Advising friends is dangerous too!

  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 [...]

Why people borrow…..

There is no research in India done on topics like why people borrow, or how people invest…but here is an attempt at guessing…. 1. People borrow to buy assets : buying a car, a motorcycle, a house…..etc. requires sums of money that a person may not have, so borrowing becomes a must. 2. To pay [...]

Rational reasons for real estate prices to be high…..

If you believe that all bubbles are created by RATIONAL reasons and causes taken to IRRATIONAL HEIGHTS, welcome to the post. Is Mumbai real estate terribly high and unaffordable? Yes. Let us come to some RATIONAL reasons why people buy: 1. If we do not buy NOW we will never be able to buy in [...]

a brilliant profession….

An excellent profession / business to do now is the financial planning business. Of course some people call it a profession too. Why am I saying this? Simply because we are in the very early stages of the profession. It is like being in the banking business in the 1900s, in the mutual fund business [...]

Parrotting is a disease….

Are we not sick of hearing the following: The terrorists acts have been a dastardly one…. The culprits will not be allowed to get away with this… It is not an intelligence failure…we had warned the state governments about this….. The Home Minister visited the attack site and made a statement in both the Houses… [...]

Debts and Bills that we pay…and that we do not

If we have a debt (or a bill) we normally pay it on time, right? Hey no. Not always do we like to pay our debt or bills. We pay our bills only on the following conditions: 1. We acknowledge it as a debt: I borrow money from friend A and lend to the business [...]