investing Archives – Page 14 of 19

Top 10 Mutual Funds – Here’s what you didn’t know.

December 28, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

One of the most searched term on Google is “Top 10 mutual funds to invest in“.

In fact, the most visitors on this blog are the ones looking for a mutual fund portfolio. No wonder, that the post on “How to build a winning mutual fund portfolio” continues to be popular.

Let me share a fact with you, which I hope you would appreciate. It is something I recently discovered.

Now, when it comes to mutual funds, we know that there are over 300 equity and equity oriented schemes. It is not so easy to select the right schemes for yourself.

And hence, the search starts for the top mutual funds.

Out of these 300 schemes, 10 schemes, that is just 3% of the total schemes, account for 25% of the entire Equity Assets in Mutual Funds.

Wow!

Which are these top 10 mutual funds, which have the lion’s share of the investors’ money and trust?

Read more

Super Investor – Are you one?

December 21, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

Who do you think is a super investor?

As you apply your mind to the question, I would like you to know that one of our ‘respected’ marketing research companies Nielsen has come out with a report titled “Super Investors: India’s new Wealth Generators“.

When I read the title of this report, I felt excited to know something of value. In fact, I stretched my imagination too hard. The instant correlation was with an icon “the Superman”.

“If superman is what he is, what would a super investor be like?”

Unfortunately, my imagination and my excitement were both short-lived. 🙁

I read the report. I felt the research company was confused about what they were trying to define. Or did they have the correct data based on which they drew the findings?

Their definition of a super investor and the characteristics of this investor are no where close to who I would consider to be a super investor.

The idea of a super investor (as per the Nielsen report)

The Nielsen report lists out many characteristics of this ‘super investor’. Let’s look at some of them.

NHAI Tax Free Bonds – Should you invest in them?

December 17, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

Few financial investments create as much excitement as tax-free bonds issued by our PSUs such as REC, NHPC and NHAI.

And why should it not be? The bonds offer some really great benefits to retail investors.

Let’s look at a some of those benefits.

They offer fixed interest like Bank Fixed Deposits, that too paid out regularly.
The interest offered by these bonds is completely tax-free.
They are secured. If for any reason, the company defaults, the assets of the company will be sold and your money will be returned first. They usually carry the highest safety ratings accredited by rating agencies such as India Ratings & Research, ICRA and CRISIL.
At the end of the tenure of the bond, the investment amount or principal is returned to you in full.
The bonds are for long term, say 10 and 15 years assuring a rate of return for that period. They are also listed on the stock exchange where they can be bought and sold anytime.

What do the NHAI tax free bonds offer?

Tata Mutual Fund NFO – Should you buy or not?

December 15, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

As you know, a few weeks ago, I announced the launch of Unovest – a mutual fund direct plan investing platform.

Unovest will also be the place where you can find specific information and insights into mutual fund investments.

Everything that can help you build wealth using mutual funds as a tool will be available on Unovest.

Today I am sharing with you an article from the Unovest Blog.

Should you be investing in the Tata Mutual Fund’s New Fund Offer – Own a piece of India?

Welcome to the (financial) jungle!

Tata Mutual Fund (Tata MF) has recently announced its New Fund Offer (NFO) of “Own a Piece of India”.

Let’s dissect this Tata Mutual Fund NFO and see if it deserves your money.

How do we make wrong decisions?

November 29, 2015November 27, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

If this piece of information from The Daily Mirror of UK is to be believed, on an average, a person makes 773,618 decisions in a lifetime.

Whoa!

“That is about 27 decisions in a day – starting from whether to turn off the alarm or hit snooze,” mentions the article.

We make decisions all the time.

Should you drive down in your car or take a cab?

Should you watch Movie A or Movie B?

Should you have ice cream or a brownie?

Should you vote for NM or RG?

Should you sign up for my blog or not? 🙂

The interesting part is most of these choices are conflicting. Take some more examples.

Should you launch one product or the other?

Should you build the feature X or feature Y into your software?

Should you invest in equity or debt?

Should you sell stocks now or buy more?

Should you take on more loans for your venture or sell equity?

Should you give the contract to vendor A or vendor B?

Now comes the interesting part. Quoting the same article, of the 773,618 decisions – you will come to regret 143, 262 decisions. It means that 25% of your decisions would turn out to be bad – wrong decisions.

I wonder how come we make so many wrong decisions. What on earth can affect our mind so much that we can’t make right decisions? Or should I say how can we prevent ourselves from making wrong decisions?

Let’s explore this subject more.

XIRR: How to calculate returns on your portfolio?

January 1, 2017November 23, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

It was a lazy Sunday morning. While I was sitting on the window ledge, sipping my morning cuppa tea, the door bell rang. I took the last sip and opened the door.

“Good Morning”, I saw Shekhar standing out wearing a broad smile.

“Good Morning Shekhar, long time!” I was seeing him after several days though he lived just next doors. We were good friends.

“Yes Vipin. Long time! And as always I have come to trouble you a bit.”

“Sure, tell me.”

“You know, I have invested in mutual funds. It’s been a few years now. But I have never been able to understand what is my return on these investments.

This time I happened to open my account statement. And that also doesn’t seem to show it. Can you tell me what’s the best way to calculate it?”

“Sure, why not?”