Investing, not consumption, makes you cool: Chetan Bhagat

Q: Are you disciplined when it comes to investment?

A: Not as much, because now I have become more of the creative types. I have a pretty static kind of portfolio. I think I should manage it more actively, but what I do is basically I take a lot of index funds, real estate and manage that.

Q: What kind of an investor would you describe yourself as: conservative, balanced or aggressive?

A: I think I am fairly aggressive. I do not take any leverage, but at the same time I do not do very low risk investments either.

Q: Which is your most preferred instrument for investment?

A: I would say both equities and real estate.

Q: Could you share some of your experience in investing?

A: I have seen two major crisis, one is the dotcom bubble burst and the other is the sub-prime crisis in US where I saw a lot of my portfolio deteriorate.

In fact I lost a lot my money and at the same time I was quitting to become a writer. So, that was a tough situation, but I think I had learned to stay invested. I stayed in and in the last few years it has all come back and gone up even further.

Q: What is your advice to the general public as far as investing is concerned?

A: Consumption is often considered cool -- that I have this phone, I have this handbag or whatever. However what is cool is investment and savings and growth and the fact that you have freedom to do whatever you want. Consumption does not make you cool, it is investing that makes you cool.