 |
| P.V. Subramanyam |
“Investment”
is a word that challenges the intellect of every investor, followed
with the prolonged and topsy-turvy discussions with almost everyone
he knows. Suddenly, everyone around him dons the hat of a financial
advisor, offers guidance that confounds him totally and this creates
even more baffling situation for a naive investor. Contrarily, the
answer that he seeks, paves the path for myriad other questions. At
the end, he feels himself being trapped in the cobweb of financial
planning and investment.
This led to the
increasing demand of trusted and experienced advisors. Hence, with
the aim of solving this problem of thousands and saving the amount in
millions, the two financial bloggers, P.V.Subramanyam (Author) and
M.Pattabiraman
(Co-author) teamed up to pen down the most effective
and compelling investing essentials and calculators, in their
jargon-free book 'You can be Rich with Goal Based Investing',
that a novice investor can easily comprehend.
P.V. Subramanyam
is a Chartered Accountant by profession and has conducted over 50
training sessions on ‘Finance for Non Finance companies’ for
major industries that include mutual funds, life insurance companies,
private sector banks and brokerage houses. M. Pattabiraman is an
Associate Professor
& Researcher at IIT-M and has also won Young Faculty
Recognition Award.
1. You are in the
finance industry since three decades. Please share with us your
experience and the thing about the Indian financial sector that
amuses you the most.
P.V. Subramanyam:
Been a good ride, God has been kind. I have donned the role of an
investor, sub-broker, fund manager, broker-advisor, and now blogger,
investor, and financial coach. Each role that I did in the past has
been a good step. However when I did CA, got trained as a lawyer, did
company secretarial work- I had no clue that each step will add so
much value. Like I said God has been kind. I do think, I have a
special skill to be lucky.
People happily make
mistake of buying inefficient and expensive products for millions,
BUT refusing to spend even in '000s for financial education. However,
this is true in many fields. People spend Rs. 75000 on a camera but
will not spend Rs. 7500 for one day workshop by a good photographer
to learn how the camera works.
2. Being deeply
involved in physics and quantum research, what inspired you to become
a financial blogger?
 |
| M. Pattabiraman |
3. What was the
motivating factor and the most challenging thing that you both came
across, while writing this book?
P.V. Subramanyam:
Motivating factor- The ONLY way to INVEST is being GOAL ORIENTED
while investing. The biggest FAILURE of investing is when the
investment is UNABLE to meet
the GOALS for which
one is investing. So, my co-author Pattu and I were convinced that
knowing where a person is, where he wants to grow, what instruments
he can use, what route, what kind of risks lie in the path can be
made into a small, simple book. Pattu came in as the Calculator king
to create www.goalbasedinvesting.in
The challenge was to
simplify it to basic English and dejargonise so that a layman would
not be intimidated by the content. The feedback so far is that we
have reasonably achieved this.
M.Pattabiraman:
The book is essentially Subra’s
vision: Invest with a goal by asking the right questions and seek
simple solutions. The
common problem among investing
books is the gap between thought and action. There are problems when
the reader tries to implement what is written. The calculators
associated with the book will reduce this gap since the reader can
now create personalised investment solutions.
The only challenge
was to convert Excel sheets into online tools. However, the
publishing team took this burden off my shoulder and handled this
efficiently.
4. When two people
write together, there is a lot of learning process that one
undergoes. What did you learn from your co-author?
P.V. Subramanyam:
My learning from Pattu was actually over long ago- in fact long
before we started this project. I could spell out a need and Pattu
could use his Excel skills to convert that into a calculator in a
jiffy. Once I knew he had that skill, I did not want to learn it. It
was much easier to ask him for a calculator instead of trying to
learn what he was doing. In a time of specialisation, re-inventing
the wheel made no sense.
M.Pattabiraman: I
have been learning from Subra for many years now. The seeds for this
book were sown when he reviewed my first calculators 4-5 years ago.
His investing experience has resulted in an intuitive perception of
risk and reward which is quite unique. This is great food for thought
to create simple tools that anybody can use to illustrate and
understand his ideas.
5. The book
basically deals with the investing techniques that one should follow.
Do you both also practice these techniques?
P.V.Subramanyam:
A lot of it yes. For e.g. I would know which of my investments
are earmarked for what- and which asset is the fall back option if
the main investment was to fall short.
M.Pattabiraman:
Yes, to a tee.
6. It's a typical
Indian habit to compare things. So, according to you, how Indian
investing pattern differs from the Western culture and what effect it
creates on our economy?
P.V.Subramanyam:
It takes much longer time to do a due diligence with Indian
companies. Overall there is no 'Indian investing pattern', at least I
am not able to spot it.
M.Pattabiraman:
It is human to compare. In
general, I think everyone has similar ideas of risk and reward.
7. There is a common
belief among the investors that 'Investing is the easiest way to
double up the money' and with this perception many people get
attracted towards investing, who later end up making huge losses.
What advice would you like to give them about investing?
P.V.Subramanyam:
Doubling, Trebling, etc. sound good. However, while investing one
needs patience. Investment in good quality companies have given 100
times earnings over say 20 years, why should you be happy with a mere
doubling?
M.Pattabiraman:
Watch a video on how Bamboo
plants grow. Nothing happens for years, followed by spectacular
growth. Money grows in a similar way for those who patiently invest.
