Financial Year Review - FY2021-22

[Today is 24 April. I went home on 30 March and since then have been thinking of writing this FY review blogpost. Finally today, on my return journey via Sampark Kranti, I have started writing this at Kanpur Central junction]

Last financial year that started just after I and Nina shifted to Dwarka, witnessed 4 big ticket items:

1)  The investment on Jal Jivan Mission (INR 10 Lakh) and purchase of the NH-side land at Dudhnoi were the two major events in terms of investments. 

2) My shift to EdCast was another major event from income increase point of view. 

3) The opening of Reliance Nischit Samridhi wealth creation scheme and starting the VPF (Voluntary Provident Fund) were two events from future financial/life planning perspective.

One big event of last FY from earning perspective

4) On expense side, the travel expenses due to multiple home visits will stand out. Not much expenditure occurred during Moina's marriage from my pocket. Another item on buying car got deferred indefinitely. 

B. A quick Realization:

I am getting this feeling quite often these days that wealth creation is on top of my mind. This is more than the desire to produce some creative output, participate in any social outing or any other stuffs where I loved spending time earlier. However, my objective is not to become rich, but to retire from active job life with a passive income flow in place. One of the things that I am trying to put in place - how I can get a regular income month on month without doing anything. Next thing, I am trying to have 1-2 avenues where I can put my brain to make it bigger or big enough to provide some regular income. I wish this realization had come to my mind a few years ago. Particularly, while searching roadside land to buy, I realized I am late by 3-4 years to get an absolutely high return. Then I question myself- why did this happen? Is it the effect of staying at home for longer period during Covid-19 OR my marriage to Nina(not working fulltime) OR my salary crossing the psychological barrier of 33 Lakh OR Youtube videos OR just the age? I have not been able to fix on any one reason, but always, better late than never. 

C. Financial Planning for the future (even beyond FY 22-23):

1) Getting a regular income from immovable properties: This is a primary aim for me. I don't expect this to happen from the Mirza land as the road is still to be constructed. The Dudhnoi land is having the possibility, but I am waiting for 2 things - a) Georgman Marak to start his company work and b) the 4-lane construction to start at Purani Bhita. The other idea where I invested some time in the recent home stay was to buy a plot near Urpad beel for commercial purpose by partnering with someone (Mridul). 

2) Having a policy on equity: My MF portfolio is touching 10 Lakh in terms of market value. The stocks are also there. But I don't have any fixed policy on investing and more importantly on withdrawing. For example, my ICICI account is having only 2K and SBI having 20K with liabilities standing at 7.2 Lakh (Dudhnoi land) and 25K (ICICI credit card etc). Even in this pathetic scenario, I am not sure whether I should sell some MF or stock (mainly the MSFT stocks). I feel paralyzed by this lack of a personal policy with equity. 

3) Life and Health insurance: For health, I am solely dependent on office insurance. In case, I decide to retire from active job life, this is one important factor to consider. I have the 80D policy, but yet to go through the different clauses of the policy, mainly related to the partial withdrawal one. For life insurance, I don't have any term insurance, except the LIC's regular plan. The recently opened Reliance policy will provide a cover up to 24? Lakh in case of exigency. However, as on today, I am not much worried about life insurance than I am about health/accident insurance. Let me explore the 80D space more in this coming FY.

[Stopping now, will reach Delhi in next 4 hours]

D. How I performed against the goals set last year review blog:

1) Arrival of wife: As written last time, I made two separate trackers and delegated some responsibilities to her. It worked well, except the fact that I have to really push her to track expenses. She is not regular yet, but there is improvement. She handles sabji etc by herself. I stopped sending money to her as soon as she started working in MESC. Now that she stops working, I will start sending the 15K per month.

2) Cryptocurrency: Yes, I invested 1000/- by buying USDT in WazirX. I found the buying process very complex and still don't have full knowledge. After Govt mandated 30% tax on Crypto Trading, I lost the interest too. Let's see, I have not decided anything.

3) Rest: The other plans were reg change in data capture and which categories might go up or down. For example, transportation has slightly went up. But there is decrease in food and fixed asset. Huge decrease in personal compared to last year. Travel has gone up even in Covid days due to multiple home trips. Finally, the tax component has gone up exponentially.

E. Some numbers from last FY:

1. Total income - INR 28,93,413/-

2. Total expense - INR 46,09,678/-

3. Total lend out money to be received - INR 30,000/- (excluding Dada, Tapan)

4. Total liability (Mirza and Dudhnoi Land) - 1,16,072+7,22,000/-

F. The inflow table of FY 2021-22

	Salary+Food wallet	Market (selling of equity, closure, settlement etc)	Loan Repay(includes EMI interest)	Interest (Savings Account)	Interest (FDs)	Dividend (Equity, MF)	Others
April	363327	7950	25673		5404	782	600	₹ 403,736
May	139456		63673			60		₹ 203,189
June	125144	60	8673	11488	57822	707		₹ 203,894
July	139917		8673		29650			₹ 178,240
August	139917	3123	8673			1354		₹ 153,067
Sept	198003		8673	11312		3455	180	₹ 221,623
Oct	141430		8673			841		₹ 150,944
Nov	141430		8673			2869	101780	₹ 254,752
Dec			8673	8525	15113	2543	3540	₹ 38,394
Jan	485366		107673			2667	1460	₹ 597,166
Feb	187726	2500	8673			926		₹ 199,825
Mar	188179	3715	58711	8963		29015		288,583.00
Total	2249895	17348	325114	40288	107989	45219	107560	₹ 2,893,413
	77.76%	0.60%	11.24%	1.39%	3.73%	1.56%	3.72%

F. The outflow table of FY 2021-22

	Fixed Asset	Tax	Nina	Investment	Gift/Donation	Food	Travel	Recreation	Personal	Transport	First/Uniue	Total
April	14000	121131	15514	180185	18073		15025	672	853	5440	150	371043
May	16328	19610	129802	14415	2452	4910	0	240	2345	1600	0	191702
June		19149	11058	56415	19405	3430	0	0	472	7292	0	117221
July	22101	19149	44550	101435	3624	8536	13703	675	3561	4054	7366	228754
August	28149	19149	35600	1016615	602	3966	0	1115	17600	2029	3720	1128545
Sept	6755	38778	16500	18230	2000	4769	2000	7557	2512	2873	37241	139215
Oct	29643.6	21197	15000	96884	14004	5252	6765	3659.72	471	5642	69973	268491.32
Nov	19000	24197	3000	42922	11499	2702	6622	693	8840	2959	60754	183188
Dec	22800	0	0	33654	23884	5434	25525	7601	19566	7400	101200	247064
Jan	21100	26021	6091	53940	5784	6203	0	1425	4760	1501	15699	142524
Feb	21600	98674	3000	256453	2818	2350	22864	905	8581	3000	70000	490245
Mar	22000	98221	13861	917430	4523	4948	31230	3968	873	4632	0	1101686
	223,477	505,276	293,976	2,788,578	108,668	52,500	123,734	28,511	70,434	48,422	366,103	4,609,678
Percentage	7.72%	17.46%	10.16%	96.38%	3.76%	1.81%	4.28%	0.99%	2.43%	1.67%	12.65%	159.32%

Signing off for this year, it will be exciting to see the next year. Maybe I should do a trend analysis once I complete a decade of expense tracking.

Are you thinking of returning to Assam?

 Dear Zing,

I'm writing this letter to give you a context how multiple thought processes have gone into enabling you taking an important decision of relocating back to Assam at one point of time in your life (and probably die in the Ulupara graveyard peacefully). 

You must be thinking the biggest decisions of relocating back are the following. You are wrong. There are some other subtle points for which you must be prepared. But let me first write the bigger ones:

1) Money - you must ensure a fixed monthly income considering aspects such as health, children education, entertainment, altruism etc. There are two components - firstly a corpus with sufficient strength for the present and future; secondly, a recurring monthly income to handle operational expenses. Also, important to note the difference between retirement and relocation. You are no way going for retirement. You should be evaluating options such as working from home viz-a-viz other kind of jobs such as ARIAS. You surviving only on business/consultancy is something current Zing can't even imagine.

2) Purpose - this is the most important thing that will help you stay focused in case of distractions. Why are you trying to go back - is it to help your community? is it because you want a community/relative support system? is it because an Assamese song on the public transport system make you smile? is it because you feel you are better placed to create legacy if you are in Assam? is it because you will feel happy in general if you are in Assam? is it because your children will be taken care of by a support system if you be in Assam? is it because of health or climate? is it for a larger cause that is possible only being in Assam? is it for your family(wife, mother, sibling)? is it because you believe you have a thriving circle back in Assam? Or is it little bit of everything? 

In search of road-side land

As per Madat Da, whenever there will be distraction, this purpose will help you ignore things and bring new energy. Even if you can't find one purpose, start dwelling on multiple purposes. The continuation of the purpose(s) is a must if you relocate there. If establishing yourself as a writing is one of your purposes, you must pursue this everyday once you are there, although there might not be any return from that activity on daily life. Also, a purpose can be very selfish like ensuring your own peace of mind.

3) A decision backed by research and arsenals: Whatever decision you will take, that should be backed by research and homeward journey must be equipped with sufficient resources. Apart from thinking, talking with predecessor (Madat Da, Manash, Pranjal Da, Ranjeev Da etc), reading (just ordered 'Your life is what you make it'), writing (such as this blogpost), astrology (eg- visiting Anjali) etc are parts of concrete research. Some arsenals that present Zing is suggesting for you - a piece of roadside land, arranging a continuous income (maybe rent or book royalty), annual/monthly moneyback policy, knowledge on financial market, creating diversified investment portfolio, promoting any education start-up, expectation management with wife, start writing regularly/have book plan ready, a good intellectual circle in Assam, decision between Agia and Guwahati etc.

Now, let me come to the 'other' points or scenarios that are subtle, but you must be prepared to handle. 

1) Suppose you observe the workers of the Jal Jivan Mission are not doing a great job- will you complaint against them, even though the process is troublesome and your friends/relatives might be involved in the wrongdoing? Similarly, will you force the shop owners of the rented rooms of Agia JNM to pay the rent or vacate, by putting forward the cause of the school first, even at the cost of the livelihood possibilities of an acquittance? Also, will you take up such a step for your loved school, whose teachers and students are mostly oblivious of you and your noble objectives.

2) How will you handle the cases that of Kamal or Nivadita Rabha who needs job or money desperately? Running an NGO and asking for donation is definitely one way; but how much would that be sustainable? Are you comfortable in asking for money? Will you be able to keep up your altruism with the reduced connection and less income?

3) When you will take your children to drop at a school (considering a private school), how will you see the children going to a government schools with stitched uniform, maybe internally crying for equality and justice? Won't you find a reflection of 'young Manjit' in all of them? Are you ready to accept you have become an 'upper middleclass' kind of citizen at your own place? How would the people who know you from childhood accept you? More importantly, how would you treat them and your emotions in this interaction? 

4) Today I have to only manage time while deciding going for a domestic trip or dining in a restaurant. If your return leads to a day when you would have to say no to Dr. Anup Gogoi for a Brahmaputra ride or Sameeran for a Manah trip, or planning 2 national trips per year  due to budgetary constraint, will not you go back to the same cash-constrained childhood that you are scared of? 

5) How will you react when you will see a corrupted neighbor buying BMW at Agia? How about a good neighbor buy 3 flats in B'lore? How will you react to Alvaro writing a book on Coding being in a tech company? How will you react Somnath making a trip to the North-pole? How will you react Nina's friends posting photos of Europe trips every year? How will you react your friends from Guwahati having luxuries which you could have had by not shifting to Assam (also assuming shift leading to less income)? How will you react your friend publishing 3 books and 2 Youtube channels and you are far away from completing one book even after your relocation? 

6) Even after much preparation and research, there will be gaps that you will realize only after going back to Assam? How will you react then?

7) If something bad happens after relocation (health wise, financially, family turmoil, career progression etc), will you start blaming yourself?

8) Secretly in some corner of your heart, don't you wish to spend 1-2 year in a foreign country? What would happen to that dream? Tell me, why didn't you pursue that option ever in your life? Are you scared of your Oxford/Amsterdam experience? You have a family now. Will you take that repentance (if you feel strongly) to your grave? 

9) Remember how people reacted when you stayed at Agia post Oxford? I am sure you will agree that was the most useless period of your life, What wrong did you do then? How can you be sure that you are not repeating the same mistakes? 

10) You believe your close family members would be most happy if you return? Are you sure on that from all fronts? Aren't you the only option for them to plan an outing outside Assam?

11) Will you suffer from an intellectual vacuum if you decide to go back? How will you attend the book release prog of Koushik Basu or Amitabh Kant?

12) There will be many rich, famous, happy people? How are you different from them? Or the bigger question maybe- is there a necessity at all that you need to be different? Aren't this 'different' is related to creation of legacy?

13) Are you going to have friend/colleague like Swati (say) with whom the basic definitions of recreation and luxuries differ to such extent that basic comfort levels becomes difficult?

Chalo, you think. But I want to end the letter on a happy note that the Dudhnoi land has been finalized and application for NOC would be submitted to Circle office day after tomorrow.

Yours truly.

Zing (13 March, 2022)

Thought on structuring my life story writing

 This post has come for the below two reasons:

1) Since yesterday (Saraswati Puja), I have started two new things - a) tracking all the books (maybe articles later) I would read going forward, with a few important parameters; b) tracking all the creative outputs of Zing original (10 different types I have thought until now). I believe this two initiative will provide much useful inputs for writing an autobiography in future. To be honest, I am thinking to write 'positioning of a book titled Agia to Oxford in Assamese language' very soon. 

2) While searching for inputs for point 1(b) above, I stumbled upon an old write-up that I drafted after attending a life story writing workshop at Oxford. This includes a few approaches of writing an autobiography. Below is the draft without any modification:

Serious thought on structuring my life story writing:

Thoughts for my future writing, sitting on the life writing workshop on 31^st May, 2014:-

  i.      Approach life writing as different ways- chronological way, reverse chronological way, segmented stories with different themes and try to connect the themes etc

  ii.      The other way I thought about initiating a conversation. For example, when I met a new friend, things will start like ‘Hey, how did you end up here?’ Then, that was awesome journey, but how did you do that xxx etc . This way the conversation will lead you to different stories.

 iii.      One interesting way might be to list down the life events and then how you manage those repeated events at different times of your career.  But probably at the beginning, you must give a crisp timeline or chronology order so that people can get the holistic big picture.

 iv.      Read this, amazing: http://m.wikihow.com/Write-an-Autobiography. From the suggestions there, I am thinking in the same line. But what about the overarching theme or conflict in my life? Is it to come out of middle class mentality , or to challenge status quo, dare to dream

v. some interesting ways in my life maybe:

        A. How I first realise the power of perseverance, which is a mantra I believe now - the prize in triple jump competition    after securing fourth position and then trying for one long year before winning next year.

        B. what are the things I learnt from a failed 3-year long mission of MBA voyage- thinking life timeline as a story or trying to learn even from my own life, why failures are important in life, how to approach people without shame, what I really want to do in life etc.

        C. No biography can be true as mine as all are preserved in my diary.