Layoff, illness, loss: how MF savings cushioned the blow

Professional advice, sound planning, frugality enabled a former expat cope with uncertainties

- Sashind Ningthoukhongjam

Twenty-one. That's how many times Abhishek Ghate checked his portfolio in a single week. His investment advisor Harsh Roongta, the founder of Fee Only Investment Advisers LLP, noticed this and asked over a Zoom call why he was doing so. And, it turned out Ghate's colleagues were being fired one by one and he was having panic attacks, wondering when his turn would come.

"I was having high blood pressure, had panic attacks, and had to see a psychologist and take medications to calm myself," said Ghate, talking about the time just after the pandemic in 2020 when his former employer was carrying out mass layoffs.

Ghate, who worked with an events firm in Singapore, lost his job in May 2023 and remained unemployed for nearly two years. But a mutual fund corpus built over a decade helped him avoid financial stress. Many in India's gaming sector now face similar risks, with 200,000 jobs across 400 firms at stake under the new Online Gaming Act, which experts say could wipe out the real-money gaming industry. "Having an investment adviser also helped," said Ghate, who continued paying his advisor ₹24,000 a month even when he had no regular salary.

"He acted as a sounding board during my gloomy days, and it helped to know that I had someone accountable on my side." Ghate, the vice-president, user-experience (UX) design, for an AI startup in Gurugram shared with Mint how a frugal lifestyle and investing 50% of his salary with the help of an investment adviser helped cope with losses.

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