Category Archives: Personal Finance

Laziness and Finance

Have you ever wondered what the root cause of your financial problems is? I guess the answer is “You” and “Your Laziness”. Most of the time it is the lack of discipline and the laziness to learn puts us in financial trouble. I have had a word with my friend and asked him why have you invested in LIC policy and the answer I was expecting was, “It made sense to me cause it had the benefits that I was looking for” and I got the answer as, “My mom asked me to invest in it and I did and also I get tax benefit out of it”. Continue reading

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Contest Result

As I had mentioned in my blog about the contest. Now is the time to announce the results.

I have decided to give only one price. The category is for Top Commentator. I thought the contest will bring in many visitors and I realized that I am so wrong. :-(.

The intention of the contest is to make the blog popular, but to be honest with you I have failed miserably. Though I have learnt good things from the contest. I have not met my objective. Continue reading

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Mutual Fund

I usually oppose the investments in mutual funds due to these reasons. Primarily, it being heavy fees and charges in the name of fund management, yet no guarantee of any sure shot returns. However, markets are large and millions and billions of market participants are still favoring mutual fund investments, without caring for high amount of mutual fund fee and administration charges. Continue reading

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Investment Product – Part II

Please Read Part I before reading this.

Another similar experience I had in Big Bazar. It was Saturday, and there was a lot of crowd in Big Bazar. Suddenly, a salesman rings a bell, and announces,” For exactly 1 hour from now, the shirts in this segment will be offered with Buy 2 get 2 Free offer. The offer will end in just 1 hour”. Immediately, people jumped into the shirts section. They were trying to locate the 4 shirts that they can buy – with a tension that they have only 1 hour to select and may be that the best shirts will not be available for long. All that happened was people ended up buying shirts that they didn’t really need, that too 4 of them. The price may have been discounted, but the sale of 4 shirts ensured that big bazaar managed to sell its products. Nothing but IMPULSE MARKETING. Continue reading

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Investment Products – Part I

A person will drive in his car for 15 Kms. to buy a DVD Player which was initially priced at Rs.2000 and now being sold at a discounted price of Rs.1200 – he will buy the DVD player that he does NOT want – but is more interested in saving Rs.1000. However, the same person will not purchase a winter coat (that he may really need) available in his neighboring shop for Rs.9000 offering a discount of Rs.800. The problem is with the so-called “Reference Point”. Rs.800 discount on Rs.2000 value looks more in value for something that you don’t need, but the same Rs.800 discount on an item that you definitely need will not look worth on Rs.9000 price. We tend to look at the percentage basis. Rs.800 on Rs.2000 is 40% discount, while Rs.800 on Rs.9000 is only 8.88%. People may already have a DVD player at home, but just because it is offered at a HIGH Reference point discount – they buy it – thinking that they will gift it to someone else or use it later. All that happens is that we end up buying something that we don’t need and avoid buying things that we really need. Continue reading

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