We are only worried about losses which we can see lump sum – up front charges vis-à-vis a slow erosion in high fund management annual charges. Let us say there is a fund with a 30% entry load but it has a very low annual portfolio management charge – say 0.8% p.a. on the assets […]

The difficulties that people of  TN go through every year is to be seen to be believed. Parents ask their NRI kids not to come – or they ask them to stay in a 5 * hotel instead of coming home… Why does this happen EVERY YEAR? Simply because people do not care! If you […]

India Infrastructure Finance Co. Ltd (IIFCL) is a government-owned company and loans it undertakes are guaranteed by the government. The company is authorized to raise up to Rs.10,000 crore through such bonds in this fiscal and has already raised around Rs.2,963 crore through private placements. This issue aims to raise Rs.500 crore with an option […]

‘My sister bought a bungalow for Rs. 1.8 crores 6 years ago and today it is worth Rs. 5 crores’ ‘My friend bought a flat in 2002 for Rs. 40 Lakhs and it is now worth Rs. 9 crores’ My father……………………. you heard these stories right? It is not about hearing these stories it is […]

The Joint family as a concept is dying, but not dead. Also these days many people have one son – so there is not too much to ‘split’ or ‘divide’. Having said that, joint families are still around – and one of the biggest problems is of course money. Most heads of families expect the […]

  I keep wondering whether I should write a book just describing risks. Then I keep telling myself if I cannot write half as well as Taleb, I should not. However here are a few axioms on risk – gathered from here, there and through experience. Like Beheram Contractor, a.k.a Busybee would have said – […]

For a minute forget all the math of buying or renting. It makes sense to buy rather than rent. Yes I know that this is against all the ‘renting is better than buying’ gyan that I have dispensed with! Why? What happened suddenly? Was the math wrong? No. What went wrong was the human attitude […]