Dear Readers, this is something that I have been wanting to do for quite a while. The idea germinated on India’s 75^th Independence day. This was the day when India entered Amrit Kaal – the twenty five years leading to 2047, when India targets to be a developed nation. The thought was that if we grow to become a developed nation over the next twenty-five years, what happens to a youth who starts his/her investing journey now.

When I thought of the experiment, the first question was where does he/she want to reach at the end of 25 years. Almost all of the investing advice today starts with a target corpus and how to reach there quickly. However, for me the prime importance is of time rather than the corpus. So, the name of the experiment is “No goal investing”.

Next question: what the method of the investment is. So, the first choice I made was that the best way to track growth of the country is through the listed equities. This experiment, by choice, is all equities. In my view there are three ways in which this professional at the start of his/her career can choose to participate in Indian equities.

1. Invest in Index ETF
2. Invest in a basket of actively managed fund
3. Invest in a self-managed portfolio of stocks

Given that this is an experiment, I chose to track the investments using all of these methods. The approaches represent three different mindsets regarding investing, and hence I will track these as the portfolios of three different persona.

The Setup

Three friends: Indu – the index fan; Muthu – the “mutual fund sahi hai” guy; and Shekhar – the stock picker. As of today, they have all been working for a couple of years and have INR 100,000 available for starting their investment journey. All three of them believe that their approach to investment is the best way to create wealth over a long time horizon.

They are doing well in their jobs, and they decide that for the first year they will be able to put in INR 20,000 towards investment every month. In addition they also decide that at the end of the year when they get bonuses, they might allocate some additional amount (which they will decide mutually). Additionally, for the next decade at least, they will be in a position to increase their monthly investment by 10% year on year.

The Investment

Indu – Invests INR 100,000 in ICICI Pru Nifty 100 ETF.

Sr. No.	Mutual Fund Scheme	Investment Amount	NAV – 24 Jan 25	No. of Units
1	ICICI Pru Nifty 100 ETF	100000	26.16	3822.630

Muthu – Invests in a basket of actively managed mutual funds. Below is the allocation:

Sr. No.	Mutual Fund Scheme	Investment Amount	NAV – 24 Jan 25	No. of Units
1	ICICI Large and Mid Cap fund	20000	913.17	21.902
2	HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities fund	20000	177.19	112.873
3	Parag Parikh Flexi Cap fund	20000	79.28	252.270
4	Nippon India Multi Cap fund	20000	267.71	74.708
5	HDFC Small Cap fund	20000	128.02	156.226

Shekhar – Shekhar’s investment is assumed and the most experimental. In India, you cannot buy fractional shares as yet. And if you want to create a diversified portfolio through regular monthly additions at the start of your investment journey, Mutual Funds are still the way to go. But, this is an experiment. And for this experiment, I am assuming that fractional shares purchase is possible in India. We will see where it goes in 25 years.

Shekhar is a great believer in diversification, and he decides to create his own fifty stocks portfolio. He says, “I will love to own some great names from both Nifty 50, and Nifty Next 50. But not all of them. So, even if Indu is going for the top 100 names in India, I am not convinced on all of them. And I should have some allocation to stocks which are not in top 100, but I think that they will do well in the long term.”

So, Shekhar invests his INR 100,000 equally distributed in a portfolio of 50 stocks.

Sr. No.	Stock Name	Investment	Buy Price – 24 Jan 2025	No. of Shares	Current Price
1	Aarti Industries	2000	439.05	4.56	439.05
2	Aarti Pharma	2000	621.3	3.22	621.3
3	Asian Paints	2000	2262.4	0.88	2262.4
4	Astral	2000	1468.35	1.36	1468.35
5	Axis Bank	2000	948.5	2.11	948.5
6	Bajaj Finance	2000	7438.6	0.27	7438.6
7	Bajaj Finserv	2000	1728.7	1.16	1728.7
8	Bajaj Housing Finance	2000	109.14	18.33	109.14
9	Britannia	2000	5101.55	0.39	5101.55
10	Chola Investment	2000	1223.05	1.64	1223.05
11	Dabur	2000	521.65	3.83	521.65
12	Deepak Nitrite	2000	2292.55	0.87	2292.55
13	Devyani International	2000	171.22	11.68	171.22
14	Divis Labs	2000	5762.6	0.35	5762.6
15	DMART Avenue Supermart	2000	3579.95	0.56	3579.95
16	Eicher	2000	5206.3	0.38	5206.3
17	Garware Technical	2000	769.7	2.60	769.7
18	Havells	2000	1523.2	1.31	1523.2
19	HCL Tech	2000	1792.85	1.12	1792.85
20	HDFC Bank	2000	1649.8	1.21	1649.8
21	HUL	2000	2368.1	0.84	2368.1
22	ICICI Bank	2000	1209.2	1.65	1209.2
23	Indian Hotels	2000	781.2	2.56	781.2
24	Infosys	2000	1875.45	1.07	1875.45
25	Jio Finance	2000	244.45	8.18	244.45
26	Kotak Mahindra Bank	2000	1886.2	1.06	1886.2
27	L&T Technologies	2000	5431	0.37	5431
28	LTI Mindtree	2000	5998.15	0.33	5998.15
29	Mankind Pharma	2000	2506.9	0.80	2506.9
30	Manyavar Vedant Fashions	2000	1132.6	1.77	1132.6
31	Metro Shoes	2000	1230.65	1.63	1230.65
32	Muthoot Finance	2000	2173.4	0.92	2173.4
33	Naukri Info Edge	2000	7447.05	0.27	7447.05
34	Nestle	2000	2207.9	0.91	2207.9
35	Nykaa	2000	167.37	11.95	167.37
36	Page Industries	2000	46395.25	0.04	46395.25
37	PayTM	2000	807.45	2.48	807.45
38	Pidilite	2000	2854.55	0.70	2854.55
39	Reliance	2000	1246.3	1.60	1246.3
40	SRF	2000	2583.95	0.77	2583.95
41	Tata Consumer	2000	992.35	2.02	992.35
42	Tata Elxsi	2000	6372.7	0.31	6372.7
43	Tata Motors	2000	734.1	2.72	734.1
44	TCS	2000	4152.35	0.48	4152.35
45	Titan	2000	3402.15	0.59	3402.15
46	Torrent Pharma	2000	3248.4	0.62	3248.4
47	Trent	2000	5490.45	0.36	5490.45
48	Tube Investments	2000	3232.15	0.62	3232.15
49	Varun Beverages	2000	541.7	3.69	541.7
50	Zomato	2000	215.6	9.28	215.6

These are the portfolios which I plan to track over the next twenty five years. There might be adjustments done along the way to add another fund/stock in place of an existing one. However, unless absolutely necessary, this is a hold forever kind of plan. It will be interesting to see where do they reach in the year 2047 and beyond.