personal finance

Steadiness trumps aggression in investing

Investments, Personal Finance, Retirement / By /

📈 Steadiness trumps aggression in investing.

Too often, investors go hunting for the next big winner—like picking Virender Sehwag over Mr. Average. But investing isn’t a sport. You don’t need to be spectacular. You just need to be consistent.

This column argues for choosing steady, reliable returns over flashy, high-risk bets—helping you get close to your goal, consistently.

👉 Worth reading for anyone planning long-term goals like education or retirement.

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Why splitting FDs across banks doesnt add up

Financial, Personal Finance / By /

💡 Why splitting FDs across banks doesn’t add up?
Chasing slightly higher returns by spreading your fixed deposits across multiple banks might seem smart — but it can lead to a logistical and emotional mess. From redundant KYC formalities to poor service, mis-selling, and hassles for your nominees, the hidden costs outweigh the tiny interest gain.

As the PMC Bank case shows, even insured money may not be accessible quickly or with interest.

👉 A better alternative? Hybrid funds that balance safety, returns, and liquidity without the stress.

🔗 Read the full article to understand why:

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Competition in money matters can be damaging

Financial, Personal Finance, Press / By /

Not every race is worth running — in life or in money.
A childhood car ride taught Harsh a lesson he didn’t fully understand until much later in life.
In Harsh’ latest Truth Be Told column for Business Standard, he reflect on how the urge to compete — especially in financial matters — can quietly pull us off course.
This isn’t just about investing. It’s about resisting pressure, staying the course, and focusing on your own destination.

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Give retirees choice of variable annuities

Press / By /

🔍 Give retirees a choice?

Prakash, a retiree is being forced into a “guaranteed” but low return annuity plan. After taking calculated risks by partly investing in equity and building a Rs. 1 crore retirement corpus in NPS, he is forced into a low-return “guaranteed” pension that cant beat inflation. What if he had a choice? Globally, retirees can pick variable pension payout products (PPPs). In India? No choice.

Why are we treating retirees like children who need financial babysitting? Mutual Fund investors have already understood that “Guaranteed” equals “Low returns” and have reaped the benefits from taking calculated risks through equity. It’s time retirees got the same choice.

📖 Harsh’s “Truth be told” column in Business Standard.

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Rely on rolling returns, not point to point data

Financial, Investments, Personal Finance, Press / By /

“FD can give better returns over a 10 year period than stock markets”. That was the shocking statement that triggered this article in Business Standard more so because is true 5% of the time (95% of the time stock markets beat fixed deposits over 10 years). Clients often struggle to embrace rolling returns, which offer a clearer picture than misleading point-to-point comparisons. Mark Twain’s words on ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’ resonate when cherry-picking exceptional periods like the rare 10 year period where FDs beat the stock market—ignoring that 95% of the time, stocks outperform FDs. Investors reading this please remember this when your advisor is asking you to exit a fund which has given good point to point returns but has poor rolling returns compared to its benchmark and peers.

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Evaluate funds on rolling returns over long term

Investments, Mutual Fund, Personal Finance, Press / By /

Momentum funds have become the flavour of the season with their outsized “extra” returns over the already high returns provided by the market over the last one year. Harsh’s article in the Business Standard highlighting how they are not the absolute certainty they are made out to be. There is a need to take a conscious decision on the tradeoffs involved while evaluating investments in such factor funds.

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Breaking the silence on death and money

Personal Finance, Press / By /

Is it a good idea for a financial plan to consider the inheritance that is likely to be received maybe decades later? Would parents be comfortable discussing these issues with their children? In this article Harsh write about Rekha who was able to follow her passion for starting a non-conventional business because she figured her goal for a retirement home could be taken care of from the inheritance from her parents. She had mixed feelings about the decision as family situations and circumstances are dynamic and complex. Did she take the correct decision? Your views are most welcome…

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Retail investors vs algos: Like lambs to slaughter

Personal Finance, Press / By /

Harsh had worked out a half baked doubling stake strategy to try and win a game of chance called “Lucky 7” popular in the 1980s. F&O traders try to make money by using similiar half baked strategies or algorithms promoted by brokers interested in boosting trading volumes. As a result 93% of such traders lose the money (a whopping Rs. 1,83,000 crores in last 3 years) that is mopped up by 1% of them who use well researched and thought through algorithms executed in nano seconds. Harsh’s article in Business Standard why investors who ignore SEBIs warnings, do so at their own peril.

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Perils of keeping surplus money in bank accounts

Financial, Press / By /

Back in the 1970’s the Soviet bureaucrats worked out a clever ploy to deny permission to a US citizen seeking to marry a Soviet citizen. They asked him to provide proof that he was not “already married”. Getting a document certifying a negative fact is impossible. An Indian bank account holder, victim of cyber fraud, faced a somewhat similar predicament when he was required to prove that he had not received any OTP sms or email from the bank. Harsh’s article in the business standard on how the issue was resolved and what lessons can be learnt so that citizens facing similiar issues have an easier time.

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Investing for children: Buy house or opt for MFs?

Financial, Investments, Personal Finance / By /

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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Vigilance Awareness Week 2025 (VAW2025)

Vigilance Awareness Week 2025 is being observed from October 27th to November 2nd, 2025, with the theme:

सतर्कता: हमारी साझा जिम्मेदारी (“Vigilance: Our Shared Responsibility”).

All stakeholders are encouraged to participate in the e-pledge initiative by visiting the CVC portal: https://pledge.cvc.nic.in/.