As part of our ongoing MyMoney series we speak with Dr. Subhash Narayanan, a laser scientist who since his retirement, has started his own company, SasCan in the laser and medtech sector.
"I never saved with a purpose or a plan. I never had a specific financial goal in mind. I would put money in stock market investments if someone suggested it, and that's how I got into investing. My neighbor during the 1980s was a stock broker, and he would keep suggesting investments - "Subhash, this company is going to take right off." I had inherited some money from my father's property, and I had some savings of my own which I'd put into stocks.
I got lucky with some companies. When the Hero Motocorp IPO came out in 1984, it was priced at Rs. 10 a share. I bought around 250 shares, and when it rose to Rs. 65 I sold all of it. Now however, its one of India's most valuable companies - the shares would have been worth a lot if I'd held on. But I don't regret any of it - you win some, you lose some.
I'd buy shares on someone's recommendation, and sell when I needed the money. When I was building my house for instance, the construction cost was coming to less than four lakhs, but it was still cash I didn't have then. I took a Canfin Homes housing loan of one lakh rupees, at an interest rate of around 12%. I sold some shares I had of Tata Tea to help meet the shortfall. So in some cases, the stock market helped me fund some of my expenses. I also lost a lot of money when the Harshad Mehta scam crashed the stock market.
After the 1990s, when the stock market began to boom, I bought shares in companies like Infosys, Biocon and L&T. Some stocks like Vinati Organics and YES Bank have done well for me, and some like Mindtree and IFCI have been more mixed. My other savings have not been much - some UTI investments and so on. I'd sometimes travel on fellowships for my work outside India, and my savings from those projects allowed me to buy my first car - a blue Maruti 800 - in 1993 without a loan. I got a visit from the Income Tax officials because of that car!
I still buy stocks - today I have a little more than ten lakhs in the stock market. A bull run will sometimes surprise me and pay for a holiday my wife and I want to take. We don't travel much abroad, but we love travelling around the country."
