My name is Rajat Gogia. I work as a Management Consultant. I have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance & International Business from Northeastern University.
I grew up in India in a middle class family. My dad was a Physics teacher and my mom was a homemaker. Both my parents worked hard to raise my younger sister and I. The most important goal for my parents was to ensure that their kids receive the best possible education. They worked hard to achieve that goal. Both my sister and I attended private schools. To make the ends meet, after school, my dad use to tutor kids late into the evening. Life for my parents was hard but with diligence, honesty, perseverance & sound financial habits they achieved their goal and saved enough money for a comfortable retirement. My dad taught us about spending less than you make, about the evils of credit card debt and the importance of investing. He ensured that we understood the basics of financial planning well.
I immigrated to the United States in the fall of 2011. Like any immigrant, I had a version of my American dream in mind. It included buying a home, raising a family and building a nest egg for retirement. Thanks to the lessons from my dad in financial planning I was doing well. I was spending within my means and had established a regimented saving habit. An area that I felt like I needed help was Investing. I was new to the country and while I had the education (I did my MBA in Finance and International Business from Northeastern University), I did not have the confidence to do it on my own. Fear of losing your hard-earned money is real.
In early 2013, I started looking for an investment advisor. In my quest for finding the right advisor I reached out to many companies and everyone said no. They did not want me as a client because I couldn’t meet the minimum funds requirement of $250,000. I was really upset and was left with no choice but to do it myself. My wife gave me the confidence that given my education & experience I should be able to manage our investments myself.
Fast forward to December of 2017, my wife and I were talking about how far we had come in our Investing journey. We were living our American dream, we had built a beautiful house for our family, a rental property and a growing nest egg for our retirement.
Due to lack of financial education & accessible professional advice a large number of Americans do not invest, not even in 401k. Through this website “theamateurinvestor.com” I want to share my experience & learnings about investing & money management with the DIY investor.