Abhi
Hi welcome to LittleSaves. My name is Abhi. I am from the southern part of India. Little Saves is my website chronicling my journey towards my investment goal of 5-to-5-in-12. I wish to follow this rigorous path and prove to my self and the world that little saves can give big returns and that it is possible for one to make crores and achieve financial independence without sacrificing sleep, family time and health.
All about Abhi
I am 28 years old, live in Bangalore and belong to the millennial generation. I’m married and have a daughter who is now 3 months old 🙂
Born into a lower middle class family, I’m the 2nd of three children. Both my parents are un-educated (I say this because they didn’t go to school, as a matter of fact they are quite educated and wise when it comes to matters of the world). I have one elder sister who is married and in Mumbai and a younger sister studying in college in Hyderabad.
Growing up in a lower middle class household in India meant that you get an early start on experiential learning. You get to be enterprising and help around the house always. Once I started going to college, I got a job to take care of my expenses. My first job during college days were at a call center in Bangalore. Back in 2010 I worked 12 hours through the night for a sum of Rs.7000 per month, while going through full time college in the daytime.
Once I got my Mechanical Engineering degree, like all others, I too joined a software firm in Bangalore. The past 6 years I have worked my ass off, brought my salary all the way from Rs.7,000 to Rs.94,000. And learnt to enjoy the finer things in life which I could not in my childhood.
Why 5-to-5-in-12?
3 months ago, my daughter was born. I started thinking long and hard about savings and where my earnings from the past 10 years of work went. If you have already read my lifestyle you will know that I have spent a lot on luxuries and got back very little the past 10 years.
I have another human being to take care of. She needs go through school, college and finally marriage. I became panic stricken. It felt hopeless that I will hunched in front of a computer till I turn 58 and finally retire and go straight to an old age home.
I wanted to change this. Not too long back I heard about FIRE (financial independence and retire early) practitioners. I decided to come up with an aggressive yet achievable plan and goal for myself. Taking all the money I had, I charted out how much of a corpus I would need. Then factoring in inflation, my final goal was Rs. 5 Crores! I only had Rs.5 Lakhs in hand. Still, the fun is in the challenge, I set up the target to achieve this goal in 12 years.
Little Saves
India has multiple languages. In each one of those languages there is a regional proverb on saving little for a better off life in the future. Sadly this piece of wisdom never took hold amongst my generation. I can speak for my friends who spend more on alcohol, cigarettes and weed than most do for a home loan.
I want this to change. One of my ulterior motives with LittleSaves.com is to increase awareness in the newer generations on the habit of saving. In my journey towards 5-to-5-in-12, there will be a number of ups and downs and learning. I hope to write down all of this here to be of some use to every Indian, young, old and even those yet to be born.
Finally, my Superpower
Like most Indians I am quite shrewd when it comes to money matters. But I take it up several notches up. I have a nose and knack for finding deals, getting the best rate for anything and almost everything. It is a fact that for every Re.1 I buy, I only pay Re.0.75. The remaining Re.025 is made up as cashbacks, loyalty points, discounts etc.
Throughout my journey towards financial independence, I will be showing you how to make your money work hard and also to buy to your heart’s desire and still spend lesser than you have before. Keep following me and 6 months from now, I guarantee you, you will realize that I have shown you a number of tricks and jugaads that has saved you your hard earned cash.
