Deepak Shenoy - Founder of Capital Mind on investment

You have many facets - you are an entrepreneur, a techie, an active investor, a blogger and a financial markets expert and a husband and father as well. Do you have a favourite amongst these different roles?

Definitely the husband and father bit ! Family takes precedence above everything else ;)

You have co-founded 3 companies, phew! What advice do you have for people who are looking to become an entrepreneur? How someone can manage finances during that period until the business starts making money? 

I think you should only become an entrepreneur when you have enough money to survive a year at least without needing income from the startup. This is a good rule of thumb - if you don't have that money, don't do it, it will cause you pain.

If you had a chance to go back to being 25 and give your young self one investing advice, what would that be?

I would save more money at age 25. If I had put it in the markets then, I'd be much wealthier today!

Did you ever have a disagreement with your wife on how and where to invest?

My wife leaves the investing bits to me :)

A lot of us aren't very confident when it comes to investing and our money ends up sitting idle in bank account. Is there a magic pill to cure us of this uncertainty?

I think it's sad that we don't invest idle money. We should, even if it's in a simple fixed deposit at one level. But it's also sad that most investing options are either too complex to use or understand, or have stupid things like exit loads that dissuade people from investing what should be liquid money.

To be able to invest regularly did you ever have to compromise on your lifestyle? Do you remember your first investment?

Oh I've never compromised on lifestyle to invest. That would be silly - what is money for anyhow! But over time I've removed unnecessary spending in general, which allows me to invest more.My first investment was a disaster - I bought a tech mutual fund just before the dot-com bust! But then things got better as I understood it over time. 

For over a decade, your articles have been educating a lot of people about investing. What is that one lesson which you feel is the most important?

Typically, we get people who over-diversify and underinvest. People want short term gains but aren't willing to make it a disciplined strategy. The biggest lesson I think people should learn is that investing is all about discipline - it is a skill that can be learned, not an art that is only for the smart people. And of course, there is no silver bullet, no single strategy that keeps making money - if you can't take the loss or the heat, you shouldn't be in the kitchen.

You must have learned a lot by making mistakes. Which is the mistake you don't want others to repeat?

The only mistake I tell people not to make is that you should not be afraid of uncertainty. You should know the difference between stupidity and uncertainty, but the uncertain times are when you can make a really big amount of money.

What's your idea of fun?

Fun = do what you want to do. I love to travel by road - mostly I drive - and I enjoy the outdoors and the mountains. I love impromptu holidays with my wife and our two boys. The point of all money is to have fun. Everything else is pointless - you won't take it when you go, so this building big assets and changing the world etc are just silly excuses.