Scholar-Journalist of the Week: ‘Save like a bear, invest like a bull’

How to become financially independent at a young age? This question is trending and young passionate professionals are often looking out for ways to secure their financial future. They are also opting for financial guidance to understand different ways of saving and investment. The focus of course is to build a responsible attitude towards money, which is vital for a sustainable life.

Rohan Mahajan, a 2nd-year MBA student with Apeejay Institute of Management & Engineering Technical (AIMETC), Jalandhar, has been in this game for quite some time. Rohan knows the value of saving hard-earned money and so, during the lockdown-induced work-from-home phase, he started investing in stocks, mutual funds, and cryptos. This gradually developed his interest in finance leading him to enrolled for an MBA programme at AIMETC to learn deeply about the financial sector. Recently, the budding financial professional wrote an article – ‘Save like a bear, invest like a bull’ in which he highlighted how saving and investing are two critical components of building wealth while securing a financial future. Read edited excerpts of his interview:

Why did you decide to write an article on this topic? 

I decided to write on this topic because we usually don’t invest when the market is in bearish mode. But that’s the best time to get maximum returns, because after the bearish mode, the market comes back to a bullish trend.

‘Save like a bear, invest like a bull’. Do you apply this strategy in your life? 

Yes, I’m following this strategy from the past couple of years, and have also generated hefty returns from the investments I had made.

Also Read: ‘Save like a bear, invest like a bull’

You have started your article with, ‘Saving and investing are two critical components of building wealth while securing a financial future’. What steps have you been taking to build a secure financial future for yourself? 

Well, saving and investing simultaneously are on top of my list to have a secure financial future. Saving is for any emergencies and investment is for getting returns from the market. I have diversified my portfolio into shares, mutual funds, cryptos and FD for getting stable returns. 

In this digital era, is it easy to save money? 

Yes , the digital era has made savings and investment so easy that you just need an application that will help you track your budget, expenditure, investments and savings. 

Two things you are fond of in the financial sector  

1. Finding multibagger stocks to invest in. 

2. Reading fundamentals of financial companies. 

Do you read a lot of financial articles or books? 

Yes, I follow the articles that are published in The Economic Times. Also, I have some interesting finance apps installed via which I can easily read financial news at any time of the day. So far, books that I have read are Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Total Money Makeover. 

Where do you see yourself in the coming years? 

I would like to see myself working in Big 4 finance companies and learning more and more about this sector.