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Advice
This time is no different, if you have a plan and discipline
Rajpal, a client, reached out to me saying, “I am reading many articles on my social media feeds warning that dark days are coming for the Indian economy.” He was also worried by the Prime Minister’s call for austerity. Rajpal’s basic question was: should investors treat this crisis as different? I told Rajpal that nobody can predict the future, and recoveries from past crises do not guarantee a similar outcome this time. That is why the familiar regulatory warning says that “Past performance is no guarantee of future results”. But history remains a useful input, especially when combined with a ...
Advice
Insurance tax break for savers must not subsidise sellers
Anusuya is a widow raising her only child on a junior accountant’s salary. Her Rs. 5 lakh fixed deposit was meant for her child’s education. When she went to renew it, a bank employee persuaded her to move the money into a “special deposit scheme” with higher tax-free returns. She agreed. A year later, she received a notice demanding another Rs. 5 lakhs. Shocked, she discovered she had been sold a life insurance policy and this was the next year’s premium. If she did not pay, she was told, she would lose the money invested. The bank said she had ...
Advice
Nominees Can Sell Shares. Why Not Real Estate?
Hemant learnt the hard way that not all nominated assets pass on with equal ease. His late father’s mutual fund units were transmitted in less than 48 hours. But when it came to the flat in a Mumbai housing society, the brothers were treated only as provisional members. They could not sell, transfer, or fully own it without a court order. That process took almost a year and cost over Rs 2 lakh. The law says a nominee holds assets for the legal heirs in both cases. Yet financial assets move quickly because nominees can redeem or sell them with ...
Advice
Sometimes, steps to protect investors can hurt them
Devi wanted a lock-in to protect her savings from daily needs—something I had initially dismissed as a drawback. But she was right: discipline often matters more than flexibility, especially for long-term goals. Low-income households, as research shows, actively create barriers to prevent premature spending. Even wealthier investors face the same struggle of staying committed to long-term plans. Financial products like insurance tried to enforce this discipline, but often at high costs and poor returns. Solution-oriented mutual funds offered a better balance—goal focus, reasonable lock-ins, and market-linked returns. Regulatory attempts to remove such options risk pushing investors toward inferior alternatives. In ...