From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Mutual Fund Service System (MFSS)

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Others ->Uncategorized on December 29th, 2009

Introduction Initially Mutual Fund units could be bought and sold through a Mutual Fund agent or the Mutual Fund House directly. Now SEBI has introduced a third avenue. Under this system transactions in mutual fund schemes (buying and selling) will be facilitated through the stock exchange infrastructure. This facility will be available on all business [...]

LIC Jeevan Nischay

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 29th, 2009

LIC Jeevan Nischay – Product Review Introduction Companies listed on the stock exchange coming out with rights issues, wherein new shares are offered to existing shareholders in some ratio based on their existing share holding, is very common. But this is not a common scenario among insurance companies, wherein companies come out with a new [...]

ICICI Advantage Deposit

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Fixed Income Securities ->Uncategorized on December 29th, 2009

ICICI Advantage Deposit – Product Review Introduction Ramesh is a risk averse investor. Over the last many years he has been investing in traditional investment products like Bank Fixed Deposits and Government sponsored schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and various Postal Office Schemes etc. He was happy with the returns [...]

How to invest in Gold

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Others ->Uncategorized on December 28th, 2009

Ways to Invest in Gold Introduction Rahul is a worried father these days. His daughter’s marriage is planned 6 months down the line. He had big plans to buy a lot of gold for his daughter like any father would do in a normal Big Fat Indian Wedding. But the way gold prices have soared [...]

HDFC Young Star Super – Review

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 28th, 2009

Introduction Every parent aspires to give the best of everything to their children; be it primary education, a good quality lifestyle, secondary education, lavish wedding etc. Child plans of most insurance companies play on this emotional aspect to push their products. Every parent’s top priority is to fulfil his child’s future dreams and aspirations. HDFC [...]

Currency Carry Trade

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Others ->Uncategorized on December 28th, 2009

Introduction Carry trade in simple terms means borrowing in one currency where the interest rates are low and investing this loan money in high yielding assets some where else. A classic example of this is the carry trade going on since so many years using the Japanese Yen as the borrowing currency. Interest rates in [...]

Capital Protection Products

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Fixed Income Securities ->Uncategorized on December 28th, 2009

Capital Protection Products Introduction When the markets fell due to the subprime crisis lot of people saw most of their spectacular gains made in the last 1 or 2 years wiped out within months and infact they were staring at losses. Such was the shock and panic that investors started to give markets a complete [...]

Aegon Religare iTerm Plan – Review

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 28th, 2009

Aegon Religare iTerm Plan – Cheapest Term Plan – Review Introduction Few days after launching the cheapest ULIP plan (Invest Maximizer) in the industry, Aegon Religare has done it again. This time the company claims to have launched the cheapest term insurance plan in the industry. The company says that its latest term insurance plan [...]

Comparison between Term Insurance Policy and Traditional Insurance Policy

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 27th, 2009

Buying Insurance over Other Investments for Returns: Opportunity Cost or Opportunity Lost Introduction It’s March, the tax planning season is at its peak and Ajay (person earning 6 Lakhs pa working in an MNC) has started his yearly ritual of scouting for investments for saving income tax. Ajay tells his financial planner Pankaj that he [...]

Rupee Cost Averaging

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Others ->Uncategorized on December 27th, 2009

Rupee Cost Averaging – Get More Value for Your Buck Introduction Sameer is a common investor. He wants to invest in the stock market, but is worried that the market will fall after he invests as the market has run up too much too fast. But at the same time he is worried that the [...]

Retirement Planning: Retire from Work, Not from Life

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Financial Planning ->Uncategorized on December 26th, 2009

Introduction Saagar is a 20 year old guy who has just entered the corporate world by joining a MNC company. As part of the induction process Saagar has to attend an investment awareness session on tax planning. At this age thinking about tax planning, investments and retirement planning is the last thing on Saagar’s [...]

Insurance Riders: Top up your Policy at Low Cost

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 26th, 2009

Introduction Having insurance is important. But having the right insurance policy and the right amount of insurance cover is even more important. Sample this case study….. Kumar family had a dream of making their 2 year old son Manish a pilot. This dream made a crash landing when his father (Prashant) died in a road [...]

Human Life Value - How much are you Worth?

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 25th, 2009

Introduction A popular advertisement in media which most of us must have seen says “There are some things that money can’t buy, but for everything else there is MasterCard.” Ask people in which category does human life belong and without a second thought they will agree that human life is priceless and no amount [...]

Financial Products for Beginners

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Financial Planning ->Uncategorized on December 25th, 2009

Introduction It is the busy month of March and the tax planning season is at its peak as it is the last month to make investments in tax saving products to avail maximum income tax benefits. David is a 22 year old person working in an MNC. He will be filing his income tax [...]

Equity Linked Saving Scheme (ELSS)

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Others ->Uncategorized on December 25th, 2009

Introduction There are different types of mutual funds available in the market. Based on the style of investing the 3 well known types of mutual funds are: Equity Mutual Funds: These mutual funds invest a major portion of their corpus in equity shares and equity related instruments. The aim of this type of mutual fund [...]

Aegon Religare Invest Maximiser Plan

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Insurance ->Uncategorized on December 23rd, 2009

It’s hard to miss the Aegon Religare Invest Maximiser Plan advertisement in media. The company claims that it is the cheapest ULIP plan available in the market. The company goes to the extent of saying that if someone is able to find a cheaper ULIP, the company will reward the customer Rs 1000. That is [...]

Home Loan Repayment Options

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Others ->Uncategorized on December 21st, 2009

Tarun is a young professional working in a MNC. Tarun recently got married and he has bought a new flat. He has taken a home loan of Rs 30 Lakhs for 20 years and is paying an Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) of Rs 26,992. Consequences of Interest Rate Hike Tarun is a worried man nowadays. He [...]

Exempt Allowances

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Taxation ->Uncategorized on December 21st, 2009

Exemptions: Certain components of the salary that an individual receives are exempt from income tax. Some of these components are: Medical Allowance: An individual can claim exemption for upto INR 15000 in a financial year for medical reimbursement received from the employer. Transport Allowance: Transport allowance of upto INR 800 a month is exempt from [...]

Income Tax - Section 80C

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Taxation ->Uncategorized on December 21st, 2009

Section 80C: There are various tax saving investment instruments available in which investors can invest for returns and at the same time save tax. The government in order to encourage savings among people gives tax benefits for investments made in certain financial products. These financial products are covered in detail under Section 80C of the [...]

Comprehensive Financial Planning

Posted by Gopal Gidwani in Financial Planning ->Uncategorized on December 21st, 2009

Everyone has various financial goals in life. Through proper Financial Planning you can achieve your various financial goals in life like: • Planning and accumulating funds for your children’s higher education and children’s marriage • Building a retirement corpus so that you can enjoy the same existing lifestyle without having to worry about funds for [...]