Month: September 2014

The shortest guide for a 22 yr old to start investing his money ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

I was on Quora some days back when I came across an answer by Yuvraj Wadhwani on a thread called “How should a 22-year-old in India invest his/her money?” . It was such a beautiful answer and loaded with awesome advice to someone young to start their financial journey in life.

I instantly contacted Yuvraj, if he would like to guest post his answer on Jagoinvestor and He replied back saying he would be glad to do so. So I am putting up his answer to that question here on this blog for everyone . Read it from start till end. Its a bit different in style, but really worth .

Note : I have realigned some lines and combined them together to make proper paragraphs.

yuvraj wadhwani

 

 

 

OK let’s begin with wise words I learned a while back.

The principle of “Divide Investing in 3 plans”

It took me a while to get this, but it is really empowering to understand this principle. It is wise to divide investing in 3 plans.

  • Plan to be secure
  • Plan to be comfortable
  • Plan to be rich

Let’s take each of these in detail.

1. Plan to be secure

Buy a big term insurance policy and don’t look at market linked insurance plans (ULIPs). Set aside some money and trust that your financial planner will do a good job with it. Also, set aside some money (~3 month’s salary) as an emergency fund. Once you set this up, this should be an automatic plan that doesn’t require your time or effort.

I think everyone should have a plan to be secure. Now, before going to the second or third plans, ask yourself this question..

“Do I want to be comfortable or do I want to be rich??”

This is a very important question as it will probably determine what you do while following your plan. It’s similar to setting up your goal before buying a gym membership. You may choose to have a light jog on the treadmill, or work out heavily with weights. You choose what you do.

Now read on, I hope after reading you will make a more informed decision about which plan is right for you.

2. Plan to be comfortable

The plan to be comfortable should be pretty straightforward for everyone. If you are a salaried personnel, then you save a portion of your income. You use 80cc to minimize your taxes, invest in diversified mutual funds, SIPs, or recently infrastructure bonds, or specific stocks if you have a good education.

You also have a financial planner who can give you advice for specific funds, or who can tell you to rupee cost average your investment. You also make some money of “hot tips”. If you follow this plan, you should live and retire comfortably. There is nothing bad/wrong about choosing this plan, just as there is nothing wrong with going to the gym for a mild jog. It’s an individual choice. Most individuals would find themselves in the comfortable zone. I encourage all of those people to read further as well.

3. Plan to be rich

Extracted from a book

Q: “What’s your advice for the average investor??”

A:  “Don’t be average”

Why? Because the average investor is a slave to the market.

Average investors make money when the market goes up and lose it when the market goes down. Average stock traders don’t make money. (They don’t lose, but don’t make it either). When the market crashes, the average investor loses the maximum.

Successful investing is not about the investment, it’s about the investor.

This is perhaps the least understood concept of investing. This is the reason why people ask questions like “Where should I invest my money?” and the most accurate answer to the question is the question..

“I don’t know, are you a good investor?”

Let me give you an example – “What happened during 2008-2010 in stocks worldwide? Everyone knows they crashed right? Everyone who was invested in stocks lost money right??”

WRONG!

John Paulson’s , a hedge fund manager  , made more than 15 Billion $ for his company in 2007. (That’s a billion with a B). That money is almost equal to 80,000 crores.

Many claim that he made around 4-5 Billion Dollars of personal money during (2007-2010). That’s more than 20,000 crore rupees. While this was claimed the greatest trade ever, the point I am making is that it is entirely possible to make money when the market is going up and down.

So what are the differences between average and rich (above average) investors?

Simply stating, successful investors have 3 E’s that average investors don’t have.

  • Education
  • Experience
  • Excessive Cash

1. Education

A successful education starts with a good mindset. A successful investor has much more education than the average investor. A successful investor is committed to getting better and better with their education. How do you define commitment?

Do you know that friend of yours who plays the guitar? Do you know who else plays the guitar?

Got it ?

One of the differences between them is their commitment to playing. So how is the mindset of a successful investor different from an average investor? Let me draw a diagram to better explain. In the world of business, there are 4 kinds of people

  • Employees
  • Self Employed
  • Business Owners
  • Investors

cashflow quadrant jagoinvestor

Simply put, average investors think from the left side on the diagram and rich investors think from the right side of the diagram. Does that make a lot of difference, you may ask?

The answer is YES.

Let me put forward a few myth busters to put it in perspective.

(Avg Investor): My house is my biggest investment.
(Rich Investor): A house is a liability

(Avg Investor): Diversification reduces risk
(Rich Investor): Diversification is de-worsify-cation (Warren Buffett quotes)

(Avg Investor): Stock market is risky
(Rich Investor): Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing

(Avg Investor): Avoid risk
(Rich Investor): Take more control and manage risk

(Avg Investor): Real estate never comes down (extremely popular in India)
(Rich Investor): All markets go up and down

(Avg Investor): Saving money is good
(Rich Investor): Saving money pays maximum ~8% before tax, inflation is ~10%, so saving money is a guaranteed loss.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point.

I am not saying what the average investor is saying above is bad advice, but it is average advice. As I mentioned, average investors make money when the market goes up and lose it when the market goes down. And if you have been reading till here, then you might be interested in making money whether the market goes up, down or sideways.

Also, if you find yourself arguing against the Rich Investor statements, that means you too are thinking from the left side of the quadrant.

So, how do I educate myself for being a rich investor?

  • Books
  • Tapes
  • Workshops
  • Mentors

Remember, successful people have coaches, amateurs don’t. Sachin Tendulkar may be the best batsman in the world, but he still has a coach. In case you are wondering, then investing is a subject that you may never be perfect in. Just like there is no perfect batsmen in cricket (everybody gets out), there is no perfect investor. But the more education you have, the better your chances are.

2. Experience

This should be a no-brainer. How do you get experience? By applying what you learn. Start small as mistakes will happen. If you stay on track it will become easier and easier. It might feel like trying to eat with your opposite hand. In the beginning, you will spill your food, you will be frustrated and probably won’t be satisfied, but in time you will learn it eventually.

3. Excessive Cash

This is the tricky part, but if you have educated yourself well, and have gained good experience, then excessive cash (or some cash) should already be rolling.

A note on the ultra rich

The rich investors invest in assets (stocks, bonds), but what do the ultra rich invest in?

The ultra rich don’t buy assets, they create assets. This is the secret how the richest people in the world created their wealth. They created an asset which millions and millions of people want to buy. Bill Gates created Microsoft, Larry Ellison created Oracle, Warren Buffet created Berkshire Hathaway.

Final Words

Q: “How should a 22 year old Indian graduate invest money?”

A: “I don’t know, are you a good investor?”

All right, you have my attention, now how do I get started?

Cool, this is what I would recommend.

Knowledge begins with words.

What does that mean? Let’s take an example. Many times when you travel, you meet people or are around strangers and you hear them talk. Most of the time you can guess their professions. Have you wondered how?

It’s by the words they choose and say.

I evaluated the students and the grades are good.
(Teacher)

My boss is not a good person.
(employee)

I shorted that stock as the P/E ratio was high.
(stock market trader)

That patient had to be given a muscle relaxant.
(Doctor or medical professional)

So the lesson here is that if you want to excel in any field, you must learn (hopefully master) their words. And you know what, words are free! (yeeiiiii)

So tell me if you understand any of these words.

  • P/E ratio
  • Volatility
  • Bull Market
  • Bear Market
  • CAGR
  • Y-o-Y growth

If not, then this is your first step, to learn and understand these words.

How?

  • Read your business newspaper.
  • Listen to the market news.
  • Use google.

Let me tell you a secret

Most of these complex sounding words are actually simple concepts. Really???

Let me tell you the job I had previously. I was Production support analyst for a retail POS application for a telecommunication company which sold products in multiple verticals. Only the job title is complex. So why do all these finance companies and news channels use these fancy titles and words? Because they want to sound smart, and want to sell you stuff.

So when you start learning words, you’ll understand the bullshit most TV channels and financial advisers preach as “investment advice” is really sugarcoated salesmanship.

So when the next time you read an investment advice column and say, “That’s nonsense”, Congratulations, you are making progress. If you are reading this, that means you don’t want to be average. So I encourage you to take the next step in your education and start learning words. I’ll try to help as much as I can.

Thanks Yuvraj Wadhwani for giving permission to publish his quora answer on this blog and share his knowledge

Why you should collect NOC (No Objection Certificate) once your loan is complete ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Once you pay off your loan, a big responsibility is off your mind and you feel relaxed. Its a moment where you do not want any further run around and want to now move on to other things in life.

And this is exactly why most of the loan customer do not collect a document called “NOC” or “No Objection Certificate” from their lender and it can get them into trouble later in life. At some places you will hear the word “No Dues Certificate” , but generally most of the executives in real life use the word “NOC” only

Read the incident below to understand its importance

importance of NOC No objection certificate

What is NO Objection Certificate (NOC) ?

With reference to loans, An NOC or No Objection Certificate is a legal document provided by the lender which states that the loan has been complete and their is no outstanding to be paid by the customer as on a specific date. Whenever a person pays off a loan, its important to take this NOC document from your lender.

How to get the NOC ?

Generally, all the lenders dispatch the NOC document to your registered address once your loan is complete. However at times, people do not pay attention to it and loose out on it for some or the other reason. Also if the registered address with lender is your old address (suppose you changed the address in between the loan), then also you will miss the NOC document.

So if you do not get the NOC, better contact your lender and ask for it specifically.

What kind of problems can happen if you dont have NOC ?

A lot of people think that just because the EMI’s are paid off fully, the job is done. However its extremelly important to have a legal document with you which clearly states that you do not owe anything more to then lender.

This way you are protected legally and if someone claims later in life that you owe more to the lender, you can produce the NOC if required. I would like you to have a look at the incident below which create some issue for one of the loan customer, who had paid off the loan, but didnt have the NOC with him

Hi Manish,

I have taken a personal loan from Bajaj Finance in the year 2004. All along, I have been thinking that I have paid the loan. To this effect, Cibil report also says, there is no balance outstanding and the account is closed on 31.12.2008. I don’t have NOC.

Today, I have received a call from a Lawyer saying that he has a summons to arrest me and I need to pay the balance amount of Rs.3750/- and that too I need to pay before 3 pm.

Could you please responds me as to what should I do. My question is will he really have Summons or just he is threatening. I can pay, but he is asking me to pay beofre 3 pm. That’s what I am not able
understand.

Here is another incident where Rahul settled his outstanding credit card dues with Standard Chartered bank and didnt collect the NOC . Then after many years he got a notice from the bank to pay 7.7 lacs. Here are his comments

Its been 12 years now, and I dont have the copy of NOC (or No Dues Certificate) with me. How do I prove my case as SCB isin’t ready to check me credit card history to see where the problem was. They just keep saying “they can’t retreive the information as they have sold those accounts to saha finlease.

And what about the notice they sent me asking me to attend conciliation camp to be held on 11th November?

Read the full incident on our forum

How NOC can help you in future if some problem arise

NOC is a legal document which has weightage . It proves that you really have paid off the loan fully and if there is any confusion, then NOC solves it.

Read these two incidents which were shared on our forum and you will understand its importance

Dear Manish,

Same problem as Sandesh I had with Indus Ind Bank Kolkata recently. They told me that my score is very low so they are not considering me. However, I submitted them my CIBIL Report which clearly says 763. There was an issue with a credit card which I cleared 1 year back.

I submitted them the NOC too. The HR here told me that she has forwarded the details to her central office. Now I am waiting to hear from them.

(Source)

Dear Ravish,

If you have the NOC issued by the bank, saying all dues have been cleared and there is nothing pending, you can get a loan. But as Dear Ashal has suggested file dispute with CIBIL and wait for 2-3 months to get it rectified.

I had the same experience about 3 years back and credit card in question was issued by HSBC. I got the NOC issued by HSBC and applied for loan with HDFC, while submitting the application I informed HDFC about the HSBC story. Later on, HDFC asked for the NOC and cleared my loan.

(Source)

Go get your NOC right now

So now, if you had any loan in past which you have completed and paid off, make sure you have applied for the NOC and keep it safely in your records

Does your Income tax website account have your CA phone number ? You can now claim it back

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Let me start by sharing with you what was the situation of millions of tax payers in India till now.

If they wanted to do e-filing and went to income tax website and tried to login to their account, they failed at it, because they did not have the password, because it was created by their CA’s or someone else who assisted them once in filing their tax.

And the person could not even use the “forget password” option, because it asked for some information like Phone/Email to send the OTP pin or authentication link and obviously their phone and email was not used while creating the account.

And this meant depending on the CA for this. However recently Income Tax Department has taken strict action on this. Income Tax department has sent an email to all the income tax payers to update their emails and phone numbers if they want to do that.

Now as per new rule, A person can use his phone/email on maximum 10 accounts (now CA’s wont be able to update their personal phone/emails on all their clients, which is also a bit big issue for most of the CA’s , because a lot of their clients are not net savvy and its very convenient for CA’s to manage their accounts)

Anyways, Here is a an email snapshot of the email which was sent by income tax department.

email from income tax website

More details on this page below

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/eFiling/Portal/StaticPDF/Update_Contact_Details.pdf

How to update your Phone Number and Email on income tax website

If you are a new user, then its very simple and you can just go to their website and create a fresh login/password. Now its mandatory to give phone and email id. There will be one time password (OTP) sent and authenticated.

Now if you are a registered user (your PAN is your User id) and if you want to make sure that the full control of your login is with you, then make sure you update your email and phone on the website.

Here is what you need to do to update your phone and email on their website

1. Go to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and try to login
2. Click on “Forgot Password” link and put your User id (your PAN) and move ahead
3. One the next pages you will get an option to update your email and phone.
4. Choose that and follow the steps.

Below is an image snapshot of how it looks like

Change your Email and Phone on Income Tax website

Note that there is also an issue with this new move, because now any person who has information about your details can create a new email and phone and can use that to claim an account (assuming he also has information about the bank details which was used by the person) .

A lot of CA’s are also not liking this change by the income tax department, because now their clients will go away as they are not under control of their CA’s .

Would like to know what you do you think about this move by IT department.

10 smart actions every Indian Parents should take, once their baby is Born ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

When a new kid is born, your entire life changes. You are excited to enjoy the new phase of your life. Today we are going to touch upon some basic things you should watch out for and focus on after your new kid is born.

These are few things which you will eventually complete, but if you are too late, you might end up waste your time and energy. So its better to learn from others mistake and take some actions before hand.

Things to complete in your financial life once a new kid is born

Note that we are going to look at only those things which are related to personal finance at some level. Also most of the things are generic in nature, so if you do not agree to some, just move on and do not implement them for yourself. Lets look at them one by one.

1. Review your Life Cover

Once your kid is born, a new life comes into existence. Its now an additional responsibility you and your spouse have on your shoulder. All the future and current expenses needs to be taken care.

Think about it, all the school expenses, future education expenses, providing for all the best things in life – This all is going to cost a lot of money and the breadwinner is going to provide for that. So, If something happens to breadwinner, your life insurance should provide all these expenses.

So make sure you increase your life cover after reviewing all the numbers. In case you have not yet taken any life insurance, I strongly recommend now get a life insurance plan. As a thumb rule, I think increasing your life cover by Rs 50 lacs is the minimum you can do.

2. Get the baby added into Health Cover

If you already have a health insurance plan (either bought yourself or through employer), make sure you add the kid to the policy the moment they are born. If you do not have the health insurance yet, you can now get the health insurance and make sure the kid is part of the policy.

Some policies already cover your new born kid without any extra premium from the birth itself provided they have also paid for the maternity claim in the same policy.

As an example – Family First Health Insurance from Max Bupa has provision for new born babies from the day they are born and even cover vaccination costs for the first year. Look at the snapshot below

add newborn baby in health insurance

Below is the vaccination chart along with the age, vaccination name. It will help the new parents.

vaccination chart india

3. Start a Recurring deposit for upcoming school expenses

We conducted our workshops in 3 cities in India and one of the common point most of the participants agreed on is that school expenses on a yearly basis are in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lac per year. Even the pre-schools are costing a bomb now, which can range anywhere from Rs 25,000 to 2 lacs per year.

Below is a report on pre-school charges in Bangalore from Times of India

Some pre-schools also double as creches providing day care, and charge astonishing rates. One such school in HSR Layout charges Rs 1.38lakh per year for day care of kids up to two years old. Timings are 8.30am to 6.30pm — one hour less costs Rs 1.25lakh, and till 3pm, it’s Rs 96,000.

There are some pre-schools that charge up to Rs 1.5lakh. A prominent national chain, with a branch in Indiranagar, charges around Rs 80,000. On an average, Rs 30,000-35,000 is what you will need to give your child a headstart in life. Most schools have also started their own pre-schools, from where the children automatically move on to nursery.

As these expenses will arrive in next 2-3 yrs, its important to make sure you are ready to arrange the money for this. The most simple way to plan for this short term goal is to either open a Recurring deposit in your bank or start an SIP in a debt fund.

If you want to plan investments for your children education or overall financial planning, you can leave your details on our services page and we will get back to you.

Coming back to the point, As an example, suppose the expenses are going to be Rs 45,000 and if you have 30 months in hand. You can just open a Rs 1,500 RD and when it matures after 30 months, you will have that money with you.

When I asked for some suggestions on this topic one one of the facebook groups run by Ashal Jauhari. Pattu gave an interesting point regarding School Expenses in the start. Have a look at the conversations below which was part of the long discussion in the thread there

school expenses for kids

4. Update your Nomination’s in various financial products

You might want to have your baby nominated in some of the financial products you own. It can be your bank accounts, fixed deposits, mutual funds or even some property. You might want to add your newborn as one of the nominee in the assets you own. Read more about nominations in this article if you do not understand what exactly nomination is.

Also, if you have written your WILL, then you might want to update it soon after the baby is born. If you miss this, and if you old WILL didnt have the right kind of wordings, then your baby might loose his/her share in your wealth in worst case.

5. Register the birth Certificate

Make sure you apply for the birth certificate for the new born asap. It is a simple process if you complete it in the starting itself, else it will get complicated later. Most of the hospitals anyways has this as one of the mandatory things you need to do.

You can get the form from the hospital itself and then submit it to the local authorities within 21 days of birth. This page mentions the procedure in detail in-case you want to have a look.

6. Start a Saving Bank account for kid

One of the best things you can do for the kid from the start itself is open a saving bank account for the new born the moment they are born. Almost all the banks have facility for kids to open their bank account. For example – ICICI Bank clearly mentions that any kid starting age 1 day to 18 yr are eligible to open a bank account called “Young Stars” with them.

I would like to draw your attention on 3 reasons why you should open a bank account for your newborn kid.

Reason 1 – Put all the Cash Gift in the Kids Bank account

The moment your kid is born, for next many months and years – you will start getting lots of gifts in form of Cash. Often this money is not handled properly in families because of its small ticket size and it gets consumed here and there and finally evaporates.

You can always make a rule that all the small/big money coming in the baby name (on their birthday’s or baby shower functions etc) will be deposited in the saving bank account opened for the kid.

Reason 2 – You can open dedicated long term investments for your kid’s future

Another reason why you might want to open a saving bank account for the kid is that if you want to invest for your kid long term education or any other thing. You can make sure you start the investments from the kid account itself.

This way the account will be dedicated for that purpose and your volatile decision making will not impact the savings for kid. You can either invest in Kids PPF account through this account or do a SIP in equity mutual funds for long term investments needs.

Mr. Jinesh Shah from in one of the facebook group shared what he does for her kid.

bank account for newborn kid

Reason 3 – Your kid will learn about banking and personal finance from very start of his life

Another good reason for opening the bank account for your new born kid is that once he/she turns upto 8-10 yrs, you can allow them to partially handle their own bank account and teach them banking aspects.

Learning that they have their own personal bank account will make them feel good and also they will take keen interest to learn these things, which most of the people learn very late in life.

Bonus Tip : You can also apply for your baby’s PAN card within few weeks/months of his/her birth. Anyways you have to make it later, so why not in the start itself. Its always a good practice to have a proof of identity in the start.

It will be handy if you want to apply for other kind of documents like Passport, bank account, etc . You can read this experience from Amit Gupta when he applied for PAN Card for her daughter.

7. Buy clothes and toys smartly – they’re often gifts

I know new parents are excited and want to give their best. They will buy lots of clothes and toys and no one has any authority to advice parents on what to do and what to not do. The emotional side of joy cant be suppressed. However Often new parents realized later that they have overspent too much on things which baby never needed.

In reality, for the first few months – the babies only sleep almost all the times and they grow so fast that things you had bought for them is now not needed by them. And when relatives and friends come for visits, they anyways bring lots of things you had already bought for kid.

So there are few tips which can optimize the expenses side and also help reduce the wastage done by many parents.

Rotate things among your group – There can be many things which can be rotated among parents for their new born kids. If you have some item which can be shared with some other new parents, then better share it with them and help them reuse things. There is nothing wrong in it.

Shop Slowly – Buy things one by one and not in a lot – If you want to buy something for your kid, start small – let the moment come and buy it. This way you will not buy things which are unwanted for kid.

Below is a survey done by Moneylife on the topic “The real cost of parenting” sometime back. It explains what kind of expenses families are doing on various stages for their kids. I am sharing the results for the age group 0-4 here. If you are interested to look at the full survey results, please read their full article here

8. Dont invest in CHILDREN PLAN

Yes, thats correct.

The moment you become parents, Apart from the joy and happiness, some part inside you will also be “very worried” about the kids future and how you will provide him/her best in life. This is the perfect mis-selling moment on the name of kid by various agents.

All the insurance agents (uncles and aunties) will come to you and try to sell you a CHILD PLAN. You will be sailing on the emotional boat at that moment and you will hear sentences like – “Gift you kid his bright future” and “This is the perfect thing you can buy for your kid in the start” .

While I am not against any policies and plans, but these Child Plans are often designed to exploit these kind of emotions and things are bundled in such a way that they look over attractive proposition to a new parents for their kid.

Inside the product its often the mix of insurance and investments with some kind of payout on regular basis. These are high on costs and a bit complex products. Its nothing but a slightly changed versions of ULIP’s or traditional insurance plans.

In case you are really impressed with those products, my suggestions is to wait for some months, and later study them properly and then buy them if you are fully convinced about them.

In general I would recommend any new parent to insure them with a simple Term plan and either open a Recurring Deposit or just invest in a simple mutual fund with SIP route to start with or you can follow this ready made calculator, I create sometime back for planning your kids investments

9. Have a 24/7 reachable Doctor nearby home

Medical expenses and Doctor visits are one of the top most expenses you will have to incur after the baby is born and for at-least first 1-2 yrs and you cant even avoid this issue.

You will have to travel many times to doctor. These visits are sometimes planned and often emergencies. You even might be in your office when you get a call from home that baby needs urgent attention and then you take a day off or leave early from office.

It helps a lot if the doctor is near you home or within few KM’s distance. At times people have their doctors as far as 15-20 km’s (for reasons like – “He/she is the best doctor I think”) and then in-case of emergencies it can take 2-3 hours to just travel.

So its always the best thing to have a good doctor nearby and try that they are reachable almost all the times. Ask their permission if you can call them anytime (day or night) and take consultation. Compensate them for their effort and they should agree.

10. Make a Baby Emergency Kit and save on Time+Money

This is a great tip shared by Nandish (He became father 1 yr back), while I was working on this article.

He shared that they have created an emergency kit for baby, which has medicines for the recurring issues and most common things which new parents will encounter all the times like stomach ache, teething issues, loose motions, fever etc. You can sit with your doctor and take consultations on what all to do in various situations without visiting them.

To show you importance of this emergency kit, I would like to share an incident which happened with Nandish. Her neighbor’s kid was having some issue around afternoon time, when her husband was in office and no one was there at home (I forgot the medicine name) .

She was trying to find out how she can get the medicine asap from somewhere. Because there was an emergency kit available at Nandish home, that common medicine was there and she could get it instantly. This is a small action, but it saved a visit to doctor and even a trip to market to just fetch the medicine.

This kit can also have wet wipes, extra nappies and every other thing you can imagine. Its even very handy if you suddenly have a travel plan (locally within city) and its going to take yours . Medimanage has put up a very nice starters guide for new parents, have a look at it.

Conclusion

The points if implemented will help you make your parenting journey more smoother and your financial life more better over long term. I know most of the people do not think about all the points mentioned above thinking they will handle things once they arrive, but then its your choice. Its a always a good idea to prepare for things well in advance and not wait for the last moment surprises.

Can you share some more tips which are not mentioned above. It will help people who are about to become parents or new-weds who will plan for their kids in next few years.