What Return Can I Expect From Equity Over the Long term? Part 1

How much can I expect from equity as an asset class for long-term goals?. This is a question one often hears from first-time investors, especially those who are migrating from the comfort of fixed deposits or real estate. Unfortunately, answers from experienced equity investors are steeped in hindsight bias. They often extrapolate their own good…

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Seventh Pay Commission Calculator: Pay Fixation with Pay Matrix

Here is a seventh pay commission calculator based on the pay commission report which allows you to determine your new salary based on the pay matrix. Do share this sheet with your colleagues or friends who work for central or state governments. For pensioners: Seventh Pay Commission Revised Pension Calculation The six pay commission introduced…

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Parenting is an instinct, not an investment!

Visu is a Tamil writer, actor, director and producer well known for his “family-oriented” movies and plays. He also became popular on the small screen when he began hosting a debate on social issues. Recently he was felicitated by the ‘Humour club’, a Chennai-based organisation that promotes healthy humour and humorists.  I got to see…

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The trouble with fixing the current cost of a child’s education

The most important input while planning for a financial goal is the current cost of the future expenditure. When the goal is several years away, the current cost is a crude estimate.  For retirement, we can assume present lifestyle barring child’s education expenses and liabilities. For a Ferrari, we can enter the current cost. For a…

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Claim settlement ratio does not matter if your life insurance policy is at least 3-years old!

Claim settlement ratio does not matter anymore from 2015 if your life insurance policy is at least 3-years old because IRDA has amended the section 45 of insurance act  such that any life insurance policy which is at least 3-years old cannot be denied claim  “on the ground of misrepresentation or suppression of a material…

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Do not buy Sovereign gold bonds If you don’t know when to exit!

Here is why one should not buy the sovereign gold bonds which are on sale from Since Nov. 5th 2015, despite  the sovereign guarantee and the 2.75% interest rate. From today (5th Nov. 2015), Sovereign gold bonds  will be available for subscription at an issue price of Rs. 2,684 per gram.  Subscribers can buy bonds which…

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Using Piotroski Score for Stock Analysis: Download a free spreadsheet

The  automated stock analysis Excel sheet (version 8)  now calculates thePiotroski Score for the last 9 financial years for Indian stocks. In January 2002, Prof. Joseph Piotroski wrote a paper titled, Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers which detailed a method of buying stocks based on 9 balance sheet…

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