“And yet, the truth, as I understand it, is there is a bit of voyeur in each one of us who profess a liking to fiction. Much as we might claim loftier reasons such as love for the language or a deep interest in human behavioural patterns, what really gets to us is the peephole that fiction offers by way of glimpses into other people’s lives.” ….a favourite line from Anita Nair’s book Goodnight and God Bless 👉A charming slice of life 🍰📖]

I like the glimpse into other people’s stock (equity) portfolios; financial matters are considered more private than wardrobes, vanity cases and bookshelves. Institutions and marquee investors like advertising their portfolio holdings, maybe on the hope that the unassuming individual investor will buy into one of their picks and thereby contribute to a increase in the stock’s demand and hence it’s price ! But then there are also people who get confidence in a stock because it has been picked by a famous investor or institution (purely on the assumption that the big money has seen something of value in the stock that the individual has not !)

Never mind the big money portfolios, I like reading about how the ordinary mortals make their investments – which mutual funds they choose, which stocks and bonds they invest in and most importantly how have they have fared so far. It’s like Anita Nair aptly put “a glimpse into their lives”. There are disciplined individual investors who have managed to successfully accumulate a substantial corpus in their working years and are now planning to earn from their investments and retire peacefully. There are others still finding their way; who need direction and confirmation that they are on the right path.

But while I identify with the latter, I am more curious about the former. How do the ordinary people manage to accumulate a sufficient corpus for retirement? And I learnt that there is sadly no magic formula or secret; but luck, definitely yes! But it also holds true that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” The universal factor that helps in building long term wealth is the reality of sacrifice or postponement of present gratifications for the long term financial goals. It’s hard. There was the story of am employed couple in the mid-forties, two teen kids, rich enough to retire, but they have so far not splurged on a holiday together and now that they have the money are planning for family vacay. How many can do this?

But it’s also true that all the sacrifice of present will not bear fruit if you don’t have a workable and long term financial plan in place. And so the show goes on…..

I came across two portfolios which are worth a look for stock picking. The first is from HDFC Securities; they have published on their website 21 stocks they are recommending for long term to mark their 21 years of operations, here’s the list 👇

The second is by a US based financial firm – Jefferies. They announced their 16 stock Indian equity portfolio a day back. This portfolio is an eyeopener as two of the sectors that rose to new highs recently – pharma, IT are not represented. Metals is another sector that made good gains this year and is represented only by Tata Steel. But it’s a good list of what you can bet on for the future considering that the equity markets are currently trading at all time hghs.

Till next post, take care !!

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, only an opinion piece. All investments are risky. Please ensure due diligence before making investment decisions.