I have written many pieces on ‘buy or rent real estate’. I have got feedback saying ‘If my father had also bought a flat…I would not have bought’. That may not be the right argument. It is a person’s migration from one level of strata to the other one which is marked by ‘buying’ a […]
When you see news items like IPO subscribed 40 times, or 200 times do you wonder how? Or when L&T finance debentures at 8.5% p.a. gets subscribed, do you wonder why? The answer is very simple. Merchant bankers are a nice small clique who also run PMS schemes. So when the ‘Investment Bank’ goes to […]
If you had invested Rs. 10,000 in Wipro and kept all the shares with yourself, and spent all the dividends, your portfolio would be worth Rs. 300 crores (ok it does not matter whether it is 100, 200 or 300 crores) – it is just a gigantic figure! If you had invested in Reliance, Hdfc, […]
How many of you have grudged your friends who say “My father had bought a flat in Santacruz for Rs. 200,000 in 1977, now it is worth Rs. 20,000,000” – surely you felt pangs of jealousy did you not? Did you think…if I had this I could have retired instead of suffering this boss? You […]
Advisor: Sir Please make this investment, it will get you great returns. Client: How much will it give? Advisor: Sir it will give at least 15% return over the next 5 years Client: That is not exciting. May I have something better… This is such a normal conversation, that I cannot even believe what is […]
A couple of weeks back I had written a post about how the slow down will hurt some industries. Fairly clearly those companies (industries) which have a high cash burn ratio – and who cannot reduce fixed costs will bleed first. Financial services industry – life insurance, broking retail, general retail – are all vulnerable. […]
If you read what John Templeton says, you will believe that you need to create a diversified portfolio – a little of Japanese stocks, lots of American, some emerging markets, etc. in equity alone. Apart from this some debt – short term, long term, etc. Warren Buffet on the other hand says you should concentrate […]