Most of the Indians are obsessed with gold. But are you aware of the restriction on how much gold can you hold even the worth of gold does not match your income status?
In this article I will exactly touch base on that.
How much gold can you have without receipts?
Have you ever wondered what will happen if govt starts raiding all households in India and demands the proof of how you bought all that gold you have?
Often we do not keep a track of receipts and proof of how we paid for that gold bought very long ago. In that case, how much gold can you hold without any proof, even if it does not match your income status?
As per Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), this limit is different for a married woman, unmarried women and a man. This might sound strange, but here is the limit
[su_table responsive=”yes”]
A Married woman
500 gms
Unmarried woman
250 gms
A Man
100 gms
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What type of proofs is required in case of any enquiry?
These above limits include both the inherited and the self-bought gold jewelry. In case of inherited gold also, you need to have the receipts in the name of original owner.
In case you are holding very high amount of gold, just make sure that you have all the valid tax receipts and invoices saved at your end.
The WILL can also act as proof of inheritance, in case the gold you inherited is mentioned in the WILL. Alternatively, one can also submit a family settlement deed, will, or a gift deed stating the transfer of such commodity to you.
On contrary, if there is no such document available, then the officer will analyze your family’s social status, customs, and traditions to come to a conclusion on whether your statement is valid or not and whether to confiscate the amount of gold you are holding or not.
Do let us know what you think about this limit in the comments section.
Register for Cafemutual Confluence 2020
I would like to share with you about an online FREE event which is coming up tomorrow by Cafemutual. It will be a wonderful event with a great line up of industry experts who will be talking about variety of topics.
We all are in lockdown from last 70+ days & this is probably a once in a life event. The whole world is fighting coronavirus and some form of lockdown is there in every part of the world.
People are losing jobs, seeing salary cuts and we all are wondering how the future will be from here. I think that while in short term all these problems will happen, but once things get normal and life is back to same point, things will be back in action. But it will take some time.. It can take 1-2 yrs.
8 Learning’s from this Lockdown
While there is so much of negativity and bad news all around. I want to admit that this lockdown was an experience in itself. It tested our patience. It forced us to do things we didn’t like and also opened new ideas for us. We saw many new creative ways people do business and how even in this crisis, our Jugaad attitude worked well for many things.
The lockdown has also given us a good opportunity to reflect back on many things in our finances and life in general. I want to share some of the things in this post.
1. We need a higher Emergency Fund
One clear lesson from this pandemic is that we need much higher emergency fund. Before the pandemic, I have often said that 4-6 months of emergency fund is ok to have, but I feel that needs to be revised to 12 months now.
Keep a year worth of expenses in a combination of liquid mutual funds and Fixed deposit and earn a near-inflation return.
You may lose the job and not get it for 9 months
Your employer might not be able to pay you.
You might want to take a long break to take care of someone in family.
You may meet an accident followed by a long bed rest.
You might be shifting your industry and might be looking at new job
We may see another pandemic and things can close down again!
2. Count your blessings – we have enough to live a good life
It was shocking to see how millions of people especially migrant workers suffered so much after they were stuck in various cities. They had no food, no money, and no roof over their head. They walked hundreds and thousands of KM on foot with small kids with them. We can’t ever understand how it feels when someone is in that state.
At the same time, we were comfortable at our home with everything stocked up. We had groceries, money in bank, and a nice home. Many of us also participated in dalgona coffee challenge and some also posted (including me) pictures of the various nice dishes on social media to showcase our achievements.
Image Source : Deccan Herald
It’s time to acknowledge that we are blessed.
We are blessed to have food on table
We are blessed to have a good sleep
We are blessed to be with our family
We are blessed to not worry about the next meal
We are blessed to still be employed or employable
In short, while we can point to salary cuts/loss and boredom we faced sitting at home, we have to not forget that we are doing extremely well compared to millions. We are extremely blessed and we need to acknowledge it. We need to be grateful that many seek a life which we are already living.
3. We were spending more than required
Over the last 75 days, I spend ZERO on amazon, swiggy, zomato, uber, flipkart, eating out, any outings ..
I think I am doing fine and nothing has happened to me.
That does not mean that spending on those things is a problem, Infact I will restart it again.
But I think we have got a clear message that we were over-doing it. We can survive fine with less online shopping, less outing, less parties, less eating out and what not.
4. We can surely save much more than we think
So we were spending more .. we just saw.
Which means that we can potentially save much more than we think we can, if we control our self and carefully utilize our resources.
5. It helps to have an additional source of income
Imagine for a second that you lost your job and there is no active income coming in
Now imagine another case
Imagine you lost your job, and no active income coming in.. but you also have another income source which brings in some money. So you know at least the food will be on table.
The current pandemic has seen many people lose their jobs and many of them who had alternate income or another person earning income in house knows the importance of it. Before it happens again with you, its time you get serious about creating it.
I always get this feeling that maids in India are paid extremely poorly. After I have been involved in the household work in this lockdown, my respect for maids has gone up to whole new level.
It’s not just time to acknowledge their contribution in our life and making our life easy, but also to pay them their dues well.
A maid in my society gets Rs 600 per task on an average. That’s Rs 20-22 per day given to them assuming 2 holidays. Even if it takes 30 min to do dishes, we are talking about Rs 40-50 per hour wage here which is one of the lowest in the world.
NRI’s or people who have returned back from US or other countries know very well what I am talking about.
It’s time we appreciate them more, don’t be so nosy about their salaries we pay. I know many maids are over smart and try to extract money out of you and don’t do their work properly, but overall I feel they are not paid well enough.
7. Things can do wrong anytime – RISK is always there
Let’s not forget one thing. RISK is always there .. ALWAYS !
Your company may be doing great
Your industry is booming
Your performance has been amazing.
Still, you can be without the job the next day
You may be healthy, never smoked, never ate oily .. you can still get heart attack. The risk is always there!
This pandemic has shown many people that risk can suddenly turn up and show its ugly face.
As Subra says – “Risk is always there, unless the event is complete”
8. It’s time we learn new skills and become more “useful”
The current coronavirus crisis should act like a final warning to all those, who are just dragging in their jobs without contributing much. Get up and acquire the skills. Go upgrade yourself
I know many people from IT sector who are working with old skills. When they apply for other jobs, there are no takers.
If you are not “useful”, you will be OUT very soon. If not today, may be tomorrow – but it will happen for sure
It also helps if you have additional expertise which can help you change your jobs/sectors if situation arises. Borden your skill set and hone your skills.
Stop moving towards the “Obsolete zone”
What was your biggest learning from Lockdown and coronavirus crisis?
So that was all I had to share today.
Can I ask you to share your own biggest learning from this whole crisis and lockdown episode? Also share what you feel about my learning’s?
We just entered 2020, and I thought let me pen down some observations of the last decade.
I had started blogging from the last 12 yrs and it’s been quite a long and amazing journey. From a small blog, we are now one of the biggest personal finance websites in India with millions of readers benefitting from our work.
We had conducted dozens of workshops, interacted with thousands of investors and provided paid services to tons of investors across India and abroad.
So I thought that I will share what changes I have seen in the last 10 yrs in the personal finance industry and what are some changes I am expecting in the coming decade.
1. People want to buy “term plan” now
Back in 2009-2010, the concept of the term plan was just launched. Aegon Religare was the first entrant in the space and very few people had heard about term plan. A lot of my time and energy went into convincing people in the comments section to buy a term plan and not a money-back plan.
Unlike today, the advertisements on TV also didn’t mention the word “term plan”.
In the last 10 yrs, term plans have become quite famous and the default choice for evolved investors for their insurance needs. Now everyone “knows” that term plan has to be bought for insurance purposes.
Same is true for Health insurance also
2. Huge awareness about “Mutual funds”
It’s been around 25 yrs when mutual funds were properly launched in India (not considering UTI-64), so even in 2009-10, mutual funds were quite old products, but even during those times, they were not very famous products. It was a big PUSH Product, which means that various advisors and distributors had to spend a lot of energy into sharing about mutual funds and the way it worked.
No TV ads ever mentioned about mutual funds. Even the use of technology was quite slow, so there was no concept of online investing, online redemptions, etc, and processing of KYC used to take months.
With the “Mutual fund Sahi hai” campaign for the past few years, mutual funds have become a buzz word and everyone has at least heard about “mutual funds”. Now investors flock to online apps and are willing to invest in mutual funds. From Rs 5 lacs crore AUM in 2010, the current AUM is 27 lacs crore in mutual funds. That’s an impressive 18% CAGR growth.
3. Trust issues with ULIPS
Back in 2010, there were horror stories of ULIP misselling. I used to get so many comments about how people were missold ULIPs product and they were not getting back their money.
Somewhere in 2014-15 that episode ended and investors just stopped even touching ULIPS. Now ULIPS have made a comeback with much better structures and they are way better than what they were used to be.
Now if you buy ULIPS, they are not that bad, however, I still do not buy the argument that ULIPS are great products now (more on that later). Subra has done a wonderful write up on ULIP’s here
4. Dependence on Loans has increased
Compared to the last decade, we can clearly see the usage of credit for various things in life. Start from vacations, cars, houses, furniture, and even mobile phones. You name it and it’s all available on credit.
You can even buy a Rs 4,000 saree in Varanasi shops and pay in 6 easy installments. Bajaj finance has made sure that it’s possible now. You can clearly see the trend of over-dependence on credit in such a way that the stock prices of Bajaj finance have gone up.
5. Financial Planning + Goals Planning becoming famous
The buzz about “financial goals” and “financial planning” is more now. Back in 2010, financial planning was an alien word. It looked like someone is trying to cheat you and make money without providing anything valuable. But the financial planning community has made sure that the word “Financial planning” reaches more and more people.
Today’s urban investors are thinking of various goals and now to “plan” for it. It’s very common to hear people saying that they want to invest for the future education of their children” and “retirement”.
6. More Choices and confusion for investors
Compared to the last 10 yrs, now we have too many products and services, and many people claiming to work for investor’s interests. We have advanced products like Robo advisory, small case, and whatnot.
The world of personal finance has become more complex now compared to the past which also increases the chances of an investor making more mistakes and at the same time also pick better options for themselves if they have proper understanding.
7. More spending on lifestyle
I remember, in 2010 I was in Bangalore and I saved close to 60% of my income. There were very few avenues to spend and the maximum, I did watch movies in the theatre and went on treks.
Investors have also moved from the category of “savers” to “spender’s first, then savers later”. We now have online shopping, food on delivery, international vacations on EMI’s, etc ..
8. Moving from Physical assets to Financial Assets
While the pace is slow now and we still have a long way to go. People are moving from physical assets (gold + real estate) to Financial assets (equity mutual funds, stocks, PPF, FD). As per a Karvy report, in 2014 around 48% of assets held by Indians were physical, but in 2018, it came down to 40%.
The mutual funds itself has gained from 3% to 6%, and direct equity went up from 21% to 24%, however, we still have a long way to go in this space
9. Online Wallets + Cash backs are a way of life
In the last 10 yrs, I saw the emergence of online shopping websites like Amazon and homegrown Flipkart. We saw uber and ola in our lives and are also seeing how swiggy and Zomato are changing the way we are having our food.
All these apps brought the concept of online wallets and cashback which in my opinion is doing more harm to us than helping us. It’s more of a marketing tactic and making sure that clients are always in the maze of collecting points/cash back to spend it for the next order.
Most of the websites have stopped giving “discounts” and instead give “cashbacks” which is nothing but a future discount. This means that you will have to again spend and in total, the amount of benefit for you is often less than what your mind perceives. And stop thinking that you “found” an awesome coupon, it’s actually given to you by companies to make sure you feel better while transactions. It’s just pampering!
10. Online Frauds and Scams have increased manifold
Online transactions like net banking, mobile payments, and use of debit and credit card has increased in many folds in India in the last decade. Which also gave rise to online frauds and scams. The most vulnerable were the senior citizens and those people who had very less understanding of how banks and insurance companies work.
Many people got a call in the name of RBI, IRDA and SBI bank where the fraudster tried to gain access to their OTP and other critical details and many people lost a big amount to these frauds.
In last few years, there are platforms that are promoting the concept of Robo-advisory. I think delivering advice through algorithms is an idea worth trying and looks cool. There are certainly some aspects of advice that can be delivered through automation, but there will always be some aspects of advisory which would need a human element.
Here is Robo-advisor definition from Investopedia
“Robo advisors are digital platforms that provide automated, algorithm-driven financial planning services with little to no human supervision. A typical robo advisor collects information from clients about their financial situation and future goals through an online survey, and then uses the data to offer advice and/or automatically invest client assets.”
After all, investors are humans and they have feelings. We need someone to talk to, share our insecurities and also take human-advice. Robo-advisory is great in all aspects which are pure formula based, but wherever human emotions will come, you would need a human there, unless you yourself are a robot!
What do I expect in the next decade?
I am not an expert in predictions, but still, I will try it out. Here are a few things which my gut feeling says may happen in the next decade (read around 2030)
Rise of Professional Advice – The more we interact with people who leave their inquiry with us for financial planning, we are very convinced that people are not able to manage their own financial lives. They need professional help once they have reached a certain net worth. You might be having a Rs 10 lacs portfolio today and you might be managing it, but once it becomes Rs 1 crore portfolio, you can understand that it could have been 1.5 crores with professional help.
Rise of materialism – We as a country have not seen huge spendings at home and we have been traditionally savers. We are now opening up to spending and I can see we are also enjoying it. While the incomes are increasing, the avenues to spend are also going up and I can sense that we will be spending too much on brands, enjoyment, eating out, international vacations and whatnot. We will celebrate possessions more and more in the come decade. Here I am talking about the overall country as a whole.
Retirement Time-bomb – In my latest talk with Subra, he mentioned that the retirement crisis is right in front of us even now, not just in the future. We have a penniless parent to take care of even now, but it’s not visible because they are living with the earnings of their son/daughter and it’s not visible. With families getting more and more fragmented in the future, we will see more and more senior citizens without much of retirement savings and it will ring an alarm bell-like no before.
Mutual Funds will be a big thing – Mutual funds revolution has just begun in India. Even right now, the number of people who invest in equities is just 2-3% of the total population. A big part of our population has to still invest and when that happens, we will see massive growth in mutual funds (and other space too).
Heavy changes in Economy and Infrastructure – We are standing today at the same place, where China was in the ’90s. We have very huge potential when it comes to Infrastructure building and we are already on it, though it is not going in a smooth way as compared to China. We will see a lot more highway’s, Metro, rural infrastructure coming up and much bigger and high rise buildings all over the place. Our economy is already near the J-curve and over the next decade we will see tremendous growth as the next lot of population will enter into jobs and move from small villages/cities to bigger ones.
As of now, I could think of these 4 points – but I would like to hear from you about your opinion on what all we will see in the coming decade!
In the last few years, the complaints from airline passengers have gone up with respect to issues like flights cancellations, loss of baggage and delays. Most of the times, the passengers find themselves with no help and bad attitude from airlines staff and the company itself.
Last month, I was travelling from Ahmedabad to Pune and my flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30 pm in night. However, the flight was delayed. First, it showed 30 min delay, and soon it stretched to 2.5 hours.
I along with many other passengers had no information about the delay. I also heard a passenger murmuring – “Will they provide us snacks?” after a 2-hour delay.
This made me think if an average airline passenger is aware about his/her rights in case of flight delay, cancellations or baggage loss?
Few months back, on 28th Feb 2019, a new airline passenger charger was announced by The Ministry of Civil Aviation which clearly defines the rights of travelers and liabilities of airlines that are operating in the domestic sector. It defines various important points and a guideline for passengers seeking redressal of their grievances, with regards to fares, flights, refunds, catering, and baggage, etc.
Before we start looking at all points, first as a passenger you should know various reasons why a flight gets cancelled or there is a delay! or for what matter a baggage is lost.
Due to unoccupied seats to save their cost
Due to overbookings
Mechanical Issue
Technical Issue (server crash, system failure)
Natural Disasters like flood, cyclone, Earthquake etc.
Bad weather conditions
Political Disturbance/ Government regulations/ Civil War/ Strikes
Mistakes of Air Traffic Control (ATC)
Now, Let’s look at various rights of airline passengers one by one.
1. Flight Delay
Let’s first look at the delay of flights which is what happens most of the time. If your flight has been delayed beyond a limit, the airline will have to offer you refreshments and free meals (for passengers waiting at the airport). The table below defines this.
[su_table alternate=”no” responsive=”yes” ]
Delayed (Block time)
Compensation
2 – 6 hours
Refreshments and meals
More than 6 hours
Refund of ticket fare or alternate flight
More than 6 hours if scheduled time of flight is between 8 pm-3 am
Refund of ticket fare or alternate flight plus Free Hotel Accommodation
[/su_table]
Note: Block time means the total time from the moment an aircraft first moves for the purpose of taking off until the moment it finally comes to arrival gate at the end of the flight. In simple words, it is a total travel time of flight.
2. Cancellation of flight
Flights do get cancelled at times for various reasons like airlines mismanagement, weather conditions or other reasons.
There are two cases here.
Case 1: If the flight cancellation was informed to passenger before 24 hours
In cases where the flight cancellation was communicated to the passenger well in advance (before 24 hours), the airlines have to either arrange for an alternative flight or give full refund to the passenger, as acceptable by passenger.
Previously, airlines used to cancel the flights at the last minute or before few hours of departure and just refunded back the ticket money, which is history now.
Case 2: If the flight cancellation was not informed to passenger before 24 hours
If flight is cancelled within 24 hours of departure (or last-minute) or the passenger misses the connecting flight because the previous flight was delayed (on the same ticket), in that case, the airline has to provide you extra compensation of up to Rs 10,000 apart from full refund or alternate flight.
So imagine you are at the airport (or on the way to airport) and the flight is cancelled. In, this case, you will get 2 things. First is, either of a full refund or an alternate flight option (you can choose any of them) and the second thing is a compensation of up to Rs 10,000 depending on how long was your flight.
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Flight travel time (Block time)
Additional Compensation (apart from refund or alternate flight)
Upto 1 hour
Rs. 5000 or booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, whichever is less.
1 – 2 hour
Rs. 7,500 or booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, whichever is less.
More than 2 hours
Rs. 10,000 or booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, whichever is less.
[/su_table]
Few Important points
If you have checked in already in the airport, the airline has to also provide you with refreshments as per waiting time.
You should have provided the contact information at the time of booking, else the airline is not liable to compensate you.
You will not be eligible to claim any compensation on delay or cancellation of flight due to reasons which are out of control of airlines like bad weather, political unrest, a natural disaster or labour disputes.
Airlines are not supposed to give compensation parts if the delays or cancellations happen because of security risks, air traffic controller or metrological conditions.
3. Boarding denied due to overbooking
Many times, airlines overbook the tickets in assumption that some passengers will not turn up or cancel at last minute if that happens and you are denied boarding the airplane then you can claim as follows if you have confirmed ticket,
Scenario # 1: If the airline arranges for an alternative flight within 1 hour of the scheduled departure of the original ticket, in that case, you can’t claim any compensation.
else
Scenario # 2: If an airline is not able to arrange for an alternative flight within 1 hour of the scheduled departure of original ticket, in that case, you are liable to get any of following 3 things
200% of booked one-way base-price + airline fuel charge, up to maximum of Rs 10,000 if the airline arranges for an alternate flight up to 24 hours from old scheduled departure
400% of booked one-way base-price + airline fuel charge, up to maximum of Rs 20,000 if the airline arranges for an alternate flight after 24 hours from old scheduled departure
If you do not opt for the alternate flight, in that case, you will get full refund of the ticket price paid + 400% of booked one-way base-price + airline fuel charge, up to maximum of Rs 20,000
If you look at this new rule, it does a great justice to the passengers as the passengers had to spend a lot of money on book alternative flights at the last minute. Now the compensation is fair which helps passengers.
4. Loss of baggage or damage to baggage
In case of domestic flights, the airline is liable to pay you up to Rs. 350 per kg or up to Rs. 20,000 in case of loss/damage/delay of baggage
In case of international flights, the airline is liable to pay you up to 19 SDR per kg or up to 1131 SDR in case of loss/damage/delay of baggage. SDR here is a kind of currency value which is accepted internationally.
5. Change in the name of the passenger within 24 hours of booking the ticket
Now you can make changes in the ticket (corrections in names of passenger) within 24 hours of booking the ticket. Earlier after booking, any correction in name of passenger was generally denied by airlines and was treated as cancellation. This will give relief to customers as at times there are name mistakes in tickets or change of plans.
6. Cancellation of ticket
Case #1 – If tickets are cancelled within 24 hours of booking tickets
Earlier, canceling a ticket cost the passengers a huge penalty even if it was done immediately after booking the ticket. But with the new rules, if the ticket is cancelled within 24 hours of booking (provided there is a more than 7 days difference between booking date and departure date) then you will not be charged any additional charges.
Case #2 – If tickets are cancelled after 24 hours of booking tickets
In this case, following is the rule
Airlines cannot put any cancellation charges for cancelling the tickets.
Airlines should refund all statutory taxes, user development fees, airport development fees, passenger service fees to you
Airlines can’t hold the refund in terms of credits forcefully. It’s not a default option now, however, if passenger agrees to it, it can be done
Airlines have to clearly indicate the refund amount in case of cancellation in future.
DGCA has defined rules of refund and claim settlement for all airlines. If you have paid cash for your booking then you will receive the refund & compensation in cash at the counter. And if you have made payment via credit or debit card then the amount will be credited in your bank account within seven days.
Escalation of complaints
You can use Air Sewa, a grievance redressal system to take help on any issue related to civil aviation in India. We hope that these changes in the airlines’ rules will now help passengers a lot and will make things fair for them.
Do let us know if you have any queries, we will solve it in the comments section.
On 4th of May 2019, I (Nandish Desai) got an opportunity to attend the Annual General Meet of Berkshire Hathway, hosted by Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger (I also attended the AGM last year)
As a student of wealth, it was a great learning experience for me and I would like to share my learning and insights with all of you. I will not get into companies he named or into the numbers or statistics; I want to keep it simple so that you can pick a few insights for your personal growth.
Here are some of the pictures from the AGM meet.
Background of AGM
Every 4th of May in the city called Omaha warren buffet holds the Annual General meet of his company Berkshire Hathway. It is a global event where more than 30-40 k people travel from all over the world to attend the same. It is more like a celebration where people come to hear his view and to learn from his school of thought. Currently, one single stock of Berkshire Hathway is approximately around 3,00,000 USD ( or maybe more)
9 Lessons learned from the sharing of Warren Buffet
I am putting 9 points I learned from Warren Buffet which I made out of what he spoke in the AGM.
#1 – On Happiness: This one was an eye-opener for me. Most of us equate money with Happiness whereas Buffet made a point, happiness is not a place to reach rather it is a place to come from or operate from. If you are not happy with your current net-worth you won’t be happy by adding a few more lakh or crore to your net worth. He is asking us to focus on things that make us happy in the right now moment.
#2 – On Workability: The bold statement made for investors was very profound, “ All you need is to do is figure out what works and just do it”. Every investor has to discover his or her own process of investing. During the journey keep your eye on what is working for you. For example, in the area of health if going to the gym is working then go to the gym every day, and if yoga fits in your schedule then do yoga regularly. The focus is on bringing workability and staying engaged with the sport called wealth creation. There can be various ways to build wealth, you need to figure out what works for you.
#3 – On Building Competencies: Warren insisted on building and expanding one’s personal competencies. He insisted on investing in one’s own self more than anything else. The future belongs to masters and not to incompetent individuals. He also gave some examples of professionals you will never approach just because you doubt their competency level. You can do your own SWOT Analysis, find your strengths, weaknesses and it will help you to explore newer opportunities and will help you to eliminate weaknesses.
#4 – On Human Behavior: There are many books written on warren buffet and his investment style, however, he insists on reading people more than books. The real insights about human behavior can only be learned when you sit with someone and have a deeper conversation. Every human being is like a book filled with experiences and he invites everyone to spend more time with other beings.
#5 – On Investments: Price has the power to make or break any investment decision. When you buy expensive it can turn any deal into a bad deal. Maybe he was pointing towards buying when markets are low and having a hold strategy. Once a stock is bought, you can’t reverse or do anything if the price falls down.
#6 – On Making Investment Mistakes: Warren was generous enough to admit some of his mistakes on a public platform. In the world of investments, you are bound to make mistakes and going wrong is part of the game. Berkshire Hathway was a late entrant in the technology front and they admitted the same. They are slowly moving out of their old school of thought to match with the new shift happening out in the world.
#7 – On Succession plan: Some Questions in the AGM also came around his succession plan and asking to hand over the stage completely to his team of managers. As a person sitting in the audience I felt, it is a bit hard for Warren to leave the limelight but in next 1-2 years his managers will lead the AGM and will find space on the stage rather than sitting in the first few rows of the AGM
#8 – Big NO to IPO: He advised investors to stay away from hot IPO’s that float into the market. His logic is very clear, these companies may have huge growth potential but they have yet not shown or generated profits. There are few companies he named as well who show growth potential but the numbers they are generating are not sufficient for him to make any investment decision.
#9 – Focus on the BIG picture: He used a very interesting metaphor of owning a stock with owning a farm. By simply owning a farm and watching your farm every day won’t yield you any returns. One has to work hard on the farm to deliver the output. Similarly, by watching the stock price every day won’t serve you, the stock price will grow only when the company delivers performance over a period of time. He is again asking you to buy the right stock or equity or fund and hold for a longer time. Some people check the NAV very often, now it is not a good practice at all (stop watching your farm).
Off the stage, things learned from Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal
Ramdeo Agarwal the co-founder of Motilal Oswal has been attending the AGM from the last many years, he looks up Warren as his Guru and he makes a point every year to attend AGM without fail. In an informal set-up, we got a chance to hear his past AGM Experiences, I also met his first PMS client, some fund managers from the US and Singapore.
Signature on One Dollar Note
Mr. Ramdeo shared that at the start when the crowd was small warren use to sign on a dollar for his shareholders. The queue started to expand in the subsequent years and slowly the tradition of giving signature stopped. He still carries the one-dollar note with him when he met Warren for the first time.
He personally checks the arrangements: Even to date, Warren visits the AGM venue one day in advance to check the arrangements. It shows how committed he is to details and giving a pleasant experience to people attending the AGM.
What I learned personally from the event:
Operating from a vision: I and Manish Chauhan, we started jagoinvestor with a vision of spreading financial awareness. The event helped me to ground more powerfully with our life’s vision and mission.
Life Force: Both Warren and his partner are 87+ of Age and they are full of energy and enthusiasm. This is because they see age as a number, they hold their life force high and that keeps them going. Take good care of yourself, exercise regularly, eat well and keep the enthusiasm scale on a high note.
Statue of Compounding: If you look at the wealth graph of warren buffet it has compounded after he crossed the age of 55. Compounding really works, equity markets are sensitive by nature but when you hold good funds or stocks it compounds and helps you to produce wealth. I placed my net worth on paper and I created a game for the next 30 years.
Keep Re-inventing: Warren and his team are constantly re-inventing their approach and style. They are now stepping into companies that are more technology-based. It was an important lesson for me as well, the way we run jagoinvestor and its operations we will continue to re-invent every year. It will be a ritual for us to meet once in a year to introspect and to explore the unknown territories.
Investors meet in a stadium: Yes, it is a dream to fill the entire stadium with investors. It is a dream I saw while I was in the AGM, Questions that kept hitting me were, what can I and Manish do or be to attract people to a stadium. What kind of financial discipline we will have to cultivate to inspire the investor’s community? What kind of content we will have to produce to create space in people’s hearts? The AGM gave me a dream bigger than who we are.
Power of Partnership: I saw Warren and Charlie on stage, two people working on a common mission and both having a very different style. I would like to create the same Magic with my partner Manish Chauhan. We both have qualities distinct from each other, our styles are different and together it helps us to create magic. In the AGM I could learn that partnership creates magic. We need to partner at a deeper level with each other, with our team, business partners, clients, readers, and other interested parties.
My recommendation
The next financial year if you get a chance to listen to the AGM, they show the event live on yahoo finance or if you are in the US I highly recommend you attend the AGM. It is a great space to be in, people get together to celebrate wealth.
I was accompanied this time with some Big time investors, fund managers and the co-founder of Motilal Oswal Group and I see Mr. Ramdeo Agarwal as one of my mentors. He is amazing to be around, spending time with him was a great learning experience.
During the Trip, I made many friends, met many interesting personalities, overall it was a life-altering experience for me.
Our upcoming sessions in Hyderabad and Chennai
One more point – I am going to share some of my learning’s in our two upcoming sessions in Hyderabad (29th June) and Chennai (30th June), if you are in any of these cities, do book your seats for our 3-4 sessions.
I along with my teammate Sagar, recorded a 28 min video discussion related to this topic – “Should you buy 2nd house as an investment?” yesterday. We talked about various pros and cons which are often missed by those investors who are thinking of buying the second house for investment. Watch the video below
What we discussed in this video?
When does it makes sense to buy a 2nd house?
How does it impact your cashflows and stress level?
Why are investors so attached and attracted to buying “Real Estate”?
What are the real-life issues which investors face after buying the 2nd house?
Is it an emotional decision or a financial decision?
Why buying just 1 hour is enough for 95% of investors?
Why illiquidity is a big issue with buying a 2nd house?
How 2nd house can create a good second income, and in which cases?
Do let us know if you have any comments after watching the video!
We are happy to announce, that our next full-day workshop in Bangalore is scheduled for 16th Sept 2018 (Sunday).
We invite you to come and participate with your friends and family. It is an opportunity for you to block one full day for your financial life where you get a chance to work on your financial life. We do not teach tricks and tips to build wealth, but in fact we help you to discover your own personal process of creating wealth.
Why we do these kinds of offline event/workshops?
We do these events because they make a positive difference in people’s financial life. The conversations we do, create an impact on people’s thinking and they are able to re-invent themselves as an investor. The event is not about financial products and numbers, it is about learning and mastering the principles of wealth creation. It is about learning realizing your past mistakes and about creating a powerful future for yourself.
Register for Bangalore workshop on 16th Sept 2018 (SUNDAY)
Ticket Type
Pricing
Ticket Link
Single Ticket (Early Bird)
(First 10 tickets only)
Let us share our survey findings (Survey was done on 10000+ Investors)
We did a survey with more than 10,000 investors some time back and here are the results of the survey.
The survey is LOUD and CLEAR – It’s time to re-invent
The theme of our workshop is going to be re-invention, you will get a chance to examine your financial life and will explore ways to re-invent your financial future.
The results from survey seem alarming and the best gift we can to the investor’s community is our workshop Your real wealth is your clear mind as once the mind is clear all the good decisions will happen on its own, the workshop will leave you with a clear mind and with new openings of action.
Our Vision to do Workshop in different cities and organizations
This year we intend to do the workshop in maximum cities and in more and more organizations. The content and design of workshop are powerful and we want the workshop conversation to touch more lives. If you want to do a workshop in your city or in your organization you can share your details in the below Google form, we will get in touch with you at the earliest.
It’s time to add Jagoinvestor workshop to your financial journey
It has been a few years now conducting “Design your financial life” workshop and each time it has been a very fulfilling experience for us. It is a wonderful space to be in, in which the group learns and starts to fall in love with the process of wealth creation.
This time we want more and more couples to participate so that they can get on the same page when it comes to personal finance. It is extremely important that the husband and wife both take an equal interest when it comes to money management. We are offering a special discount to those who want to come with their partner. (You can even come with your parents, siblings or friends and can claim the discount)
The workshop we conduct is highly interactive, it has lots of activities and fun exercises which help you to discover your relationship with money. The sessions are interactive and very easy to grasp for any kind of investor, beginner or advanced. In short, there is something for everyone in this workshop.
If you have never participated in any personal finance workshop let this one be your first experience. If you have any questions you can write in the comments section or you can email on [email protected]
We are happy to announce, our next full-day workshop in Mumbai is scheduled on 22nd July 2018 (Sunday). Generally, we give 30-35 days for people to register but this time the gap is less and so check your schedule at the earliest and book your seat.
The workshop is an opportunity for investors to work on their financial life. We will share all that we have learned about personal finance with all participants. The workshop is only for the action takers and it will start the moment you will register.
Register for Mumbai workshop on 22nd May 2018 (SUNDAY)
Ticket Type
Pricing
Ticket Link
Single Ticket (Early Bird)
(First 10 tickets only)
How do you know if the workshop is meant for people like you? Put your hand on your heart and get honest with yourself. Read the following points and see if these points are true for you.
If you find personal finance boring (like my wife)
If you convince others and yourself that personal finance is not your cup of tea
You hate numbers and are a big-time avoider when it comes to money management
You are PhD when it comes to procrastination
You want to get into action but you don’t know from where to start
You are confused with what to do and what not to do because of the overall bombardment of information on the name of investor education
You really want to move beyond planning and want to learn how to design your financial life.
You want to make 2018 your BEST FINANCIAL YEAR
The New Structure of the workshop
Step 1 : Book your Seat – The first step is to book your seat by paying the fees
Step 2: Financial Health checkup – Once you register, a certified planner will give you a welcome call and start the detailed financial health checkup with you
Step 3: Participate in Full Day workshop – After the financial health checkup you will be more clear on where you stand in your financial life. Its time to attend our full day workshop
Step 4: Get 2 Financial counseling calls – Finally after the workshop, you get personalized attention from us and you get 2 financial counselling calls to make sure you complete your pending important financial life actions.
Last Pune workshop experience
We had a total of 93 participants in our last Pune workshop (it was held on 20th May 2018) and the experience was amazing. We got an opportunity to learn and share with investors and clients from Pune. Our entire team travelled from Ahmedabad to be a part of the event.
We all had one intention, helping participants in creating an awesome financial life forwarding them in taking actions in their financial life. All the participants were able to identify 5 core actions in their financial life and we as a team helped them in completing those actions.
Why the workshop is now more action-oriented?
It is because the only ACTION produces wealth. We started with a day workshop but now after working with a
few hundred investors we realized that the one-day event needs something more to it. Our intention is not to get a fee from investors, we want their full commitment and we want them to produce some amazing results in their financial life.
The workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. If any advisor/IFA/CFP is found to be registering for the workshop, he/she will not be allowed to participate.
If you have never participated in any personal finance workshop let this one be your first experience. If you have any questions you can write in the comments section or you can email on [email protected]
We are happy to announce, that our next full-day workshop in Pune is scheduled on 20th May 2018 (Sunday).
We invite you to come and participate with your friends and family. It is an opportunity for you to block one full day for your financial life where you get a chance to work on your financial life. We do not teach tricks and tips to build wealth, but in fact we help you to discover your own personal process of creating wealth.
Why we do these kinds of offline event/workshops?
We do these events because they make a positive difference in people’s financial life. The conversations we do, create an impact on people’s thinking and they are able to re-invent themselves as an investor. The event is not about financial products and numbers, it is about learning and mastering the principles of wealth creation. It is about learning realizing your past mistakes and about creating a powerful future for yourself.
Register for Pune workshop on 20th May 2018 (SUNDAY)
Ticket Type
Pricing
Ticket Link
Single Ticket (Early Bird)
(First 10 tickets only)
We have also created a facebook event for this workshop. Do click on Interested if you want to join it.
Why should you come to the workshop?
You will learn how to improve your financial life with your current set of resources and income.
You will learn how to plan for your financial life goals
You will interact and learn from other’s people’s financial life
You will dedicate one full day to get better with money management
You will learn to add new dimensions to your financial life
To understand that personal finance can also be fun
To give a whole new direction to your financial life
Let us share our survey findings (Survey was done on 10000+ Investors)
We did a survey with more than 10,000 investors some time back and here are the results of the survey.
The survey is LOUD and CLEAR – It’s time to re-invent
The theme of our workshop is going to be re-invention, you will get a chance to examine your financial life and will explore ways to re-invent your financial future.
The results from survey seem alarming and the best gift we can to the investor’s community is our workshop Your real wealth is your clear mind as once the mind is clear all the good decisions will happen on its own, the workshop will leave you with a clear mind and with new openings of action.
Our Vision to do Workshop in different cities and organizations
This year we intend to do the workshop in maximum cities and in more and more organizations. The content and design of workshop are powerful and we want the workshop conversation to touch more lives. If you want to do a workshop in your city or in your organization you can share your details in the below Google form, we will get in touch with you at the earliest.
It’s time to add Jagoinvestor workshop to your financial journey
It has been a few years now conducting “Design your financial life” workshop and each time it has been a very fulfilling experience for us. It is a wonderful space to be in, in which the group learns and starts to fall in love with the process of wealth creation.
This time we want more and more couples to participate so that they can get on the same page when it comes to personal finance. It is extremely important that the husband and wife both take an equal interest when it comes to money management. We are offering a special discount to those who want to come with their partner. (You can even come with your parents, siblings or friends and can claim the discount)
The workshop we conduct is highly interactive, it has lots of activities and fun exercises that help you to discover your relationship with money. The sessions are interactive and very easy to grasp for any kind of investor, beginner or advanced. In short, there is something for everyone in this workshop.
Super Bonus Launch of Finscore Tool
We will be launching our newly designed scoring system with all our workshop participants. The scoring system is going to be a game-changer for many investors. It has taken around 6-7 years for us to design the whole system and we are all set to raise the curtain. We are so happy to share our scoring system with the investor’s community, it is simple, easy and extremely powerful in nature. It is more like a technology to live a good financial life.
After the workshop, participants can sign-up for our paid service to get complete access to the tool. We will give free financial health check-up access to all participants so that they can check up their scores.
The workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. If any advisor/IFA/CFP is found to be registering for the workshop, he/she will not be allowed to participate.
If you have never participated in any personal finance workshop let this one be your first experience. If you have any questions you can write in the comments section or you can email on [email protected]
Anna is not a name it is a mammoth movement in itself. He has created a wave and has impacted thinking of every common man.
Me and Manish in one of our discussions saw something and thought of sharing how you can bring “ANNA MAGIC” in your financial life. We are not going to discuss any political or country level corruption; we are addressing your habits of casualness and procrastination of being corrupt, it is a slow poison that can damage or corrupt your financial life.
Ask yourself how corrupt is your financial life? Or How Corrupt you are with your personal finance promises and commitments? Where do you sell yourself cheap in your financial life? (We procrastinate on concepts and take things casually; at time we don’t pay to get the right advice)- Today let’s be honest and face it.
We all start almost in the same fashion:- Going to college, getting a job and start earning and still, we all live a different kind of financial life. We all have the same core foundation & aspects of financial life what is different is how we live our financial life.
3 Things to keep your financial life in control
Let’s invest our time and energy in removing the internal corruption of our financial life. To have ‘more’ you need to become ‘more’ and so we are asking you to be the stand that ‘Anna’ in your financial life.
This may not change the world but it will surely change your world if you practice these things in your financial life. One request don’t deviate from the topic we are very clear this is not at all about Anna or Indian politics it is purely about your financial life.
1. Be a leader in your financial life
You can either live a corrupt Financial Life or as a leader choose to live a Non- corrupt Financial Life. The moment you start holding financial products in your financial life which are not on purpose your financial life starts getting corrupt.
If you lose things with a “chalta hai” attitude your financial life starts getting corrupt in that moment itself. Don’t follow blindly to what you see and what your friends invest in. Don’t be a follower of ‘hot tips’ and schemes of making fast buck (remember Speak Asia) .
Take a rock solid stand to remove all non-purpose products from your financial life. Your financial life is a clear reflection of how corrupt or non-corrupt you are.
2. Be a creator
You can create and pass your wealth-pal bill now . If your financial life is in your hands than what are you waiting for, if you are the driver of your financial life than what are you waiting for?
Get one thing very clearly that your wealth-pal Bill is in your hands, it needs your signature and alignment. The bill can get your financial life back on track and will keep you focused all the time. Here you are the standing committee as you need to take a stand for your financial life to be great.
3. Be accountable
Make yourself accountable for the financial life you have. Make yourself accountable for the income level you are having. And also Make yourself accountable for your current financial position that you are having. Being accountable is the third pillar of designing and living a great financial life.
If you have a low say-do ratio you are living a corrupt financial life. If you maintain a high say-do ratio you start having more power in the way you live your financial life. You start getting more confident about your investments and more committed with your financial goals.
Make yourself accountable for. See the above three areas as a “Law” and implement it as a law in your financial life religiously and see the changes that happen in your financial world.
The action month is on. (readers on email can fill up the form here). More than 1050 (till the moment) different tasks are going to be completed by hundreds of participants and they are choosing to remove all the corruption “laziness” and “casualness” from their financial life.
If you want to choose the movement you don’t need to go to ramlila maidan you can join the movement by filling in the below form and let the magic of being Anna begin. This article is also dedicated to one of our client who is a stand like Anna for bringing change in peoples financial life.
Tell us what do you think about this article. Do you like it? If you want to ask any question you can leave a query in our comment section.
