In every class on retirement planning one question which I always get a wrong answer is: “Will you buy big assets like house, car, etc. AFTER you retire?” It is met with an “obviously no. why do you even ask”. Well the obviously no is said and ‘why do you even ask is in the […]
One of the top most CIOs of a mutual fund (I really mean a big fund house) told me “Subra we have perhaps seen the best bull run in our lives” in June 2008. However being a fund manager he could not tell all his clients pack up and go. Similarly many other fund managers […]
This is of course the old classic question – “When there is a festive sale and you can get 3 shirts for the price of 2, what do people do?” People rush to the shops. However when the 21000 index is available for 12000 what do people do? They sell. Well if you have a […]
Thanks to the fact that I do a lot of training, I do meet a lot of people. Right from the lowest end sales person (who could be a banker or an IFA) to the fund manager. In my personal finance class I meet a greater variety of people – from simple students to retired […]
Risk to a great extent is counter-intutive! When the index was 3000 (circa 2002) I would meet bank Relationship Managers and IFAs (Independent Financial Analysts) who would tell me “Sir, I only sell debt funds. They are so secure, and you know last year gilt funds yielded 19% p.a!”. I would gently probe and say […]
Many people have asked me what is the starting point of the “sub-prime” problem. This is really very difficult to answer. Relaxing of credit standards in US, over-leveraging by the Investment banks, spending far, far beyond one’s ability to repay..all of them can be taken to be the starting point. However, 2-3 events are remarkable […]
I do not know whether what I am about to say is in the Upanishads or the vedas! I am placing this caveat because these days the source of all wisdom seems to be the vedas. However, in his column Robin Sharma (yes, yes the same Monk …guy) has said that there are seven forms […]