About

Let me begin with a brief introduction about myself.

I retired from Army way back in 2011 after having served for 37 years. I have been investing in equities through Mutual Funds since last 26 years . I invested accidentally in 1995 when a colleague was investing and the experience in first 10 years was not so good. In 2004 I was about to quit due to poor experience but that is when I chanced upon some material in office library and realised some of the mistakes that I made. There was no looking back since then. Studying, researching and investing in capital markets became a passionate hobby for me. As my knowledge and experience grew I became more confident of investing most of my earnings in MFs. When I retired in 2011 my aim behind Sainik Wealth was to ensure that people don’t make the mistakes that I made while investing myself in the first 10 years and also to spread awareness about this investment avenue among Armed Forces personnel which happens to be very low.

People mostly stick to traditional avenues like DSOPF, Flat, Land, Gold, Post office schemes etc which alone cannot build a formidable financial future with the current trend of declining interest rates. Things were different a few decades back. Though a lot a people these days are investing in MFs, stocks etc by reading on internet but the lack of guidance of a experienced person keeps the beginners in self doubt half the time as to whether they are doing it right. Though they understand the theory when they begin but people are often not able to implement the theory while investing as in due course the volatility in capital markets tends to control their decisions than the theory and fundamentals. Often people do exactly opposite to what the theory says and then blame the market and everything else.

Investing in MFs itself is not difficult and one can get decent returns in a period of 10-15 years if one just stays invested. But it is the emotional control with respect to investments and market movements which is difficult. If one chooses a decent fund and invests through SIP for a period of 10-15 years and ignores the market movements and news, one will get fair returns. But often people do not do that, they start reacting to the market in order to protect their investments or to gain a little more and that is where the trouble starts. Of course there are people who beat the market but they tend to be professionals with lots of experience and knowledge and the decisions they make are based on their extensive research rather than gut feeling. Trying to do so with little knowledge and experience will do more harm than good. Of course, there is no big investor who has not gotten beaten initially, but they survived through it and had the will and perseverance to learn by devoting time regularly which eventually brought them success. The other fact is that they had immense interest in investing and hence they could devote that kind of time. Not everyone has that kind of time and patience. Most people have a job, a family and other interests. A lot of people start off with lots enthusiasm by reading a lot on internet but most are not consistent which prevents them from achieving success. Everyone wants the kind of success Warren Buffet/ Rakesh Jhunjhunwala achieved but only a few are ready to invest the kind of time that they do. Often people quit after few years or stick to investing a very small amount which does not make much difference to their net worth. Having a mentor in this aspect greatly improves the chances of ones success. Warren Buffet attributes his success to his mentor Benjamin Graham who was a dean of securities at a US university. The knowledge imparted by Graham gave a head start to Warren Buffet.

At Sainik Wealth that is where our role comes into play. Apart from managing the clients investments we help them control their emotions when they want to take a irrational decision by once again educating them on the fundamentals of investing in equities and the time horizon it requires. Often some of our clients get excited by the market and call us with a better plan or advice and we calm them down and tell them to stick to the plan that we made for them. In equities, it is the time in the market that’s more important than timing the market.

Whereas one can easily invest in MFs through so many apps, websites and banks but what makes us different is our unique portfolio management. Through my investing experience of past 26 years and continuous research on the capital markets, I aim to navigate your investments in a manner so that they are affected least by the ups and downs of the market thereby keeping one motivated to keep investing without the fear of market. We use asset allocation between equity and debt funds based on market conditions to achieve this. Off course there are no free lunches and we charge a small fee for our time and experience. The little extra that you pay is well compensated in the long run over the little savings made through direct funds from internet.

At present we are managing the portfolios of over 200 personnel right from the rank of Sepoy to Major Generals. Our assets under management are over 25 crores and growing.

Having said that, investing in mutual funds through my company is not necessary when you consult me. You can consult me for free, for up to 15 minutes on phone/email/in person and you can invest yourself through direct funds if you are disciplined, confident, and willing to do a little bit of hard work.