It is easy to forget gratitude – when you make some money! Well, I have no clue whether I have made enough money to forget gratitude, but just acknowledging a few things…

In one’s quest for staying grounded in equity for a long time, luck has to play a role. I CONTINUED the family’s equity journey – of course staying in Ghatkopar helped, but let me see what all went right..

1. Family income did not flucutate at all – in fact it kept rising for my dad.
2. I started earning in 1985…and more money was available to invest.
3. No financial emergencies – for me or my dad.
4. No big mistakes – except that MY PORTFOLIO was bankrupted when my broker defaulted
5. My parents did not get scared about equities, and did not stop direct equities even in 1993 when the market tanked.
6. In 2003 needed to buy Real Estate – was funded by PPF instead of equities
7. Did not bother too much about Asset Allocation ratios – stayed on in equities for real long time
8. No major expenditure was funded by sale of equities – marriages, medical expenses were all met with current income.
9. Foreign vacation too was funded from dividend instead of capital
10. 40-50 years of uninterrupted compounding, but dividends were used to fund day to day expenses
11. No stupid pressure to buy gold or keep money in fixed deposits
12. No medical reasons to re-think asset allocation.
13. My dad happily surrendered the need to “control” what is happening in his portfolio.
14. A long bull market – from 1950s till today – other asset classes were no patch.
15. Luck – met many right people – and I can’t name them – of course!
16. Bought software to do research – I can tell you ROI was infinite
17. Invested in books – ROI was (is) infinite

Just enumerated some thoughts…