Guest Blog by Sushma Bhat, a good friend, one of our early investors and the brain behind this website.
The one with the with the aftermath of skydiving..
Have you ever attempted skydiving, but you are not able to jump, and someone whom you trust pushes you from behind? Well this happened to me in investing. The only difference is that unlike the skydiver who floats in the fluffy clouds feeling free and exhilaration, I ended up with a thud falling flat on my face!
Well, you might have already read about my investment journey and understood how growing up in a conservative family, my set notion was that bank deposits and gold was the only sure shot way of investing your money. I have already listed the pros and cons of investing in bank deposits and gold in the previous blog. I have also talked about how real estate investments from a commoner like me, was more of a lifestyle investment, rather than a financial investment. You may disagree with me, which is ok, because these are my experiences and the lessons I learnt. Now going back to the above example, where I was “pushed” into investments, now what I am referring to the above are these :
- Personal investment with a family member with the promise of a golden return
- Investments in managed funds with the promise of speedy and safe returns
The push was really from friends and family members and societal norms, which make you look like a fool if you don’t jump onto the investment band wagon. Also, the idea of “hidden gold” out there was hard to ignore when the idea is being systematically fed into you.
A few pros and cons for the above two categories based on my experience:
Investment Type
INVESTMENTS BY LENDING MONEY TO A FAMILY MEMBER
Pros
Cons
- If the investment goes sour, personal relationships are tested and stay tested for many long years.
- Money if lost, will not come back to you if you don’t have paperwork in place.
Investment Type
MUTUAL FUNDS / OTHER TYPES OF FUNDS
Pros
- Relatively safe and reasonable returns
- You can choose funds that cater to various risk profiles - low, medium and high
Cons
- Not as attractive as they are sold to be
- Real returns could take longer times to materialize
- Some are subject to hidden fees
- Some funds don't make profits
None of the above really yielded the “hidden gold”, instead I went back to my safety blanket that I carried from childhood that said in bold prints, “don’t invest in anything other than Bank Deposits and Gold”.
All the above opinions stated above are from the author’s personal experience, and is not meant to provide any kind of professional advice or assistance in financial planning or investments.
Stay tuned to see how Algorithmic trading changed my perspective on investing.
I am Sushma Bhat and come with more than 15 years of experience in IT and Analytics industry. I have helped build Koalla.Tech in June 2020.
