Hi! My name is Vishlesha Rana. My contractual work ended last week. I have known about it for a month now. But here I am. Still going through the same insecurity of how I will pay my bills just the same as the last time I faced unemployment in 2023.

To give you a background I have worked in the Pharmaceutical Space for about 13 years give and take starting my work as a bench chemist for $15 dollars in 2011. At that point I was super happy to be making roughly $30000 annually. Because prior to that I had only seen money in single digits when I was studying in college and working in Fast food joints because as immigrants while the sky is the limit having the right guidance is also super important.

And for some reason I always thought whatever I was getting was great. Believe me having that mindset of gratitude is good but that it limits you also to a point wherein you stop working hard. And that is what I don’t want for any of you or my kids or someone who is reading this. Why am I writing about this today?

This is a topic very very important to my heart. In the beginning I did not know what to do with the little money that I was making. And my mother never truly asked me for anything at all in terms of helping out the household. She managed everything by herself single handedly. Or maybe I was not a great daughter who could see that she needed help. I don’t know. But the point of the matter is even when I bought my first car a Navy Blue Jetta she had half the money to hand to me. Now this was before I was working for my $15 job and while I was in college. But the point is these are skills I never truly learned because I thought I am making good money and life is great.

When I started sitting with adults who were managing households and then the conversations started around investing in 401Ks so I started investing in 401Ks 2 years into my job. As I changed jobs I forgot that money started 401Ks in another company and repeated the same pattern. Until I became a mother. That amazing chapter that is still unfolding taught me that I need to invest for my kids. I started being around conversations and people, I started investing in Brokerages taking a portion out of my paycheck.

As I had my second child I started investing in Education funds with Fidelity. And then after unemployment and trying to get my real estate license I am starting to understand investing in Real estate. I have invested in Real estate passively with Fundrise but actively I am hoping to start soon.

And now there is this amazing platform with Invest Diva where I am learning investing in ways I could never have. Her idea is the method of triple compounding a technique that the richest and the wealthiest use to make their money work for you. For people like you and me had we known this information when we were coming right out of college and into our first year of working imaging by the age of 50 we would have so much wealth accumulated under us by the simple process of compounding.

If you are coming across this and have not looked into interest compounding, click the link here. You don’t have to invest in anything that your heart does not want. But do not turn out the eye to an opportunity that can open your eyes. I will be writing more along these lines as I learn with her program, but I highly recommend start small but start. When I was working in My last permanent job my director had mentioned how she would invest small amounts when she was in her initial career and then started investing more amounts as her annual income increased.

And it is not necessary that the annual income can increase. It can stay stagnant, or you might be asked to go because of cost cutting. In that event it is important to get a head start.

You can do your own research as well and start from there. Look at yahoo finance. I will give you a hint. With the current conflict between Iran and Israel the market is fluctuating and bouncing back. Study that.

If you learn from books here are a few for you to read

1. Investing 101: From Stocks and Bonds to ETFs and IPOs, an Essential Primer on Building a Profitable Portfolio
2. Buffett’s 2-Step Stock Market Strategy: Know When to Buy A Stock, Become a Millionaire, Get The Highest Returns 
3. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns
4. The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

You may have started or not but if you haven’t, take a step forward and if you have, then keep foraging forwards.

This entire article is written by me a human. If you like reading this and resonate or have comments on how I can improve it please leave your comments and I will work on it.