An IIT-ian, Navya Mastanaiah,33, completed her PhD from the University of Florida and had returned to her homeland, India, to work. Since then, it has been more than five years that Mastanaiah has embarked on her professional journey as a mechanical and aerospace engineer.

But one thing that had kept her completely focused was her motivation to accumulate a sufficient corpus for her golden days, once the rat’s race finally ends.

Her initial investments were all in life insurances linked to mutual funds. Later, she felt that exploring investment options on her own by taking suggestions from friends and relatives might not be a wise choice for her long-term goal. So, without wasting any more time Mastanaiah decided to take help from a financial advisor.

On this, she said, “I wanted my investment portfolio to be more comprehensive. I wanted someone to review it and tell me what other risks I can take to multiply my money. I am busy enough and cannot constantly monitor my portfolio in order to grow my money.”

Post this, in the last three months, she has diversified her account considerably with equity and mutual funds investments. Now out of her whole portfolio, 70 per cent is mutual funds and 30 per cent is insurance. She is also planning to take an education loan of Rs9 lakh for her ongoing MBA programme. She wants to repay the loan from her salary.

Mastanaiah is also saving for her marriage. Among her long-term plans, she wants to invest in a real estate and save for her retirement purpose.

Given her love for travel and adventure, she likes and manages to embark on an international trip once a year along with sufficient number of domestic trips.