Retirement Corpus: How much do you need?

One of the main goals of personal finance is to build a retire corpus which you can outlive. Like earlier generations, going forward very few people will have the luxury of pension. So the onus of building a retirement corpus will be on individuals. But before delving into “how to build the corpus?” one needs to find out “how much is good enough?”.

Papa Kehte Hain syndrome in personal finance

Papa Kehte Hain is a famous song from Hindi movie “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak” starring Aamir Khan and Johi Chawla released in 1988. Verbatim translation of “Papa kehte hain” in English is “father  says”. Now this not an blog on hindi movies. Rather we will discuss what is meant by Papa Kehte Hain syndrome in personal finance. 

Personal finance mis-selling: Insiders story

Mis-selling of financial products is rampant in India. Basic financial literacy among common people is highly inadequate irrespective of educational background, profession, age.  This is exploited to the hilt by agents, bank relationship managers, personal bankers and others in mis-selling financial products to gullible people to meet their own target or earn hefty commission.

Psychology of stock market cycle

Today we are inundated with tons of information and sound bites on stock market. All sorts of chart, graphs, data point are being used to put forth different point of views. The talking heads in business channels tell us how different micro and macro economic factors are going to affect certain stocks.

Is it better to rent or buy home? - Perpetual debate

Yesterday while chit chatting with a few colleagues over a cup of tea, we started discussing – Is it better to buy or rent a home/flat? As expected each one had his own point of view on this. While tea got finished quickly, we could not conclude the discussion.

Stock tips are misleading: Take them with a pinch of salt

Recently India Infoline (IIFL) came up with two different reports advising clients to "sell" and “buy” the same share, Punj Lloyd on the same day! Both the reports were published on 31st May, 2010. The first report advises institutional investors to sell shares of Punj Lloyd, while the second report targeted at its

Index fund vs active fund - which one to invest in?

Mutual funds provide a means to retail investors to participate in equity investment without knowing the nuances of the stock market in details. The objective is to take advantage of higher returns that equity provides over other investment channels in the long term. If this the backdrop should one invest in

You can buy gold coin from post offices

India Post, government’s postal department first introduced sale of gold coin through a number of post offices across the country on October 14, 2008. Given the popularity of gold in India, the new service became a great success.  24 carat Gold coins are sold in denominations of 0.5 g, 1 g, 5 g and 8 g. The gold coins are

Saral II: filing tax return will get easier

In his budget speech, the finance minister had indicated that to make the tax filing process simpler, the erstwhile Saral form will be make a comeback.  On 23rd April, Income Tax Department  has come out with new income tax return form named 'Saral-II', that seeks to make tax filing easy for the assesses and gather information on TDS paid on salary and interest.

Earn Save Invest : Personal Finance Cycle

In this post lets discuss about Earn-Save-Invest cycle in personal finance. Each cog in this cycle is important for our financial freedom and complements each other very well. As we go along in our life, we should be aware of this phases to maximize financial gain.