Most of us earn money and we have a surplus which we need to invest. Either we know how to invest or we pretend to know how to invest. Mostly it is the latter.

People went and opened an account in Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative bank. Now the bank is dead. Well almost dead. At least it is in coma.

Now when I talked to some of the deposit holders, they tell me the following:

“But sir it is an ‘A’ rated bank…..

It is a big bank..and big banks do not go bankrupt….

Honestly these are stupid arguments. When things go wrong, not a soul can come to help you.

Goodwin Jewellery is another place where people put money. If you do not know what is risk and how much risk you should take, you need to ask a consultant. Problem is that people do not know that they need help. I would also blame the children for not taking any interest in their parents assets. If you are handling your parent’s account at least you should know that their money is in Goodwin or in a co-operative bank.

Please don’t put it in shady companies and then repent for the rest of your life. There are far more sensible options;

If you want to accumulate gold you can buy 1 gm a month …or if your budget is more, maybe you can buy 10 gms a month. Just buy the ETF or do a sip in a gold fund. Is it so difficult?

If you can do a sip in an income fund or even in a short term income fund, you will definitely get better return than a bank deposit.

It makes sense for RBI and SEBI to create many more young agents all over the country who will sell responsible products like mutual funds.

Look at the amount of money lost in fake schemes and fraud schemes which sell shady schemes. If all the money that went into PMC or Goodwin had come into any mutual fund scheme the people would have been far better off.

Sad, but Indians do not like to seek the help of a consultant. Phew….