Real estate prices are rarely rational! It is just that there is not enough information available in a well organized manner, and people are resistant to change. Take a city like Mumbai. It is impossible to set up a barber shop, an inexpensive eatery (I mean selling dosa at Rs. 50), a general practice or […]

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  Recently when a friend asked me what are the risks in unit linked plans…I said Well Max New York Life has started a campaign saying “Our agents are different”..well I wish they say this to the client BEFORE the client signs up: Sir the following risks exist in a Unit linked Plan: 1. Buying […]

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It was about 10 years ago that I suggested an asset replacement fund for a friend. He and his wife were just starting life and wanted to save/ invest in a scheme which would gather enough money to buy assets. Assets in this case were actually expenses (but we cheat ourselves by calling them assets). […]

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It was really long ago when I met Mr. Ramesh Chauhan, the erstwhile owner of Thums Up, Limca and Gold Spot. It was some time in the early 1990s that this deal happened. I was asked to do a valuation of the brand – and well, I did it. The final selling price was very […]

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A bank needs more money to be lent onward. A life insurance company needs to sell more life policies, a mutual fund needs more assets to manage… So what can they do? Well a bank can increase interest rates, improve the services, give you more services, give you a locker, create better products….etc. etc. However, […]

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  This is such a catchy headline and completely contradictory to my saying ‘if you do not know what you are going to do with your leisure, do not retire’! Frankly the word ‘Retirement’ means ‘doing what you enjoy rather than doing what you must’. So a retired doctor could still be in practice – […]

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  1. Suddenly many jobs are being lost: Remember slowing down, closing down are not words that happen only to somebody else! It happens to the best. Only your salary is certain, the variable salary is really variable. I now know of several people who are EARNING about 60% of their claimed CTC. The variable […]

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