This Valentine’s Day, let's look at ways ‘couplepreneurs’ manage their personal finances

On this Valentine's Day let’s find out Couplepreneurs financial journey, their challenges, lessons they learnt along the way and their triumphs.

In late 2009, Upasana Taku and Bipin Preet Singh, both 42 years now, launched a company called MobiKwik. It provides a mobile phone-based payment system, digital wallet, ZIP Pay Later service and more. For 12 years, they have been working together and contributing to digital India's dream.

Couplepreneurs are people in a relationship who also own or operate a business together. It’s important for the couple to harmonise the way they manage their finances and yet have sufficient independence.

But what happens when couples work together in the same office? Aside from joint investment decisions for their personal money, they must also decide jointly on how to run the business, raise capital, decide on business practices and so on.

Is too much closeness a blessing or a curse? On this Valentine’s Day, Moneycontrol brings you tales of three couples from diverse backgrounds, who somewhere on their life journeys came together at work too. Let’s find out their financial journey together, their challenges, lessons they learnt along the way and their triumphs.

Financial and business decisions

Taku and Singh of MobiKwik maintain separate bank and investments accounts. “However, we discuss the investment ideas with each other rather than invest independently. We know each other’s investment portfolio,” says Singh, co-founder, managing director and CEO, MobiKwik. Apart from property, they have undertaken their investments independently, he adds.

Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku of MobiKwik: To diversify the investment portfolio, they prefer to invest separately.

Taku, co-founder, COO, says, “We have intentionally kept the personal investments separate so that it does not overlap and we have a diversification in our investments.” For instance, Taku has part of her investments in cryptocurrency, but Singh has stayed away from this investment avenue.

Similarly, Singh has investments in particular sector stocks, but Taku has not invested in them. They believe their joint net worth may have lower returns if they invest in the same stocks or mutual fund schemes and they do not perform.

Similarly, Swati Bhargava, 41, and Rohan Bhargava, 38, co-founders of CashKaro and EarnKaro apps, find merit in keeping investments separate. The Bhargavas say they take their own investment decisions while valuing each other’s opinions. They prefer taking investment advice from professionals. The financial advisor helps them diversify their risks and build the portfolio according to their financial goals.

Millennial couplepreneurs Gaurav Chouhan and Ria Chouhan, both 27, from Shringar Creations which is into creating handicraft, corporate gifting and DIY craft, also prefer to maintain separate investment accounts. However, they discuss with each other before investing. They have different investment strategies. He prefers investing in equity mutual funds through monthly systematic investment plans (SIPs) and liquid funds whereas she is a risk-taker and prefers investing in direct equities. They say they prefer taking advice from an investment advisor before investing in mutual funds and direct equities.

Gaurav Chouhan and Ria Chouhan of Shringar Creations: They have a diversified pool of clients and services. So, they are not dependent on a particular segment of clients for regular business.

Insurance and contingency planning

Couplepreneurs prefer having a term insurance policy and choose not to invest in traditional insurance plans.

For instance, Singh and Taku of MobiKwik only have term insurance plans. To diversify the risk of a claim rejection because of uncertainty, they bought the term insurance policies from different insurance companies.

The Bhargavas also have an adequate separate term insurance policy for both. However, the Chouhans are yet to buy a term insurance policy for themselves. They are evaluating the plans and will purchase it soon.

Swati Bhargava and Rohan Bhargava of CashKaro and EarnKaro: They have kept a small savings pot separate (an emergency corpus) to secure themselves from uncertainty in the future.

For couplepreneurs, finances and fortunes are linked with the business and its growth. When business is down, the income of both the people is affected. To sail through such a situation, it is important to have an adequate contingency corpus. For instance, Singh and Taku of MobiKwik have built a contingency corpus of about 18 months, invested in liquid funds. Similarly, the Bhargavas have kept a small savings pot separately to secure themselves from uncertainty in the future.

The Chouhans have built two separate emergency corpuses for about three months’ expenses. One is for personal expenses if there is inadequate income and the other is for working capital requirements of the business if cash flow is affected. They have invested in liquid funds for the emergency corpus. “Further, we have diversified the pool of clients and our services. So, we are not dependent on a particular segment of clients for regular business,” says Gaurav Chouhan.

In running your business, don’t forget your home finances

While working together, there are certain regrets and mistakes made by both the partners. In the initial years, Singh and Taku were not investing regularly in stocks and mutual funds. “We regret our decision of not investing early in the equity market through monthly SIPs in mutual funds as it gives exponential returns in the long term,” says Singh. He adds that they haven’t invested in startups yet as angel investors and are open to exploring this investment avenue.

CashKaro’s Bhargavas also regret of not giving enough importance to personal investments and having lost out on gains by investing in equities. “We’re always so busy in our business that we usually delay prioritising our own finances,” says Rohan Bhargava. He adds that they procrastinated over important things like taking out the time to file paperwork, talking to financial advisors about their finances, etc. "We could have easily avoided this if we had been more proactive in our personal finance decisions," he adds.

The Chouhans regret having random investments in equities and mutual fund schemes. Because of a focus on growing the business in the last five years, they haven’t made a financial plan and aligned existing investments to any personal goals. The only positive is that they have an adequate emergency corpus in place.

Separating personal and business income

Millennial couples in the same business need to have a financial plan in place. You can make a financial plan through tools available online or by engaging a financial advisor. “However, it’s important to have clean finances and not messy finances on record for personal and business income as well as expenditures,” says Taku.

While working in the business, it’s important you draw a monthly salary income to invest for personal goals. Shringar’s Ria Chouhan says, “Every month we withdraw part of the income as salary from the business for personal expenses and investments. We draw an equal salary from the business to avoid any conflicts.”