1/n Summer 1987: My school friend's dad died at 45 in an accident. Weeks later, his mom showed me a pile of old share certs, since I used to ask him about IPOs. Discovered he left behind a blue chip portfolio of Rs 1.3 Crores ~ $750k. His salary: Rs 3,500 ~ 200 pm. Sensex: ~500 2/n My friend's dad was a middle class factory mgr at Tata Steel when he passed away. He applied for every good IPO for 23 years, from the day he got his first paycheck. And he never sold a single share. He re-invested every rupee of dividend he received into new IPOs.