Conviction of Mind

The "lump-sum" may mean different amounts to different people. Even for the same person, the "lump-sum" can mean different amounts according to his life stage. These kind of lump-sum amounts are parked mostly for shorter term with a particular goal in mind. The goal can be anything from Buying a car, House, Children's education, marriage, retirement etc., The tenure is important to be identified before considering the investment avenues. Also, the importance of reaching the goal on time also should be considered.  Let us assume, Raj is looking for investing 10L in some investment avenue for best returns in 2-years time frame. He expects the best returns possible during this period. What should he do? The options for him may be., (1) Direct Stock investment (2) Mutual funds (3) Post Office savings schemes (4) FD (5) Purchasing land (6) Corporate bonds/debts (7) Insurance linked Annuity-plan (8) Chit funds (9) Multi-Level Marketing (...

And its April and yet another start of the new financial year. If you are a salaried employee of a company, you all would have come across this every year and this is nothing very new. Even if you are not salaried, it is better to have your investments planned before hand for this Financial year before hand and plan accordingly. Why is disclosing the investments important in the month of April? Its nothing to do with the month of April. But its better to disclose in the month of April itself to get the full advantage. For the salaried class of people, who worry about the tax, this marks an important event. This is because TDS (Tax deduction at Source) is based on the investments disclosed and better to disclose the right figure to get the proper cash flow right from the beginning. How I can make this disclosure to my benefit? Understand each and every section that has to be disclosed and the advantages and dis-advantages in detail. Section 80C: Identify how much is already covered by y...

Indians are primarily more on the saving side because of the environment surrounding it. They see everyone around them are saving and are doing the same! There is a big difference between Saving and investing and it will be a hard fought truth. Setting a goal and standing by it is pretty hard. The commitment is easy to come by if you are working and set by your peers and your managers (some of them don't get it even under the supervision of strong managers.. :-) ) and its also the inherent nature of the entrepreneur and he has it in his veins. But, to see through a goal that is set as a part of retirement or getting a house is very hard to come by and its hard to come even for an entrepreneur. Let us see a simple example. You need a house. First house. Absolute need. Alteration for rent. Everything. Fine. It should be understood that how much you are currently having in hand and how much you need as a loan and it should be a neatly laid out plan. How many of them who have bought th...

Its a catchy title to click on the contents of the post. If you have 2 Laks, Great! Already you have double of 1 Lak :) Okay, coming to the point, you are expecting 100% returns in a year. I have few important questions to ask you!? (1) How much risk averse are you? Do you know risk and returns join hand in hand? (2) If you are willing to take risk, Are you sure "You will not feel anything if you completely lose this 2 Laks" In the order of High returns, if you are great at trading and making returns. (1) Derivatives (Options and Futures) - Highest risk - You can lose all your money in one day as well. Gain the same in one day as well. (2) Intraday - High risk - you will lose comparably less money. But trading will lead to lose all your 5 days profit in the 6th day. Do you really want that. If you know what you do and confident doing that, and have the stomach for doing that, please carry on with it. (3) Equity - High risk - you will lose comparably less money. Again depends ...