Investing is difficult not because investing is a great science or a great art form, but the money to invest has to come from savings.

Many people live beyond their means and are thus not in a possession to build up any savings. No savings clearly means that there is no money available for investing.  If you do not invest, there is no corpus being built. Now imagine a guy with a ctc of Rs. 18L – and at the age of say 30 years (this is not a bad salary at all, right?) not being able to save even one rupee?

I had done a similar story about this guy in 2011…he is still around, still a bachelor, supports his family…but has no savings. He will NEVER, ever be able to buy a house – forget building a corpus for retirement. He still has hope though – he could still marry rich 🙂 . If she brings in some dowry or a nice fat salary…then ‘they’ could retire..on his own this guy is doomed.

‘I earn Rs. 18L CTC – and clearly I am overpaid. However I am not able to save a rupee – I have no idea where my money goes’

Can you believe this…if you are a middle class Indian?

I found it a little amusing…but not difficult to believe. When I spoke to him, I just heard some of his expenses – Rs. 3000 for a gift for a colleague’s wedding, EMI on a car, and EMI on a motorcycle. Rented house – supporting his parents so paying Rs. 23,000 as rent.

These were too adhoc, so I did not want to be judgmental. So I asked him to maintain accounts for at least a couple of months before I could comment….and here are the expenses:

i was not as stunned to see this. This guy is about 33 years of age – works as an accountant – and as he himself admits, he is well paid. He is still a bachelor, says he is not a big spender – and has ZERO savings – except for some mutual funds (80C), nsc, and ppf.

I said my life style is very different, cannot comment on yours.

However readers are welcome to comment. He reads my blog….:-)