The thought of compromising on my dreams to invest in an asset class to increase my net worth in the future makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

To the dismay of my parents, who just wanted a typical obedient Indian son, I am going to take a controversial view on how are dreams are being mortgaged.

A typical Middle class Indian Hero ? We are told to dream big, spread our wings and fly.We are supposed to take risks, innovate, build and change the world we lived in.

India is supposed to the frontrunner of the IT revolution; we have the engineers, the sharpest of minds and yet we managed to lag behind in innovating great global products. Some say we need better infrastructure, some lay blame on lack of governance and some on the non-conducive eco-system.

The primary reason being the villain of the story : The Equated Monthly Installments (EMI) ? a fixed overhead cost, who is taking away our risk appetite in lieu of a stable future. An entire industry, called consumer finance, is being built to rip our dreams off!

The IT boom in India is often given credit for the rise of middle class in India and justifiably so. It was around the same time in the early 2000s, one additional industry was taking shape ? retail banking industry. Higher income gave banks and other financial institution the opportunity to lend individuals to achieve their financial goals. ?Owning a house?, which used to be a distant dream, now became a reality.

Fast Forward today, Home Loan Teaser Rates and 0% financing are enticing us to flock to lenders for newer and bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger phones? . We were paying price for our freedom and creating a circle of debt as lenders are raking in money to grow their retail book by 20% CAGR yoy.

Getting access to credit became easier and we slowly started falling in the trap of higher ?fixed costs?. An innovator in us is getting killed everyday because we choose to mortgage all those traits into this villain ?EMI?.

Young blood, fresh out of college, who should ideally dream of building products that would change the way we live ,started focusing getting trapped into servicing their EMI payments and now looked for job security. Not only that but the lure of an Infosys job or at a top MNC job that gave them the ability to own a house, drive a nice car and show off to peers/relatives/family/friends was all too enticing. It became a rat race – after all our social status is gauged by the society by the asset you own ? and ?house? as an asset has a special social status above all other financial assets. We started succumbing to the jobs that do not offer us growth or career paths that we are least interested in because we now have a fixed cost (EMI?s) to service. The monster called EMI has become so big now that taking your family for a vacation would just become an afterthought despite of your manifold growth in purchasing power.

I wonder why? Is our decision to buy a house (having a fixed overhead cost for the next 20 years) more of an emotional one or a sound financial one? Can we put a price on our freedom? What is the marginal happiness that I get from the financial gains from owning a home for which I am sacrificing my present? I struggle with these questions ? this is not just about owning a house, but it?s about adding a high fixed cost on a monthly basis.

Could we not just live in rented apartments closer to workplaces with freedom to explore career opportunities and take paths less travelled? Can we get rid of all the fixed overhead expenses and live life on a variable basis ? just spend as necessary so we can take bigger risks in our lives? Can we be more accepting of failures?

I will draw examples from my life where the lack of financial burden (thankfully, my parents are self-sufficient) allowed me to grasp opportunities that helped me advance my career.

* At 16, I had just finished high school. No one in my family had completed college and I wanted that coveted degree so I left everyone behind and moved to US.

* I was now 23 and had a good career with Thomson Reuters. I had heard NYC was where the action was. I would rub shoulders with the best in the business. This time I sold everything I owned in Minnesota and drove myself to NYC.

* I was now in the Big Apple and was loving life. MBA called and this time again I sold everything and drove myself to Los Angeles and then to London for 6 months.

* Upon graduation, I decided that I wanted to live in India and be part of the growth story. This time I sold everything to move back to the motherland.

I now run a startup Creditvidya.com alongside my Co-founder Rajiv Raj. We have learned from our experiences and kept a low fixed cost structure for our startup. Flat organization structure, outsourced support functions, cloud services ? all of which has helped us keep our fixed costs low. It does have its own set of challenges but gave us flexibility to keep the business running when the revenues weren?t trickling in.

Whether in my personal life or in my professional life, I have benefited in keeping my expenses (fixed) to a minimum. Everyone indulges once in a while and that?s okay. But one does need to take a hard look at your finances and question the absolute necessity of fixed overhead expense.

By Abhishek Agarwal, CreditVidya Co-Founder and Director

NOTE: The Express Group takes no responsibility for the veracity of content provided by Creditvidya.com.