Nikhil Taneja | Yuvaa

[00:00:03] Welcome to Off The Beat brought to you by SPI Mutual Fund.

[00:00:06] I am Jagu and this is the space where we track down people who have left fabulous corporate

[00:00:13] jobs and are now pursuing their passion.

[00:00:17] We have as a matter of fact one of them with us today, we have Nikhil Taneja.

[00:00:21] He's the co-founder of Uva and before we get into what it is that Uva does, here's

[00:00:26] a little bit of background.

[00:00:28] Now Nikhil has always been in media.

[00:00:32] He's worked for a national newspaper, HD.

[00:00:35] He's also been on the television and video side of things.

[00:00:39] He's worked with MTV, Viacom, 18, YRF, all of that.

[00:00:44] He's also teaching journalism at Jai Hind, the College of Journalism.

[00:00:51] But most importantly right now he runs Uva.

[00:00:54] Now the thing with entrepreneurs especially people who have just about started out either

[00:00:58] right now or even a few years ago, money, cash, fund flow tends to get lumpy.

[00:01:06] Sometimes non-existent, sometimes it comes like God has given it.

[00:01:10] Sometimes it can be a tough right.

[00:01:12] Sometimes it's easy.

[00:01:13] All of that is true.

[00:01:14] The point is we need to smoothen it out.

[00:01:16] We need to have savings in place.

[00:01:17] We need to plan for the future.

[00:01:19] We need to plan for emergencies.

[00:01:21] We need to plan for certain contingencies, all of that.

[00:01:24] So to help us out with that so that we can in our own little way contribute to what Nikhil

[00:01:29] does over at Uva, we have Sanchita Mukherjee.

[00:01:33] Now Sanchita is the co-founder of Blue Edge.

[00:01:36] Blue Edge is a multi-family investment office.

[00:01:38] Now this is something that has been founded by Sanchita and her partners after over two

[00:01:44] decades of experience at multinational banks.

[00:01:46] Nikhil, Sanchita, thank you for joining us and welcome to the show.

[00:01:49] Thank you so much for having us, Jaggu.

[00:01:51] We're very, very excited to be part of this podcast.

[00:01:54] Hi, everyone.

[00:01:55] My name is Sanchita Mukherjee and I'm very happy to be on the show.

[00:01:58] Absolutely.

[00:01:59] As am I.

[00:02:00] Now, Sanchita, I'm going to ask you to be a fly on the wall so that we're focused on

[00:02:05] the input that Nikhil gives us.

[00:02:06] Nikhil, let me come over to you.

[00:02:10] As we figured in the introduction, lot of media experience.

[00:02:14] We're talking films.

[00:02:15] We're talking OTT platforms, social media platforms, reality shows you've produced,

[00:02:18] you've directed, you've scripted.

[00:02:20] You've done all of that.

[00:02:21] By now, you could just as well have been producing a Bollywood film, but you're not

[00:02:26] doing that.

[00:02:27] You chose to co-found Yuvah.

[00:02:30] Now, Yuvah is a media organization that focuses on youth issues.

[00:02:36] I want you to expand on that for us and then we'll get into why it is that you

[00:02:40] started Yuvah, but to begin with, what is Yuvah?

[00:02:42] Yes, absolutely.

[00:02:43] I could have been in Bollywood.

[00:02:45] I spent actually so many years of my life in Yash Raj films, which is really the

[00:02:50] Mecca of Bollywood in many ways.

[00:02:51] But Yuvah is a Gen Z driven youth media research and impact organization.

[00:02:58] Our aim is to create socially conscious entertainment.

[00:03:01] We work on purpose-driven solutions to empower young Indians.

[00:03:04] We try and create meaningful content online and start meaningful conversations

[00:03:10] offline. What it means is we genuinely just pick up issues that are very

[00:03:14] urgent for young people, including mental health, gender equality, LGBTQ

[00:03:19] rights, body possibility, everything else that young people in India are going

[00:03:23] through. And we try to find an accessible way of reaching them so that they

[00:03:27] feel a little less alone.

[00:03:29] How do we find interesting ways of saying important things?

[00:03:35] So yes, we do online content.

[00:03:36] We do campus activations.

[00:03:37] We do research, but everything is aimed at impact.

[00:03:41] You know, you mentioned Gen Z and so much media has focused towards

[00:03:45] that so much of social media as well as money in terms of advertising,

[00:03:51] in terms of content being created for the Gen Z population.

[00:03:55] We're all focused towards that.

[00:03:57] Is it fair to say that they have the most life exposure as far as a

[00:04:02] generation is concerned?

[00:04:04] But you know, at some level, they're also one of the most,

[00:04:06] if not the most conflicted generation.

[00:04:08] Am I being fair when I say that?

[00:04:10] You are quite on point with regards to the conflicted generation.

[00:04:16] And a lot of that is when you say life experience, I'll actually divide

[00:04:20] that into two or life exposure, you said.

[00:04:22] So I'll say they do have the most exposure than any other generation

[00:04:27] because they're digital natives born with a mobile in their hand.

[00:04:30] They've grown up, you know, googling anything, any question they've had.

[00:04:35] They've had pages and pages of Google answers.

[00:04:38] What that has done is that, you know, when I was growing up and I had

[00:04:42] when I get in argument with my parents and my parents would say

[00:04:45] I don't know anything.

[00:04:47] You know, they were probably right.

[00:04:48] You know, I actually did not know enough at like 13, 14, 15.

[00:04:52] Except that when a parent today says that to a Gen Z kid,

[00:04:55] they are wrong because Gen Z is probably no more than the parents.

[00:04:59] They have.

[00:04:59] If they don't know it, they Google it.

[00:05:01] Yeah, if they don't know it, they Google it.

[00:05:02] And by the time they finish Googling it, they probably know

[00:05:05] like 10 times as much as the parents do.

[00:05:07] So so they do have that understanding.

[00:05:10] They do have the knowledge, the awareness, the intelligence that,

[00:05:13] you know, none of us did at that age.

[00:05:16] But what they don't have is the life experience

[00:05:19] because they are still very young.

[00:05:20] And that's where the conflict comes from, you know, that we treat them

[00:05:24] still as young people, you know, and as kids, you know, in many ways,

[00:05:29] except that their intellectual capacity is a lot more than any one

[00:05:33] of us at that age, you know, so they are intellectually

[00:05:36] many times are equal, sometimes they're even better than us.

[00:05:38] They're smarter than us, they know far more than us.

[00:05:41] But they just don't have the lived experience because of which,

[00:05:45] you know, there is that eternal conflict.

[00:05:48] I feel like the generation gap that has always existed

[00:05:50] has now kind of turned into a communication gap.

[00:05:52] Ah, fair enough. OK.

[00:05:54] So yes, communication gap.

[00:05:55] Now let me come to that.

[00:05:57] Something has made you shift gears and quite dramatically

[00:06:02] as a matter of fact to focus on this.

[00:06:05] What made you say that there is a gap here somewhere?

[00:06:08] And I want to come back to what you had said to put out

[00:06:10] interesting content on important issues.

[00:06:13] What made you personally make that shift?

[00:06:16] So short answer, I was diagnosed with clinical anxiety

[00:06:21] when I was 29 or 30 and 35 right now.

[00:06:25] It hit me in a way that I could not imagine because,

[00:06:30] you know, the understanding of mental health,

[00:06:33] unfortunately, is that it only happens when you are at a bad

[00:06:36] place in your life or you're at a low in your life,

[00:06:39] you know, something's going wrong and then suddenly you have

[00:06:40] mental health issues.

[00:06:42] I become, you know, a GM at 30.

[00:06:45] But but when I when I was diagnosed with anxiety,

[00:06:49] I just, you know, I mean, anxiety does a lot of things to you.

[00:06:55] It makes you question.

[00:06:57] It can be life consuming.

[00:06:59] It can be life consuming.

[00:07:00] And it can also make you question all your life choices.

[00:07:03] You know, and it can it can make you.

[00:07:06] And again, I don't think it was necessarily related to the kind

[00:07:09] of work that I was doing, but it was more about it kind of pushed

[00:07:12] me to question every bit of the time that I was spending

[00:07:17] and whether or not I was finding meaning in that time.

[00:07:20] You know, and, you know, because I just felt like if

[00:07:24] after achieving everything in many ways that there's a

[00:07:27] middle class checklist that my mother might have had for me,

[00:07:30] if after having achieved that at such an early age,

[00:07:33] I'm still not finding fulfillment inside of me,

[00:07:36] then there's clearly something more over here.

[00:07:38] And I was living a life path that I think comes very

[00:07:41] pre decided for young men in our country that here's the mission statement.

[00:07:46] You have please follow the.

[00:07:48] Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:07:49] So there's a mission statement you have.

[00:07:51] You focus on that mission statement.

[00:07:52] Get a sort of the money, get a house, get a, you know,

[00:07:55] get married, you have kids, you know, and retire some day.

[00:07:59] And, you know, then maybe if you have some time, you can be happy.

[00:08:02] And my basic question was why can't I be happy right now?

[00:08:05] Why do I have to consistently follow a certain set path?

[00:08:10] And the moment I kind of took a break from my career,

[00:08:13] I kind of quit everything I was doing and just went on a little bit of

[00:08:19] sabbatical to understand who I am outside of the story in many ways

[00:08:24] that has been given to me by my gender.

[00:08:27] You know, these are deep things, but

[00:08:30] no, I see exactly where you're coming from.

[00:08:32] And it's an issue that a lot of people are grappling with.

[00:08:35] We are in a world where every young person has so much to say,

[00:08:37] but there is very few people who listen, you know, and I wanted to start

[00:08:41] an organization that listens to young people.

[00:08:43] So I keep saying research a lot, but we do a lot of listening.

[00:08:46] I've gone again.

[00:08:48] I think my claim to fame, so to speak, and your husband that before

[00:08:51] the pandemic, I went across 250 campuses.

[00:08:54] You know, I traveled the length and breadth of India.

[00:08:56] I went to 34 cities.

[00:08:58] I met over 10,000 young people in person between 2019 and 20.

[00:09:03] And I just heard them.

[00:09:04] I have now heard young people grappling with it.

[00:09:06] And I have been changed by their stories, you know, and I want to now

[00:09:10] find a way of how do we listen to young people?

[00:09:12] How do we reach out to them?

[00:09:13] How do we make them feel about that?

[00:09:15] Really the larger velocity of you are.

[00:09:17] So tell me what you've always been doing all this time.

[00:09:20] I know you'll have a tie up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

[00:09:24] You're doing a lot of work with the social media platforms like

[00:09:27] Amazon, Spotify, if I'm not mistaken.

[00:09:29] What is this content that you're driving and what does you then hope to achieve?

[00:09:33] Yeah, so I mean, it's a it's a video.

[00:09:35] A lot of things actually have multiple verticals.

[00:09:38] You know, the front facing, of course, is content.

[00:09:40] We create content on social media and Instagram, YouTube, Facebook,

[00:09:44] Twitter, we, you know, and these are short format videos around issues

[00:09:48] that I spoke of.

[00:09:49] So almost every day we have five to six pieces of content.

[00:09:52] We have about 300, we have about 400, 400, 500,000 followers

[00:09:56] across the social media platforms.

[00:09:58] So on a daily basis, you know, we are we have an editorial voice

[00:10:02] about issues that young people and we present it in an interesting way.

[00:10:06] As I said, outside of that, we do a lot of campaigns with some

[00:10:10] of India's top brands and nonprofits.

[00:10:12] So from Tinder India to Amazon, to an Instagram, to Facebook,

[00:10:17] I mean, right now to IBM to Spotify to fast track, you name it.

[00:10:23] We have worked on socially conscious and purpose driven campaigns with them

[00:10:27] or Gen Z focused campaigns with them.

[00:10:29] And we do the same similar kind of work with nonprofits.

[00:10:32] So as an example, you know, just last month we launched

[00:10:35] at the National Health Conclave National Mental Health Conclave

[00:10:39] in Gujarat a research paper and manifesto for the government of Gujarat

[00:10:45] with in association with UNICEF India about the challenges

[00:10:48] that young people are going through and what the demands are.

[00:10:52] So it was a youth manifesto, one of our kind that we launched.

[00:10:56] And on another end, we've just last month, you know, tied up

[00:11:00] with YouTube India and did an event called the Pride Class of 2022

[00:11:05] where we had 10 queer young creators who we felicitated

[00:11:10] and gave them graduation.

[00:11:11] I did a graduation ceremony for them.

[00:11:14] So, you know, yeah, so we've recognition them.

[00:11:17] Yeah, exactly.

[00:11:17] So we're trying to work on how do we find a way to drive impact

[00:11:23] in the lives of young people through doing, you know, whether it is research,

[00:11:27] whether it is campus activations, whether it is content pieces,

[00:11:31] whether it is campaigns, whether it is social media.

[00:11:34] We are now actually just entered into original content as well.

[00:11:37] So I'm actually going to go back into producing a little bit.

[00:11:40] I just launched two short films with Amazon Mini TV.

[00:11:45] We are working on a long form series as well.

[00:11:47] I can't talk much about it, but and they will all have all these issues

[00:11:51] we're talking about at that scale.

[00:11:53] Now what we discussed, Nikhil and Sanjita, I'm going to get you in here.

[00:11:58] The discussion that we had had was a couple of primary aims

[00:12:03] that Nikhil and his family have.

[00:12:06] One is the ability to buy an apartment.

[00:12:10] To buy a roof over one's head, to have a roof over one's head.

[00:12:14] And Nikhil and his partner are also thinking or planning

[00:12:18] about planning on having a baby.

[00:12:19] Is that not right, Nikhil?

[00:12:20] Yeah, I mean, I'm hoping to have it have one

[00:12:24] at some point soon.

[00:12:25] Yes, for sure.

[00:12:26] Now, Sanjita, we wanted your help.

[00:12:29] And Nikhil, I'm going to ask you to address this directly to Sanjita

[00:12:32] in terms of what you're looking for and the kind of corpus that

[00:12:36] you believe you need.

[00:12:37] And then Sanjita will hopefully be able to break it down for us

[00:12:40] and give us a target.

[00:12:41] Hi, Sanjita.

[00:12:42] Hi.

[00:12:44] Before we start, I would just like to say, Nikhil, this is fascinating.

[00:12:47] What I just heard is like really incredible work that you've been doing.

[00:12:52] And yes, I'm a person who's very, very passionate about the capital markets

[00:12:57] and my work is in the capital markets.

[00:13:00] However, I think I would be very happy to address

[00:13:04] your situation over here, given the kind of incredible work that you've been doing

[00:13:09] and ready to address the financial independence.

[00:13:11] Yes.

[00:13:13] Thanks so much.

[00:13:14] And thanks so much, Sanjita.

[00:13:15] That means a lot to me.

[00:13:17] Now, Nikhil, tell us in terms of primary residence,

[00:13:22] what you're hoping to plan for?

[00:13:25] So, of course, this is I'll be living in Mumbai.

[00:13:27] So anything that you want as a, you know, 35 year old

[00:13:34] professional who has been working for 15 years, I think,

[00:13:38] even though this is a really privileged conversation, of course,

[00:13:40] but you would want to have some sort of a 3BHK when you have a kid at some point.

[00:13:45] I mean, I live in a rented 2BHK for the last few years.

[00:13:48] And, you know, I mean, both my wife and I are working from home.

[00:13:54] So again, there's a lot of privilege there.

[00:13:55] You know, we managed to have jobs.

[00:13:57] You manage to still earn money.

[00:13:59] So I can't deny that at the same time, you know,

[00:14:03] Mumbai is the kind of place that if you are within four walls for a certain amount

[00:14:07] of time, you do get suffocated.

[00:14:09] You know, there is a lack of space in general.

[00:14:11] So the aim and the dream is that if you are going to have a career

[00:14:15] or you are going to have a life in a city like Mumbai,

[00:14:17] you should have a little bit of space.

[00:14:19] So that's really the aim.

[00:14:20] The aim is to kind of reach 3BHK, which at a very, even if I wanted

[00:14:25] to know in the suburbs and, you know, not a very outside bit of the suburbs,

[00:14:31] you know, Malat Goregaon kind of a suburb at the very minimum it is.

[00:14:35] 3BHK is going to be between three and a half, four crores.

[00:14:39] I have a couple of questions, Nikhil.

[00:14:42] Just straight off the bat.

[00:14:45] Would you be having any specific savings that you're looking at a down payment

[00:14:50] or not at this point in time?

[00:14:53] No, so I, you know, I want to get to a place where I'm able to give

[00:14:56] at least about, you know, 50% down payment.

[00:14:59] I also don't want to be oppressed by loans in many ways, you know,

[00:15:02] in a way that I don't want to live.

[00:15:03] I mean, I've chosen to leave my, so to speak, very corporate side of

[00:15:09] the media industry and started something of my own.

[00:15:11] So while I do take a salary for myself, it is obviously not at the same

[00:15:16] lines of what I could have gotten had I been working in a multinational

[00:15:21] or even an Indian production studio.

[00:15:24] So I do have savings.

[00:15:26] It's just that I want to, I don't want, you know, loans to dictate my life.

[00:15:30] So I want to be at a position where I have at least 50 to 55% down payment

[00:15:35] so that whatever else I am left with, I can find a way for the next five

[00:15:38] to seven years to be able to pay off for 10 years at the maximum,

[00:15:42] but not have to change my lifestyle or do work and choose work

[00:15:47] in a way that I have to always thinking of being off loans.

[00:15:51] Perfect.

[00:15:52] Now let me congratulate you.

[00:15:54] You're absolutely on the right path.

[00:15:56] If I may say so, because if you let's understand your exact breaking down

[00:16:03] your exact need and want and the questions which are asked to answer

[00:16:09] to that into more financial parlance.

[00:16:12] So you do have a capital, right?

[00:16:15] And you need to augment your capital by using the power of compounding

[00:16:20] to achieve, say a 50% of the down payment amount

[00:16:24] and augment that further by taking a home loan.

[00:16:29] Right? So currently, actually the home loan rates are one of the lowest

[00:16:34] in the industry because you know, of the interest rate cycle,

[00:16:37] that's already started increasing.

[00:16:38] The cycle has now moved forward a bit.

[00:16:40] So it's right now on the upward moving path.

[00:16:44] I mean, if you were to just read the headlines on a daily basis,

[00:16:47] however, the home loan rates are still substantially lower than

[00:16:52] traditionally what they have been.

[00:16:54] Right? So it's always a good idea to definitely go for the home loan.

[00:16:58] Now getting back to the power of compounding, I'll just take a simple

[00:17:03] anecdote, say if you imagine a snowball as it rolls down the hill,

[00:17:06] it hardens and keeps adding its size and picks up pace.

[00:17:10] By the time it reaches the bottom of the hill,

[00:17:12] we find that it has transformed into a huge and hard snowball with incredible speed.

[00:17:17] Right? So the basic point I'm trying to make is to achieve your goal.

[00:17:23] If you're starting off without a capital, it takes that much more time

[00:17:28] to achieve that next level of capital to address your dreams.

[00:17:32] However, here, let's assume you are targeting a four CR house, right?

[00:17:40] And assuming you have saved up one CR, I'm just assuming this.

[00:17:45] So even if I were to look at different asset classes, for example,

[00:17:49] if I were to look at equity, which is known to be a very growth-oriented asset class,

[00:17:55] right? Vis-a-vis fixed income would be your bonds, fixed deposits, all of that.

[00:18:00] Right? Land, gold, et cetera, all of that are separate classes of assets.

[00:18:04] So let's assume growth capital, which is equity and within equity,

[00:18:10] since you've just started or you're just visualizing a portfolio for yourself.

[00:18:16] If you're like a first-time investor, if so, hence not direct stocks.

[00:18:19] If you were to look at well-diversified equity mutual funds, say for example,

[00:18:24] any decent well-diversified equity mutual fund for which you'll have to go

[00:18:29] to a registered investment advisor and understand how that works.

[00:18:33] If I were to take, say the Nifty 50 TRI returns for the last,

[00:18:37] I don't know, 20 years, 15, 20 years, assuming a rate of return of,

[00:18:42] say 14%, if you invest your one crore and you do,

[00:18:48] you just mentioned you have a horizon of five to seven years.

[00:18:51] Given the five and a half years, you should be able to generate another one

[00:18:55] CR on top of it. So one plus one, that'll be two CR.

[00:19:00] So two CR is what you'll have in your pocket to make a down payment.

[00:19:03] And the rest of the two CR, you should definitely go and take a home loan

[00:19:07] because of all the tax advantages that is there.

[00:19:10] Plus the fact that the interest rates are low right now in the economy.

[00:19:15] So that would be very beneficial.

[00:19:18] So but having said that, what we need to understand in equity mutual funds

[00:19:23] is that there is a lot of volatility involved in the interim.

[00:19:27] So if you're looking at five years, which is great, I mean, one can envisage

[00:19:31] you know, 14, 15% you know, very healthy growth of return.

[00:19:36] However, what we need to be very mindful is as an asset class,

[00:19:39] it is extremely volatile.

[00:19:41] Right? It is open to the vagaries of the market and equity returns are very lumpy in nature.

[00:19:46] So you'll have one great year, you might have two really bad years.

[00:19:50] However, it is a very long term asset class and it's one of the most

[00:19:53] significant asset classes in our generation where one can expect

[00:19:58] to have a wealth creation made.

[00:20:00] So keeping that in mind, one should just look at, say, maybe starting off

[00:20:07] in tranches, in SIPs, investing your capital into well-researched,

[00:20:15] diversified equity mutual funds and then giving it that much time

[00:20:19] and leeway to generate that return for you.

[00:20:23] That sounds encouraging, but I like the same time always a little scary

[00:20:28] because there's always a little nervousness.

[00:20:32] I've not been a savvy investor for that matter, you know,

[00:20:37] uncle and I would get very angry, but I've always preferred

[00:20:40] fixed deposits to anything else.

[00:20:43] But now I'm open because I feel like I'm also at that stage

[00:20:47] where I do understand the value-add of having greater returns

[00:20:53] and I'm not at that place where I need those greater returns.

[00:20:56] See, you will be very comfortable in knowing that equity mutual funds

[00:21:01] actually provide very good risk diversification by investing

[00:21:05] in a portfolio of stocks across different industry sector.

[00:21:09] That's point number one.

[00:21:11] And having said that, they are managed by professional fund managers

[00:21:14] who have a lot of experience, expertise in investing in stock markets.

[00:21:18] It's also a very, very well-regulated industry and SEBI's oversight

[00:21:23] makes mutual funds relatively safer compared to if you were to do,

[00:21:26] say direct stocks and all of that because that is definitely not advisable

[00:21:30] that tantamounts to trading and speculation and all of that.

[00:21:34] And as a first time investor, you should definitely not go down that route.

[00:21:39] But mutual funds are highly transparent investments.

[00:21:42] So AMC's, you know, they disclose the underlying

[00:21:44] securities of mutual fund schemes, the exit loads, capital gain,

[00:21:49] taxations and various performance metrics are there.

[00:21:53] And given that you as an investor, you're seeing categorically

[00:21:57] that I have five years plus kind of a horizon.

[00:22:00] Yes, it's definitely a growth asset class that one should look at.

[00:22:04] Sanjita, actually he makes an interesting point.

[00:22:08] I just want to break this down.

[00:22:10] If we have an apartment that we're looking at buying for four crores,

[00:22:13] he wants to make two crores as a down payment.

[00:22:15] And then the other two crores will be a home loan

[00:22:18] and that home loan can of course be 25, 30 years.

[00:22:21] We're assuming he has a crore already in the bank

[00:22:24] in in low yielding investments like fixed deposits.

[00:22:28] You're saying he should take that crore and make money work for him?

[00:22:32] Absolutely. Make that money work smarter for him

[00:22:36] because if it keeps it in now, so now I'll go on to other asset class

[00:22:40] if you continue with the fixed deposit,

[00:22:43] if you continue say with the PPF given, I mean, there's nothing wrong

[00:22:46] in doing so, but different floats for different boats.

[00:22:49] Say a person investing in fixed income assets or a fixed deposit,

[00:22:53] etc., would be looking at income generation at a certain point in time.

[00:22:57] That would be typically a person who's retired

[00:23:00] and who needs a cash flow generation.

[00:23:02] The objectives here are very different.

[00:23:04] For Nikhil, he's young.

[00:23:07] He's clearly looking at growth capital

[00:23:09] because he needs to have a house.

[00:23:12] He's not looking at cash generation or a steady flow of cash income

[00:23:17] from his fixed deposit and all of that.

[00:23:19] So he cannot meet with a growth capital

[00:23:23] at a 6% or a 7% rate of return.

[00:23:27] Sanjita, let me ask you another thing.

[00:23:29] And I'm sure you also have a clientele

[00:23:32] or you've come across many such situations where

[00:23:36] someone in their 30s, not even halfway through their career,

[00:23:40] there's more than one thing that needs to be plotted.

[00:23:42] Whether it is buying a house, retirement, savings, etc.,

[00:23:48] for Nikhil, it's also the plan to have a child.

[00:23:52] Is it too early for him and his wife to already be plotting

[00:23:58] that also in which case it might take away a little capital

[00:24:01] from what he's trying to build for the apartment

[00:24:03] or now is not the time to do that?

[00:24:05] I love your choice of word plotting.

[00:24:08] Nikhil, are you plotting with your wife to have a child?

[00:24:12] Yeah, we put together flow charts and put stickers on boards

[00:24:19] and then connect them using threads.

[00:24:21] Oh no, there goes all your romance.

[00:24:24] Yeah, just like the films do.

[00:24:29] So alright, no, but very, very valid question

[00:24:33] and yes, you're completely right.

[00:24:34] People in their 30s have different objectives

[00:24:37] and a lot of it would encompass having a primary residence,

[00:24:43] definitely having a child, planning for vacations,

[00:24:47] planning even for retirement.

[00:24:49] You can have multiple goals and why not?

[00:24:52] Of course, but then one has to envisage what,

[00:24:56] how do you achieve these multiple goals

[00:24:58] given that you have a limited capital and a limited surplus?

[00:25:03] Now, when I use this word surplus, again,

[00:25:06] a process of introspection can be delved into

[00:25:09] on what can be set aside, right?

[00:25:13] On a monthly basis if one were to plan for having a child

[00:25:16] or any other instrumental need that you have

[00:25:20] from the objective of wealth creation.

[00:25:22] So when I talk about a surplus which is generated per month,

[00:25:26] you need to do have a simple very back of the envelope

[00:25:30] kind of a calculation, which is your income generation

[00:25:34] minus expenses with a 25% kind of a buffer

[00:25:37] that you keep for contingencies.

[00:25:39] So expenses would mean all your premiums

[00:25:42] that you pay for your life insurance, health insurance.

[00:25:45] These are very, very important things that you must have

[00:25:48] because that covers you from all aspects

[00:25:50] of the vagaries of modern living, right?

[00:25:53] So income generation minus expenses, minus taxes, right?

[00:25:58] So that gives you the magic number, which is the surplus

[00:26:02] and you can use the surplus to keep aside again

[00:26:06] as a risk or a growth capital with a horizon of six to seven years

[00:26:10] with the objective of wealth creation.

[00:26:12] And because you're generating this monthly,

[00:26:15] very, very useful in utilizing this,

[00:26:17] deploying this into the capital markets

[00:26:20] with a double digit outlook in six to seven years.

[00:26:24] That looks like I have to make you a success now.

[00:26:27] Don't have an option. Absolutely, go for it.

[00:26:31] But Sansita, what you said is actually very interesting

[00:26:34] for someone like Nikhil, and that's true for a lot of us.

[00:26:38] When you're in the sweet spot where you have some capital in the bank,

[00:26:42] but not all that you need,

[00:26:45] that capital works towards one goal,

[00:26:47] but an income that is coming in on a monthly basis

[00:26:49] as long as we're careful with our expenses and tax planning,

[00:26:54] that creates its own surplus month on month

[00:26:56] which can be used towards another goal.

[00:26:58] Did I understand that correctly?

[00:26:59] Absolutely. You're so bang on, right?

[00:27:02] You've nailed it.

[00:27:03] So people specifically in their 30s

[00:27:07] kind of seem to get a little lost

[00:27:09] in what to do with the surplus.

[00:27:11] So if you just do this very rough calculation,

[00:27:14] you know again back of the envelope,

[00:27:15] like you have a particular income generation,

[00:27:18] then you have your expenses, which is your EMI on the card,

[00:27:21] the premiums that you pay in life insurance,

[00:27:23] health insurance, EMI on a house, minus taxes.

[00:27:27] So what you get is the surplus number

[00:27:29] and that itself can be deployed month on month

[00:27:33] as your risk or a growth capital,

[00:27:35] which you can set aside for six to seven years

[00:27:38] with the objective of creating a wealth portfolio for yourself.

[00:27:41] Nikhil, Sanchita, thanks so much for doing this

[00:27:44] and for being part of the show.

[00:27:45] Nikhil, more power to you

[00:27:47] and Sanchita, one can only hope

[00:27:49] that you can continue helping a lot more people

[00:27:52] as you have for Nikhil.

[00:27:53] Thank you very much both of you all

[00:27:55] for being part of Off The Beat.

[00:27:57] This was Off The Beat,

[00:27:58] brought to you by SBI Mutual Fund.

[00:27:59] That's what we do.

[00:28:00] We talk to entrepreneurs,

[00:28:02] we talk to change agents,

[00:28:04] we talk to people who are taking the path less traveled.

[00:28:07] Hopefully it also helps you set an example for you,

[00:28:11] helps you figure out what you want from life

[00:28:13] and if we manage to do even a little bit of that,

[00:28:16] do let us know in the comments

[00:28:17] and of course stay tuned,

[00:28:18] there's going to be plenty more episodes coming your way.

[00:28:21] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:28:29] An Investor Education Initiative by SBI Mutual Fund.

[00:28:32] To know more,