Beginning: I grew up in a family of professionals in Calcutta. We had reasonable money, but not more.

Wealth seemed appealing. It was attainable, we were taught, if only we learnt to work hard and follow orders (from parents, teachers, future employers…).

I felt the sting of lack of money when I couldn’t appear in the SAT exam, because let alone pay US college fees, we could not even pay the exam fee easily.

However, I did well in academics and studied at some of the best universities in India, US and Europe (Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, MBA from INSEAD+Wharton, Masters from Univ of Maryland - on a US Army fellowship).

Adulthood: After years of climbing the corporate ladder in Management Consulting and Sales, I lost my sense of purpose to rise up daily and do something. Following meaningless orders to sell a widget for some distant boss drained any motivation I had.

My life was turning out similar to my parents, and if I did not do something about it, nothing would change.

The plunge: With great fear (people will tell you they took a jump of courage, but let me know you it is scary as hell), I quit the corporate world, and focused on spending time on what was till then my hobby - Investing.

And here we are today: More than a decade later, it was the best thing that I did for myself. I turned out to be good at investing, regularly beating the market averages over every 5+ year periods. (I don’t worry about short time periods, the goal matters more). I found freedom, a sense of purpose every day, and am building something that will last generations.

I share my knowledge on this site, so others can benefit. I also teach students (grade 8 and higher) to give them a head start in learning investing, as well as larger groups of adults.

May you find your own freedom and wealth. Put it to good use.