In this edition of the reader story, “Hi friends, I am Abhineeth, and this is my 4th financial audit. We welcomed our baby boy in 2025, a sweet blessing. 2025 was an eventful year for us financially. I pre-closed my personal loan by withdrawing from mutual funds in September 2025(when the Sensex was around 82000) as I felt it was a burden emotionally”.
Opinions expressed in reader stories do not necessarily represent the views of freefincal or its editors. We must appreciate multiple solutions to the money management puzzle and empathise with diverse views. Articles are typically not checked for grammar unless it is necessary to convey the right meaning and preserve the tone and emotions of the writers.
If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. You can publish them anonymously if you wish.
Please note: We welcome such articles from young earners who have just started investing. See, for example, this piece by a 29-year-old: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns. We also have a “mutual fund success stories” series. See, for example, how mutual funds helped me achieve financial independence. Now, over to the reader.
My previous financial audits
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I rebalanced my retirement mutual fund portfolio once in March 2025 as the Sensex crashed from 85000 points in September 2024 to around 75000 points in March 2025. Now, after 1 year, we are at around the same level due to the market crash because of the war in the Middle East and the energy crisis. My struggle to maintain an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses still continues. I have added another long term goal this year, i.e., child education fund started investing in September 2025 with an aggressive hybrid fund.
Update of my long term goals
a) Retirement (Target 2045)
In 2025, I have invested consistently for retirement from January to September, duly increasing my contribution value in April, but from October to December, I had to reduce my contribution as I started investing for my child’s education, and my NPS contributions are mandatory with 10% from my (Basic+DA) and another 10% from the government contribution as I am a state government employee. At present, the value of my retirement corpus is 4.2% of my target corpus, which I wish to achieve by 2045.
| Sl No | Asset | Current value |
| 1 | State Govt NPS Tier-1 | 3.07 X |
| 2 | SBI Nifty 50 index fund | 1.42 X |
| 3 | SBI Nifty Next 50 index fund | 0.71 X |
| 4 | SBI short-term debt fund | 0.54 X |
| Total | 5.80 X |
b) House (Target 2032)
I had to significantly reduce my investments in this fund due to the EMI on my personal loan. In September, I redeemed all my equity investments and pre-closed the personal loan. Now, after closing the personal loan, I have started investing an amount greater than the EMI. At present, my corpus value is 21.39% of my target corpus, which I aim to achieve by 2032.
| Sl No | Asset | Current value |
| 1 | ICICI Nifty | 0.10 X |
| 2 | ICICI Nifty Next 50 | 0.11 X |
| 3 | PPF | 2.17 X |
| Total | 2.38 X |
c) Child education (Target 2043)
I have used the freefincal robo advisory too for this goal, and it calculated the monthly contribution required to achieve it, and I have started investing in September. I chose an aggressive hybrid fund so that rebalancing can be avoided for the first 5 years, and then I will start rebalancing into debt funds. At present, my corpus is 2.56% of my target corpus, which I aim to achieve by 2043.
| Sl No | Asset | Current value |
| 1 | ICICI Pru Equity & Debt | 0.22 X |
Furthermore, I have struggled to maintain an emergency fund due to unexpected medical expenses that were not covered by health insurance.
Recurring deposits
A recurring deposit is a basic savings instrument, but I feel many do not use it properly. In recent years, I have been using recurring deposits to accumulate cash for annual expenses such as health insurance, vehicle insurance and other short-term goals. It is a very handy tool, as once we set the standing instruction, it will automatically deduct from the savings account.
Closing my personal loan may not have been the mathematically optimal move during a market dip, but the emotional freedom it provided has allowed me to focus entirely on my new responsibilities as a father. I will continue to audit, rebalance, and invest like a machine, knowing that a simple, goal-based plan is the best shield against any crisis.
Reader stories published earlier:
As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2024 edition: Portfolio Audit 2024: The Annual Review of My Goal-Based Investments. We asked regular readers to share how they review their investments and track financial goals.
- First audit: How Suhas tracks his MF investments and reviews financial goals.
- Second audit: How Avadhoot Joshi evaluates his investment portfolio.
- Third audit: How a single mom is on track to financial freedom
- Fourth audit: How Gowtham started goal-based investing & took control of his money
- Fifth audit: Why my financial independence & early retirement plans were postponed by four years
- Sixth audit: How Abhisek funded his marriage & is on track to financial freedom.
- Seventh audit: How Rohit’s early struggles defined his investment journey
- Eighth audit: Why my investments are still on track despite job loss and lower income.
- Ninth audit: How a retirement planning calculation scared me to take action
- Tenth audit: I made several investment mistakes but have turned my life around.
- Eleventh audit: My net worth doubled in the last financial year, thanks to patient investing!
- Twelfth audit: My financial journey: from novice to goal-based investor.
- Thirteenth audit: My journey: from a negative net worth to goal-based investing.
- Fourteenth audit: From Fixed Deposits to Goal-based investing in MFs.
- Fifteenth audit: My 10-year financial journey – mistakes made and lessons learnt.
- Sixteenth audit (part 1): How I achieved financial independence without mutual funds or stocks.
- Sixteenth audit (part 2): Lessons from my financial independence journey and future investment plans.
- Seventeenth audit: How I plan to achieve financial independence and move to my native place
- Eighteenth audit: I used the current bull run to reduce my mutual funds from 14 to 4!
- Nineteenth audit: How a conservative investor created his financial plan
- Twentieth audit: I plan to achieve financial independence by 46; this is my master plan
- Twenty-first audit: I have made many investment mistakes but am on course to financial independence by 45.
- Twenty-second audit: I felt worthless six years ago but have achieved financial stability today
- Twenty-third audit: My financial journey was directionless until age 40: this is how I made up for lost time
- Twenty-fourth audit: Why I increased equity MF investments by 275% and reduced PPF contributions.
- Twenty-fifth audit: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns
- Twenty-sixth audit: I am 24 and started investing 1Y ago, but what am I investing for?
- Twenty-seventh audit: How we plan to achieve a retirement corpus 50 times our annual expenses.
- Twenty-eighth audit: I thought equity investing was a gamble, but now I aim to hold 60% equity for retirement
- Twenty-ninth audit: My journey: From 5 lakhs in debt to building a corpus worth six years in retirement
- Thirtieth audit: My investment journey: From random purchases to a goal-based portfolio
- Thirty-first audit: My investment journey: from product-driven to process-driven
- Thirty-second audit: How a young couple is trying to balance travelling and investing
- Thirty-third audit: My journey: From Rs. 30 bank balance to financial independence
- Thirty-fourth audit: Our journey: From scratch to a net worth of 18 times annual expenses.
- Thirty-fifth audit: From a net worth of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing
- Thirty-sixth audit: How I retired from corporate bondage at 46, two years ago!
- Thirty-seventh audit: How I learnt to keep it simple and build a net worth 19 times my annual expenses
- Thirty-eighth audit: How Abhineeth plans to achieve financial independence and build a house.
- Thirty-ninth audit: How Sahil plans to achieve financial independence by efficient tracking
- Fortieth audit: My Journey to a Ten Crore Portfolio
- Forty-first audit: Burdened with debt for several years, I am now aggressively investing in equity
- Forty-second audit: From Engineer to Librarian after Financial Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE)
- Forty-third audit: I lost six months’ income in F&O and ditched it for systematic investing
- Forty-fourth audit: My retirement plan to handle the harsh realities of the IT industry
- Forty-fifth audit: My investment journey: mistakes, 10 years of MF investing and recovery
- Forty-sixth audit: My MF portfolio is worth six crores despite multiple mistakes
- Forty-seventh audit: Saving, Investing, and Running Marathons: My 25-year Journey to Financial Independence
- Forty-eighth audit: Never Too Late to Start: How I Became Financially Savvy at 40
- Forty-ninth audit: My Investment Journey to a net worth 29 times my annual expenses
- Fiftieth audit: How I audit my portfolio without tracking returns
- Fifty-first audit: Financial Lessons Learned During and After a PhD
- Fifty-second audit: Investment & Financial journey of a 23 year old
- Fifty-third audit: The system I use to draw income and spend after retirement securely
- Fifty-fourth audit: From Start-Up Employee to Millionaire: A Success Story of Resilience and Smart Investing
- Fifty-fifth audit: 25-Year-Old Software Engineer’s Investment Journey: From Stocks to Mutual Funds and Beyond
- Fifty-sixth audit: Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
- Fifty-seventh audit: Navigating Market Volatility: How an IT Professional Transformed His Investment Approach for Retirement
- Fifty-eighth audit: How Sahil achieved a 10X retirement corpus by efficient portfolio tracking
- Fifty-ninth audit: How I achieved financial freedom by 45 without onsite assignments or ESOPs
- Sixtieth audit: Building Wealth on a Government Salary: Lessons Learned
- Sixty-first audit: Minimalism, Index Funds, and Staying Calm: My Investing Journey at 28
- Sixty-second audit: Building Wealth and Breaking Barriers: How Swati Took Control of Her Financial Future
- Sixty-third audit: My financial journey: How I missed the Compounding Bus!
- Sixty-fourth audit: My MF investment journey: From thematic funds to a 3-fund portfolio
- Sixty-fifth audit: From Debt to ₹1 Crore Liquid Net Worth: My Journey of Financial Awareness.
These published audits have had a compounding effect on readers. If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. You can also publish them anonymously.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman (PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over 13 years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), LinkedIn, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free, AUM-independent investment advice.
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Most investor problems can be traced to a lack of informed decision-making. We made bad decisions and money mistakes when we started earning and spent years undoing these mistakes. Why should our children go through the same pain? What is this book about? As parents, what would it be if we had to groom one ability in our children that is key not only to money management and investing but to any aspect of life? My answer: Sound Decision Making. So, in this book, we meet Chinchu, who is about to turn 10. The narrative revolves around what he wants for his birthday and how his parents plan for it, as well as teaching him several key ideas of decision-making and money management. What readers say!
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