Meet Ankur Bansal, a 1% Club member and Commando, who has seen his stock market portfolio rise by 67% in 4 years. Coming from a middle-income family, Ankur used to get limited pocket money. He would divide the pocket money carefully to buy snacks, toys, and other entertainment sources. So the habit of strategic spending and expense tracking remained with him from his childhood, and that has helped him a lot since he started earning.

In an interview with the 1% Club team, Ankur shared some interesting insights about his financial journey. Edited Excerpts

When did you start saving and investing in stocks? 

The first instance of saving was when I started earning. My salary was very low, and I wanted to see myself having Rs 1 lakh in my account. So, I saved religiously to reach that number, and later I spent it all on assembling my very first computer.

The first time I invested was during the tax season in 2018. I was asked to submit a tax declaration by my office, and I didn’t have much idea about how this works. I reached out to an elder brother in my family, who explained a lot of things, but everything went over my head. Then, he just opened my account with an AMC and asked me to start a SIP of Rs 5000 per month.

Did you make any mistakes when you started stock market investing? 

When I started investing, I decided to learn about it from YouTube. I made some investments based on their recommendations, although I wasn’t sure about the investment myself. Also, I didn’t understand much about the content explained in the video. I think I was in a hurry to just start investing. 

Luckily, those investments turned out just fine. I didn’t bear any losses overall.

My main mistake was that I was very impatient, with both learning and investing. I wanted to learn everything quickly, so I watched tonnes of videos yet never actually implemented the things I learnt. I just invested money based on recommendations, which luckily turned out fine, but could have been a disaster.

Are there any interesting incidents in your investment journey?  

I think COVID time was interesting. I knew nothing about investments before the pandemic. During that time, one of my colleagues started mentioning that his investments had multiplied. Then, I checked his portfolio, and I was surprised to see that. I was shocked by the percentage number, and that made me more interested in starting my own investment journey.

What’s your current asset allocation?  

Equity (MF + stocks): – 30%

Gold – 5%

PF – 10%

I have a big expense coming up, so I have most of my savings in cash.

I have also invested some money in Crypto and SGB, which are giving me good returns.

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My portfolio has grown by about 67% in 4 years. My most successful investment has been the Auto stock portfolio that I bought during COVID-19. 

What is the strategy that you have followed?

The main thing that helped me get good returns was diversification and allocation in different asset classes.

Earlier, I was just relying on one Mutual Fund for investment. Later, I learned about diversification and how it helps balance the portfolio while increasing the value of the investment. Also, I ventured into Debt class, which also gave good returns while balancing the portfolio’s risk.

Can you share a challenging situation that you faced?

I learned not to invest in unproven assets. We shouldn’t invest in asset classes only on the basis of hope. The asset must have a proven track record of improvement and capability of providing good returns. I invested in an IPO, which to date has negative returns. That made me learn this lesson.

What have you learned after joining the club? 

I joined Shashank’s club in July 2022, and then it became 1% Club later. Since then I have grown a lot actually. I have learned how to keep track of news related to finance about companies in India and globally. And not just news, but how they impact the market and us. The most significant improvement I feel is having a diversified portfolio.

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Please share your experience as a 1% Club Commando.

(1% Club Commando is a member who takes the initiative to make an event happen in their city.)

Being a Commando has been a fantastic experience so far. Earlier, my circle was limited to only people with whom I have a common interest, but now I have interacted with a lot of people from different professions, such as Doctors, CAs, Civil Engineers, etc. Going to different events gives me awesome experiences and tons of great learning opportunities. 

One thing you want to share with people who want to do well in the stock market?

Have patience and practise what you learn. Do not just keep learning. Try to implement what you learned. Even if it’s a small thing, you’ll remember what you have tried and practised yourself.

Disclaimer: The above content is based on the information provided by Ankur Bansal. The 1% News doesn’t independently verify non-public data reported by interviewees.