No Goal Investing Update: Month 7 – August 2025
Friend Trump turns Bully Trump. That, it seems, has been the story of August. Last month, I said what goes up must come down, and the reasons—only God knows. Now, I suspect Mr. Market might also know a thing or two. It just doesn’t always become apparent to us mere mortals.
Suddenly, Trump seems to have realized that India is funding the Russian war machine, and unless he penalizes us, the war won’t end. As you may know, he has already stopped several wars since taking over the presidency again—including, in his own words, one between India and Pakistan. And yet, India doesn’t seem eager to give him credit for averting a nuclear holocaust.
So here we are. A 50% tariff on our exports to the US, 25% of which is apparently punishment for buying Russian oil. The markets didn’t take kindly to these steep tariffs. If you follow the news cycle, you’ll see bursts of hope—peace talks between Zelensky and Putin, mediated by Trump—and their inevitable breakdowns. At this point, I’m not sure whether the tariffs are because Trump is angry at us or at Putin.
This month’s post comes a little late, but all the data is from 26th August—and as you might expect, there’s been little good news since.
The update –
Still, our three investors have kept to their paths, calmly and without drama. They’ve each made their planned investment of INR 20,000 this month. Discipline, after all, has a beauty of its own.
Indu’s portfolio (The index fan) –
| Mutual Fund Scheme | Existing Units | New Investment | NAV | New Units | Total Units | Value |
| ICICI Pru Nifty 100 ETF | 8206.363 | 20000 | 28.19 | 709.471 | 8915.834 | 251337.37 |
| Invested Amount | 240000 |
| Current Value | 251337.4 |
Muthu’s portfolio (the mutual funds sahi hai guy) –
| Sr No | Mutual Fund Scheme | Existing Units | New Investment | NAV | New Units | Total Units | Value |
| 1 | ICICI Large and Mid Cap fund | 46.937 | 4000 | 995.48 | 4.018 | 50.955 | 50724.76 |
| 2 | HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities fund | 244.886 | 4000 | 192.12 | 20.820 | 265.706 | 51047.42 |
| 3 | Parag Parikh Flexi Cap fund | 545.760 | 4000 | 83.99 | 47.625 | 593.385 | 49838.38 |
| 4 | Nippon India Multi Cap fund | 159.799 | 4000 | 298.91 | 13.382 | 173.181 | 51765.42 |
| 5 | HDFC Small Cap fund | 341.965 | 4000 | 140.63 | 28.443 | 370.409 | 52090.6 |
| Invested Amount | 240000 |
| Current Value | 255466.6 |
Shekhar’s Portfolio (the stock picker) –
| Stock | Existing Shares | New Investment | Buy Price | New Shares | Total Shares | Value |
| Aarti Industries | 10.13 | 400.00 | 386 | 1.04 | 11.16 | 4309.578 |
| Aarti Pharma | 6.18 | 400.00 | 818.65 | 0.49 | 6.67 | 5459.356 |
| Asian Paints | 1.93 | 400.00 | 2481.4 | 0.16 | 2.09 | 5185.434 |
| Astral | 3.07 | 400.00 | 1390.1 | 0.29 | 3.36 | 4667.481 |
| Axis Bank | 4.24 | 404.24 | 1050.1 | 0.38 | 4.62 | 4853.289 |
| Bajaj Finance | 4.50 | 419.80 | 876.25 | 0.48 | 4.98 | 4362.925 |
| Bajaj Finserv | 2.36 | 402.36 | 1924.2 | 0.21 | 2.57 | 4950.473 |
| Bajaj Housing Finance | 38.40 | 400.00 | 112.33 | 3.56 | 41.96 | 4713.481 |
| Britannia | 0.84 | 463.35 | 5765.5 | 0.08 | 0.92 | 5332.959 |
| Chola Investment | 3.20 | 402.24 | 1476.2 | 0.27 | 3.47 | 5129.411 |
| Dabur | 8.67 | 445.50 | 522.4 | 0.85 | 9.52 | 4972.542 |
| Deepak Nitrite | 2.09 | 415.68 | 1843.6 | 0.23 | 2.32 | 4268.84 |
| Devyani International | 25.84 | 400.00 | 174.09 | 2.30 | 28.13 | 4897.641 |
| Divis Labs | 0.73 | 421.96 | 6190.5 | 0.07 | 0.80 | 4952.502 |
| DMART Avenue Supermart | 1.15 | 400.00 | 4716.4 | 0.08 | 1.24 | 5843.767 |
| Eicher | 0.83 | 457.97 | 6151 | 0.07 | 0.90 | 5551.48 |
| Garware Technical | 5.42 | 400.00 | 774.85 | 0.52 | 5.93 | 4598.396 |
| Havells | 2.86 | 400.00 | 1517.9 | 0.26 | 3.13 | 4744.869 |
| HCL Tech | 2.62 | 431.41 | 1492.8 | 0.29 | 2.91 | 4339.433 |
| HDFC Bank | 4.97 | 454.67 | 973.4 | 0.47 | 5.44 | 5292.402 |
| HUL | 1.89 | 400.00 | 2692.6 | 0.15 | 2.04 | 5500.585 |
| ICICI Bank | 3.38 | 400.00 | 1416.6 | 0.28 | 3.67 | 5192.537 |
| Indian Hotels | 5.70 | 400.00 | 769.05 | 0.52 | 6.23 | 4787.344 |
| Infosys | 2.61 | 400.00 | 1529.6 | 0.26 | 2.87 | 4395.863 |
| Jio Finance | 17.27 | 400.00 | 315.75 | 1.27 | 18.53 | 5852.258 |
| Kotak Mahindra Bank | 2.19 | 405.48 | 1965.7 | 0.21 | 2.40 | 4715.272 |
| L&T Technologies | 0.91 | 400.00 | 4325 | 0.09 | 1.00 | 4335.945 |
| LTI Mindtree | 0.82 | 400.00 | 5165.5 | 0.08 | 0.90 | 4645.289 |
| Mankind Pharma | 1.78 | 401.78 | 2502 | 0.16 | 1.94 | 4857.982 |
| Manyavar Vedant Fashions | 4.83 | 400.00 | 758.05 | 0.53 | 5.36 | 4062.864 |
| Metro Shoes | 3.77 | 400.00 | 1137.9 | 0.35 | 4.13 | 4695.181 |
| Muthoot Finance | 1.98 | 400.00 | 2673.1 | 0.15 | 2.13 | 5699.43 |
| Naukri Info Edge | 3.00 | 400.00 | 1395.7 | 0.29 | 3.29 | 4585.872 |
| Nestle | 3.89 | 400.00 | 1162.2 | 0.34 | 4.23 | 4918.118 |
| Nykaa | 24.60 | 400.00 | 231.65 | 1.73 | 26.33 | 6099.495 |
| Page Industries | 0.10 | 400.00 | 45505 | 0.01 | 0.11 | 4789.953 |
| PayTM | 5.26 | 400.00 | 1253.1 | 0.32 | 5.58 | 6994.468 |
| Pidilite | 1.52 | 430.46 | 3100.4 | 0.14 | 1.66 | 5153.142 |
| Reliance | 3.39 | 400.00 | 1384.9 | 0.29 | 3.68 | 5093.342 |
| SRF | 1.59 | 406.35 | 2849.2 | 0.14 | 1.73 | 4932.378 |
| Tata Consumer | 4.26 | 400.00 | 1079.9 | 0.37 | 4.63 | 5000.919 |
| Tata Elxsi | 0.73 | 400.00 | 5478.5 | 0.07 | 0.80 | 4379.961 |
| Tata Motors | 6.22 | 400.00 | 681.65 | 0.59 | 6.80 | 4637.935 |
| TCS | 1.17 | 412.92 | 3157.2 | 0.13 | 1.31 | 4121.905 |
| Titan | 1.30 | 414.28 | 3594 | 0.12 | 1.41 | 5079.334 |
| Torrent Pharma | 1.36 | 408.14 | 3604.8 | 0.11 | 1.47 | 5299.468 |
| Trent | 0.82 | 400.00 | 5295 | 0.08 | 0.89 | 4724.456 |
| Tube Investments | 1.48 | 402.21 | 3028.4 | 0.13 | 1.61 | 4870.682 |
| Varun Beverages | 8.60 | 404.30 | 508.55 | 0.80 | 9.39 | 4775.497 |
| Zomato | 19.34 | 400.00 | 317.9 | 1.26 | 20.60 | 6549.553 |
*Nestle and HDFC Bank went through corporate actions to double the number of stocks. The numbers and prices are updated for that. We had lots of stock giving dividends this month. Dividends came in from Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Britannia, Chola, Dabur, Deepak Nitrite, Divis Labs, Eicher, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra bank, Mankind Pharma, Pidilite, SRF, TCS, Titan, Torrent Pharma, Tube Investments and Varun Beverages. We are assuming a reinvestment of the dividends in the same stocks.
| Invested Amount | 240000 |
| Current Value | 249173.3 |
Overall, Muthu’s mutual funds portfolio is the clear outperformer. Shekhar’s portfolio is still the laggard, but it’s catching up with the index fund. His investments—INR 4,800 in each stock—have yielded mixed results. Some have soared, some have sunk. After some soul-searching over the past couple of months, Shekhar has decided to stick with the same basket of stocks for at least a year. He’ll revisit the question after that.
Seven months in, the ride has already offered a few surprises. Back in February, Muthu’s mutual funds were trailing. Now, they lead the pack. Given time, I believe we’ll see many more such reversals—and revelations.
The comparison and the graph
| Month | Indu | Muthu | Shekhar | Investment |
| Jan-25 | 100000 | 100000 | 100000 | 100000 |
| Feb-25 | 117247.7 | 115538.4 | 116557.2 | 120000 |
| Mar-25 | 142363.5 | 140184.6 | 138494.2 | 140000 |
| Apr-25 | 165366.2 | 162416 | 163500.4 | 160000 |
| May-25 | 192137 | 191789.2 | 189153.7 | 180000 |
| Jun-25 | 217175.4 | 217913.8 | 213219.9 | 200000 |
| Jul-25 | 232075.9 | 236487.7 | 228753.8 | 220000 |
| Aug-25 | 251337.4 | 255466.6 | 249173.3 | 240000 |
These three have been doing this for seven months now. After the first month, the laggard portfolio was Muthu’s mutual funds. And today, that one is an outperformer. I think given time, we will have interesting observations out of the experiment.
Disclaimer: I hold all the stocks and mutual funds mentioned on this page in my personal portfolio.