I had a long, funny and sometimes heated discussion with an equity analyst. Not that he is a great analyst – nor is he a bad one. However like most fund managers he believes ‘equity returns are a function of timing’. He says…’see if you had invested Rs. 100 in the index in 1980, it […]

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Mr. Subra my name is A…K. These are some of the facts about me. Please tell me whether I am on the right track please. Facts: AK is 52 years of age, works in a semi-government company. He has a house in Mumbai (current estimated worth Rs. 85 lakhs, located at Mulund). He drives a […]

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Here are the details of a couple …and they had an amazing story. I took their permission to share the story with you… He is 42 she is 37 years old. He works for a huge pharmaceutical company and earns well. Lots of cash, lots of goodies. His total savings as of now Rs. 8-9 […]

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It is very difficult to understand product pricing in Mumbai. One doctor in a Mumbai suburb recently sold off his practice – well he actually sold off his shop. It is not a very big shop…and now an ice-cream parlor has been set up there. Got chatting….with a couple of friends and found that the […]

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Leveraging (like derivatives) is neither good nor bad. Huge wealth has been created by leveraging (Reliance, Tata, Uday Kotak (net worth Rs. 30 lakhs to market cap Rs. 26,000 crores in 25 years) – and also ALL bankruptcies have been caused by bad management of debt. There are many advantages of gearing or borrowing: a.   […]

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In one of the newspapers Sandeep Shanbag was lamenting about very few Indians paying tax. This is perhaps true from the records. However whenever I eat on the footpath (rarely, but it happens) I speak to the vendors about their income, their savings, and even their investments. One thing that comes out is that the […]

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