In every financial planning class I need to do a post lunch session. To keep them awake I ask them to do a simple exercise – calculating how much money they require for retirement. Unless they are at least 37-38 years of age, they have no clue as to how much they need for retirement. [...]
Some questions plaguing parents about money have been the following: 1. Should I delay my saving/ investing for retirement BECAUSE I am saving for my children’s education ? 2. Should I dip into my Retirement kitty to pay for my children’s education ? Sadly in the Indian context education is just a broad word I [...]
Ps: this article is about 5 years old, and they still are floundering. The names have of course been changed, and the airline hidden, but you can guess. Imagine a couple working in Kingfisher! No clue who is paying their EMIs!! now read on… I was aghast when Capt. Ajoy Athalye walked into [...]
Recently we heard of Suchitra Krishnamurthy taking her advisor Hsbc to court over her funds being poorly managed. She may or may not win the case, but what is the learning for celebrities (and us too!!) from SK’s case? What could she have done differently if there was a second time around? Well here are [...]
I have been asked this question a million times, and I have said NO a million times. However, like all personal finance (and especially life insurance) topics there is no straight forward answer. So let me start by saying NO. If your children are young, and dependent on YOUR income they do not need any [...]
The most maligned person in the financial service space is the distributor. It is he/ she who provides the last link between the financial product manufacturers and the end investor. Let us describe the typical distributor: He earns about Rs. 2-3 lakhs a year (a decent MBA would not EVEN consider looking at such a [...]