No frills demat a/c-who should opt for it
Last year, SEBI introduced the “no-frills” demat a/c, also known as BSDA-Basic services demat account. This was a result of the concerns and suggestions by the small time investors who had been paying a high annual service charge on their demat a/c even though they rarely traded and had opened a demat a/c with the purpose of investing in some of the good initial public offers. Let us understand the features, benefits over and above the normal demat a/c and the eligibility criteria.
Swiss banks to reveal account holders’ details
The Swiss banks, for a long time, have been accused of aiding black money transactions and being a popular and safe place for people to park illicit funds and thus avoid paying taxes. This was mainly because of their strict guidelines on maintaining confidentiality. Not anymore. The Switzerland authorities have agreed to share data regarding the account holders’ funds held in their banks in an attempt to help countries tackle this problem of money laundering and tax evasion.
Being asset rich and cash poor
A state of being asset rich and cash poor is one in which the person almost has his or her entire net worth in the form of assets – real estate, family businesses or paper assets like shares and stockholding in companies; while they have very little cash on hand. And there are a lot more people who fall in this category than one would imagine.
Managing your share portfolio efficiently
Over the last 10 years, I have been investing in the stock markets. I have been buying on dips in the index with the purchases being based on stock recommendations by experts in news channels and business papers, paid research and sometimes on the “free” tips of the day too, which keep flashing on my screen when I am working on my laptop. A few days back, when I was doing a meticulous evaluation of the stocks in my demat a/c, I discovered that not only were most of my investments languishing at a 50 % – 90 % discount to their acquisition cost, many of them which were repeatedly recommended by market pundits as “multi baggers” and “value stocks” with good long term prospects good trading and used to enjoy good trading volumes had fallen out of favour and were now hardly being traded at all!
Taking a “calculated risk” on your investment
“Is there any place I can invest and get a minimum fixed 12 % return per annum?”
As a financial planner, I often get such queries from people – friends/acquaintances/clients. There are others who read about some new public offer for investment plans or ULIPs that offer attractive bonuses/ guaranteed return etc and want to check if their claims are authentic. If someone were to tell them that there are indeed such schemes, I am sure the majority of them would invest. And why not? What can be better than a fixed return with no risk of losing your capital?
Dealing with a salary cut
“Air India employees face salary cut from April 2013”
“Infosys recasts staffers’ salary structure, cuts variable”
“Cadburys India cuts the pay of its managing director and other senior executives”
Such news has been making headlines of newspapers and magazines in 2013. The job market was almost stagnant last year in 2012 with very few fresh recruitments and negligible salary hikes even for top performers, apart from the pay cuts due to cost cutting measures by organizations because of the economic slowdown. Though the situation seems to have improved this year, employers are still adopting a very conservative and cautious approach when it comes to paying bonuses and increments.
