[Interview] Mr. Anuj Gupta – Founder, TAG Investments

Interview: Mr. Anuj Gupta – Founder, TAG Investments

At Sugermint Media, our aim is to bring to our entrepreneurs community some of the inspiring and motivational stories from the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Mr. Anuj Gupta – Founder, TAG Investments for an exclusive interview with us.

Who is Anuj Gupta?

Anuj Gupta is a finance professional with over 10 years of experience he has worked with
financial services giants like Merrill Lynch, and Bank of America and he has also had the
opportunity to work with start-ups with a niche in investment banking.

Anuj Gupta is the founder of TAG Investments, a financial products distribution and taxation
services firm.

Anuj has helped over 1000+ individuals and their families plan, execute and achieve their
financial goals via the best suited financial products in the market.

Tell us a little about yourself

Mr. Anuj Gupta: I have done my schooling from a boarding school: Sherwood College, NainiTal. I graduated as an Electronics & Communication Engineer from Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore

Post completing my graduation, I entered into the corporate world and worked with financial giants like Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and then I took experience working with a Start-Up with a niche in Investment Banking. This way I learnt both corporate and start up culture.

Post which I started my entrepreneurial journey by starting my own financial services firm, TAG Investments to cater to individuals and their families on personal finance management.

It has been over 10 years dealing with investors helping them execute and achieve their financial goals by investing the best financial products in the market.

I live with my parents in Greater Noida and I am married, my wife is a practicing Chartered Accountant and I have a 2 year naughty son, Anav J

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Post the quarter life crisis, I gained clarity that I needed to do much more in life. I had heard about 10X (means you can get 10 times bigger than where you are presently)

I was convinced that I can get to 10X but not with what I was doing, hence I took the leap and started my business.

Being an engineer by study, I changed my field to finance by chance as I got an opportunity in the banking and finance domain and gradually gained knowledge and interest in the financial services field.

To achieve 10X, I had to start my business and it was a no brainer to start with what you already know. And then I just knew FINANCE MANAGEMENT and that is what I started with.

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Our firm name is TAG Investments. We offer financial services like distribution of various financial products like mutual funds, model funds, exchange traded funds, portfolio management services, alternate investment funds, insurance (life and general), direct equity (India and US listed equity) and derivative products like future & options, currency, commodity, and taxation services like income tax filing, GST registration and filing, company registration, book-keeping, audit and tax compliance management.

How much Health Insurance and Life Insurance is enough?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: It depends. With medical inflation touching the roof, more is less. Paying a premium towards insurance seems to be a liability to most of us but it is one expense which you should not avoid at any cost.

The basic calculation can be as below:

Health Insurance

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Health Insurance: 10 L (For families living in Non-Metro City), 25 L (For families living in Metro City)

Other way of knowing how much medical insurance is enough, it should be equivalent to your yearly income. Example if your annual income is 15 L, then your health insurance should be 15 L.

Life Insurance

Mr. Anuj Gupta: There is no parameter to define the value of a human life, however there is an eligibility criterion when you apply for a life insurance.

Hence not every individual can take life insurance. The basic check is that an individual who wishes to take life insurance should have an active source of income, only then will he/she be eligible for a life insurance.

Basic coverages between 5 L – 25 L can be given without much of background checks but for bigger coverages, you need to have an income criterion to be fulfilled.

Life Insurance can be calculated by multiplying your annual income by 20 times. Example: If your annual income is 10 L INR, then you should have a life insurance of 2 Cr INR.

Which sectors are good to invest in during the present times?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: There are few sectors which we term as all season sectors which work in favor of investors like banking, technology and consumption.

As Indians, we have adopted to the use of banking services (especially post demonetization), technology ( post Covid), consumption (with the vast population, we just cannot stop consuming)

However, if someone is a trader with a short-term horizon of 3-6 months, then one needs to be cautious and know the sector trends at the time of investing your money. Presently as we speak we feel defensive and real estate sector are trending.

Top 5 preferred financial products to invest in to get the best return on investments?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: The top 5 on our list is Exchange Traded Funds, Individual Stocks, Model Funds, Mutual Funds, Sovereign Gold Bonds. 

This seems a simple list but an investor needs to have complete knowledge on what to invest within this category and should do a due diligence before investing on what product is best suited as per their risk profile and time horizon.

Why is financial planning important?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: When we travel abroad or even locally, we know when to leave and where we need to reach and an approximate idea of the route and time it will take for us to reach the destination.

Similarly when it comes to our finances, we need to plan the starting point, destination (financial goals), route (via investing in different financial products), time (how much time as an investor you can spare to reach your destination.

Financial Planning helps in being more focused towards our financial goals. Without a plan, taking action is almost impossible and even if you do then it is meaningless.

How to get started with investments for a 1^st-time investor?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: With easy access to internet, an individual can learn basics of finance via reading blog posts, watching videos etc.

There are basic courses available Free of Cost and at a minimal cost which help individuals know more about finance and helping them get started.

We ourselves conduct daily/weekly webinars for our TAG Investments subscribers on our social media platforms to help spread awareness on various financial products related topics which can help individuals get started.

How to manage your money without any knowledge and spend too much time?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: There are financial products which are ready to invest like mutual funds and basket of stocks where you just need to fulfill your KYC (know your customer) and get started.

However with more than 1000 + mutual fund schemes and stock baskets available in the market, it is overwhelming for an individual to choose which one is the best suited for him/her.

There comes the role of a financial intermediary who helps you navigate this task without you having to spend too much of time in choosing the confusing financial products in the market.

How much to save for children’s education and marriage?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Education and marriage cost can vary depending on the financial status of the family and various other parameters. 

While few get over with their education in less than a lakh of rupees and then there are few who spend more than a crore of rupees in their education.

It also depends on what the child wants to pursue in the future. There are specialized courses which require a heavy amount and that needs proper planning in advance so that you do not end up sacrificing your children’s future.

There is a future value attached to every present value. Inflation needs to be factored at the time of planning for your children’s education and marriage cost.

Example: If today your child is 10 years of age, and his graduation would be completed by the time your child becomes 21.

You need to take the present cost of graduation and then consider inflation cost and calculate the future value which will be required then.

A thumb rule can be:

If today 10 L is needed for the education, then after every 10 years, the cost would get doubled assuming an inflation of 7% approximately.

Marriages are made in heaven and even the cost of marriage can be heavenly if you do not budget it in advance. Hence you need to fix the expenses well in advance for your children’s marriage.

How much to save for your retirement?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Retirement can be the most beautiful phase of your entire life if you have created a good corpus at the time of retirement.

For that you should start saving 60% of your income when you are single (aged between 18-30 years), 40% of your income when you are newly married or have a family to take care of (aged between 25-40 years), 20% of your income when you have a complete family to take care of and you are the only bread-winner in the family (aged between 40-60 years)

Money saved is money earned. While above said conditions can vary from individual and situation based, one should save a fixed amount (minimum 10% of income) and then spend what is left after saving.

Cost of living has become high and income levels are not increasing at the same pace as much as the expenses are increasing, which actually makes it a point for us to think, plan and save for the future when we would not have left with any income and complete dependency would be on the savings only.

What is unique about your business?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: With so many financial products in the market, individuals always are overwhelmed with the choices they have.

We have tailor made financial portfolios (well diversified and growth oriented) which help our clients to be worry free and achieve their financial goals without having to spend time on choosing confusing financial products.

We adopted to technology early on in our business giving us the confidence to cater to our clients without any difficulty.

We give transparent and easy access to all the clients to view their financial portfolios via mobile and web applications.

Physical + Digital way of working helps our clients to take advantage of both sides of personal attention and leveraging technology benefits.

We run a specialized program of 10X your Investments which I have achieved in my last 10 years of investing and I exactly know how to make our clients achieve the same with the processes and investment strategies which I applied to 10X my investments, avoiding all the mistakes I made in the last 10 years so that our clients can reach to their financial goals much faster than they had planned.

How many employees in your organization?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: We have an experienced team of 10 members for client servicing. We have outsourced our customer care, technology, marketing and back office. This helps us stay focused on client interaction and servicing.

What’s your company’s goals?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Our Purpose: We work daily to make our clients financially rich and successful.

Our Vision: To be the most preferred financial services company and to create an addictive environment for financial well-being around us.

Our Mission: To provide financial services with utmost clarity to our clients to enable them to plan, execute and achieve their desired financial goals.

We have winning techniques and formulas to create wealth. I have personally tested and tried on my personal wealth and I have gained success. Next we are on a mission to reach 1 L individuals and their families by 2030 to help them achieve 10X.

How do you build a successful customer base?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: When we go back and see what we did, we feel blessed to have a client base of 1000+ presently. Initial years was just interacting with as many individuals as we could, we started with zero as most businesses would have.

Financial literacy rate is low in India, people are not very comfortable discussing their personal financial details and that challenge we faced in the initial phase of our business.

However with consistent value driven interactions we did with whoever we met during networking events, conducting free seminars we built our customer base. Good work is always rewarded. Eventually we started to get references which has now become an organic way of adding more clients.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: We continue to fail even today in what we do but the good part is that we realise it early stage and we learn from it and take corrective actions. This gives us a matured experience of handling similar situations in the future.

In the past, we have failed in managing our business when we use to be stuck in firefighting with no or little processes defined as an organisation. We identified those mistakes and today we have fully automated process to manage our business.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Mr. Anuj Gupta: Invest and do not Save.

Website: www.taginvestments.in, www.anujgupta.net

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