Professor K.B. Gupta taught commerce at the School of Open Learning (SOL) of Delhi University for over 42 years before retiring as an associate professor in January 2024. However, retirement has not fully sunk in for Gupta yet, as he still longs to take classes. During his academic career, he was part of the university’s teachers association, the academic council, convener, and evaluation teams and helped develop study materials.

Gupta originally hails from Nangalbani village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district but moved to Delhi to live with his uncle in 1973 when he was just a 13-year-old boy studying in Class 8. After spending over five decades in the capital, Gupta feels more of a Delhite than a Rajasthani.

The Delhi School of Economics alumnus wanted to pursue chartered accountancy, but destiny had other plans. After college in 1982, he started working as an ad-hoc associate professor teaching in different colleges for a year before joining as a permanent faculty member in SOL.

Like his peers, he did not bother saving money until he married in 1987. His salary was Rs 1,000 at the time, which was sufficient until his children were born. So, he took up tuition classes to earn extra money. Gupta says his wife was always by his side to support him along the journey.

Patience and Perseverance:

Around that time, some of his colleagues were investing in the stock market, and they suggested he apply for an initial public offer (IPO). He bought 100 shares for Rs 10 in one of the IPOs and later sold them at Rs 45, earning him Rs 3,500 in profit. Despite coming from a commerce background, he didn’t regard the stock market highly, but that changed after he learned more about it. “This is how my interest in the stock market began, and I kept investing small sums randomly,” says Gupta, who believes patience and perseverance are key to wealth creation.

Whenever he had surplus money and felt he could take a risk, he invested in the equity market for growth. But the equity market was never part of his retirement savings plan. For retirement solutions, he looked for life insurance plans. Says Gupta, “I didn’t invest in equity in a planned manner. However, it gave a good boost to my portfolio due to the boom in the market over the years. With time, as my children grew, my shares also grew to a good value,” he says.

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Gupta opened demat accounts for his children (daughter, 36, and son, 31, now) when they were very young. When his daughter was only four, he bought shares for her, and around 2004-05, he opened a demat account in her name and invested in more shares. This way, Gupta saved money for both his children. He managed the accounts so far and now wants to give that responsibility to them. He also opened public provident fund (PPF) accounts and bought insurance for his children when they were in their 20s. He had been paying the premiums, and he only recently asked them to pay for themselves.

He adds, “Nowadays, I don’t tell them about saving and investment. If you tell without them asking, they take you for granted. So I tell them only when they ask 2-3 times.”

Consistent Savings & Investments:

Gupta says, “I have not done retirement planning. My concern was only to raise my children well and get them married. I had the pension security, so I was not bothered much for retirement.” He invested a large sum from his salary in PPF, life insurance, and Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). He used the EPF funds to buy his house and his daughter’s marriage.

His college provided him with health coverage for the family, so he didn’t buy separate health insurance. Gupta used the benefits when he was hospitalised during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the security of pension and medical benefits for a lifetime, he kept saving and investing. He took endowment insurance plans for his family.

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What More Do You Need?

After retirement, his investments were in bank FDs, Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS), and mutual fund systematic investment plans (SIPs). He plans to continue investing in PPF and equity. He also plans to repay the home loan he took in 2020 in April this year. Though he does not need to repay it so soon, he wants to be free from liability.

“There are not many expenses; children are earning and not dependent on me anymore. Retirement corpus is accumulated and pension is coming. What more do you need”, he says.

He regrets not investing in real estate early. Says Gupta, “I invested in real estate only in 2012 after 30 years of working; I should have invested more in property.” He recalls that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in 1983 rolled out a housing scheme, and he applied for a flat in Vasant Kunj, South Delhi. The demand was to pay Rs 65,000 in the beginning and roughly Rs 3-3.5 lakh in total, but he didn’t have this much money, so he cancelled his allotment. Now, its value would be around Rs 4-5 crore.

He even bought MRF shares, the expensive Indian shares at the time, but in a small quantity, not because he could not afford to buy more but because he did not want to take risks. He also regrets not completing his PhD.

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Future Planning:

Gupta says he wants to pursue philanthropy, take online courses run by the finance ministry, pursue a PhD, or work as a consultant. He concluded the interview with advice to the younger generation: “Saraswati brings Laxmi. Don’t run after money; it will automatically come if you have good intentions, honesty, perseverance, and patience”.