From Broker Tips to Financial Independence: 10 Years of Mistakes and Lessons
A decade ago, I was buying stocks based on broker tips and using leverage.
Today, I realize that investing is far more about temperament than intelligence.
I began investing in 2016.
Like many beginners, I relied on my broker's tips. They even encouraged me to use leverage to increase my exposure.
Within months, I was sitting on significant losses.
That was my wake-up call.
I stopped chasing tips and decided to educate myself. After taking a short break, I restarted my journey through mutual funds.
I still remember walking into a mutual fund company's back office, unaware that they didn't accept direct investments from retail investors. The employees smiled at my innocence before introducing me to an agent who helped me get started.
Towards the end of 2018, I made another mistake.
I took a Loan Against Securities (LAS) worth around 25% of my portfolio, intending to use it for home renovations.
Then came 2019.
I came across a seasoned investor on Twitter who had achieved financial independence at a young age. Coincidentally, he lived in my hometown.
We met, connected instantly, and over time, he completely transformed the way I approached investing. That's when I transitioned from mutual funds to building a portfolio of fundamentally strong businesses.
The very first thing he told me was:
"Pay off your LAS."
Thankfully, I listened.
Had I ignored that advice, the COVID crash would likely have forced my lender to liquidate my portfolio near the bottom.
He also shared a lesson that has stayed with me ever since:
Exciting stories create headlines. Boring businesses with strong fundamentals create wealth.
From then on, we focused on buying fundamentally strong businesses at sensible valuations instead of chasing the next big thing at any price.
Did I miss some of the market's biggest winners?
Probably.
Do I regret it?
Not at all.
Over time, I also realized that the process matters more than the outcome.
I can't control what the market does in the short term.
But I can control the quality of businesses I invest in, the price I pay, and my discipline.
If the process is sound, the outcomes usually follow.
March 2020
When my portfolio was down nearly 55%, I invested every spare rupee I had.
My thinking was simple:
«If the world ends because of the pandemic, money won't matter.
If it survives, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.»
Eventually, my patience paid off. Businesses that had once looked too expensive were suddenly available at valuations I never thought I'd see.
I felt like a kid in a candy store—I wanted to buy everything.
One amusing memory from that period:
My wife couldn't recharge her phone and genuinely thought our bank account had been hacked.
It turned out I had invested almost every spare rupee into the market. 😅
The Biggest Lesson
The hardest part of investing isn't buying. It's holding.
Fear and greed can cloud judgment. Holding a stock that's gone up 10x is often far more difficult than holding one that's down 50%.
I've sold only two companies in my entire investing journey, both because their fundamentals deteriorated due to corporate governance issues. Those decisions resulted in losses of around 70–80%.
On the other hand, I've continued holding companies that went through 40–50% price corrections because nothing had changed in the underlying business.
Fundamentals—not price—should determine when you buy and when you sell.
My wife deserves a great deal of credit.
Initially, she couldn't understand why, despite earning way more than our peers, we chose to live a comfortable life rather than a luxurious one.
We still went on domestic and international vacations, celebrated milestones, and enjoyed life along the way.
We simply refused to overpay for things or spend money just to impress others.
No luxury cars.
No flagship phones.
No designer clothes.
Over time, she understood what I was trying to build.
Today, she's even more disciplined with money than I am and often calls me out when I spend unnecessarily.
Fast Forward to 2026
I continued investing most of my earnings consistently.
This is where a decade of learning, discipline, and compounding has brought me—not through brilliance, but by surviving mistakes, staying invested, and trusting the process.
Today, my portfolio is at an all-time high and continues to reach new peaks, even though the Nifty is still around 2,000 points below its own all-time high.
Markets have started rewarding valuation discipline over growth at any price. Many of the businesses I owned were re-rated as valuations normalized and fundamentals once again took center stage.
Looking back, I wasn't successful because I was the smartest investor.
I was successful because I survived my mistakes, found the right mentor, stayed invested, and gave compounding enough time to do the heavy lifting.
My Biggest Learnings
Margin of safety and capital protection should always come first.
Never take a Loan Against Securities (LAS) on your portfolio. A market crash can force you to sell at the worst possible time.
The process is more important than the outcome. Focus on buying good businesses at sensible valuations.
Don't hesitate to hire a good financial advisor. We don't perform surgery on ourselves when we need medical help—we hire doctors. Same applies here.
Holding great businesses is much harder than buying them. Fear and greed will constantly tempt you to sell. If the fundamentals remain intact, temporary price corrections are just noise.
Let fundamentals—not stock prices—drive your investment decisions.
Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay invested long enough for compounding to work its magic.
If this post helps even one new investor avoid the mistakes I made, it'll be worth writing.
You don't need to be an investing genius. You just need to survive your early mistakes, keep learning, and stay in the game long enough for compounding to work.
Happy investing! ✌️
P.S.: Please don't ask about my current holdings, allocations, or buy prices. A great business isn't always a great investment at today's valuation. I hope the process shared in this post is more valuable than a list of stock names.