Ask any person what is their biggest asset? Well it sets them thinking….and then the facts… Most people do not know what is their biggest asset. They then say – it is ‘ my house’ , ‘my equity portfolio’, my car, etc. However then I lead them to the next question: Have you borrowed for […]

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I have handled this question many times, and have come out with similar answers. However here are some questions which are IRRELEVANT …. 1. How much has the house appreciated by: Many people write in to say ‘I paid Rs. 20L now it is worth Rs. 37 lakhs’…This is completely immaterial. Your house appreciating has […]

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7. Confirm tenure is appropriate: “The insurance representative offered me an endowment policy for 30 years…and at age 44…I am wondering how will be able to pay the premium after I retire…what should I do Subra?”. GENUINE READER QUERY…My answer is a separate post….will do it soon. Here it is: Appropriate tenure of a risk […]

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Let us look at some things which were heralded as a fantastic solution for a problem. Then we will see how these have NOW become problems and not a solution as it should have been. Insurance, Home loan, car loan, educational loan, derivatives, leverage, credit cards, ………….. Look at business Insurance. It is a brilliant […]

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I do not know much about the other industries, but the financial services industry has a lot of interesting behaviour… The life insurance industry had a product called Classic Endowment Policy. This was a compulsory saving and risk cover product where the returns were a function of how well the fund was managed, how the […]

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In the 1960s if you wanted to buy a house, it was considered almost impossible to get a home loan. It was only in 1980 that Hdfc started giving home loans – and that too sensible amounts. That explains why Hdfc is so popular – people love the guys who gave them the HOME. Especially […]

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  Well none of us get a windfall everyday…but what should we do if we get one? There is no clear answer to a question like ‘what to do with a windfall’ – because there is no one answer which will fit all of us. Let us say a person gets a windfall – let […]

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