Good Equities can be compared to Growing Teak Trees

One of my favorite blogger and Financial Expert friend from India, Sreekant CFP recently posted a blog which talked about relating the equities with growing Teak Trees. It was an interesting correlation. I remember a decade or so Teak trees were considered a long term investment. It was marketed like Life Insurance policies. Many people took interest in either planting them in their backyards or invested with companies which pulled investors together creating Teak tree garden/repository. Some of those investments survived but many just disappeared. With the current demand to Teak, it would have been a great return for those investments.

It has been a while since he posted a blog because he was busy fixing his house which was affect by recent cyclones. In his new post, Sreekant relates his current tight financial situation due to cyclone which hits his place last month and how he was able to come out on top due to the Teak tree which he planted long time ago. He also relates the teak tree investment with another interesting story to give us an positive outlook on Equities. Like Teak tree, Good Equities can go long way as long term investment and help you or your family members after years.

He mentions at one point that,

It is in the Indian culture and ethos that we look to leave a fortune to our future generations, even if it meant sacrificing a bit of our lifestyle. The simplest way that you can achieve this fortune is by buying shares of good companies (of course at the right price) or units of good diversified mutual funds and leaving it undisturbed for decades, possibly away from your and your family members’ view. You can rest assured that they would come handy to your loved ones at times that are good or bad.

Interesting post with different outlook. I strongly recommend to read his full post at moneycaresolutions.in and post your positive comments.

India – On the top 3 bribing nations among 6 South Asian countries

Happy New year to every one!!

I don’t want to start of a new year with this bad news which was published last year but I believe in sharing any news which will be bring some perspective to the problem to the audience and help them do something on it. This topic is really one among my favorite which I love to discuss as I concur with many Indians belief that Briding is India’s cancer which needs to be cured.

As per the report, Indians grabbed the second position for bribing among the six South Asian countries. 54 percent of the Indians have said to bribe policemen when they messed up with them, reported by anti-corruption organization Transparency International. It also stated that more than 1 in 3 people pay bribes in order to deal with the public servants, institutions, policemen, to access basic services, to speed up their work or sometimes to avoid problems.

A survey was done with 7500 people from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, by Transparency International in between 2010 and 2011. This report helps to explain why these countries have high corruption rates. Some of the countries score less than 3.5 out of 10 in the list.

In this list of six countries, Bangladesh tops the list followed by India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. 66 percent of the Bangladeshis prefer bribing, whereas this is 50 percent in Pakistan. People in these countries mostly pay to speed things up. It shows how corruption is rising high and hence becomes a barrier to business expansion in many countries.In Sri Lanka, people pays bribes to tax authorities rather than for any other services. In Nepal and Maldives, Customs services are mostly paid bribes.

Mostly the bribe takers in these countries are the policemen, the political parties, who are the most corrupt institutions according to the reports. This list is followed by parliament and public officials. They entrusted to oversee deals related to buying, selling, inheriting and renting land were the next likely to demand a bribe. But mostly the viewpoints of these people across the countries is that this problem of corruption is getting worse and worse and they need a solution for this. But people in India and Pakistan are most reluctant about the fact. Thousand of Indians are demonstrating for strong anti-corruption laws since August but less than a quarter on Indians thought their efforts to fight against was effective.

I would like to add something as conclusion. We started something taking Anna Hazzare path and started a revolution by trying to implement a Lokpal Bill to bring everyone in to justice if they they are corrupt but it’s not going anywhere. His efforts have weened down by congress by playing tactic politics. But as an individual, any Indian should continue to fight against corruption by saying NO to giving or taking bribes.

Source: siliconIndia.com

Happy New year – India in 2012

It’s hard to believe that 2011 is already drawing to a close. It has been a great year with unexpected turns and bounces and surprises and made it interesting. For me, it started out with a surprise of passing my Certified Financial Planner(CFP) exam. I am happy to be part of 50% hard working and lucky people to passed in USA. I also got my Realtor license in March and started helping as a Realtor. I was able to work with many first time buyers on their dream home and veteran investors to find a good deal on their investment properties. I enjoyed every moment of it. In 2012, I am planning to start working with agent in Chennai and try to help NRI’s on real estate needs back in India. I will offer client specific real estate service in Tamil nadu to start with and more to come on this topic.

As per things happened all over world, many big natural disasters like Japan Earthquake, US Hurricanes, Philiphines Heavy Rain and much more. New democratic developments in many countries like Libya, Egypt and other countries. In regards to finance market and economy, not much happened. Actually Euro Zone crisis made it worse and analyst are expecting more bad news are awaiting to come for countries like India and China. So it is going to be very tricky year for India. High inflation, cost of oil going up, real estate market starting to go up all over India and election in 5 major states, all activies going to put market into pressure and investors better watch out for another roller coaster ride.

As many of you know, I am a strong believer of Good Thoughts attract good things. I also put lessons learned from The Secret Book into practical use. It helps me to think positive about future. I hope 2012 will make some positive impact to everyone. I also encourage you to check out the secret.tv intro (20mins) which talks lot of Law of Attraction and how you can also think positive about your future.





Wishing you & yours a Happy New Year!