It’s been a wild year so far. The markets, be it US or India, have clearly tanked. I thought I’ll update here since the last time I made an update was in June 2021. Almost after a year.
Last year around this time, I was still in between some construction work at my new (now old?) apartment. I spoke about how once it goes on rent, I’d add the rental money to the EMI. Surprisingly, I’ve done that, not the entire amount but after reducing the maintenance costs. The society maintenance was surprisingly lower than I expected. I pay about INR 4.7K each month to society maintenance and my rental income is still INR 26K. This has allowed me to add INR 20K each month as an extra payment towards mortgage.
Mortgage Remaining
| Months | 2021 | 2022 |
| Jan | 0 | 76145 |
| Feb | 0 | 56145 |
| March | 56145 | 76145 |
| April | 56145 | 76145 |
| May | 111145 | |
| June | 56145 | |
| July | 56145 | |
| August | 56145 | |
| September | 82145 | |
| October | 56145 | |
| November | 82145 | |
| December | 82145 | |
| Total | 694450 | 284580 |
| Mortgage Remaining | 6890101 | 6805128 |
Since it’s a new financial year, I have already added INR 1.5L in my PPF account. I now get half of my contribution as interests. It’s absolutely amazing to finally see compounding work in your favour after years of working on the FIRE journey. If I had contributed INR 1.5L yearly since I started my PPF account, I would have already reached a stage where my interests would have exceed my contribution. Hopefully, should reach there in a few years.
Stock Series
I’ve completely stopped trading in stocks for the lack of time and the bear market. I don’t believe I would have made money trading options in such down market. I’m glad that I stayed away. I will at some point get back to the stock series, just that it’s not the right time.
I’ve continued to contribute to Index funds though. The market, however, has been a heartache. I’m down more than INR 7L from the peak and I’ve continued to contribute every month 😶. It’s just disheartening to see your portfolio down in lakhs. Not too many years ago that amount was my yearly pay check.
Barista FI
April 2022: INR -27,91,113
June 2021: INR -20,63,716
April 2021: INR -30,59,460
Hopefully the market gets back up. This downturn has added an extra one and half year to my Barista FI date. It’s quite annoying looking at the numbers. Looking at the current scenario, US might be heading towards recession, there are going to be ripple effects that we’ll see in the Indian market.