When it comes to saving and investing, people are obsessed with the returns they’re going to get on their money. Whether it’s debating the merits of a particular investment strategy, discussing the pros and cons of insurance, pensions and mutual funds (or increasingly unit linked plans) or simply searching for the best interest rate on […]

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  Sometime in 1994 a friend wanted to keep some money in a fixed interest bearing instrument. The amount was about Rs. 15000. He kept it in one company – let us call it Company A. Sometime in 1999 I was surprised to see that he still had his money there. I told him and […]

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  What are the options that a person has when he/ she chooses to invest in a debt instrument? Well the choices are: 1. Bank fixed deposits:  requires very little explanation. 2. Company fixed deposits  not a big range of companies available, but a good option. 3. Company Bonds: Right from Tata to Sriram and […]

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Which is the safest country to invest? USA Which is the safest instrument to invest in? Bonds So the safest investment in the safest country has to be the US Gilts, right? Re-think. Re Rethink again. Welcome to the world of REAL RETURNS and inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices. The USA has […]

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A few days ago I had posted a chart showing how the claims settlement ratio looks like in life insurance in India. LiC was at the top with about 97% and some of the newer firms were at the bottom at 50%. Of course it was a play on numbers and for the common man […]

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Well I have always wondered about statements like ‘the numbers tell you the story’ or ‘numbers lie’ …well Numbers may not lie, but liars figure a way to present the numbers LIKE THE TRUTH! Let us look at some numbers….Recently I got a post on FB showing the claim settlement ratio of the life insurance […]

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