Prajna Capital - An Investment Guide

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...

Here I have tried to lists out some investment options that are relatively safer in volatile market conditions The stock markets are on a downward trend from the beginning of this year. Volatility in the markets is also quite high. There are many factors that contribute to negative market sentiments. For example, a persistent high inflation rate (especially the core inflation rate that is driven by basic commodities), rising commodity prices in global markets, anticipated slowdown in the global economy etc. Foreign investors were investing heavily in emerging markets. They are now taking out money, especially from emerging markets. Large foreign investors are bearish on global growth and expect the global economy to deteriorate. They believe that in the era of a global slowdown, emerging markets will under-perform their global peers. Foreign institutional investors ( FII ) have taken out around $5 billion from the domestic markets so far this year. Since the stock markets are ...