Savings, SIPs, and stocks

Rakesh Punia, in his late forties, is pursuing a PhD in management from G D Goenka University in Gurugram, with his research paper titled "Challenges faced by Indians in managing their personal finances." Born in Behal, a small town in Bhiwani district of Haryana, he grew up in a rural setting, which was bereft of televisions, newspapers and modern facilities. He recalls, "The only mode of entertainment or general awareness was radio. I used to listen to BBC Hindi news and a few other infotainment programmes." Currently, Rakesh lives in Thane with his wife Nirmal, their daughter Nikita and son Jatin. His father, a retired English teacher, and mother, a retired postmaster, still live at his native place. As his mother was a postmaster, Rakesh was well aware of fixed deposits, recurring deposits, Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), National Savings Certificate (NSC), etc., since his childhood. "I used to actively help her in her day-to-day work and in the process learnt a lot about savings," says Rakesh. Setting off on a new journey Rakesh moved out of his home town early for his higher education. From 1993 onwards, he worked a few corporate stints at leading Indian companies and MNCs in verticals like logistics, supply chain, free trade zones and warehousing across Jaipur, Bangalore and Mumbai. Finally in 2016, he donned the entrepreneurship hat. "As an entrepreneur, I am engaged in a logistics venture and Airbnb hosting. I also run a salon and a citizen-services firm," says an enthusiastic Rakesh. His logistics business is owned by his wife and two other partners. Rakesh takes care of finance and business development. The Airbnb hosting was started in December 2018 in a one-bedroom apartment owned by him. Rakesh says, "This is an awesome futuristic venture which enables me to meet new people, expand my network and make good money out of it." His salon venture is a partnership with his old friend, in which Rakesh takes care of finance and marketing. His citizen-services venture helps people avail government services, such as passports, PAN, Aadhaar, voter IDs, etc. "I realised that people in Mumbai have money, but are short of time. Thus, there was a need for such services which would save them from the hassle of running to government offices and fortunately, the venture worked out," says Rakesh. It's said that life comes easy for some and hard for others. Rakesh falls in the latter category. Although

This article was originally published on June 07, 2021, and last updated on August 29, 2022.