Personal finance is a blanket term of sorts. Personally, I believe in India we are still just scratching the surface. For quite some time in India, personal finance has been synonymous with investing – be it in stocks, real estate or gold.

When it comes to personal finance, a lot of the content in India is largely analysis and over-analysis of investment options or instructions to undertake any financial transactions. However, as I mentioned in the last post, investing (and that too goal-based investing) is just one part of the vast universe of personal finance.

Recently I came across a blog called – The Stable Investor. Run by Dev Ashish for 6 years now (in fact it turns 6 today), The Stable Investor focusses on something I have come to believe as being very important – long-term investing. It is possible for people to accuse me of an alma mater bias (we have both done our MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai) but like every other human being, I am extremely rational 🙂 .

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT

If you are interested in detailed discussions and a better understanding of Indian stock markets then this is definitely a good starting point. The comments below the posts also end up starting a good conversation around stocks and investing in equity markets.

Off late, there is a good mix in the posts about other aspects of personal finance aka insurance (life and health), emergency funds and goal-based investing. He also briefly touches on the psychological aspects and few posts related to behavioural finance. His wife is mentioned in a few instances which gives a degree of personal touch in the posts.

ONE BIG POST

I have spent a major chunk of yesterday crawling through his posts and stalking the site. He probably knows it thanks to the multitude of comments I left on the posts that I really liked.

The one post, written in February this year stuck with me. This post, titled One Important Advice by a Chinese Man I met in Egypt made for some really relatable advice. Dev was on a holiday in Egypt where a Chinese guy told him how he kept waiting for the right time to travel and now he regrets not having done so earlier when he was younger and could have enjoy the experience more.

Find the balance between saving and spending money on things that matter

He used this story to make a good point about how frugality in the extreme could also be a bad idea. You should not plan to take all your money or savings to your grave. The objective then is to find the right balance between spending and saving. To me, this also means knowing and questioning what are the important things in life which make it worthwhile to spend money on. It’s not easy but it is bound to make you happier with your money.

Other 2 personal favourite posts from The Stable Investor:

1. Your Parents are not your Emergency Fund. Your Children are not your Retirement Fund
2. 4 Common Mistakes to Avoid while Buying Your Term Insurance Plan

You can reach Dev through his website, Facebook or Twitter.