Mirror mirror on the wall…
I was meeting a bunch of friends and at some point discussion went into stocks, one of them said that he doubled his money in a short span by investing in a leading company and a couple of others agreed that they also experienced a similar return. I was a bit skeptical, as any such […]
Dealing with market volatility
As we experience significant volatility in the market with sharp corrections we thought we should look at one of key questions most investors are asking themselves. How to evaluate holdings when there is a sharp fall in the market? To start with let’s look at why a stock should be purchased in the first place. […]
Tomorrow is round the corner
If one is given an offer to have Rs 100 today vs Rs 110 tomorrow, there is a high chance that many would opt for money today. Waiting a day for an additional Rs 10 does not seem bearable. Whereas the same person given similar offer in the future may take 110, for instance Rs 100 […]
5 things to do before saying goodbye to 2015
As 2015 comes to close and people are getting ready to welcome a new year with a bunch of fresh expectations and resolutions, here are 5 things that you may want to do before saying goodbye to 2015. Review your Insurance: You may want to review if you have adequate life insurance (we suggest term […]
Is buying jewelry an investment?
It’s the wedding season, and I get to go to my share of them. I am always amazed at the amount of gold (mostly in the form of jewelry) that is bought for weddings and the find justifications for this interesting. One of the most common justification is “it’s an investment”. Well, the word investment […]
Stories vs Statistics
Let me begin this with “Volvo Story” – this was presented by Amos Tversky. A colleague of Amos was looking to purchase a new car and was considering Volvo. Consumer reports showed through independent tests that Volvos were among the best built and most reliable cars in their class. Customer satisfaction surveys showed that Volvo […]
Evolution and understanding risk
Scream “snake” in a crowded place and you can see many people jump up. There is an evolutionary response that pumps adrenaline to create a fight or flight response when we see “traditional threats”. Let’s contrast this to the number of people who ride bikes without helmets or drive cars without wearing seatbelts. The chances […]
Risk – Return
Most of us feel we understand “Risk and Return” intuitively and this is correct to a large extent. Most of us will not run across a busy road to catch a balloon but may do so in an instant to protect our kid from danger. Let’s look at Anand’s day to day story to understand […]
Fees are as bad as taxes
Managing taxes well will help us keep more of our money. We should realize that people who build wealth are aware of taxes and are able to leverage this knowledge to their advantage. Let’s look at impact of taxes, if you are planning to save Rs 100,000 post tax and you are in the 30% […]
Did I save enough? Do I have enough?
Many of us sometimes think about these questions and these definitely come up in my discussions with clients. One of these questions has more to do with income and the other is more about expenses. Everyone’s situation is unique, and financial planning is not a precise science. We tried to come up with a fairly […]
Price has no value
“I bought this house/gold/stock at this price – what do you think?” Let’s look at this question, price in itself has no information. If we say cost of petrol is x, can we say whether is it high or low? Of course if you are a buyer, any price can be too high and if […]
Dad what do you do?
I made a resolution that I will write a blog about investing at least 3 times a month. Finding a topic to write about is often a challenge for me. I figured I could write about a conversation with my daughter a few days ago. I guess this counts as I was trying to explain […]