When I say Millionaires I mean US $ Millionaires – which means these people have liquid net worth of at least Rs. 7 crores (as I know it)..could be more, and does not include their primary residence for sure. That itself could be upwards of 4-5 crores depending on where they live in Mumbai (most of them are Mumbai centric). Their strategies is what I am going to enumerate, but one thing common is NONE of them is in this journey alone – all of them have an adviser. All of them. They have a broker or mutual fund agent or a bank relationship manager – somebody n the path along with them. Yes, I was surprised to see a bank relationship manager too – but the relationship has gone beyond the bank. The RM has changed 2 jobs and the AUM has walked along with her.

1. Most of them have a simple portfolio: As expected most of them have an equity portfolio – that is handled by a broker/ adviser and the portfolios are simple, non complicated. One Millionaire had shares in about 80 companies – but he is the exception, not the rule.
2. Most of the wealth has been created by direct equity, real estate, or by just saving a dramatically big portion of their income.
3. Almost all of them had some inheritance, but 90% of their portfolio appreciation has been self created.
4. Most of them trust their advisers blindly.
5. Equity investing has been all over the place for some of them – one person had investments in 200 companies. I got them to prune it down to about 60 in the first round. But he is again the exception.
6. A builder having zero investment in RE (other than his own house) – however he funds property holding. Complicated, but profitable he says. Explaining this will take a post by itself.
7. One Millionaire (actually equity portfolio of Rs 30 crores) has divided his portfolio among 3 fund managers (as businessmen), and does day trading, delivery based investing, value investing…..apart from running his own business.
8. Almost all of them agree that earning is far easier than preserving.