Investor Journeys—SimranInvestor Journeys—Simran

Tell us about yourself.

I moved to Melbourne seven years ago from Nepal. I work in marketing at a university student union, where I get to promote a lot of student theatre and host fun events. I love reading, running, hiking, and watching movies and theatre.

What’s your money story?

When I got my first job at a university, I lived paycheck to paycheck—my money would just disappear. Then COVID hit and I started listening to She's on the Money, a podcast by Victoria Devine. Victoria talked about how important it is to know where your money goes.

I did a money audit and realised that if I limited my coffees and eating out to once or twice a week, I’d have some money left over. So I saved this money and put it towards my first investment. 

Why did you start investing?

My dad has been investing for 30 years. During the COVID lockdown and travel restrictions, he had no income for two years because his main business was import and export trading in China. He lives in Nepal and it's a very poor country, so it took a while to recover. 

Through all of this, it was the income from my dad’s investments that supported our family of seven. That’s when I realised how important investing is. He was able to support our family just from passive income—and it took 30 years of planning for that moment.

Since then, I've become very diligent about investing a portion of my income regularly through Sharesies. Buying material items isn’t as important as future-proofing myself, because I’ve learnt that anything can happen. I'm thankful to have learnt that, because investing is a big part of my life now!

What are some key things you've learnt as an investor so far?

I started investing during a market dip. It was nerve-wracking thinking about the prospect of losing the money that I could have spent having fun, getting food, or even putting toward next month's rent. 

I was listening to She's on the Money and they kept saying that when the market dips, it’s like the shares are on sale—but it was so hard seeing my return go down! I would tell my dad, “I don’t know what to do. Should I sell?” and he’d say, “Just ride it out”. 

Starting to invest was hard, but staying was the challenging part. By the time the share market recovered, I was a lot more used to the ups and downs of the market.

How do you use Sharesies to invest?

The best thing about Sharesies is that it's so easy and accessible. You can invest whatever you can afford. I'm currently on a monthly pricing plan which has reduced my transaction fees too, giving me a lot of freedom to try out different strategies. 

I always go back to my Watchlist to see how different shares are performing. I love that it shows how much the share price has increased or decreased since I added it to my Watchlist. And I love the pink!

How would you describe your investing now?

I’ve become a lot more confident as an investor. Nothing beats first-hand experience. I read about investing, listen to podcasts, and follow accounts like Girls that Invest on social media. When I’m bored, instead of scrolling Instagram, I look at the news to see what’s happening in the markets!

I’m investing for the long term. It’s become second nature to me. Maybe one day it’ll replace my income, but for now, I just get joy from seeing my portfolio grow. It’s like a plant—I’m getting little fruits along the way with all the dividends, but one day the capital gain might turn my plant into a tree.