Sunday, August 19, 2018

Thursday, August 9, 2018

How to Plan for Retirement When You're Already in Your 40's?

We are always told to start saving for retirement right from the time when we are young. However, what are you to do if you weren’t able to save much and have entered your 40s now? Is it still possible to plan for your twilight years now? The answer is “yes”!

The following are some tips on how you can plan for your retirement even if you started late:

1. Pick a Number
The first thing you need to do is determine your retirement amount. Many experts believe that you need around 10 times your ending income to survive through the retirement years.  However, since you are beginning to save money quite late, you may not be able to achieve that target by the time you retire. So, what you can do is crunch some numbers and get a “conservative” figure that works for you.

2. Start Saving
Now, not only you need to start saving as soon as possible, you must increase the saving amount every month. The rule of thumb is that you should put 10% of your income in the retirement fund, but in this case, it might not be enough. This is because you have to achieve your target in less time as opposed to those who start saving for retirement early. Thus, you should go for 20% savings instead.
You should also try to increase the percentage over time as you see fit. Just be sure you have enough room for the payment of EMIs and credit card bills as you don’t want to hurt your CIBIL score. After all, it’s not easy to get a loan with bad credit score.

Phases of an Asset Price Bubble

A typical Asset Price Bubble
Phases of an asset Price bubble

From South Sea bubbles or tulip mania of 16th century to dot com crash of 2000 and housing bubble of 2008, a typical asset price bubble consists of 4 major phases:

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

5 Trading Advise From The Best

"Most people approach trading to make a lot of money, and that is one of the primary reasons they lose." -  Van Tharp (Trading Coach)

"There is no need to rush into any position, wait for your signal. Rushing into a position and chasing a stock is one of the main reasons that traders lose money. Follow your trading plan not your emotions and impulses." -  Marty Schwartz

"Trading offensively is trying to grow you capital while defense is protecting what you have. Winning trades are how many points you score and losing trades is how many points you give up to the other team. While offense is great for a show defense wins championships." - Paul Tudor Jones

Monday, August 6, 2018

Easing into retirement by reducing liabilities

Make your retirement the happiest phase of your life with systematic planning and a few decisive moves today.

Every person who works hard all their lives does so with the expectation of retiring in style. They wish to ease into the last years of their lives in comfort and peace, secure in the knowledge that they’ve done everything they could for the good of their loved ones.

But wishing for a peaceful retirement and actually getting it are two different things. It takes a lot of planning and hard work to be able to retire with grace and dignity. And the time to put in the work is now, while you are still employed and have a regular income. You can follow this simple guide for retiring with complete fiscal security.

Think of retirement as a journey, not a destination.

Many people think of retirement as a phase where one’s active life ceases and one of rest and relaxation begins. But you can fashion your retirement the way you want – you can be as active or as laid back as you wish! It can be a phase of true contentment, as you rediscover and explore the things that matter the most to you. You did not have the time to indulge your hobbies the way you would have liked for several years – retirement gives you the opportunity to travel, make new acquaintances, take up a sport or hobby, be by yourself… the world is your oyster, and it’s time to make it yours!

5 pitfalls to avoid in the home loan application

Following are the common areas of error that you are likely to make when applying for a home loan – and how to avoid them.

As if buying a house in an escalating property market wasn’t difficult enough, you also need to navigate the home loan process carefully. Though home loans have been suitably simplified by leading housing finance companies, some parts of the process can prove to be veritable landmines. These errors can prove costly in the long run, and even result in the loan application being rejected. We list these areas of potential trouble and enumerate how you can avoid them:

1. Not having enough money at your disposal for a range of payments.

Most first-time home buyers are aware that they require some amount of money to make a down payment on the house. The down payment is normally split into two components: The token or booking amount, and the first installment on the house. But you also need to have sufficient money at your disposal to pay the following costs, which will not be paid from your home loan:
  • Stamp duty costs 
  • Registration fees
  • Lawyers’ and broker fees
  • Money to pay towards placing an advertisement in the paper asking for claimants to the property to come forward (this cost is split between the seller and buyer)
  • Home loan application fees
  • Lender’s evaluation and processing fees
  • Stamp duty on the loan agreement
  • Pre-EMI money (before the first EMI is deducted)
  • Society/developer transfer fees
  • Society membership fees
Find out all these costs and set aside the money accordingly – or you may come up short!

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

How to plan early for a relaxed life post working years?

Benjamin Franklin once said "Failing to plan is planning to fail" and it sounds so obvious for one of the most important part of our lives - RETIREMENT. Proper retirement planning considering your current standard of living, your assets and liabilities and the impact of inflation on them, will help you enjoy a relaxed life post your working years.

Use a retirement calculator to estimate the amount you would need to invest now to lead a comfortable life post-retirement. Once this amount is known you can buy a retirement policy from an established insurance provider. Today more than a dozen insurance companies offer retirement &  pension plans with several benefits / flexibility ranging from single premium pension plans to regular annual premiums, lump sum payment to annuity payouts or a combination of both and many others.

15 Stock Investment Tips from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

1. Always go against tide. Buy when others are selling and sell when others are buying.  2. If you believe in the growth prospects o...