Justifying your profession?

Is it necessary to justify your profession to the world? Is it necessary to tell the world what work you are doing and why it is adding a lot of value to the world? Who is to judge whether you are doing the ‘right’ job or no? These are all so difficult to answer that [...]

Animals in the Financial Jungle

There is an alphabetic soup in the financial qualifications – and there are many animals out there. Most first time investors (and some veterans too) are legitimately confused about their role so here is a lesson 101: Financial planner: supposed to know everything about you PERSONALLY so actually called ‘personal financial planner’ who helps you [...]

Do you need an Investment advisor?

Or Why you do not need an investment consultant or an Investment Advisor ! If you need bypass surgery, you should find the most qualified surgeon available.This need not be the most expensive surgeon. Some surgeons are better at PR so they command a higher price. Some surgeons are good but in smaller hospitals. You [...]

Borrowing for investing? Be conservative!

If you have a financial planner with a ‘product sale’ mentality – especially who has sold loan products also in the past, there is a good chance that he would suggest leverage. Leverage means borrowing. So read on… Financial planner: Borrowing sensibly is a good way to build wealth. Do a disciplined borrowing and you [...]

NPS and budget crumbs

Am doing this posting because a few journalists wanted me to talk about the Union Budget and the NPS. What a joke! There was NOTHING in the budget for the NPS at all. One cosmetic change is ‘on share purchases the NPS does not have to pay service tax’ – the impact at best can [...]

Portfolio Risk: Same risk or different risk?

While doing a risk review of a portfolio, I stumbled on a portfolio with 55 mutual fund schemes and 52 direct equity investments. When the investor asked me what was the risk, I said there was ‘concentration’ risk. I also told him he was running the risk of ‘over-diversification’ . He asked me to speak [...]