One reader (SR)  sent me some details like age etc. and asked me “Can I Retire, my age is 41 years”. Answers like ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is perhaps very easy to give. Completely irresponsible too. Let me explain. If I were a doctor and a 41 year old man came and said ‘this is my […]

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Many articles in the media sound like PR handouts of the BFSI space, and it makes for amusing reading. Let us take articles saying ‘an income fund or a liquid fund is better than a bank deposit because it is tax efficient….etc. I do agree with that logic, and I do think that income funds […]

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“Invest like Mukesh Ambani” or “Invest like Warren Buffet” or “Vallabh Bhansali”…are all very sexy and very very media like advice. And typically stupid, wrong and impossible to implement advice. Do not even read such articles further. Face it. Whatever it is, in this birth you are not Buffet, Ambani, Jhunjhunwala or Bhansali. Fact is, […]

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  The most important requirement for a start up is not just PROFITABILITY, but also the availability of CASH. Cash flow is not the same as profitability – and many businessmen do not realize this. If you are a supplier of material which is not critical for a business, chances are your payment will be […]

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The perennial search for quick money takes us through lot of unknown routes. It takes a lot of hard work, luck, government lobbying, team building – to create companies like Tata Steel, Hdfc, TCS, Infosys, Reliance, Honda Motors. It takes years, if not decades to create good companies too! However a few people feel (and […]

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If you were not around to see the -46% of 1993, but were around to see 2008, then 2011 would have looked quite bad. Seeing your portfolio shrink by 25% (worse if you did not have Bharti, but had more of Reliance!!)…and if you were a $ investor, it was worse. Including the 19% fall […]

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  The Sensex may have given 19% returns over 33 years, however it may not have given 19% in any particular year! This is fairly simple – the standard deviation is quite high, and good years are followed by bad years. Simple. In the year 2011 the sensex’s performance looks bad because of the poor […]

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