Prajna Capital - An Investment Guide

Here are some tips to help you choose the ideal insurance policy that meets your needs Numerous insurance products such as children's education plans, life insurance plans with huge death benefits, and accident insurance covers are marketed aggressively. Often, people aren't aware of the actual insurance coverage. They jump onto the bandwagon, without reading the fine print. Tax payers make hasty last-minute insurance purchases to avail tax benefits under Section 80C. Though you may be saving a small amount of tax money, you could be stuck to a worthless policy for long years. Here are a few points to ponder over while buying an insurance policy: Insurance is not investment Insurance products are designed to provide protection . A term cover usually offers insurance protection but no benefit in case the insured survives the term of the policy. A unit-linked insurance policy ( ULIP ) on the other hand provides dual benefits of insurance protection and a flexible in...

Any emerging investor, would have studied all the avenues of investments and understands cash based investments like FDs have a fixed term and a fixed return but at times the returns do not match inflation. Debt investments like income funds yield a moderate rate of return but again though there is a high level of capital protection the investment may still lose out to inflation. Equities and equity mutual funds give a superior return over time but can be highly volatile. Gold works well with high inflation but gold allocation is limited. Real estate has been an excellent investment avenue but requires higher investments and liquidity could be a problem. How to control risk and yet generate a positive return over inflation? The first step would be to determine the ideal asset allocation; this could be derived by deciding what time horizon is and how much volatility. Further concern about what would be the right strategy for investing quarterly surplus and his cash in bank. As...

This article explains how hedge funds use different strategies to mitigate risk Hedging means managing risk. A fund manager employs a particular hedging technique in order to mitigate a particular type of risk. For example, a market risk can be hedged against by selling a broad collection of securities short, in equal proportion to one's long exposure or by buying put options on an index. You can hedge against interest rate, inflation, currency etc. Tools for hedging include raising cash, selling short, buying or selling options, futures, commodity and currency futures etc. A hedge fund is a private investment partnership. Hedge funds tend to be skill based investment strategies that attempt to obtain returns based on a unique skill or strategy. The primary aim of most hedge funds is to reduce volatility and risk while attempting to preserve capital and deliver positive returns under all market conditions. It designs a strategy to reduce investment risks using call optio...

Average salaries have shot up dramatically in the past few years. But other than government employees, most of us don’t have the luxury of pension support after retirement. The fear many of us have is, who will support us in old age? The answer to all these is to have inflation linked guaranteed pension plans. It is part of prudent financial planning. It is best to start investing in a pension plan at an early stage in life, like 25-35 years, in order to get a s u b s t a n t i a l amount each year once you retire. As the gap between the contribution period and the vesting period reduces, the amount of annuity will become smaller, and then it will be difficult to get a meaningful pension, which also beats inflation Understanding a plan There are two types of pension plans — 1) Stock Market linked and 2) Traditional. The traditional plans would offer a return of around 7%-10% in line with other debt options. Market linked plans could give higher returns in line with the market, but woul...

Almost all the investment advice that is given out to retired people is wrong. In fact, not only is it wrong, it is downright dangerous. Instead of securing their financial future, it tends to push them towards poverty. The longer a retiree lives, the more severe are the ill effects of such advice. I know that's a very strong set of statements that I have started out with but if you bear with me for a few more minutes, I'll show you where the problem lies and why it is so serious. The central premise of almost all the post-retirement investment advice I've ever heard is that retirees' money should always be entirely in guaranteed fixed-income instruments like post office deposits, RBI deposits, bank FDs etc. It is said that retirees should not have any stocks-based investment because they can't tolerate any risk. The problem with such advice is that it completely ignores a big risk that retirees face, that of inflation. None of the fixed-return instruments provide r...

RETURNS ON GOLD & ITS ETF’s RISE WHILE most of the popular asset classes are going through bad times, the yellow metal shines on. In fact, in the last one year, gold has given a return of more than 25% and currently trades at Rs 14,695 per 10 gm. Even gold exchange traded funds ( ETFs ) have appreciated substantially. Gold Gold Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme ( BeES ) and Kotak Gold ETF have given more than 25% returns each in the last three months. Even as the equity markets have taken a hit with the Sensex losing around 46% in the last one year and real estate prices also witness a correction, investors’ preference has shifted to safe havens such as gold. On an average, most of the diversified equity mutual funds have fallen and real estate developers are offering discounts. Thus gold remains the safest bet. The appreciation in the gold prices is mainly due to its safe haven status. The key reason for gold to go up is lack of other investment opportunity. There is also a risk in...

A further drop in home loan interest rates is not expected as the inflation rate is under control now The unpredictable rate movements, the Reserve Bank of India's ( RBI ) moves and mixed response from the lenders has put borrowers in some confusion. The inflation monster which had pushed prices to unimaginable highs has finally been tamed. From as high as 12.91 percent this year, the inflation rate has almost come down to half of that. Does this mean borrowers can expect banks to reduce their home loan rates, if this trend persists? What is inflation? Inflation is an increase in prices and/or decline in purchasing power. An increase in the amount of currency in circulation results in a relatively sharp and sudden fall in its value, and rise in prices. It can also be defined as a persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in available currency and credit beyond the proportion of availab...

Here are some tips to help you choose the ideal insurance policy that meets your needs Numerous insurance products such as children's education plans, life insurance plans with huge death benefits, and accident insurance covers are marketed aggressively. Often, people aren't aware of the actual insurance coverage. They jump onto the bandwagon, without reading the fine print. Tax payers make hasty last-minute insurance purchases to avail tax benefits under Section 80C. Though you may be saving a small amount of tax money, you could be stuck to a worthless policy for long years. Here are a few points to ponder over while buying an insurance policy: Insurance is not investment Insurance products are designed to provide protection. A term cover usually offers insurance protection but no benefit in case the insured survives the term of the policy. A unit-linked insurance policy ( ULIP ) on the other hand provides dual benefits of insurance protection and a flexible inves...

SILVER, which in European folklore, is believed to have saved the lives of many people who were attacked by vampires and monsters, now has the power to give investors good returns. And going forward, it is expected to outperform gold in terms of price appreciation. In fact, silver had been beating gold till recently. Up to 2008, silver outperformed gold in terms of one, two and three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Last year on March 11, silver registered a three-year CAGR of 131% against 106% CAGR posted by gold. GOLD-MANIA HITS SILVER PRICE In the last one year, gold prices have moved up sharply and beaten silver. Since March 11 last year, gold has appreciated by around 18%, while silver prices have corrected by around 12%. This is mainly because of the global financial crisis and weak performance of most of the other investment classes. Investors have been flocking towards gold, as it provides a hedge against uncertainty, which in turn fuelled gold prices to touch new hi...

The relation between the Fed’s interest rates and the markets here The US Federal Reserve has decided to leave the interest rates unchanged. However, it has expressed concerns on the escalating crisis. The unanimous decision left the benchmark overnight rates at two percent. The Fed has said, 'strains in the financial markets have increased significantly and labour markets have weakened further' . The central bank said it also remained concerned about the inflation pressures. The Fed said the downside risks to growth and upside risks to inflation are of significant concern to the committee. The move is expected to enable banks in the US to borrow money for the short term from the Fed as well as lend to each other at the same rate as before. In the past few months, the Federal Reserve had been cutting US short-term interest rates amidst concerns that the economic growth will slow down in the coming months. The effort was to stimulate economic activity and keep the country ...

The macroeconomic factors world-wide have been quite shaky over the last couple of quarters. As a result, the stock markets have been quite volatile with a negative bias all over the world. In line with market conditions, the performance of equity based instruments remained quite subdued. As uncertainty prevails in stock markets, investors are not keen on putting their money in equity-based instruments. The meltdown in the equity markets started with the slowdown in some countries. This coupled with several other negative developments like a sharp rise and fall in commodity prices (crude oil, metals, food items etc), fall in the global inflation rate and meltdown of some of the large financial houses kept triggering negative sentiments in the markets. Analysts believe the negative sentiments will continue in the stock markets for a few more quarters, and therefore, the stock markets will remain volatile in the medium term. Therefore, it will be risky to invest in equity-based ins...

There are chances of the economy moving into deflation. Here we outlines some implications The stock markets had a few surprises last week. Here, the inflation rate fell to historic lows. The market participants were now foreseeing a possibility of inflation hitting zero. It just showed how times had changed in a short span of a few months. Just a while ago, investors were praying for lower inflation numbers every Thursday. But the consistent decline in the inflation numbers has left them pondering whether they got more than what they had bargained for, as India may experience negative inflation WoW soon. What is deflation? A temporary dip into the negative side will not be immediately considered as deflation. Deflation should not be confused with a temporary fall in prices. It is a sustained fall in prices that occurs when the inflation rate passes down below zero percent. In a deflationary environment, the price of goods and services keep falling. Hence, consumers have an in...

Purchasing Power of money decreases with time. So how to calculate the Purchasing Power of money? Lets say, a family's monthly expense is Rs 50,000. At an inflation rate of 5 per cent, how much will be the purchasing value of that amount after 20 years? Inflation increases the amount you need to spend to fetch the same article and in a way reduces the purchasing power of the rupee. Here, Rs 50,000 after 20 years at an inflation of 5 per cent will be able to buy goods worth Rs 18,844 only. Formula: Reduced amt.= Present amt. / (1 + inflation) ^no. of yrs Type in: =50000/(1+5%)^20 and hit enter. You will get Rs 18,844, which is the reduced amount.

THE present banking system is called a “fractional reserve banking system”, as the banks are required to keep only a fraction of their deposit liabilities in the form of liquid cash with the central bank for ensuring safety and liquidity of deposits. The Cash Reserve Ratio ( CRR ) refers to this liquid cash that banks have to maintain with the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI ) as a certain percentage of their demand and time liabilities. For example if the CRR is 10% then a bank with net demand and time deposits of Rs 1,00,000 will have to deposit Rs 10,000 with the RBI as liquid cash. How is CRR used as a tool of credit control? CRR was introduced in 1950 primarily as a measure to ensure safety and liquidity of bank deposits, however over the years it has become an important and effective tool for directly regulating the lending capacity of banks and controlling the money supply in the economy. When the RBI feels that the money supply is increasing and causing an upward pressure on inflat...

With the upswing in the rate of inflation and the high rate of interest, investors are finding it tough to invest in instruments that give them a good rate of return. Both equity and debt market have been quite volatile for the past few months. Debt options like fixed deposits are not giving good returns and most banks on an average offers 8%-9% returns. So what should an investor do in such a scenario? Look for debt instruments that give a good return even if inflation is high or the market is down. Wealth managers feel debt funds can be a good option to invest as it help during times of high inflation since interest rates also go up at such times. Debt funds helps in preserving capital and the returns you get from it are sufficient to keep up to inflation but not beat it. Investing in debt funds also offers tax advantage compared to interest bearing instruments like deposits and bonds. The frequent fluctuation in the stock markets has led to a new interest in debt funds. A debt fund...

Like most budgets, these years' too had some minor measures that haven't attracted too much attention but are nonetheless interesting. One such measure has been the inclusion of the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme ( SCSS ) into Section 80C. Why is this interesting? Because it offers a significant new tax break to older people who still have an income but are short of options on saving taxes. Let me explain. The SCSS was introduced in 2004 budget. It is a deposit with the government that is serviced through the post office and is available only to those who are older than 60 years, or 55 years for those who have taken a VRS. The deposit fetches interest at the rate of nine per cent, which is a great return for a safe, government-guaranteed investment. Until now, this deposit had no tax-saving angle to it. Money put into it did not get the depositor any kind of a tax break and the interest earned was fully taxable. Mr. Chidambaram has changed this in this budget. Now, investments ...

Some options for the risk-averse in times of rising inflation The term inflation refers to a rise in the general price levels. Inflation is measured by an index which is calculated by taking into consideration a set of goods and services, and then the prices of the items in that set are compared to prices one year ago. In India, inflation is measured based on the wholesale price index ( WPI ) which measures the change in prices of a selection of goods at wholesale rates. Inflation gradually reduces the purchasing power of your money and therefore it becomes very important for investors to understand the impact of inflation on their investments. Investors, especially senior citizens, put a lot of emphasis on the safety of their principal amount and in the process they sacrifice the yield on investments. For example, if an investor deposits his money in a savings bank account which generates 3.5 percent per annum and the inflation rate in the market is around seven percent, he is making ...

With the economy expected to grow at 7.5 -8%, there’s no reason why a long-term investor should not enter the market at every fall THE continuous decline in stock prices over the last few months has adversely impacted corporates, insurance companies, financial services firms and mutual funds, amongst others. But these are players who, perhaps, have the wherewithal to withstand such declines. This may not, however, be true of the small investor — the individual investing modest sums for a house, daughter’s marriage, retirement and others. Should then the small investors rush for the sidelines? Or should they view this as a buying opportunity and plough more money into the market? A none too distant survey by an international management school had majority of the experts surveyed saying an emphatic ‘neither’ to the question. This being the consensus, let us ponder on how we can insulate the retail investor. These are not nuggets of wisdom which has remained hidden so far. These are the t...

A loan to purchase or build a house is available at around the 10 percent level. It used to be around seven percent a couple of years ago. Also, the interest rates remained quite volatile over the last few quarters. However, this is a cyclical phenomenon. Over a long loan tenure, it will move upwards and downwards. The average rate and tax incentive together add up to make it good for the borrower. Here are some factors that influence interest rate movements: Inflation Inflation plays a significant role in influencing the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI ). It forces the central bank to hike the interest rates. Currently, inflation has gone up over 11 percent (way above the RBI's mandated inflation level of around five percent per annum). The main reasons for this high inflation rate are a sharp rise in prices of basic commodities, and hike in rates of petroleum products (petrol, diesel and cooking gas). The RBI has announced a repo rate hike twice this month itse...

If you have lost money, then have a hard look at your holdings. It is time to be patient ULTIMATELY, you cannot really lose money in the stock market! If you have, then either you have not been in the stock market long enough or you are in the process of getting the most expensive education. In the last 15 years, I have portfolios earning about Rs 5 lakh from share dividends alone against others who started with Rs 5 lakh and today owe the broker about Rs 3 lakh. When the markets, Sensex moved from 4,000 to 7,000 points, people thought it was a bubble and many sold out by the time it reached 12,000 points. A huge majority lost the run from 9k to 16k. Seeing their folly, many entered around 17-18k levels and in two months, saw their portfolios doubling. Greed peaked, speculation peaked and the fall shattered millions of dreams. Is there someone sitting on profits today? The answer is a resounding yes! Here are examples. HDFC was quoting at Rs 300 in 1999 and touched about Rs 3,000 earl...