Understanding from the newlywed Yayati Gaikwad how he accomplished his Marriage goal at the age of 29
Q) How does it feel to plan and achieve a milestone like this ?
Answer: It feels great! the sense of achievement is incomparable. Everything on the way was worth it. Right from the first day I wrote my finances on a piece of paper to the blue seas of Maldives. Everything makes me feel more proud of the entire journey and the decisions I took at the right time and in the right direction.
Q) How important was planning and did it seem achievable in the very beginning?
Answer: Planning is the only reason I could achieve my goal. The first hour of my first meeting with Patole Kaka was only about what I want to do with my money, where do I want to reach, what goals do I have to keep in mind and how important was it to take the steps required to reach my marriage and other goals.
Q) What methodology did you follow with respect to your Finances ?
Answer: We started off by keeping money into two buckets – Short Term Bucket and Long Term Bucket so that I have the right balance of growing money and saving money products. Along with it I made sure that my goals were adequately protected from financial adversities and to do that I bought pure insurance products from right companies. This way I kicked off my financial journey in a steady and disciplined manner.
Q) How important discipline was and what compromises you had to do in terms of Spending Money?
Answer: I discovered from here how discipline can be fun and rewarding. There were no compromises, I just watchfully made my idle money work for me. Patole Kaka switched the old common savings formula of every household to a smart one, which not only helped me save a lot of money but also regularized my monthly expenses.
Old Formula :-
Income – Expenses = Savings
(Fixed) (Variable) (Variable)
Smart Formula :-
Income – Savings = Expenses
(Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed)
Q) In today’s world of the Internet how important was your financial coach’s help in the journey ?
Answer: Coming from the media background, I understand how confusing and intimidating information can be. While I had some basic knowledge about investing, I was looking for proper guidance and direction, and hence seeking professional help was a right step. Patole Kaka and his team explained me Personal Finance in plain English and handheld me throughout the journey. The jargons, advertisements, and countless number of apps are all the more confusing. Hence, I decided to seek professional help which helped me understand my goals better and made me invest my money in that direction.
Q) What are your future plans now, after accomplishment of this Goal and with such great experience ?
Answer: Since I am married now, new priorities have set in and my goals have changed accordingly. It is important to categorise our life goals into short term and long term. While there is no perfect plan for anything, I have listed a few inevitable milestones such as Retirement, Owning a house, Family planning, Leisure and Health. The bottom line remains the same, making the idle money work and make changes whenever necessary.
Q) What is your message to Young Investors reading this ?
Answer: One important thing I realized is starting early, and I would urge everyone to follow this. Start investing as soon as you start earning. It can be a minimum amount, but that can do wonders in the coming 10 years. It is important to realize how passive income evolves and helps us to achieve and elevate our goals and aspirations. The old saying, ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ holds true when it comes to securing our future and hence, the younger lot should not ignore planning for their future.
Lastly, I would always recommend seeking professional help. While technology has made our lives easy, it is not foolproof. You may have all the top apps and platforms in the world, but if you do not have the right knowledge, it will never help you. Therefore, it is important to seek professional advice. Compared to an uninformed wrong decision, well-researched advice is any day better and can earn higher value, even if it incurs a small percentage of the additional cost.
