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…
Continue reading →Here is a simple illustration that will help you understand how growth and dividend-reinvestment mutual funds work. You can use it to decide which is better for you, taking into account the investment duration and your tax-slab. This is a re-publish taking into account changes made after budget 2014. When a mutual fund offers regular (typically) dividends…
Continue reading →What we know as Systematic Investment Plan is an investment strategy (not a financial product!) derived from what is known in the US as Dollar Cost Averaging. Obviously the term SIP sells better(than Rupee cost averaging) ! The Indian stock market is a toddler. Sensex data is available from only 1979. Many have argued with me that…
Continue reading →I am a fan of Carl Richard’s (Behaviour Gap) napkin drawings (who is not?!). From time to time, I have thought of similar sketches but never got around to actually drawing them on my own napkin – Excel. Here are few. The whole point of such a sketch is that it should be self-explanatory….
Continue reading →“I understand the need to beat inflation and the need for equity in a portfolio. I understand that the mutual fund route is a simple and convenient way to do it. However, I neither have the confidence, nor the time or inclination to create and manage a mutual fund portfolio. I also do not have…
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