Thursday 28 May 2009
Financial Planning mantra #4
Never borrow money (take personal or other loans) to invest in the stock markets. It is a sure-shot recipe for disaster.
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Financial Planning mantra #3
A financial planner does not sell you a single financial product, but a financially secure lifestyle. In a sense, he buys for you.
Most so called relationship managers / wealth managers / insurance agents / mutual fund distributors are out to sell you their financial products. They will blindly recommend one particular mutual fund (usually a NFO) or a ULIP to all their customers. They follow a ‘one-product-for-all’ strategy. This is not financial planning. It is product selling, irrespective of the client’s needs or requirements. A lot of people fall for this because the person calls from XYZ Bank where you have your account, so one tends to automatically believe them. And you end up buying into the ‘flavor of the month’. Think for yourself before you invest in any product.
As far as investing (in equity in India) is concerned, India is still in its nascent stages. People are still understanding what investing is all about. They tend to buy products ad hoc rather than in a planned manner. But investors are learning and gradually moving to a planned and focused method of investing. As the market matures, so will the investor.
Most so called relationship managers / wealth managers / insurance agents / mutual fund distributors are out to sell you their financial products. They will blindly recommend one particular mutual fund (usually a NFO) or a ULIP to all their customers. They follow a ‘one-product-for-all’ strategy. This is not financial planning. It is product selling, irrespective of the client’s needs or requirements. A lot of people fall for this because the person calls from XYZ Bank where you have your account, so one tends to automatically believe them. And you end up buying into the ‘flavor of the month’. Think for yourself before you invest in any product.
As far as investing (in equity in India) is concerned, India is still in its nascent stages. People are still understanding what investing is all about. They tend to buy products ad hoc rather than in a planned manner. But investors are learning and gradually moving to a planned and focused method of investing. As the market matures, so will the investor.
Thursday 21 May 2009
Financial Planning mantra #2
Ensure a proper asset allocation before making any investment
Plan your resources in such a manner to give you maximum possible returns in achieving your goals. The three primary asset classes are equity, debt and cash. Some other asset classes include real estate, metals (like gold) and even art.
It is imperative that before making any investment you must ensure proper allocation. Asset allocation depends on factors like - age of the investor, time horizon available, holdings in current portfolio, etc.
In India, a lot of people buy financial products in an ad hoc manner, with the result that their portfolio is heavily skewed towards debt and low-return instruments - PPF, PF, money back and endowment policies, FDs, NSCs, debt options in ULIPs. All these have fixed or low-returns, thereby making them unsuitable options if you are investing with a horizon of 15 years or more. Of course, depending on your risk-profile, the amount of investment in equity (direct or indirect) would vary, but it has to form a part of your portfolio, provided you have time on your side.
Investors love to do their retirement planning (25-30 years from now) with debt as the sole option, not realizing that in the long run returns from debt are not as attractive as those from equity, resulting in lower corpus creation.
All said, it does not mean that investing in debt is bad. It is the proportion of the various asset classes that one must get right if you need to build a comfortable corpus. Too much of any particular asset class is bad since it either leads to increased risk levels or there is a chance that it may not even meet inflationary costs. Again, building a corpus needs continuous rebalancing of the portfolio depending again on things like new or fresh objectives coming up or when one is close to achieving one’s goal.
Plan your resources in such a manner to give you maximum possible returns in achieving your goals. The three primary asset classes are equity, debt and cash. Some other asset classes include real estate, metals (like gold) and even art.
It is imperative that before making any investment you must ensure proper allocation. Asset allocation depends on factors like - age of the investor, time horizon available, holdings in current portfolio, etc.
In India, a lot of people buy financial products in an ad hoc manner, with the result that their portfolio is heavily skewed towards debt and low-return instruments - PPF, PF, money back and endowment policies, FDs, NSCs, debt options in ULIPs. All these have fixed or low-returns, thereby making them unsuitable options if you are investing with a horizon of 15 years or more. Of course, depending on your risk-profile, the amount of investment in equity (direct or indirect) would vary, but it has to form a part of your portfolio, provided you have time on your side.
Investors love to do their retirement planning (25-30 years from now) with debt as the sole option, not realizing that in the long run returns from debt are not as attractive as those from equity, resulting in lower corpus creation.
All said, it does not mean that investing in debt is bad. It is the proportion of the various asset classes that one must get right if you need to build a comfortable corpus. Too much of any particular asset class is bad since it either leads to increased risk levels or there is a chance that it may not even meet inflationary costs. Again, building a corpus needs continuous rebalancing of the portfolio depending again on things like new or fresh objectives coming up or when one is close to achieving one’s goal.
Tuesday 19 May 2009
Financial Planning mantra #1
Always have your goals and objectives in place before making any investment.
Whether you are making the investment for tax-saving or from the point of capital growth, clarity on the objective is a must.
Most people purchase products without a real thought of the goal or objective. Simply put, I have invested in Y product because I want o make money. No time horizons are defined, no clear goal set. The result, either you sell it off too early or you invest in a long-term debt based product (where the optimistic returns are in the region of 5-6% p.a.). In either case you either end up losing money or not making enough to cover even inflation.
If one has these objectives always in mind, then one is neither affected by greed nor fear, either of which always leads to wrong decisions. There is a clear focus on achieving the pre-defined goal through a chalked out plan.
Making an investment without any goals or objectives in place, will only lead to ad hoc buying of investment products and will lead you nowhere. There will be quantity but little or no quality. A very dangerous thing to realize too late in life.
Whether you are making the investment for tax-saving or from the point of capital growth, clarity on the objective is a must.
Most people purchase products without a real thought of the goal or objective. Simply put, I have invested in Y product because I want o make money. No time horizons are defined, no clear goal set. The result, either you sell it off too early or you invest in a long-term debt based product (where the optimistic returns are in the region of 5-6% p.a.). In either case you either end up losing money or not making enough to cover even inflation.
If one has these objectives always in mind, then one is neither affected by greed nor fear, either of which always leads to wrong decisions. There is a clear focus on achieving the pre-defined goal through a chalked out plan.
Making an investment without any goals or objectives in place, will only lead to ad hoc buying of investment products and will lead you nowhere. There will be quantity but little or no quality. A very dangerous thing to realize too late in life.
Monday 18 May 2009
Sensex and NAVs
Today was truly a spectacular day at the markets. For the first time in its history, there were two consecutive circuits, resulting in shutting down of the markets for the day.
Nobody I know, managed to get his order through. So much for retail participation.
Till Friday, uncertainty loomed large. There was talk all around that the pre-election rally was headed for a correction and that the results on Saturday would cause the markets to slide once again. The discussions were centered around whether it would retest old lows of 8000 or would it slip to 10,000. All that vanished on Saturday morning. After a neck-to-neck race (in the early hours of counting), that dreadful feeling began to vanish. By late afternoon, there was a change in mood and the gloomy feeling was replaced by happiness. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter reflected the growing euphoria. Messages and comments, bouquets and brickbats poured in left, right and center. It was quite something to be a part of the ‘virtual world’, that day. Felt real!
Quite obviously all the pent up frustration was let loose on the markets today. For a change, I received quite a few calls from friends, relatives and clients. It was mostly - Should I sell my mutual funds now? / Are my investments back in the green, since markets have moved up 60%?
What we forget is when had we invested. Most people got in in 2007 and had their NAVs wiped out by 40-50% and in some cases by almost 80% by end 2008. So if your fund had a NAV of 12 when you invested, it crashed to 6. Now all mutual funds missed the up rally from 8000 to 12000. Technically, the market moved up by 50%, but NAVs moved by 20-25% only. So your NAV was only at 8. Where is the full recovery?
Another point to note is that there is actually no direct and perfect correlation between the Sensex (or Nifty) with your NAV. At best, it is a broad indicator of the direction (up or down). The composition (large/mid/small caps) of the fund will decide the quantum and direction of its movement. So there may be days when the Sensex and the NAV may move in opposite directions.
Investors should always remember that selling a mutual fund should not be based on what the Sensex is. It should depend on whether you have reached the goal / objective for which you have made the investment or a fixed percentage of return (which you had decided at the time of investing) has been achieved.
Nobody I know, managed to get his order through. So much for retail participation.
Till Friday, uncertainty loomed large. There was talk all around that the pre-election rally was headed for a correction and that the results on Saturday would cause the markets to slide once again. The discussions were centered around whether it would retest old lows of 8000 or would it slip to 10,000. All that vanished on Saturday morning. After a neck-to-neck race (in the early hours of counting), that dreadful feeling began to vanish. By late afternoon, there was a change in mood and the gloomy feeling was replaced by happiness. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter reflected the growing euphoria. Messages and comments, bouquets and brickbats poured in left, right and center. It was quite something to be a part of the ‘virtual world’, that day. Felt real!
Quite obviously all the pent up frustration was let loose on the markets today. For a change, I received quite a few calls from friends, relatives and clients. It was mostly - Should I sell my mutual funds now? / Are my investments back in the green, since markets have moved up 60%?
What we forget is when had we invested. Most people got in in 2007 and had their NAVs wiped out by 40-50% and in some cases by almost 80% by end 2008. So if your fund had a NAV of 12 when you invested, it crashed to 6. Now all mutual funds missed the up rally from 8000 to 12000. Technically, the market moved up by 50%, but NAVs moved by 20-25% only. So your NAV was only at 8. Where is the full recovery?
Another point to note is that there is actually no direct and perfect correlation between the Sensex (or Nifty) with your NAV. At best, it is a broad indicator of the direction (up or down). The composition (large/mid/small caps) of the fund will decide the quantum and direction of its movement. So there may be days when the Sensex and the NAV may move in opposite directions.
Investors should always remember that selling a mutual fund should not be based on what the Sensex is. It should depend on whether you have reached the goal / objective for which you have made the investment or a fixed percentage of return (which you had decided at the time of investing) has been achieved.
Tuesday 5 May 2009
The New Pension Scheme is here!
The New Pension Scheme (NPS) has finally arrived. It was opened to the general public on May 1, 2009. I did get a few calls – asking questions like ‘Can I invest in NPS?’, ‘Should I invest in NPS’ and ‘What is NPS?’. Well I guess their initial campaign paid off - the full page color ads and coverage in the television media did what it was supposed to - generate awareness.
So in this blog I will try and bring in a little more clarity for those who are keen to know more about the NPS.
Highlights:
- This is a government-regulated pension plan.
- It is on the lines of ‘401k – retirement plan’ in the US.
- Market consists of equity, corporate bonds and government securities.
- Funds will be actively managed by six AMCs (asset management companies) - Kotak, SBI, Reliance, UTI, IDFC and ICICI Prudential.
- AMCs will make investment decisions under guidelines issued by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
- The investor is free to choose a mix between:
- Equity (E)
- Corporate bonds (C )
- Government securities (G)
- There is a ‘lock-in’ / binding period till the age of 60.
- It is open to anyone (citizen of India, resident or non-resident) between age 18 and 55 years.
- Minimum investment per annum - Rs 6,000. No upper limit.
- Minimum contributions per year are four.
Downsides:
• Returns at maturity are taxable (unlike PPF, EPF)
• There are no guarantees. Returns are market determined
• Costs can be high for those investing the in the region of the minimum amount (per annum) only. Hence it is not a good option for the small saver. The more you invest the more cost-effective it is.
• Maximum limit in equity (E) is capped at 50 percent.
My advice to all those interested is:
• The intention behind the scheme is very good.
• The PFRDA still needs to give some clarifications. Wait till the new government is in place and announces the budget, wherein hopefully it will set to rest all doubts especially on the EET (exempt-exempt-tax) front.
• Don’t rush into investing in the NPS.
• This cannot be your sole investment for retirement. Talk to your Certified Financial PlannerCM before taking the plunge.
So in this blog I will try and bring in a little more clarity for those who are keen to know more about the NPS.
Highlights:
- This is a government-regulated pension plan.
- It is on the lines of ‘401k – retirement plan’ in the US.
- Market consists of equity, corporate bonds and government securities.
- Funds will be actively managed by six AMCs (asset management companies) - Kotak, SBI, Reliance, UTI, IDFC and ICICI Prudential.
- AMCs will make investment decisions under guidelines issued by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
- The investor is free to choose a mix between:
- Equity (E)
- Corporate bonds (C )
- Government securities (G)
- There is a ‘lock-in’ / binding period till the age of 60.
- It is open to anyone (citizen of India, resident or non-resident) between age 18 and 55 years.
- Minimum investment per annum - Rs 6,000. No upper limit.
- Minimum contributions per year are four.
Downsides:
• Returns at maturity are taxable (unlike PPF, EPF)
• There are no guarantees. Returns are market determined
• Costs can be high for those investing the in the region of the minimum amount (per annum) only. Hence it is not a good option for the small saver. The more you invest the more cost-effective it is.
• Maximum limit in equity (E) is capped at 50 percent.
My advice to all those interested is:
• The intention behind the scheme is very good.
• The PFRDA still needs to give some clarifications. Wait till the new government is in place and announces the budget, wherein hopefully it will set to rest all doubts especially on the EET (exempt-exempt-tax) front.
• Don’t rush into investing in the NPS.
• This cannot be your sole investment for retirement. Talk to your Certified Financial PlannerCM before taking the plunge.
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