Portfolio Management in 2017

I had a book called "Intelligent Investor" from 2015 but couldn't get time to read it. Due to which my portfolio get good punishment in till the end of 2016. Here are the stats

• Started investing from July 2015
• Till Dec 2016. If my invested amount was x, it's market value was 0.9x
• Means I was in overall loss of 10%.
• Started reading investing books from Jan 2017.
• After much juggling here are the stats after a year ie at the end Dec 2017.

• Total amount invested, Y =1.8x
• Total current market value= 2.25x (1.23Y)
• Total dividends recvd      =  3.3% of x (1.8 % of Y=3.3% of yearly return)
• Total profit booked          =8.6% of x   (4.7 % of Y=9% of yearly return)
• Total profit perceived      =23%+1.8%+4.7%=29.5% of Y =34% of yearly return

As you can see this year I started with -10% return at the start of year to +30% overall return at the end of year. This may be a luck or hard work, I don't know. But I surely know one thing that "At the start of year I gave a target to myself that my portfolio's dividend should be around saving account's interest given by bank. And see I am pretty close to it. This 3.3% vs 3.5%. Where as you have to give 10% tax on saving account interest while dividends are tax free. If you give tax on 3.5% then effectively interest earned by saving account would be 3.15% which is less than what I earned in dividends. This was what wanted from my portfolio and I am happy to get it.

The purpose of this article is motivate people to come to financial knowledge. I am not suggesting to jump into share market by reading few books unless you want to keep track of your portfolio by yourself. Share market has been historically beaten inflation as well as Fixed deposit income. If you want to dive into it. Then I would prefer you to start with mutual funds. I have taken some mutual funds which gave me return more or less than mine. So why take the burden on yourself, study few mutual funds and start with small amount. Take long term approach in the share/equity market.

And last but not the least- Keep learning.