The beach at Mithapur !
I just happened to visit here that beach could easily be mistaken as Maldives or Lakshadweep ?? innit ? Well almost... but for the goats who decided to colour the white beach ! ;-/
Turquoise blue and amazingly clean water... the surface would at all times be visible... even if you were at a height of 7-8 feet in the sea !
Its in India... and yes... there is not a soul here... I loved the solace... early morning jogging here or a quiet sunset walk... you can act as if you own the beach 
an island with a light house... you can sit and paint it to your canvas
One afternoon it was just me and this fellow to accompany me as I tested my camera lens
The sun setting at the Gulf of Kutch
The A denotes the place where we were based, the coral reef is also clearly visible in the map. Will post pictures of the Corals and underwater snorkelling soon Just you wait to see the things we discovered 
it was awesome fun.
All pics taken during ‘Anubhav’ A marine camp conducted by Anala Outdoors for school kids.
Stock Market = Casino ???
I just happened to luckily spot Era’s post on her preferring Sleep over stocks and most comments on that post too were about people avoiding stocks and being skeptical.
A lot of people are weary and some people even think stock markets = casino’s !!!!
Not really ! seriously they are not as bad a place as they are being perceived.
Lets get a few things straight. Investment and Trading should not be confused. Most people who try to trade end up losing money as they are speculating way too much instead of sticking to fundamentals and investing. In the short term sentiments, rumours, triggers work way too much, however, in the long run the fundamentally good investments will at most times give you returns. Before investing in stocks learn to keep things simple and straight.
More often than not it is not the way of investment that is looked upon as the mistake at but the place where money was invested in is looked at. A lot of people lose money because at the time of investment they did not exercise enough discretion.
Most people say they invest in Fixed Deposits. Every one should, but understand one thing, that while FD’s are a good and necessary part of our investment portfolio the interest they generate are Taxable. So when an individual who is in 30% Income Tax Slab does an FD at 9.50% he actually gets post tax returns of only 6.35%. Now in a day and age where inflation hovers in double figures, what your FD basically does is de-grow your hard earned money.
Don’t for one minute think that I am saying you should never do an FD. But just ponder on what I just said. FD’s are a completely necessary part of an Investment portfolio. However putting all your investments in such a low return yielding and taxable instrument is not the most prudent thing to do.
Secondly Public Providend Fund (PPF) – people invest blindly in it. Agreed, I also advise all my business class clients to invest blindly in PPF and secure the maximum permissible limit of Rs 1,00,000/- as PPF is one of the safest investments you can get. Safer than an FD, understand FD’s over Rs. 1lac are not secured as are normally perceived, however Nationalised and Private Indian Banks so far in their history have never defaulted.
The reason business class people should always invest in PPF is apart from giving tax free interest PPF is an investment not even the judicial court can touch. Incase a business man goes bankrupt and is in full debt, his family can still have the PPF money and not even the court can force him to pay his debts from PPF !
However, when it comes to a job going person, who is regularly having a PF deducted and also contributed by his employer he can always look at other options. Consider this, even if a job going person loses his entire wealth in stocks or somewhere else he can rest assured that next month his salary will come and take care of his basic needs. So in short a salaried person should have a greater risk appetite than say a business class person.
To evaluate your risk you could use this interesting piece I recently saw in Mint (fast becoming my favourite newspaper)
Now just hear these couple of stories :
Example 1. Investing in a good quality A Category Stock for a long term
When I first started trading somewhere in 2001-2002 a share of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) would cost around Rs. 200/-. From them to till date RIL gave free shares of Rcom, Rnrl, Rel and Rcap when they split companies. Also they have declared a bonus of 1 share and so if you had invested say around Rs. 200 in one share of Reliance then you would have 2 Reliance shares now. Today price of one reliance share is over 800.
So effectively if you add 2 shares its 1600 + other free shares+dividends declared gives you a grand total of easily over Rs 2100/-. Fathom that, investing 200 and in 10 years get 10 times money !
*This is just a rough calculation, actual return might be higher, this is just from my memory.
Example 2. A simple monthly Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) in an equity large cap Mutual Fund.
Had you invested Rs. 1000/- on the the 2nd of every month in HDFC Top 200 starting from 2nd Feb 2002 by now you would have invested Rs. 1,21,000/- and the value of your investment on 16th Feb 2012 would be Rs. 4,75,032.04/- !!!!!
Example 3. A Corpus parked in an Equity Mutual fund and regular monthly income withdrawn.
Parking 9 lac and withdrawing 8% annually (8% of 9 lac is 72000 and hence we decided to withdraw monthly 6000)
Had you invested Rs. 9,00,000/- in ICICI Dynamic Plan (a mutual fund) on 17th Feb 2003 and made a monthly withdrawal of Rs. 6000/- each month. by now you would have withdrawn Rs.6,48,000/- and yet the remaining corpus in ICICI Dynamic plan on 16th February would be valued at Rs. 70,31,463.12/-
Cannot believe it ???
Go to MutualFundsIndia.com there is an SWP calculator and try to do that with ANY equity scheme more than 10 years old the results will amaze you.
Now folks if you can show me any other place which has given higher returns with such a miniscule investment amount do let me know. Also these instruments are quite liquid.
However, folks do understand one thing very clearly, these things happened in the past are no guarantee to be repeated in future. But to get something you must be prepared to risk something.
If invested in wisely and smartly without getting carried by emotions and factoring risk Equity markets are a place to invest in !
Don’t just be weary and never tread the water, unless you step in the water you will never know how to swim.
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DISCLAIMER :
** Inflation at the time of writing the article has come down to below 7%
** Data taken from mutualfundsindia.com
** I am a Association of Mutual Funds of India certified Mutual Fund Advisor.
** I have also lost money many times in stocks, but I think I have become wiser after that 
atleast I think so !
Quotes, chucked jobs & entrepreneurship
What with Warren Buffett quotes and sayings flying everywhere on Facebook I couldn’t resist this post, I have always read every piece that reads the word Buffet for obvious reasons… The non believers will probably turn up and just stick their 
and tell me I only care about food ! Yes I do, but I do listen to all important things this man has to say… He infact has very simple things to say but at most times we forget these simple, seemingly inane yet fundamentally most important ways of behaving especially when it comes to investments, managing risk and seeking returns.
Investing time in food is as important as anything
And when Legendary Investors like him are allowed to throw their gyaan everywhere why would this True Legend in every sense be left behind anywhere…
Yes, Usha, right after reading your Buffet quote share and me sharing another piece of advice by Buffet yours truly left for his work and while driving his bike came up with this genius thought in his brain…
“In the service industry its pertinent that you give maximum priority to an existing customer and always ensure he is satisfied even at the cost of new business.” – Hitchy Bawa 7th Feb 2012
Simple logic being if you have only satisfied customers they will ensure you have no dearth of new business /clients
Anyone that guffaws thinking this is simply so obvious can actually go jump in the lake. I think this is a genius piece that I have come up with and I am laying claims to this !!!! 
If this is obvious so are all of Buffet’s advises. He says nothing that we don’t know and yet they are so priceless, practical and most difficult to actually comprehend in reality, in moments where they most necessarily need to be practiced.
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Now if you happen to find this post completely useless… sigh… and yes I don’t just blog for myself, I do crave to be read by you readers… yea ! Jump and Clap… I do write for you… for I never understood people who write for themselves… why they would put things in public and not in a diary of their own ok yea that was a cheapstroke and I know it
**ducks all the chappals and sandals** 
Sigh… enough of digressing… coming back to if you find this post completely useless… well here is a piece of small information that might prove to be useful…
Just yesterday a friend called me to ask what is the formula to calculate the interest if the money is being doubled in 8 years. Whilst I told him that I can teach him that vonly and vonly if he will feed me a Tees Number Paan… A thought passed my mind may be I should post the same on the blog some of you might also be faced with a similar question at some point of time
Well folks, behold…
72 is a magic figure to calculate Interest or duration of money being doubled.
Can’t get it ?
Lemme explain…
If someone tells you he will double your money in 6 years. Simply divide 72 by 6 and you get 12 that is the rate of interest he is offering to you.
And if some one is telling you he is giving you 9% interest and you are wondering how do I calculate when will my money double and you feel you can’t be an ass and ask the guy… here is a simple thing to do…
take 72 and divide it by 9 and lo… 8 years is the time in which your money will be doubled. :angel:
Yes… bless me…
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Now all those who think even this is useless and not worth a read… yes you can go jump in the lake again !!!! for all others… here is my work page on Face book… Please to go there and like it…
Now will you like this page : Fortune Investments – investment solutions ‘personalised
I will be giving my priceless advise there and some day I too will be featured like Monu was here :
The champion cook cum blogger cum mom cum entrepreneur cum bitten by camera bug cum bitten by driving bug or should I say in short a total life enthusiast Now this girl unlike me doesn't even claim she is a SUPER WOMAN !!!!
Awesome Monu Totally proud of you you are an inspiration to so many of us You know when a friend suggested that I should have a facebook page to advertise about my work I was rather skeptical whether it looked Cheap… but those few words when on chat with you ensured I went ahead and made the page and yes I have managed to secure a few Investors whom I am yet to meet in real life
Sigh… Monu, only if you knew how I show this pic to so many non blogger friends of my and act so so SMUG… saying I know her and I have an open invitation any day to her dining table in Bangalore
And people if you are back from jumping in the lake and/or survived all the gyaan I have been throwing up and if you haven’t visited Sin-A-Mon then go there right away and drool right now
