging my resume (adding 6 years experience when I had none) and marketing me to their clients.

After 3 months of intense job and soul-searching, I landed another job with a small American company. I loved the people and the small-town like feeling the company provided. The company became literally my second family in the US. I spent most of my weekend with my new American friends. This company helped me with the H1B visa, which I needed badly to remain in the US. In return, I gave my very best to my employers by working diligently on everything that was asked of me and more.

I stayed with the company for 5 years before landing another job with a major fortune 500 company. I am with this company for almost 6 years now. I have grown in my leadership and managerial skills at this job. Currently, I am working at a mid-level managerial position with this company and hope to move up the corporate ladder into leadership positions in the near future.

My Investment Philosophy

Coming to the money part, I have been able to save more than enough throughout all these years. I have never been in debt, except for the college loan I took while coming to the US, which I quickly paid off after landing my second job. My philosophy has been never to borrow money if you can afford the purchase. All my cars have been purchased fully out of cash.

I believe in long-term investing. My investment horizon is minimum 30 years. Majority of my investments have been in mutual funds, of which, over 90% are in high quality index funds. I do not trade individual stocks. The stock only position I hold is Warren Buffet's Birkshire Hathaway, which I am holding for the long-term growth.

I like passive investing and am a firm believer in the power of compounding. My portfolio currently tilts towards value-oriented mutual funds that hold stocks of companies that have been out of favor of investors. I am a firm believer in diversifying investments in stocks, bonds, cash, and REITs.

I also have a good portion of my portfolio devoted to REITs, as the great recession of 2008-2009 has provided rock bottom prices on the REIT stocks. This also frees me from having to purchase rental property as I do not believe the headaches and overheads associated with managing a real estate justifies the return on investments. I DO own a house for living and am planning to pay that off in the next 3 years.

I max out my 401(K) fully and even go beyond the allowed maximum and direct the excess fund in an employer managed restoration account. I also have a Roth IRA account and Traditional IRA accounts between me and my wife, which I also max out each year.

I am not wealthy any means, but my goals are to:

• get out the middle-class rut as quickly as possible. 
• provide a great foundation for my kids as they grow up. 
• achieve a high quality retirement life. 

About this Blog

This blog started as a place to share my thoughts about my thoughts on various types of investments and personal finance issues. For now, I want to remain anonymous. Being anonymous allows me to be remain honest with my readers. If you like my writings, please subscribe to my blog or feel free to comment. Thanks for your time.