Vipin Khandelwal

The A4 Test for your Personal Finance

August 21, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Hoarders

That’s the word that defines some investors.

You will know what I mean once you know what their personal finance and investment portfolio contains.

Count the number of mutual funds in their portfolio – 20, 30, 40 upto 50 sometimes.

Then the number of stocks in their portfolio – anywhere from 20 to 100.

A whole lot of insurance policies – from a few to a dozen.

Add to all this the Bank Fixed Deposits, PPF, EPF, NSCs, Bonds, etc.

They have been literally hoarding.

It’s utterly complex.

If all these items are listed on paper, one will need several sheets.

Why do we make life so complicated? Is this greed? Is this ignorance? Effect of having several advisors? Or these investors have a different formula that appears to work for them?

I have not been able to find an answer to this puzzle.

The question now is if this is complex, what is simple?

Do sectoral and thematic funds fit the idea of best investment?

August 11, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

SECTORAL AND THEMATIC FUNDS - INVESTMENT UNIVERSE

Take a look at the following mutual fund schemes: (you can click on the names to see detailed reports)

UTI MNC Fund
Reliance Pharma Fund
ICICI Prudential Exports and Other Services Fund
Sundaram Rural India Fund
HDFC Infrastructure Fund

Now, take a look at the following:

What’s the difference in the two lists?

Equity Investing, as I understand it!

August 4, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

For a large number of equity investors, equity investing is about what they do in the stock market – buying and selling based on ticker prices. That is where it starts, that is where it ends.

The only thing that matters to them are news items such as:

Stock market up by 200 points
Markets down by 100 points
Nifty up 3 days in a row
Sensex posts biggest fall in 6 months

and on and on and on.

The onslaught by the media adds fuel to the fire. The best picks of the day are discussed, worst picks are beaten down, target price, stock market predictions, everything that occupies your current time and attention, all leading to nothing.

How is this information helpful? I might be sounding ignorant here, but seriously, help me understand.

Constantly working with only the stock market prices and nothing else has brought us to a situation where we know the price of all stocks but the value of none.

Is this how equity investing really done?

Death and taxes

January 5, 2017July 31, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

On Death

I spent the past few days in a hospital. I was attending to a family member diagnosed with brain tumour.

For the first few hours, it was chaos. The implications were not clear and given the way the human mind works, everyone assumed the worst. It was later confirmed that the tumour is not life threatening.

The hospital is a place where you come face to face with real pain – age no bar. It is a place where you witness people make friends with suffering, pain and ultimately, death.

Such an environment sets one thinking. There were moments when I would just sit and wonder about the inevitable. It has to happen one day. That’s certain. What will be that day, is not.

Steve Jobs said something very apt about death-

Sovereign Gold Bonds 2016 – Should you invest?

July 18, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

The Government of India has announced Tranche 4 of the Sovereign Gold Bonds 2016. They are available for subscription from July 18 to July 22, 2016.

Here are 2 links with all the details that you need to know about these Bonds.

Link 1 and Link 2.

Before you rush to buy the bonds, here are a few points for you to consider:

Filing income tax return – Yes, No, Maybe?

July 16, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

FILING income TAX RETURNS - YES, NO, MAYBE?

The doorbell rang. It was Vijay, my friend. We were meeting after a long time to play our favourite game of chess.

“Vijay, I am about to finish filing my income tax return for this year. Give me a few minutes.” I request him.

“Sure. Take your time.”

He engaged himself with laying down the pieces on chess board for the game.

I finished filing the tax return, came back and sat next to him on the sofa.

“Done?”

“Yes.” I said with a feeling of great satisfaction. “Have you filed yours?” I asked inquisitively.

“No, no. I haven’t filed my income tax returns in the last 3 years.” He said as a matter of fact.

I was surprised. “Really! But why?”

“It is simple. The company where I work deducts TDS on the salary I get. There is no more tax that I have to pay. What is the need to file tax return?”