In the words of Meander ‘Marriage is evil, but a necessary evil’. I sat to write this after reading the opinion of Gavri in his blog on marriage Well the fact is he has confused living-together and marriage. Everyone wants to be loved. No doubt about that. And there is something within us that makes us love someone else for whatever reason. That lands us in a situation that we are better off living in the same place sharing our love better. As far as I am concerned, Marriage is bull-shit. Two people who love each other can well live …
Continue readingThis is Bangalore
I totally agree that we have come to Bangalore looking to earn more and certainly it wouldn’t have been possible in my wildest dreams to earn this back at Pondicherry. But I am forced to complain about this garden city just because of a the morons who reside here. One thing that everyone will agree instantaneously is the pathetic state of the roads and flyovers. I should call them as semi-flyovers as there are very few actually completed. There is one near BTM Layout (Jayadeva hospital) and I remember my friend Arun saying to me that it would be over …
Continue readingLesson 8: Investing in Gold
Gold is not new to us. Come marriage and there is the shameless talk of gold for dowry. We still have some auspicious day to buy gold. The shining yellow metal has attracted humans (especially indians) a lot and there are good reasons for that. Gold has always been equated to the status symbol. It does not get rusted or for that matter loses its shine. It is extremely ductile and can be easily converted to another form (jewellery). Well we can go on like this and a chemist can give much more information like its symbol (Au) and what …
Continue readingLesson 7: PPF – Still a strong contender
We saw in the last lesson how ELSS can bring energetic returns. But we must keep in mind that Diversification is still the key. Also there are many out there who are apprehensive of investing in a Mutual Fund, especially the ones tied to Stock Market. What else? We cannot just pump in more money into LIC policies as we know how detrimental it can be. If you are ready to forgo liquidity you get another excellent investment vehicle – The Public Provident Fund, a Govt backed scheme. Please note that PPF is different from PF. To open a PPF …
Continue readingKadhal – a gripping film
Balaji Sakthivel must be a very happy man. The director had tried hard to get Shankar’s attention to produce the film. After a long time, he did get the nod and the rest is history. ‘Kadal’ is certainly a different film from the usual love stories. Reality is everywhere in the film. The love shown is natural and appealing. Bharath is a mechanic and Sandhya is the daughter of a Don in Madurai studying her +2. They fall in love and run away to chennai. With the support of Bharath’s friend Sukumar they get married. But on the same day …
Continue reading‘Azhagan’ – a classic
Sorry for the review of a very old film, but when I happened to see the film yesterday in K Tv, I couldn’t control myself from writing this. The film starts off superbly. The screenplay is really wonderful to say the least. Balachander has proved himself many times and Azhagan is just one more feather to his cap. There is a special touch by Balachander in many places throughout the film. When Mamooty says that his wife is no more, Banu priya acts as if she is very sorry for him, but in a split second she is seen smiling …
Continue readingLesson 5: Mutual Funds – An Intro
If you have come this far, I take it for granted that you are now aware of the basics and raring to go further. At this point, you must realize that you as a person are unique and there may be 1001 reasons why one investment vehicle won’t give you a pleasant ride, while the same may be the best for someone else. But there are a few well tested vehicles that I will review from now on. Still the decision is yours. A Mutual Fund, as the name suggests, is a trust where many people put in money and …
Continue readingLesson 6: ELSS – The Elixir of Investments
We saw that mutual funds are really a great way to invest in the stock market (through the Equity Diversified Schemes). But there is one more wonderful thing. You can save on tax as well as you invest in the funds. What more can you ask? The ELSS (Equity Linked Saving Scheme) are Equity Diversified Schemes that offer you tax benefits similar to PPF or your Insurance policies. So get ready for the ride. This category (tax saving funds) is by no means performing any less than the others. So where is the catch? It is in the liquidity. You …
Continue readingLesson 4: Let us begin Investing
It is always a good idea to read all the Investing lessons in order to get the maximum benefit. Now that we have understood a lot, let us start investing. But wait. There are a few key points to be noted. 1) If suppose, by any chance you are in to credit card debt then stop the idea of investing and go ahead and clear the debt first. (Credit card debt is one where you still have the balance payment on the card that you should have paid a month ago. That means you have paid only the minimum amount …
Continue readingLesson 3: Tax Planning
We will take a quick look at all the tax planning that we can do. I will try to make this simple enough without taxing you too much!!, if you do intend to know everything from top to bottom go to Rediff->Getahead->Money As per the new budget rule we can save upto 1,00,000 and show them for tax saving. Someone might ask, if I save 1,00,000 how much will I save on tax? For most of us the answer is 30000 in that year or 2500 per month. But truly that depends on how much you are earning per annum.(Tax …
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