Hey, Like me, I am sure a lot of you would have had to face a drop in your portfolios due to the corona pandemic. Fear not, here are 5 basic things to keep in mind. More in the podcast. 1.) Do not panic and sell out. You are far smarter than that! 2.) Stop speculating on risky stocks and bets. Times like this means there is a lot more of rumours and speculations. 3.) Stop worrying about things not in your control. These tough times will pass and things will get back to normal. So don’t let people going mad and stocking up on toilet paper scare you. 4.) If you have lost your income, or had to take a pay cut or you are foreseeing you may loose your jobs, then, try to build up your rainy day funds. Now may not be the best time for you to be investing. Try to have a couple of months worth of expenses in hand. This should help you continue till you find your next job and start earning a steady income. 5.) Stop logging into your account every other hour to see how your investments are doing. This will just make your blood pressure go up. Monitor your investments once in two weeks or so. Check here for more Personal Finance Podcasts on Money.

Little Saves Podcast on Personal Finance

S1E3 - How to deal with investment losses due to Corona pandemic

Hi Guys. Welcome to Season 1, Episode 2 of Little Saves podcast on Personal Finance Analysts say a gram of Gold will be worth Rs.8000+ (cmp Rs.4600/gm) by end of 2021. Their reasoning is that as world goes into recession, governments across the world will start pumping money to get economies to recover which will increase value of gold as it is a safer alternative. Franklin India Mutual funds decide to close 6 of their funds due to liquidity issues. Those of you who are closely following my portfolio on Littlesaves.com will know that I had one of these funds. But, fortunately for me, I had closed this fund several days back. I put that money into gold! Bitcoin's ranging around $7K. Some say it'll reach $300,000 and other say it'll be worthless soon. As for me, I want to pick up a small amount of crypto currency as I believe it will be a worthwhile investment. Let’s talk about the main story of FIRE on today’s episode. Not many in India get FIRE? It is popular among youngsters, but a lot of uncles on social media troll me when I say Passive income or early retirement. The idea of retiring earlier than 65 is just absurd to them! Retirement is not an Age! It is the amount of money you have and earn without working that lets you retire. Let’s say you win Rs.500 crores at a lottery, will you still go to work? No! FIRE is about getting to this stage early in life, where without winning a lottery, but with careful planning and disciplined saving, you get enough savings that generate you a steady stream of passive income which allows you to no longer be dependent on your job for monthly expenses. Financial Independence and Retire Early has been around for 25 plus years now. Books such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad or Your money or your life talk about concept of FIRE and money. How do you get to FIRE? You need to plan to become financially independent. There are several key principles for FIRE: Save a lot – Aggressive savings. If you are spending 100% of everything you earn, you can never retire as you don’t have any savings. If you save 50% of your income, for every one year you want to retire, you need to work for a year. FIRE enthusiasts suggest saving 50% at least. Next principle is to build streams of Passive Income. Make money earn interest or returns. This as you continue saving over a period of time will give you returns that will equal your salary making you financially independent. Third principle is to start earning Extra income. Don’t waste skills you have. Be it creating music, photography or teaching English. You can monetize this and get some side income that will help you save faster towards your FIRE goal. There are two main types of FIRE: FAT FIRE and Lean FIRE. FAT FIRE is when people wish to leads a luxurious life in retirement. This means you will need to save a lot more as the monthly expenses for you to lead a luxurious life is a lot! On the opposite end of the spectrum is Lean FIRE where you live a simple frugal life in your retirement. So you need lesser savings and income to retire. It is your choice on what you want, depending on the retirement lifestyle you choose, your goals and time you take to retire will change. You can check out my article detailing FIRE Movement here. Let’s close with a quote from Nelson Mandela. He says “May your choices reflect your hopes, not on your fears”. He means that decisions should be on what we hope to achieve in future and not on bad experiences from past. Eg: Say I bought some gold and gold price goes down so I sold it at a loss. In future I shouldn't shy away from gold because the last time I bought gold prices fell. Instead I should plan and research to ensure that there is a potential profit in investing in gold. When investing be confident on your research & information, stay true to the duration you had in mind to stay invested.

Episode 2: All about FIRE and bits of Gold, Bitcoins and Nelson Mandela

Hi Guys! Welcome to my first Little Saves Podcast. My Name is Abhi. The Little Saves podcast is all about Money. I will be talking a lot on how you can be saving money, managing money, earning money on the side, investing money and how to get the best returns on your hard earned money. Additionally, I will be sharing a lot of motivational success stories and my progress on investments, how much I have saved, profits and losses on my portfolio etc. My name is Abhi. I am 29 years old. I am Married with one beautiful 1yr old daughter. I am a mechanical engineer. Just like most mechanical engineers in India, I am also working in an IT company programming software. A job which I don’t like much. I started my career on a salary of Rs.7,000 per month 11 years back. Now, I earn about Rs.1.3 Lakhs per month, after taxes and deductions. Of this, I try to save about Rs.50,000 every month towards my FIRE Journey. I am on a journey to become Financially independent by the age of 40. Like I said, I am 29 now, and in 11 years, I want to be financially Independent. What is becoming Financially Independent? It is when I am no longer dependent on my job for my income. As an example, let’s say I need Rs.50,000 a month to live. Then if I earn 50K from passive income sources apart from my full time job, then I am Financially Independent. After this, I no longer need to worry about my job. I can continue, or quit! I started my FIRE journey 6 months back with Rs.10 lakhs savings. As of March 2020, I have around Rs.13 lakhs. My target is to increase this to Rs.5 CRORES. Yes, it is not an easy target. Specially for a lower middle class person like me, 5 crores is a lot! I don’t think my father in his entire working life would have made Rs.5 Crores. But I intend to get there! You are going to watch me and encourage me! I write a blog called Little Saves. You can check it out at www.littlesaves.com. While I love writing, it did not give me the satisfaction of connecting truly with you or the encouragement of having you support me on my FIRE journey. So, on this Podcast, I plan to do the same by talking directly with you. Talking gives a closer, more personal touch and I love it! My podcasts will be structured around 5 main categories: 1.) Monthly updates: This is my progress on investments, portfolios,how much money I made or lost in the previous month 2.) FIRE Movement: FIRE stands for Financial Independence & Retire Early. I will be covering, how it is in India, how someone from India can start following a FIRE Regime, different approaches and methods in FIRE, how-tos, how you can start and improve etc 3.) Personal Finance: This will be about best practices, tips and tricks on maintaining a better Personal Finance health. This can be about how to set financial goals, better budgeting, investing, saving, tax planning etc 4.) Passive & Extra Income: This will be able how you can start earning passive income. Apart from passive income, I will also be covering extra income. I have been freelancing for a long time now and earning money on the side. I will cover the various options available for you to pick up side hustles and gigs, how you can monetize your creativity and how you can start to get extra money. 5.) Deals & Reviews: This will be where I bring to you various deals that will help you save money or earn money. Every single deal I review are those I have personally tried out and invested in. So I will be sharing my experiences, proof of what I got out of the program etc. Gradually, I will start inviting experts and friends to share their experiences, tips and tricks around money. I have a lot of exciting ideas on my mind to grow this podcast and engage actively with you guys. Please stay tuned and subscribe if this seems interesting to you. I promise to not let you down! Stay safe, good bye!

Episode 1

A podcast that teaches you how to save better, bringing a fresh perspective into Financial Independence and Retire Early for Indians. You will hear content on improving your personal finance, FIRE, earning passive income, side income from freelancing and other deals, reviews and opportunities. Subscribe for updates, it is safe and worth your time!