Investors tend to display extreme behaviour. Most of them want the solace of risk-free returns without understanding the impact of inflation. A few who do understand this impact tend to obsess over ‘how much their portfolio made’. A look at why keeping things simple, with minimal effort and systematic investing, is all that is required…
Continue reading →Banks are the pillars of any economy.They create credit, accept deposits, ensure liquidity and serve as the veins and arteries of the financial system. The dream of owning property would remain a dream, but for the loans offered by banks. Yet, to borrow a line from cartoonist Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy and…
Continue reading →‘How does one define wealth?’ is a question that I often think about, often with a tinge of sadness that there is no universally accepted definition. A compilation of attitudes about wealth based on my insignificant experience. Speaking purely from a financial point of view, wealth is the ability to tackle emergencies. When life chugs along like…
Continue reading →A look at investment options for Indian Senior citizens, taking into consideration, tax, liquidity, capital preservation and ability to generate an increasing pension. This is a dangerous topic to broach! Before retirement, volatility is a friend and inflation a mandatory benchmark for a portfolio return to surpass. After retirement, volatility can either be a friend…
Continue reading →Beware! Corporate fixed deposits that offer 8.25% annual return are being marketed by prominently quoting their ten-year annual yield of 12.09%. A look at how this form of mis-selling based on a technicality. The ad says, Earn assured returns (first line – font size about half an inch) upto 12.09* % p. a. (second line…
Continue reading →Here are five reasons why I will never invest in real estate. This is me taking sides on the equity vs. real estate debate. There is more to investing than returns. So instead of comparing past returns of both asset classes and claiming equity won or real estate won, I would like to consider other…
Continue reading →Here is a compilation of selected posts from the young earner category, meant as a ‘getting started’ money-management guide. I have not made any attempt to connect the posts, but I hope the sequence should make enough sense for the reader to introspect about money management and enumerate the necessary steps to get started. This…
Continue reading →Here are the remaining videos of the “Strategic Personal Finance” workshop conducted by Dr. Uma Shashikant, Managing director, Centre for Investment Education and Learning (ciel.co.in and moneykraft.com), at Bangalore on July 26th 2015. Segments I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, can be found here: Videos: Uma Shashikant on “Strategic Personal Finance” This post has parts III and…
Continue reading →In the 7th version of the automated stock analyzer, two more valuation metrics have been added: The Graham Formula and the Graham Number. Bugs and suggestions made by users have been corrected/incorporated in this edition. The automated stock analyzer pulls annual (standalone/consolidated) and quarterly financials from Value Research online pulls financials from morningstar and analyzes…
Continue reading →How high can my home loan EMI be? What percentage of my gross monthly income can I afford to set aside for servicing my home loan EMI? These are questions that I have often seen in personal finance forums. When I recently saw it at Facebook group Asan Ideas for Wealth, I thought of discussing…
Continue reading →Here are the videos of the “Strategic Personal Finance” workshop conducted by Dr. Uma Shashikant, Managing director, Centre for Investment Education and Learning (ciel.co.in and moneykraft.com), at Bangalore on July 26th 2015. Regular readers may have read the Nuggets from the workshop on “strategic personal finance” published earlier. It is hard to follow the slides because the hall…
Continue reading →“How to choose the right financial product suitable for my needs?” How I wish this question was asked more often! Instead, many investors (if not most), soon after they start earning, ask questions like, which is the best tax-saving product?, the best pension plan?, the child plan?, best mutual fund ? etc. The right answer to…
Continue reading →“How to choose an index fund in India?”, Three people asked me this question in the last two days! My typical response is, “choose a Sensex or Nifty index fund, from the AMC you are comfortable with”. I thought let me expand my response a bit more. Should I adopt passive investing in India? Aarti…
Continue reading →Use this Mutual Fund SIP Rolling Returns Calculator to determine how consistently an equity mutual fund has performed wrt to its benchmark. Returns can be broadly categorised into two types: for a lump sum investment (CAGR) and for periodic investment (XIRR) Please consult this post to understand What is XIRR?. You can consider using this Mutual Fund SIP…
Continue reading →Here is why you should not buy a top-up policy for your company mediclaim! If you are puzzled by that statement, let me clarify. Mediclaim or a health insurance policy is a risk mitigation (not prevention!) tool. A “company mediclaim”, or a group health policy taken by your company is a perk. It is pretty…
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