There are so many people today masquerading as financial planners, financial trainers, financial experts on media…I was amused when I heard the statement ‘Equity markets give good average returns’. If you ask me this is brilliant but useless advice! Why? Because to understand equity markets you need to understand Arithmetic Mean, Geometric Mean, Standard Deviation, […]

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First of all let me make a distinction between a saver and an investor. A saver puts his money in instruments which give fixed or very closed to fixed kind of returns. Examples of this are bank fixed deposits, PPF, National savings certificates, Endowment insurance policies, Retirement plans fully in debt instruments, etc. etc. These […]

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Hi kids of the graduating batch of 2013! There are certain things that I ‘forgot’ to tell you in 2011. It is also called ‘suppresso veri’ – well it is a legal language to mean ‘hiding of the truth’ but my job did not allow me to tell you the following. The following is also […]

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Well I have no connection with the regulator unlike some of my esteemed friends. The regulator does not know me, and I doubt if he knows of my existence. I doubt it. So chances of him calling me for ideas about how to simplify the mutual funds for the common man are not just remote, […]

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Risk in mutual fund investing comes from: a) not knowing what you are buying b) not understanding standard deviation of the instrument c) not understanding that the past performance is completely useless for knowing what will happen in the future. Let us take just one ‘type’ of fund: The Gilt Fund. All asset management companies […]

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  I have no clue whether I am good at writing, but I am poor in excel. I have no doubt about that. So when I have a nice calculator idea I had to sit with one of the kids in our office and TEACH personal finance. Sure they have created personal finance trackers, variable […]

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Thanks to Rich Dad Poor Dad (then bankrupt Dad too!) many people know what are assets and what are liabilities…I am making ONE more distinction…. Assets: are those assets which increase your REAL NETWORTH (NW) Assets: that  increase your nominal NETWORTH Assets: that are essential for your living and usage Assets (liabilities!): that are not […]

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