Many investments look great on paper but to get good returns, you need to cash in at the right time, says Mr Madhusudan Thakur, Country Head, Regus India , which offers workplace solutions like virtual offices, business lounges and meeting rooms. His investment advice is very clear - set yourself an objective and stick to it!

What are your top financial goals?

My investment objectives have generally been fairly simple: beat inflation, maintain a sensible trend of growth for the future, and de-risk certain eventualities in life such as my children's education, their marriage, and of course my retirement.

How has your idea about money changed with time?

Well, our personal circumstances tend to determine how we view money. From the ages of 18 to 25, we tend to save very little. I was no different. After marriage, between the ages 26 and 35, one generally tends to focus on saving for a house and children. This is when something newer like insurance and SIPs in mutual funds started coming into the picture. After 35, you start planning for children's education; maybe get more value for your money, so you tend to be a bit more proactive and progressive with your money.

Tell us about your most successful investment... the one which made the most money for you.

Clearly no investment is successful until it achieves its objective. For me what has worked well is investments into mutual funds through SIPs. I have been doing this for over 7 years and so the returns today obviously look great. Many investments on paper look great but if you do not cash in at the right time, the returns are not attractive. . And that is where the question of opportunity cost comes, which is one reason why I feel investment in primary/ secondary share markets, unless you have the time to monitor them regularly, don't generally transcend into a lot of money.

One mistake on investing or saving that you regret.

I would not call it a mistake but perhaps, a lack of foresight. Even though my grandmother always told me to look at real estate and gold - I didn't always take her advice. If I could turn back the clock, I would have perhaps focused more on real estate assets and on gold in the early 2000s, when prices were down.

What has been your most important learning experience so far?

Stay focused on the objective and to the timescale you committed to initially, to see if an investment meets with it. Always ask more questions to sellers; especially about exit options (it's easy to get trapped). Never over-invest in a single stream; there is always another day to revisit this stream.

What's the amount of wealth you hope to retire with? How are you creating this corpus?

Again, my ambitions are reasonable. I merely aim that the returns from my investments allow my wife and I to live adequately, travel freely and be stress-free. There is really no fixed number and it will depend on inflation, and the cost of living index. The corpus is being created through several investments in postal schemes, mutual funds, fixed deposits, bond markets and more movable forms of investment.

What's your message on savings and investing to young people just starting out on their career?

No matter how small, please save some part of your salary and stay invested, even if it is a mere Rs 1,000! The young nowadays have media and a variety of sources to access various schemes. But that said, don't get swayed by new schemes and blindly follow the trends. Always ask the right questions for your goals, and only when you are fully satisfied with the answers make the final decision to invest.

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