Read the journey of Mumbai born Yogendra Joshi who started dealing in mutual funds from his engineering days. Now his wife who is an architect by profession has also entered the world of financial planning
Tucked in a narrow lane near Brahmin society in Thane’s Naupada area, his office location is free from the hustle bustle of city crowd. He stays in a nearby apartment which helps him shuttle from home and office quickly. He got married in 2000 with Swati who is an architect by profession. Yogendra’s mom and dad are both practicing doctors. The 40 year old shares his 20 years of journey in the financial world over a steaming coffee in his office.
He did his BE (computers) from Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology (RAIT) in1993. His father encouraged him to fend for himself early when he was studying engineering. “I started working at the age of 18. It was learning and earning. As soon as I entered engineering college, I started distributing various products like insurance, small savings and mutual funds,” recalls Yogendra.
He wanted to take up a part time job during his engineering but there were limited options in front of him. His dad’s friend who was dealing in financial products introduced him to mutual funds and insurance. Slowly and steadily he made himself familiar with these products. He started with mutual funds when he finished his first semester exam.
It was difficult for a person like him coming from a completely different background of computers to understand financial products at such a young age. During meetings with clients who were mainly his family friends and close associates, he was inundated with several questions about mutual funds. He did not have answers to all the questions due to his limited familiarity. This kept him on his toes as his quest to understand how these products function grew. “It was challenging. People were not familiar with mutual funds and they had a lot of questions and reservations,” says Yogendra.
From 1999 to 2007 he was working with Rolta India Ltd as a data centre manager. His main focus area in his job was e-security. Yogendra says that his exposure to the world of internet and computers is helping him now as he manages numerous clients’ confidential details. “We had a strong database of more than 800 families when he started full fledge financial planning,” says Yogendra.
Financial planning was a relatively new concept in 2007. In the same year, he completed CFP as he juggled between office work and his business. After acquiring CFP certification, he decided to quit his job. But the transition was not easy according to him as he had to mentally prepare himself to start off his own venture.
His wife Swati was working with Yogendra’s brother in law’s architecture business. She completed CFP in 2009. She brings her real estate expertise in financial planning. Her friends used to ask her how she changed her career track from architecture to finance. Her reply was: “I was planning real estate plans then now I am drawing financial plans,”
Swati made the transition in financial planning to help Yogendra. Swati looks after the day to day operations like planning and implementation of financial plans while Yogendra plans strategic initiatives of the company.
He organizes sessions in corporate houses to spread the word about the importance of financial discipline in life. He has conducted seminars in companies like HPCL, Skyscape India and Geometric. Yogendra is also a marketing consultant for FPSB India since September 2009.
After more than 20 years in distribution and financial planning, he has a total client base of 800. Out of these, 85 are fee based financial planning families.
After Swati joined him they rented an office in an apartment close to his house. As business expanded, he hired more people. He has a team of six people now. His employees are also undergoing CFP right now. “This helps me to delegate work properly and confidently to each employee. Every member of my team has to be expert” says Yogendra. He holds daily short duration training session for his team. He has a pure retail based advisory business.
Yogendra has appeared on Marathi news channels like Star Maza, IBN Lokmat and Delhi Doordarshan to talk about financial planning.
Going forward, he plans to aggressively ask for referrals. Till recently referrals were pouring in without his solicitation.