financial planning

Investing for children: Buy house or opt for MFs?

Meera, a high flying corporate executive, was bent on using the money earned from her ESOPs to buy a second house as an investment which could be passed on to her children later. Her spouse Karan was against it as it would mean postponing their retirement plan. Harsh’s article in Business Standard on how Karan and Harsh managed to convince Meera to invest the money into financial assets instead. “You do not buy a cow today just because you may need milk years later. You make sure you have the money to buy the cow should you require it later” was one of the arguments that helped to convince Meera.

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Lack of central KYC hinders market participation

Harsh just spent an idyllic week trekking through south west france. His tour organiser could put this together so well because the basic infrastructure already exists. Things like complete Geo marking of every square meter, availability of licensed hotels and taxi services who actually follow the licensing conditions & general cleanliness allowed them to build and deliver excellent packages on top. His article in the Business Standard drawing an analogy to an investors journey where the lack of a basic infrastructure like a centralized KYC has meant that 20 crore indians are involved with crypto/online gaming platforms with real money, but only half as many have demat accounts, and less than a quarter invest in MF.

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Retirement: Embrace holistic planning

There is more to retirement planning than ensuring enough monetary corpus to last out a long retired life (almost as long as the working career itself). Unfortunately, even corporate executives nearing retirement, do not think about retirement at all and the few who do, concentrate on the monetary resources required for retired life. As the example of my friend Yogesh shows even a well planned retirement plan can have it’s twists and turns but is better than none at all. Harsh’s article in the business standard. Your comments and suggestions are welcome as always.

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Weigh the risks of EB-5 citizenship route

Originating in Africa, Humans migrated to the remotest corners of the earth primarily to find food, avoid the threat of deadly predators or the danger from domination by other human species or due to dramatic changes in the climate. There is an intriguing scientific theory that unforced migration is motivated by simple curiosity and boredom, what is often called wanderlust. This is credited to a variation in the human DNA (DRD4-7R) now dubbed the “wanderlust gene”. Present in about 20% of the population, it impacts dopamine levels, increasing the person’s tolerance for risk taking including exploring new territories. Those willing for (or seeking) greener pastures in other countries have a larger capacity for risk taking. But can that innate larger risk taking ability justify staking your life savings in an “risky investment for citizenship” plan like US’s EB-5. Harsh’s article in Business Standard today. Your feedback most welcome.

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Podcast – How AA ecosystem can improve reach of investment advice

Harsh’s Podcast and article on AccountAggregator system and how it can help the #InvestmentAdvisory profession shed the tag of being an elitist profession and start catering to the needs of the every Indian who can benefit from the #Fiduciary advise. #AA will bring down the cost and time of collecting authentic data based on client consent and lead to the democratisation of #Investment advice.

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Have realistic expectations from your investments

Clients are always amazed when we tell them that looking at how the investments have fared for them is not the right way to review their continuance or otherwise. Using cricketing analogy Harsh explain why looking at moving long term performance of the investment vis-a-vis its peers is a much better way to review the continuance of any investment – rather than the performance experienced by them. In fact the focus on reviewing investments (reviewing the performance of the selected batsman) takes the focus away from reviewing the performance of the entire plan itself. Harsh’s article in Business Standard.

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Wealth creation is simple but not easy, requires discipline

“Sleep well, eat healthy and exercise regularly” are the “simple” rules that enable a healthy life. However it is not “easy” to follow these simple rules. Similarly wealth creation has simple rules which require discipline and patience. Most people prefer complex solutions in their search for faster results and it takes a dedicated coach to keep them on the path (pardon this bit of self promotion for our profession). Harsh’s article in Business Standard. Your comments welcome as always..

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Focus on coverage provided, not premium collected

Do you measure the progress of a journey by the amount paid for petrol rather than the distance covered? The Life Insurance industry seems to be doing exactly that in its laudable quest for “Insurance for All” goal by 2047. They measure the amount of premium paid rather than the life coverage provided. The only way to reach the Insurance for all goal is by way of group Insurance and term insurance which provides Life coverage at very low premiums. This will result in the the progress as measured by them dropping even as the goal is achieved. “A case of Patient successfully cured but the operation being declared as a failure” – a reversal of the popular maxim. Read the article for interesting example. Your comments are welcome.

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