[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by am1m

This is something that worries me sometimes. Some sort of once-in-a-lifetime economic crash that wipes out all my savings/investments. .

My recommendation is to have enough diversification in physical assets with good allocation to physical gold. Even if the family ornaments are not being used, keep it for emergency. You can have additional gold investments in digital gold (SGB/ ETFs etc), but being diversified with physical gold will help you in the case of too-big-to-fail institutions failing in an economic crash. Usually when the equity/ currency falls, gold soars in value.

Real estate will also help you in this scenario, with properties earning rent. The returns will be less during the economic crash, but it wont wipe you off like financial assets dependent on institutions.

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by diwakarjha

Hi All,

A lot of vey useful information and wisdom in this thread than perhaps in any one book you can read on the topic. Thanks to all who have written in this thread.


I put this all out in the hope of eliciting some comments and of course some advise too on what I can do better in future. Life is not long enough for any of us to keep doing our own mistakes and learning from them and I already seem to have exceeded my quota in early youth, hence any advice would be useful for me.

It was heartwarming to read about your tale. I also have a somewhat similar story, did my Master's late for personal reasons, but luckily for me, I started my Master's a year late and passed out in 2010. Saw the previous batch struggle for several years before catching up on some sort of parity in pay in their corporate careers. You sir have gone through a fair bit, having taken the tough decisions in the initial phase of your career and then the hard luck of having to pass out in 2009. Still, you fought for what you believed in, instead of living every day with the question "what if?" plaguing you!

Regarding the financial question, I think you have a decent financial cushion and most of us are any day better than 99% of our fellow countrymen. In case your spouse works or there is an additional source of income, then nothing like it.

Regarding your home loan, if the interest rate you are paying on it is more than the overall return % you are earning on your savings & investments, it is worth considering paying it off. Else you are in a negative growth state on your overall financial net worth. Try living in the apartment you bought or make sure it is rented out, so that it offsets the rental you are paying. Try and explore consulting etc on the side so that you have options, given how unpredictable corporate jobs can be.

[Sargent_dallas]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

You’re a Courageous young Soul. But then, clearly from Your post, that Courage is in your genes. Many of us here, I am sure, have gone through various kinds of tough experiences, but ultimately, what we as individuals make of these and ourselves is what matters.

Thank you for your kind words Sir. I really appreciate the excerpts you quoted. OT Another book I recently finished which left a deep impact is “ The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness”. It was gifted to me by one of my uncles and it is worth investing time and money on this book.

Link to the book- https://www.amazon.in/Almanack-Naval...f-d8807309c921

[rx100]

I’m looking for an expense tracker app on iOS which can be shared with my wife. Basically both can view and enter data and it always be in sync. Something similar to a shared Google sheet.

Please let me know if anyone using something similar or aware about it.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by rx100

I’m looking for an expense tracker app on iOS which can be shared with my wife. Basically both can view and enter data and it always be in sync. Something similar to a shared Google sheet.

Please let me know if anyone using something similar or aware about it.

Depends. Is it your idea to track her expenses or your wife’s idea to track your expenses?

[rx100]

Originally Posted by androdev

Depends. Is it your idea to track her expenses or your wife’s idea to track your expenses?

LOL

It’s a new year and you know all these ideas comes up just to track the general family expenses to get an idea where the money goes. Found couple of apps on Google search. Pocketguard and Settle up. Former not available in our region, while the latter allows to enter expenses by both but doesn’t have any summary or charts. Good thing is that we can export the data as csv format and use some other apps or spreadsheet to visualize it with interactive charts.

[Rodie09]

Originally Posted by rx100

I’m looking for an expense tracker app on iOS which can be shared with my wife. Basically both can view and enter data and it always be in sync. Something similar to a shared Google sheet.

Please let me know if anyone using something similar or aware about it.

Suggest one for android too - I have been wanting to have one, just to bring in some financial discipline in the family at the start of new year

[vijaykr]

Originally Posted by rx100

I’m looking for an expense tracker app on iOS which can be shared with my wife. Basically both can view and enter data and it always be in sync. Something similar to a shared Google sheet

Originally Posted by Rodie09

Suggest one for android too - I have been wanting to have one, just to bring in some financial discipline in the family at the start of new year

There are a few expense tracking apps mentioned in the below article. I included the link to the article instead of the app names directly because I believe there is more food for thought in the article itself

https://freefincal.com/top-three-app...your-expenses/

Hope this is helpful!

[techcoze]

I can safely generate 10-15% p.a. (conservative calculation) using any available fund with help of some option trading & investment strategies. And wondering if it's possible to withdraw my NPS and PF fund at different stages of career before retirement. I am getting feeling that I can better manage my own pension post retirement than depending on PF/NPS (low return?) instruments.

I heard that you can withdraw PF/NPS fund for needs like wedding, education. Can guidance?

[vijaykr]

Originally Posted by techcoze

I can safely generate 10-15% p.a. (conservative calculation) using any available fund with help of some option trading & investment strategies. And wondering if it's possible to withdraw my NPS and PF fund at different stages of career before retirement. I am getting feeling that I can better manage my own pension post retirement than depending on PF/NPS (low return?) instruments.

I heard that you can withdraw PF/NPS fund for needs like wedding, education. Can guidance?

PF interest rates are slightly over 8% currently and withdrawal is tax free assuming continuous service of 5 years or more. There are rules around withdrawal which is available online or on their website. And my understanding is for events like education, marriage and home loan repayment, you can only withdraw a certain percentage of the corpus.

The entire PF amount can be withdrawn only if there are no contributions for 2+ months at least - basically if you're not working that is. I don't believe PF can be withdrawn if you're currently employed with a company that contributes to PF. Obviously the retirement age related withdrawals should be possible after 55/58 - not sure of the exact rule on this. Never invested in NPS and don't know about it.

It's great that you're confident of generating 10-15% returns (post tax I presume). I'm sure you've also thought about the need to get this kind of return year after year as well. That said there is no guarantee that government will not reduce the 8+ % returns to a lesser percentage in future.

I would recommend not withdrawing PF as it provides a safe way of accumulating enough amount for retirement. You could look to aggressively invest all other amounts using your planned strategies to maximize returns. But if markets don't do well or you need to change your approach midway, the PF amount continues to grow uninterrupted and gives a good base for future.

[akp]

Originally Posted by rx100

I’m looking for an expense tracker app on iOS which can be shared with my wife. Basically both can view and enter data and it always be in sync. Something similar to a shared Google sheet.

Please let me know if anyone using something similar or aware about it.

You can try Homebudget (http://www.anishu.com/homebudget.html). Have been using it for more than five years and happy with it.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by rx100

I’m looking for an expense tracker app on iOS which can be shared with my wife. Basically both can view and enter data and it always be in sync. Something similar to a shared Google sheet.

Please let me know if anyone using something similar or aware about it.

I have been using YNAB for almost a decade to track my expenses. Earlier it used to be a stand alone application on a PC. Now it has been moved to a subscription service where multiple devices can sync into the application and can enter the expenses.

https://www.ynab.com/

[dailydriver]

Ready to retire at 29!

Spend now and regret later or save now and hope to spend later?

IIT Bombay alumnus, Daniel George... a 29-year-old AI specialist...says he has earned enough that he can opt for an early retirement now.

During his time at Google, he started saving money so that if he ever planned to go back to India and retire, he has enough money. He stated, “I did the math and realised that after a couple of years of saving, I could easily go back to India and retire if I wanted to.”...

George ended up investing over $75,000 (approx Rs 62 lakh) every year in the tax-advantaged account.

He says

At 27, I had reached my first million dollars in savings. My stock portfolio had done well, and I'd been investing all my paychecks and the large bonuses of 70 percent of my base salary...

I'm confident that all our investments will earn enough passive income to meet our family expenses. Because I invested early, I won't have to worry later.

Link

[am1m]

Now, more than the two big questions about retirement- 'do I have enough to retire' (that seems to be on track - not for a lavish retirement, but going ok) and 'what will I do once I retire' (that was never a problem!), I'm finding myself worrying more about what happens when I'm too old to take care of myself.

I don't have children, but I've also seen enough elders whose children are abroad or busy with their own lives to realize that having children is no guarantee of being looked after either.

And even with an entire family to help, I'm not seeing a good scenario. Seeing this with an elderly relative. The person has had a long, fruitful, and healthy life, but now is unable physically and mentally to care for themselves. The family is kind and attentive, and every small aliment is handled to the fullest extent. But it's not a life I'd want, shuttling between hospital visits and home, being unable to really communicate meaningfully, or even recognize family members. It's certainly not the ending I would like.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by am1m

I'm finding myself worrying more about what happens when I'm too old to take care of myself.

That is definitely a topic for a different thread altogether. Perhaps all of us busy on this thread will start being active on that thread in about 15/20 yrs from now.