Investments are my safety net: Masooma Ranalvi

If money speaks a language of its own, investing is a dialect, an offshoot of money. For some people investing is not just a means but an end in itself, just like it is for Masooma Ranalvi, a New Delhi-based publisher, who stands for strength, indomitable spirit and love for investments.

My father used to call me every now and then ask, “Masooma, do you have some money? There is an interesting stock you could invest,” it did not matter to him, however, less money I had. He would initially invest on my behalf, but soon handheld to me do it on my own, as he believed that stocks are the best form of investments. Today, after seeing the growth in my stock investments, I am thankful that he showed me the right path.

Although I started my investing journey by opening a personal provident fund (PPF) account, stocks and shares became my favourite instruments because they have done miraculously well, if I were to evaluate from return on investments (RoI) point of view. I have never sold my stocks, I believe in investing for the sake of investing. Besides stock, I have investments in PPF, mutual funds, property and shares.

About 22 years ago, my husband met with an accident which left him completely disabled, physically and mentally, my investments turned out to be my security net. Today, I am 51, during my investing journey, I have not liquidated my shares ever. I have bought many penny stocks, which are no longer penny and got me unbelievable returns. I just want to create a corpus.

After seeing the results of financial prudence my father passed on to me, I am making sure, my daughter gets the same knowledge. While I have started a systematic investment plan (SIP) for her, I also encourage her to save some bit of her earnings too. I personally believe investing should not be a means to an end, but an end in itself. Just save, you never know when you might want to encash.