Met a very big retail investor (aka Rs. 70 crores in equity investments) and realized that he had simplified his investments pretty well. He was down to some debt investments – in a 2 year duration debt fund with Growth option, approximately 17 direct equity investments, one credit card, one debit card, and a couple of equity mutual funds (insignificant – about Rs. 2 crores). Of course he had 2 houses (bought a new one, about to sell the old one).

Morgan Housel has said in public that he could be down to Berkshire Hathway shares and a Vanguard Index fund.

Minimalist investing – is like Minimalist living. Take what you want, and leave the rest. Funnily, Mahatma Gandhi said this in a different way “there is enough for every man’s need not enough for every man’s greed”.

What you take from the world MORE than your need is taking for GREED. So over eating, the extra shares in your portfolio, the extra shirts in your wardrobe, the extra shoes in your shoe rack….are GREED, not need. Imagine the amount of packaging that you consume(d) for the extra things that YOU do not need. We are abusing the earth – and that is cruel. Reduce, Recycle, are words which our children should imbibe from us – and the action too. I see the rich and the super rich waste resources like the world is going to end in 30 years time.

Of course the financial service industry (like pharma, food, etc) is just as guilty of leading us up the garden path for wasteful consumption and accumulation. We keep saying that you need to diversify – which seems to help you DIWORSIFY. We make you buy large cap, flexicap, multi cap, mid cap, small cap, micro cap, international, metals, energy, focused, prudence, …imagine the shit we have created. And the obedient and complaint media helping us shove these things down your throat. See how a big media budget is helping one company sell you a pension plan with 12% return. Awesome support from irresponsible media.

Imagine when fund houses and insurance companies earn millions in fees it is easy to create a bunch of media writers who will support their EXPENSIVE, COMPLEX products for its salesmen! They have conditioned you to believe that ‘more you pay, the better is the product’. I bought hand-kerchief from Rs. 10 in the footpath to the more expensive Rs. 100 per piece kinda stuff. I mixed them up – today I have no clue which hankie cost how much. I experimented with slip on shoes – ranging from Rs 700 to Rs. 5000. I could not tell the difference. We are conditioned to believe that Trident charging us Rs. 1000 for a coffee gives us better ambience and coffee than Starbucks which charges us Rs. 300 vs Status Restaurant which charges us Rs. 150….and so on. And my mom makes better TASTING coffee at home. Change your mental conditioning. ‘More’ and ‘Complex’ does not mean ‘Better’.

Exactly why when you pay someone for investment advice they constantly  tinker and tweak your investments to make it seem like you’re getting your money’s worth. You are HAPPY too – I have friends who say “My RM pays attention to my portfolio – changes something every quarter”.

In reality, MAYBE the only thing you’re getting is higher fees – NOTHING ELSE is guaranteed in the BFSI world.  I have advisers encouraging chasing returns, recommended strategies that lined their own pockets, and pushed expensive BADLY MANAGED funds from new FUND HOUSES wanting to create an aum. Or from fund houses wanting to do an IPO!

Warren Buffett says that American investors have paid more than US $ 100 billion on advice just over the past decade!

So, why pay higher fees and get worse performance when you can easily put together your own small portfolio?

Its time you learnt investing in direct equity. Do pick shares and industry with similar weights as the Indices. You cannot do too badly.

Wealth and ghee…..