I normally do not like to write ‘negative’ articles, so as soon as I write one I thought I should write another one to remove the toxic effect of the previous one!!

http://www.subramoney.com/2016/04/portfolio-review-of-a-32-year-old/

So ‘why this couple will not get rich’ had to be followed up with this one..now read on.

This is another couple in their 30s. In fact it may not have even sunk in that they are in their 30s, it is that fresh. They are school sweethearts and know each other for almost 2 decades, and they have been married for 3 years. Here are the factors which work in their favor:

  1. Both come from business families: Both these kids come from business families and their parents understood the power of compounding, perhaps. Not sure but both these kids started off their school with a pancard, a ppf account, a savings account – so the awesome benefits of starting almost in the womb helped them with a head start.
  2. Both are very mobile and willing to look at the world as a playground: the boy went to Dubai for an interview and the girl went to Singapore for an interview. It did not click at the salary level at which they were looking for a break is a different matter, but they are not restricted to Mumbai.
  3. Brilliant qualifications: the boy is the proverbial Indian top class qualification – IIT, IIM (his father is from IIT too) – the girl is a commerce graduate who went to a top business school but not IIM. The awesome combo ensured that by the time they are 30 years of age they are earning more than 2 million each. Well almost 3 million each.
  4.  Their standard of living is not too high, they use Mumbai trains a lot, Uber and Ola are of course their mainstay of travel. Auto, taxi, bus, train, – they are equally at ease with all modes of transport. They do have a hand me down car (from his father) and it is now a 9 year old car. They are not planning to replace it – thanks to Uber and Ola.
  5. They have both bought flats for themselves in the far away suburbs but are staying in the boy’s father’s house – as his parents spend a lot of time outside of Mumbai.
  6. The EMI that they are paying is well within what they can afford and now the flats have been given out on rent. The rent has become a SIP too, and I am expecting the rent to catch up with the EMI in 7 years time. They may flip assets at that time, but that is a far way off.
  7. They did go to Switzerland for their honeymoon, but all their vacations after that have been in India.
  8.  Their hobbies are cycling, running, swimming and cooking. They do listen to music and have one expensive camera – so not too much of expense on hobbies.
  9. They have some amazingly expensive attire, but their clothes budget is not a killer, neither is their shoe portfolio too big.
  10. They are hugely into equity – some direct equity with the help of a cousin who is a portfolio manager – and thanks to me some seriously good SIP. Yes they have created wealth – and have a corpus in 8 digits already.
  11. They are both in their 3rd jobs and her boss from the second job tried really hard to stop her. However, she wanted to break out of the comfort zone, and hence the switch. She has an offer on hand – and she is asking for a 40% jump. Sounds atrocious, but she is keen to jump ONLY at a price.
  12. At some stage they will both take the entreprenurial route – no clue when.
  13. Rarely seen them spend money to impress others.
  14. Both very realistic about their earning ability – and keep saying ‘our current income is good for our age does not mean it will continue for life’ at some stage we have to know how to create the cash flow while increasing the net worth.
  15. Do take heavy punts in equity, but mostly money gets invested in SIP mode.
  16. No borrowings other than the house that they have bought – amount outstanding now is about 4 years ctc..each.

this couple has all the signs of being a ‘rich couple’ – I mean from an attitude point of view. I can introduce them to other younger couples, but the ‘confidence’ of wealth is not likely to be replaced so easily. Not everybody is that comfortable with money.

  1. Nice. Except for the 8 digit portfolio (Midway there) my case is a carbon copy including the 9 year old car! But I love driving too much to rely on public transport..

  2. Subra,

    Question from another young couple.
    Can you introduce us to a good financial planner in Bangalore ? 🙂

    Regards,
    Rahul

  3. Sir, I mostly like your artciles.
    But this one is making me little critical.

    Yes they seem to very good with money and have good credentials on their CVs, but there are other factors:

    1) Birth lottery – if you already have savings account/PPF account as a Kid, it means you have kick start.
    2) No student loans when they started their life – I am assuming a little here.
    3) Have seen a decent lifestyle all through life and gets to inherit same as they live with their parents (I mean in their house.)
    4) Given all that, they have lot of corpus, this is obvious.
    5) Points to them that they are investing corpus intelligently, but again they were always with *smart money* people, right!

    Now assume the same couple comes from a lower middle class:
    1) No kick start in life, they will probably start with 0.
    2) IIM and other decent business school == student loans, which means now negative start.
    3) Just honeymoon in switzerland(probably even sikkim) == more personal loan, little more negative.
    4) Even if they will stay with parents, they might have to support them. In earlier case, there may be small or generous gifts here and there which adds (trust me, I am speaking from my experience).
    5) Even if they are smart with money, I am assuming, they will be behind by atleast 3-4 years before this couple can start saving.
    6) Now when in saving they might not want to take risk(in general sense, not inflation sense for now) as they have no backup of support from their families.

    So, even if second couple is also good with money, their responsibilites and starting point in life is keeping them far behind. 🙁
    For first time, somehow I didn’t get any takeway for the story in this blog. 🙁

  4. The second couple definitely has good money habits and is on path to be rich. However, large part seems to be from birth lottery. Being a son of an IIT graduate businessman living in Mumbai itself makes you a privileged person. He gets good academic environment at home and comfortable (or well off) childhood. A kid from educated and well off family in Mumbai has enormous advantages over mid-lower middle class kid who comes to Mumbai for opportunities. It will be a surprise if this couple doesn’t do well.

    This couple gets parental house to stay in Mumbai and gets a car from parents. How many people in this country has such a privilege? No wonder they have a big surplus to invest. On top of that they have successful parents to guide them.

    As a small town boy when I went to Mumbai 25 years ago I felt that the odds were stacked against me when I compared myself with local guys with me. I was always worried about landlord asking me to vacate after 11 months and had to put my first six years of savings for down payment of a flat. Now I realize that RE was not a good investment. But I had no choice to secure my base to build career in Mumbai.

    Some smart people are also very lucky!

  5. Disappointed Reader

    Sir,
    I follow your blog regularly. However, this post does not give the right message.

    I totally agree with Indian Thoughts.

  6. Reading your blog for 5 years, I wouldn’t term articles as negative. There are more inline with reality without any sugar coat.
    This review is more idealistic and a template to follow.Financial literacy starts at home, how your parents save, invest, spend etc.it’s often the difference between a quick start and a late start to investing.

  7. sir
    good comparison of different couples may be imaginary i dont know

    i still feel it is நோக்குவார் நோக்குதல் eyes will only see what you want to see

    for me moral of story is same only..

    first couple were happy and comfortable and towards the end you made them scared and insecure

    this couple though high income bracket are still insecure about their future

    both of them have same விரலுக்கேற்ற வீக்கம் so i dont see a problem at all

    last point

    one going in 2 wheeler will see one going in maruti, maruti fellow will see innove, innova fellow will see audi, audi fellow will see jaguar

    your “rich” couple will be considered beggars in their own circles by some one with oxford or harvard education or a bigger turnover business..

  8. This is the ideal situation for a couple to be in.
    If they indeed are real, congratulations to them for living this way.

    If they are not real, its still gives a good picture of what people currently starting 30s should aim for.

  9. Sriram Srinivasan Brilliant article. It is the attitude that determines the altitude. Their 8 digits portfolio makes me think that some of them might be inherited. But that is a subtle point when compared to the other qualities they have. God bless

  10. Butun Mohapatra I guess another reason why rich continues to stay rich for several generations and likewise for other middle-class..

  11. Basudev Tewari They are already rich before they have started their journey… They are just adding to it by intelligent investment and decent lifestyle… What impresses me or several guys like me is the story of a middle class guy getting richer via intelligent investment and lifestyle changes as well as career advancement…

  12. Suresh Ramasubramanian only one thing is being missed here – kids, and loss of income due to the wife quitting her job to prefer child care. Their income and expenses are well planned but rate of growth might be far slower at a single salary rather than two.

  13. Krishna Kumar So they will end ‘very rich’ ‘coz they have a 1) 8 digit portfolio or 2) Very ambitious & aggressive earners or 3) A rich family background or probably all the above?

  14. Subrat Dash I donot completely agree with couple of points Subra Sir. Yes it is an ideal case scenario but not realistic.

    3. Brilliant qualifications –> Both earning 3 million each by age of 30. A power couple, hard to come by even if you are from IIT/IIM.
    4. Their standard of living is not too high –> You expectation is that a couple who earns 6 million won’t buy a car even if they use public transport mostly. Actually Uber/Ola will cost them heavily if they choose to use it regularly for office during those peak hours.
    5. They have both bought flats –> Again a 6 million earning couple not staying in their own bought flat but choose to stay in old flat built by his father which should be farther away from their offices. (Assumption his Dad as a business person took a prime area house which is far away from these new company offices which are mostly located outskirts)
    6. They did go to Switzerland for their honeymoon, but all their vacations after that have been in India. –> So I assume the reason behind this is out of india vacation is costly than in India? which is not entirely true.

    In all this actually I think am missing the main point!!
    So they are inherited rich and also earning good enough to be more richer on their own but they live like middle class without buying their own car, not going on vacation etc. So what is the main point of earning so much?

  15. It is not uncommon to see such couples. I have seen such couples in my office and social groups. Someone in early 30s making 25-30 lacs in also not uncommon. As I said earlier, this is a privileged couple. However, I suspect some of their money is gifted by parents.

    Let’s do the numbers – assume the boy has a CTC of 25 lacs. Subra said his home loan outstanding is 4 times CTC (1 cr). He would have bought house of at least Rs. 1.25 crs. This means his own contribution is 25 lacs plus stampt duty /registration = 35 lacs. Subra also said the couple has 8 digit portfolio. If we assume half of the portfolio belongs to the boy, that means he has portfolio of Rs. 50 lacs. If we add the portfolio to his money in house, he has networth of Rs. 85 lacs which is almost 3.5 times of his CTC. (The girl will have similar networth in her own right. Their combined networth is Rs. 1.5 crores plus). If they have been working for 7-8 years, it’s difficult to achieve this kind of networth unless they got some parental gifts and/or parents are taking care of their major expenses.

  16. All the sip and planning are needed for middle class.. If you are rich enough.. none of the sip, retirement planning etc matters.. the rich becomes richer.. that is the way capitalism works.. (Does not mean it is bad.. it has mixed effects probably)

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