Training as a CA has many advantages (and a few disadvantages perhaps). One of the advantages is you get sceptical about numbers, and you get to question conclusions/views drawn from numbers. I remember one life insurance company giving me their settled claims to received claims ratio. Smartly it included maturity claims, investment products, pension plans….suddenly [...]
For the true blue speculator one more product is available – the Currency Derivatives. All brokerage houses now provide you with this new product – and is available with just a few clicks. So if you do not know anything about $, Euro, Pound, Jap Yen, ….you are still welcome to deal in EURINR (Euro [...]
This Diwali a lot of people are going to make a demand on your money! One of them seems to be builders who have all lined up schemes to sell property to you. However you must have seen and experienced – a very small portion of the cost of the house is paid by the [...]
Banks lending in rural India is a great thing to have happened. Most people who borrow are genuine -but there are some politically supported borrowers too. The main reason why a person in India (or in any part of the world too!) repays the loan is ‘because it is the right thing to do’. This [...]
This is perhaps the most often asked question. I have seen people mess up quite dramatically. One HR consultant once called me and said “I have Rs. 52,000 where can I invest?’. So I got of on the pedal saying “Equity is good for the long term….etc”. Then when there was a blank from the [...]
George Mathew & Swarup Chakraborty of Indian Express Mumbai have done the following story: At a time when banks are slashing home loan and other lending rates, they are quietly hiking the interest rates on credit card outstandings. Since October 2008 banks have raised interest rates on credit cards, some by over 4 per cent [...]