Investing often feels complicated and stressful, with lots of noise and unpredictable price movements. I actually entered the market around 5-6 years ago, right during the COVID crash, and that experience taught me something really important: a company’s business and its stock price can move independently. Even when a company is doing great—profitable and growing steadily—its stock price might not follow right away. Sometimes the price even drops while profits keep rising. What’s cool is that these kinds of situations keep happening over time and create real opportunities for investors who focus on value. So, in a way, a declining market is actually a good thing! Personally, I always look forward to those dips—they make investing a bit more exciting.
What really changed the way I invest is understanding the power of compounding. It’s incredible how steady, consistent growth, even if it seems small each year, can build into something much bigger over time. Investing isn’t about quick wins or timing the market, it’s about patience and letting your money grow alongside companies whose earnings keep growing. This mindset keeps me calm and focused, no matter how wild the market gets in the short run.
For me, investing means looking at the real strength of a business, trusting compounding to work its magic, and holding on for the long haul. This approach has made investing simpler, more rewarding, and honestly, a lot more fun.
The way I approach investing is pretty straightforward: I look for companies whose profits keep growing consistently year after year. Consistently growing profits are the first step toward more detailed and complex research, as they signal a healthy and reliable business foundation. Because when profits grow steadily, the stock price usually follows—eventually. So instead of getting caught up in daily price swings or trying to guess the next big move, I focus on steady, long-term growth.
This method helps me stay calm during market ups and downs because I’m holding companies that keep performing well behind the scenes. It’s not about quick wins or fancy tricks—just picking businesses with solid, predictable earnings growth. Keeping things simple and focusing on what really matters has made investing feel less stressful and a lot more manageable.
Here’s a quick example comparing the earnings per share (EPS) of two companies over five years to illustrate the difference:
| YEAR | Company01 EPS | Company02 EPS |
|---|---|---|
| Year 01 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Year 02 | 2.15 | 5.75 |
| Year 03 | 1.10 | 5.25 |
| Year 04 | (0.10) | 6.20 |
| Year 05 | 1.75 | 7.50 |
As you can see, Company 2 has consistent profit growth every year, offering much more reliable performance, while Company 1 has ups and downs, including a loss in Year 4.
But consistent profit growth is just the starting point. EPS numbers can sometimes be misleading—some companies boost EPS by doing buybacks to reduce the number of shares, not necessarily by growing profits. That’s why looking deeper is crucial. I also check things like return on equity (ROE), low debt levels, healthy cash flow, strong management quality, etc. These factors together paint a more complete picture of the company’s real health and growth potential.
After following this approach of focusing on consistently growing profits and digging deeper into important factors like ROE, debt, cash flow, etc., it has worked really well for me and continues to do so. This method helped me navigate different market cycles without stressing too much, giving me confidence in the companies I chose to hold.
That said, this doesn’t mean it’s the only way to sort companies. There are plenty of other methods out there that I might not know about or haven’t tried. I’m simply sharing what has worked for me in the hope it can help others find a clear and effective path to investing.
So, I put together a Google Sheet that lists companies sorted based on these principles. It’s my way of making it easier for you to find solid investments and hopefully make your investing journey a little less complicated and a lot more rewarding.
Feel free to check out the Google Sheet here: LINK
The list of companies in the Google Sheet is initially downloaded from the official NSE website—I’ve included the link to the source right there in the sheet. After that, I did my own research using various sources that provide financial data for these companies. Please note, this sheet is very much a work in progress and may contain errors since I manually review each company one by one. That’s why I strongly advise not to depend solely on this sheet for any investment decisions.
What I Learned
One interesting thing I realized while using this method is that I don’t actually shortlist companies I want to research—instead, I focus on removing the ones I don’t want to research further. It’s like sorting through a big pile and saying “No” to companies that don’t meet the basics first. Then, from the remaining list, I remove the ones that are “Too Tough to Understand” for me at this stage. What’s left after this process are the companies I feel comfortable saying “Yes” to and digging deeper into.
This way of narrowing down companies makes research manageable and focused. It ensures I spend time on businesses I understand well and have confidence in, rather than trying to analyze everything all at once.
Disclaimer:
Just to be clear—I’m definitely not SEBI registered, so please don’t sue me or think of this as official investment advice! I’ve been dabbling in the markets for about 5-6 years, which basically makes me a lucky amateur who’s still figuring things out. I could be spectacularly wrong (and probably sometimes am), but somehow luck’s been on my side so far. Since this stuff has worked for me, I thought I’d share it—if this actually helps you make some money, feel free to send me a virtual high-five—or maybe a small cut of the profits (totally joking, don’t worry)!
I’ve learned everything from reading books, blogs, and a whole bunch of other resources. The process I’ve shared has made my investing journey so simple and easy that sometimes I wonder, “Can investing really be this easy and simple?”
I’ll keep posting more of my learnings as I go along, hoping it helps others and sparks some good conversations! And seriously, if you’ve got any tips, ideas, or think I’m completely wrong, I’m all ears! I’ll take your criticism, suggestions, or even funny comments—anything to make this better.