In 2014, Meenal Goel had ₹50 lakh and a choice: buy a flat, like most middle-class Indians, or invest in mutual funds. Her uncle didn’t hesitate.
“Beta, property prices double. Paisa safe hai,” he told her.
She didn’t take the advice. Ten years later, she laid out the results-and the receipts.
Goel, a chartered accountant and educator, recently broke down the two investment paths in a detailed LinkedIn post that’s resonating far beyond her network.
Her ₹50 lakh went into systematic investments across Nifty-based mutual funds. Over a decade, that portfolio grew to ₹1.44 crore-an annualized return of 11.06%. Her uncle’s ₹50 lakh flat, bought the same year, appreciated to ₹89.5 lakh, reflecting a 6% CAGR as per CRISIL.
But Goel didn’t stop at market value. She tallied up the hidden and recurring costs that real estate investors often overlook:
- ₹3 lakh in stamp duty and registration
- ₹15 lakh in home loan interest over 10 years
- ₹5 lakh in maintenance fees
- ₹1.5 lakh in property tax
- ₹2.5 lakh in renovations
That pushed her uncle’s total outlay to ₹77 lakh. His real return? Just 1.9% CAGR.
“The return gap isn’t just numbers-it’s mindset,” Goel wrote. “People still say things like ‘ghar mein rehte bhi hain, investment bhi hai’ or ‘mutual fund mein risk hai,’ but they don’t do the math.”
She clarified that she’s not anti-property. “A house you live in is not an investment-it’s a lifestyle choice,” she wrote. Property makes sense if you’re a serious real estate investor, she argued, but for salaried professionals hoping for double-digit returns without factoring costs, “it’s wishful thinking.”
Goel’s post taps into a broader shift in Indian middle-class investing: as financial literacy rises, more are questioning inherited wisdom-and doing the math themselves.