Money Talk

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, brand–comm dons many hats. He is a consultant, author, teacher and social activist among other things. Sridhar founded the Bangalore-headquartered communications company brand-comm in 1998. A postgraduate in Management from IIM Bangalore, Sridhar is a visiting professor in several leading management schools in the country including his alma mater.

A professionally trained counsellor, Sridhar helps and guides many distressed individuals at ‘Vishwas', a well-known voluntary organisation in Bangalore. Here are his views on money and investing.

What does money mean to you?

Money, to me, more than anything else means security and freedom. Freedom to lead the life I want and to donate to the causes I wish to be associated with.

What are your top financial goals?

My top financial goal is to save enough so that when I do retire, my lifestyle does not change drastically. As my late mother used to say, “It is better to struggle when you are young rather than struggle when you are old.”

What proportion of your money is invested in savings bank, deposits, bonds, stocks, real estate and gold?

Actually I could talk about the order of magnitude - real estate, stock, mutual funds, gold, savings bank and fixed deposits in that order. Real estate could be as high as 60 per cent of the overall investment portfolio.

Tell us about your most successful investment?

If I could talk about the best, disproportionate returns if you will, it would come from the Infosys stock. I had bought it at the time of the initial public offering and there were no takers for the issue. I used some of the proceeds from the sale of the stock to build my house.

Which is the one mistake in investing or saving that you regret?

I think a mistake I made was to sell an apartment just because I got a 15 per cent increase in value. If I had held on, the value of the property would have doubled in just a few years time. The biggest learning is “never sell property, unless you really, really have to”.

Have you thought about building your retirement corpus? How are you creating this corpus?

I am doing this by consciously investing a portion of my earnings in systematic investment options. I believe that mutual funds can really help in the long run.

How do you plan your investments to beat inflation?

I think real estate appreciation really beats inflation and that is my bet for the future. Similarly I believe systematic and regular investments in the stock market, either through mutual funds or otherwise can counter inflation.

What is your message on saving and investing for young people just starting their careers?

Start young. Be regular. Whatever the amount, however small, invest regularly month after month. Determine a percentage of your income that will be saved. You are never too young to start saving. One thought which may seem a bit strange. Help someone else. A poor servant's daughter whom you can send to school. Help someone, anyone to a better life. Remember that in India, it is only people who are a little more affluent who can help their less fortunate brethren.

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