When an Indian national is going abroad for whatever purpose – job-related, business or simply to explore the world – he/she has a number of choices as to how it is proposed to carry foreign exchange for expenses abroad. It can be in the form of foreign currency notes, foreign currency travellers cheques, foreign demand… Continue Reading
The Indian economy expanded by 4.7% in the year 2013-2014, registering a second consecutive year of sub 5% growth. Between 2012-’13 and 2013-’14 the main driver of the economy were the farm, financial services, and the real estate sectors. The manufacturing sector continued to languish. After lifting the GDP by an average of 1.6 percentage… Continue Reading
Liquidity is an important aspect of any investment strategy. You may have lot of investments in a basket of assets, but how liquid is the asset allocation in an emergency is a very important aspect. This is basically a judgmental call because every individual has his/her own priorities. As a thumb rule more liquid an… Continue Reading
Once a person has crossed his (her) earning years, but has not planned for the retirement years, or financial planning has gone awry due to heavy unforeseen expenses/losses, or inflation has taken away the purchasing power of savings etc., what does he (she) do to live the remaining years on this planet without seeking handouts… Continue Reading
Our cities have started to grow vertically on account of residential apartment complexes, shopping malls and multi-storeyed office space, technology parks etc., being built at a frenetic pace. A City like Mumbai, of course, was forced to grow vertically due to several factors, much before other metros in India had embraced this model of growth.… Continue Reading
We discussed some of the traditional investment products in the first part of this article. In continuation of where we left off, we shall look at some other investment avenues. To start with, let us look at another popular plain vanilla product – Recurring Deposit (RD). This product is available with all the banks with… Continue Reading
One of the vital assets a country needs for economic prosperity is an educated population. Economic prosperity cannot be achieved by plentiful natural resources alone. (Of course, there are exceptions like the gulf region which has plentiful deposits of hydrocarbon, and most of the population is not highly educated. They manage with expatriate talent). While… Continue Reading
In this age of consumerism one is lost without a credit card. In developed countries, all retail lending by banks happens through credit cards. In India, banks have categorized retail lending into personal loans, loans for purchase of durable utility articles, vehicle loans, home improvement loans etc., and these are separate retail credit products distinct… Continue Reading
Managing your money involves optimising your earnings by planning your spending and investing your surpluses wisely. You can manage your spending and savings by budgeting for it and sticking to your budget. A Rupee saved is a Rupee earned. Saving involves certain amount of investment savvy for asset allocation to get optimum returns. There is… Continue Reading
Inflation can be defined as across the board sustained increase in prices of domestic as well as imported goods and services and fall in the purchasing power of the home currency. Inflation rate can be measured through a benchmark price index. It can be wholesale price index (WPI) or consumer price index (CPI). A price index… Continue Reading