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 [...]
October 21st, 2009 | Posted in Credit and borrowing | No Comments
Stash away that bonus!
If you belong to that class of employees who gets a bonus at Diwali time, lucky you! Today you would be sitting on that bonus in your hand and the whole family would have a claim on that.
Who are the claimants on this bonus? Lots in fact!
Thanks to the fact that companies [...]
October 16th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
An asset should bring you money. If this is the definition of an asset – your golf kit, your gold jewellery, your Mercedes, the house in which you live, – normally what people consider assets suddenly look like ‘expense’ rather than an asset!
Every cheque that you sign is either an expenditure or the purchase of [...]
October 6th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized, financial education | No Comments
Suzie Orman says: Keep enough money in ultra safe accounts to cover life’s emergencies, – say 8 months expenses – but no more.
Financial planners talk only of an income emergency. They do not talk about an asset emergency. When your assets crash and you are reluctant to sell at the current prices it is equivalent [...]
August 11th, 2009 | Posted in Personal Finance, budgeting, financial education | 2 Comments
Why Women Need To Plan More Than Men for Retirement
Men and women may not be on equal footing when it comes to investing for the future. On average, women work fewer years and earn less than men, but they also tend to live longer. Therefore, women must focus on the concerns that are unique to [...]
May 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Retirement Planning | No Comments
Most people do not know what is their biggest asset. They then say – it is my house, my equity portfolio, my car, etc. However then I lead them to the next question:
Have you borrowed for your house?
They jump and say yes. My house cost me 93 lakhs – i put Rs. 12L of my [...]
April 6th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
The easiest way to define ‘liquidity risk’ is risk that arises from the difficulty of selling an asset.
An investment may sometimes need to be sold quickly. The reasons can be different for individuals and different for an investment manager.
Unfortunately, an insufficient secondary market may prevent the liquidation or limit the funds that can be generated [...]
February 19th, 2009 | Posted in Debt Markets simplified | No Comments
continuing the myth busting on rent vs. buy ….
“Renting is for poor people.”
Of course renting is for poor people – very much true. But it’s for rich people, too. I know if I name some of the people who live in rented houses – with their designations some of you might torch me. The closest [...]
February 14th, 2009 | Posted in Investment Myths, Real Estate, equity, financial education | 3 Comments
If you have followed my posts regularly you would have seen my posting regarding owning or renting your house..to which I have received violent protests. Here I am replying to the protests…
“Own houses can be bigger than rented ones.”
That is funny. You can rent a bigger apartment can you not? Most renters live in single-family [...]
February 11th, 2009 | Posted in Investment Myths, Real Estate | 3 Comments
Costing is a difficult subject. It is difficult not only when you are a student (ask anybody who has passed CA in the ’80s) but also in real life. However it can at least be attempted. However benefits are far more difficult to quantify. When people ask me what is the cost of term life [...]
November 26th, 2008 | Posted in Personal Finance, Real Estate | No Comments