Cost of a Retail Investor in India

Amidst this pandemic, people have gone crazy after the stock market. The stock market has become the new go-to place to make money for retail investors. Well, looking at the number of Demat accounts opened in the last one year, it seems everybody has earned during this bull run. It is not that surprising as almost anyone who invested in any stock either doubled their money or earned quite decent returns. As the bull run continues this feat will continue too!

You will see a lot of people discussing the equity market and how they doubled on their money within six months. Everybody is now thinking of the market as a gold mine wherein you can make as much money as you want within a short span. But as all of us know, this cannot be more wrong!

Yet, there is nobody to blame for this irresponsible investing by all the retail investors.

Well, it was quite attractive for all the millions of investors that opened their Demat account in the past one year. Although there are currently more than 52 million Demat accounts in the stock market, do you know how many of them are making money?

In the stock market, only 5% of the investors make money! Isn’t it scary? We all have heard our friends boasting about how much they have earned from the stock market. But how much of that is true? Now you know!

But why do so many investors lose money in the stock market? To think of it, the answer is right in front of you, lack of awareness! An investor needs to be well informed and have the right tools and a proper goal to make money in the market. But, access to all these things separately becomes very costly to all the retail investors. To summarize, investing is a journey that involves several components.

What does it cost to start Investing in India?

Let’s have a look at all the things step by step, as they say - “Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” :)

1. Investing Knowledge 

“The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you'll earn.” This quote by Warren Buffett clearly denotes the importance of learning in our investing journey. But have you seen the cost of learning these days?

We all see everyone bragging about how learning is essential before investing and how they want to help us in our investment journey through an affordable course. And guess what the price of that affordable course is? A sweet and expensive 10k+ course to help you drain all the money you had saved to invest. And this is the situation of the current financial education sector these days. Everybody wants to rob money from your pocket and provide you with the same boring and lousy information. Newbie investors lose a lot of money just in this segment.

2. Financial Planning

“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.”

Isn’t it true? Have you ever noticed all those millionaire athletes who are now broke? You know the main reason behind them being broke is not lack of money; it was lack of financial planning.

People earn a lot of money during their prime days but forget the most crucial thing i.e., planning. And you know, while people like us don’t have the time to make ourselves a financial plan, we often get into the trap of the so-called “Wealth managers”! They should be named wealth destroyers, though! These managers just want to fill their own pockets and make the same plan they give to everyone else and that too for thousands of rupees!

3. Stock Recommendations

We sincerely hope you don’t invest your hard-earned money in those free tips provided by those Telegram channels. If you do, please stop that asap! Hoping you don’t take their advice and look to invest seriously, let’s explore the problem.

Well, if you take advice from a professional advisor, you will first have to pay a hefty sum to them. After that also, there is no surety of returns. The annual fees for these firms are enough to drain all your money and reduce your returns by a huge margin.

4. Stock Analysis Tools

Isn’t it unfair that all super investors and mutual funds have an added advantage over retail investors? They have access to a lot of information that we don’t have! And even if retail investors get the information, it costs them a heavy fee! Most of us don’t have that kind of money to buy these heavy subscriptions every year. Not only this, even after purchasing such services, people get a very substandard tool with very complex functions. 

So, why are we discussing this? Well, we have something extraordinary coming on the 27th of August that may change your and every investor’s life forever. This 27th, you will experience something so magnificent that #ChangesEverything. So stay tuned for FinologyOne! 

Even today, with so many people entering the market and the bullish trends, investors still don’t have the right tools and knowledge to make money. We hope these situations will improve soon!

The Bottom Line

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” ~Benjamin Franklin 

Nothing can summarize an investor’s journey better than this quote. When we buy all these tools separately, we don’t bother much as they don’t seem like a significant expense to us. But when you combine all these expenses, you will feel the burden of these expenses. What if these services were available to you at very affordable prices? Wouldn’t it be fantastic? Well, patience is the key!