I have a friend who says whenever he gets a raise – or around that time – his father has some demand worth Rs. 30-40k come up. It could be remodeling his furniture, change of a/c, new washing machine, …a vacation etc. His father used to work in a private sector company and retired as […]

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The most maligned person in the financial service space is the distributor. It is he/ she who provides the last link between the financial product manufacturers and the end investor. Let us describe the typical distributor: He earns about Rs. 2-3 lakhs a year (a decent MBA would not EVEN consider looking at such a […]

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  What are the options that a person has when he/ she chooses to invest in a debt instrument? Well the choices are: 1. Bank fixed deposits:  requires very little explanation. 2. Company fixed deposits  not a big range of companies available, but a good option. 3. Company Bonds: Right from Tata to Sriram and […]

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I found a 78 year old man with a very strong balance sheet, but poor P&L account! What does it mean? Well he had a lot of assets – a nice big house which he was not using much, equities, bonds, and of course cash. Life long if you (and me) are brought up saying […]

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I recently met a 85 year old man who has all his investments in bank deposits and post office deposits. This is a good portfolio – and he has about Rs. 12 lakhs. As his income is below taxable level he does not pay Income tax, nor does he file his IT return. He had […]

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Bucket theory of portfolio management….i hope you have heard it. Instead of saying what it is, let me describe a case study – and you will understand it better! Mr. A is a retired person (retired means does not do any activity to earn money, and he is fully dependent on his portfolio for his […]

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Well this is not an article on Exchange Traded funds, but there is a link at the bottom which will take you an ETF article. The financial services industry (like all other industries) is very smart. Highly qualified people – from CPAs, CAs. CFAs, engineers, PhDs…..have to be kept intellectually occupied and financially happy. To […]

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