Let us discuss what is a living will, why it is important, how to make one and how it can help our loved ones. On March 9th, 2018, the Supreme court of India allowed passive euthanasia and recognised a directive of a terminally ill patient to withdraw life support. The court also put into place…

Our elders were right all along! In hindsight, it makes perfect sense to have children as soon as possible. A discussion on the health and wealth benefits of starting and completing a family asap. “It’s so difficult, isn’t it? To see what’s going on when you’re in the absolute middle of something? It’s only with…

It is common knowledge that Gautami and Kamal Hassan split in Oct. 2016 after a 13-year live-in relationship. Yesterday (Feb 24, 2018) she published an eloquently worded article on her blog distancing herself from Kamal. Eloquent because there is much to read between the lines, but that research aside, I would like to focus on the financial…

Here is a list of suggested New Year Resolutions for Investors based on three principles: imbibe the basis, implement it as soon as possible and ignore the noise. To me, personal finance is nothing more than common sense.  And common sense is nothing but mathematics expressed in a spoken language. Before I started the blog,…

There can be no doubt that 2017 is the year of cryptomania. Every day more and more investors, especially young earners want to try their luck with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and any other crypto coin they can get their hands on. Cryptomania 2017 is fantastic to watch as it unfolds, but dear bitcoin and altcoin…

How to buy Bitcoins in India? If you have asked this question, wondered how to invest in Bitcoins with INR, here is a simple DIY approach. This is not a recommendation to buy bitcoins and I do not hold any. The reason I am writing this is that the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community is filled…

Warning, you could be the next diabetic and chances are that you are a pre-diabetic and do not know it yet. Worse, our children could get it while they are still children! It is no secret that India is the diabetic capital of the world. Here are some simple steps to prevent diabetes, manage the…

How would you invest if you suddenly got one crore? That is a nice thought is it not? In this weeks Q & A, we consider what should a sudden crorepati do, along with other questions. Perhaps you may have seen it already, this is my article in the Economic Times: Mutual fund advisers earning commission…

Each week, I try and answer generic questions from readers. Here is this week’s edition. You can use the form below to ask your question. The tougher the question, the more I learn and hopefully more the benefit for readers. This week we consider questions on the PE of a mutual fund, health insurance for…

Deciding where to invest, when and how much in each instrument for a given financial goal is known as asset allocation – it is the key to successful money management. For a given financial goal, how do I determine the asset allocation? That is, how do I decide the amount of equity exposure and therefore, fixed…

This post is a response to a question posed to me by a PhD student: Everyone seems to be predicting that price of Bitcoin will increase by a lot in the coming years and it will become popular. So should I buy some (accumulate) now? To answer this, let us discuss the economics surrounding bitcoins…

Suppose you wish to “put” some money in cryptocurrency (or cryptocoins), say Bitcoin, altcoin, litecoin, fartcoin etc. would you trade or would you invest? It is obvious that due to poor liquidity, the crypto market is volatile. So instinct would tell us caution is necessary. So trading (frequent buying and selling) with regular profit booking seems…

As I sat down to write a post on “cryptocurrencies: should you trade or invest in them?”, I received an email from my classmate asking me to explain if the most popular cryptocurrency- the bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme? A pyramid scheme? or bubble? Since the two topics are closely related, I thought let me…