I spoke with a couple of wealth advisors to review my investments and help me plan for the future. As an NRI, I already have a basic understanding of personal finance and have been investing consistently for years. The goal wasn’t to start from scratch, but to get a second opinion.
The most interesting takeaway wasn’t about stocks, mutual funds, gold, or real estate.
It was this:
There is no single investment strategy. There are investment philosophies.
The independent advisor wanted me to reduce my mutual fund exposure, increase bond allocation, accumulate gold for a future house purchase, and build exposure to US markets for my kid’s future.
The bank manager had a very different view. Continue mutual fund SIPs, increase small-cap exposure, book profits periodically, and create a long-term corpus that can eventually fund education expenses through the returns it generates.
Both were experienced.
Both were credible.
Both had completely different approaches.
And that’s when I realized that most experts aren’t giving you answers. They’re giving you a framework through which they view the world.
The same was true for buying a house.
One suggestion was to accumulate gold and convert it into a down payment later.
Another was to buy now and benefit from appreciation.
Another was to rent for a year after returning to India and decide later.
Yet another was to buy land instead.
Four different approaches to solve the same problem.
The lesson for me was simple.
Don’t look for someone to make the decision for you.
Instead, understand the philosophy behind the advice and see if it matches your goals, risk appetite, and lifestyle.
That’s probably true for more than just investing.
From the execution side
We launched Dadan 2.0 last week.
For those who are new here, I head the marketing function at Dadan, an AI video platform based out of Riyadh.
The launch was exciting, messy, stressful, and fun — exactly how startup launches are supposed to be.
The weekend was filled with customer queries, bug reports, feature requests, and last-minute fixes. One moment I was discussing marketing strategy, and the next I was helping prioritize product improvements and deciding which feature to build next.
That’s probably my favorite part about startups.
You don’t get to stay inside your job description for too long.
One day you’re a marketer.
The next day, you’re a product manager.
And sometimes you’re customer support.
What are you working on right now?
Hit reply and let me know. One of my favorite parts of writing this newsletter is learning what the people reading it are building.
See you guys next week.