The ingredient to success in Investing

Value investing is simple to understand but difficult to implement. It requires a great deal of hard work, unusually strict discipline, and a lot of patience. Very few have the proper mindset to succeed.

Since being a value investor usually means standing apart from the crowd, challenging conventional wisdom, and opposing the prevailing investment winds, it can be a very lonely undertaking. A value investor may experience poor, even horrendous, performance compared with that of other investors or the market as a whole during prolonged periods of market overvaluation.

When securities prices are steadily increasing, a value approach is usually a handicap; out-of-favour securities tend to rise less than the public's favourites.

The most beneficial time to be a value investor is when the market is falling. This is when downside risk matters and when investors who worried only about what could go right suffer the consequences of undue optimism.

Emotional investors and speculators inevitably lose money; but investors who take advantage of the market’s periodic irrationality have a good chance of enjoying long-term success.

Benjamin Graham's margin-of-safety concept is to invest at a sufficient discount so that even bad luck or the vicissitudes of the business cycle won't derail an investment.

Very simply put, his investing style is “mispricing due to overreaction”. He picks up securities that trade at a wide discount to their underlying value, what he calls “the element of a bargain”. In other words, it’s key to establish a margin of safety that not only enables you to make a sufficient profit, but also gives a wide enough discount from the underlying value. This way, you are able to profit even if your estimate of the underlying value is incorrect. Value investors invest with a margin of safety that protects them from large losses in declining markets.

Herein lies the secret. Make an investment if it is extremely confident that it won't lose much value, even if the initial investment thesis proves to be wrong.

But , note that investors can be pressured into investing prematurely; the cheapest security in an overvalued market may still be overvalued. This is where the discipline of a value investor comes in which will enable him to wait for an opportunity to buy, offering a better return for money.

There are some key lessons in  investing philosophy . (To be continued .....)

Bank Fixed Deposits Alone Won’t Make You Rich

#1: FDs give returns below inflation

The average inflation rate in India for the last 2 years (2012-2014) is 9.76%. Most FDs only give you about 8.5% interest before tax and around 7% after tax. This means, you are effectively losing money every year you invest your money in a FD.

#2: FDs are taxable, which further reduces the net amount you earn

Compared with equity mutual funds, long term returns from which are tax free, FD interest is taxable at your current tax slab. The higher your income, the lower your FD return will be.

See the graph below for FD vs mutual fund comparison.

Return assumptions - FD @ 8.5 %, Debt fund @  9 %, and equity fund @ 15%. Inflation assumed to be 7%.

As you can see, investing in Bank FDs will result in less money than you need to keep up with inflation. Debt mutual funds just about manages to beat inflation and equity mutual funds beat inflation with almost 3 times the inflation adjusted amount.

Mutual funds provide professional management of money, are tightly regulated and have proven their performance over time. Mutual funds are also very tax efficient and a little bit of planning can reduce tax on your mutual fund returns to zero (in case of equity mutual funds) or almost zero (in case of debt mutual funds).

Should I invest in equity or debt mutual fund?

Equity mutual funds are recommended for long term investing (5 years and more ) and debt funds for shorter durations.

Investing in mutual funds is very simple through Right Investment Solutions.

It’s built for people who want an absolutely simple, yet efficient, way to invest in mutual funds without having to worry about how their money is doing.

Little Habits That Steal Your Happiness

Surprisingly Little Habits That Steal Your Happiness Time After Time

We all want to be happy at least most of the time, but, unfortunately, that’s not the case, and we end up searching aimlessly to find happiness, and it always seem to eludes us.

We are all creatures of habit, and often we get stuck in a rut because we refuse to make the necessary changes to our lives that will bring us the happiness we yearn for.

Not all our habits are bad, but sometimes we need to look at the things we do continuously and decide whether we need to make some adjustments if they don’t yield the results we need.

Unfortunately, as humans beings we tend not to want to change, and so we fight tooth and nail not to do this.

We suffer the same headaches and frustration time and time again and never do anything about the issues that are causing us such unhappiness.

Remember if you continuously do the same things over and over again not only will you get the same results but you will become the things you do.

So, if those habits aren’t helping you they are hurting you, and you need to change now to avoid being the same way for a very long time.

Some of the many reasons you are unhappy are that you:

Hold on to what you know and refuse to budge

Life is about living and learning. When you stop learning, you stop growing and thriving; hence you won’t  be living a fulfilled life. You have to be prepared to venture out of your comfort zone into unfamiliar territory to truly grow and become who you were meant to be.

You need to be challenged and tested because only when you face challenges will you grow and become better. Remaining in one position will only keep you stuck. Being stagnant is not progressing.

Find ways to challenge yourself and do not be afraid of being pushed. Push back when pushed but do not accept the normal as progress. You must hold fast to your core values while you search for your purpose in life.

Keep resisting life and its changes

There is nothing more painful than when you try to resist life and the changes it brings. Change is never without pain and discomfort. There is nothing more painful than remaining where you are for the rest of your life.

Whether you want to change or not you are in fact changing every day. Look back at your life and see the many changes that have taken place, some positive and others negative. That is life, and you must accept it and work with it as it comes instead of fighting to remain stuck.

Allowing other people to decide what is possible for you

Close your ears to all the discouragement and negativity from people who do not know or care about the real you. You know yourself, and the plans you have for your life so do not allow them to use words to discourage you.

Most of the time they are only telling you what they think and want for themselves so close your ears and forge ahead. Choose to do things your way and if you mess up, you’ll know at least that you did it your way.

Focusing on others and not your own life

You could spend your entire life focusing on others while they build their lives and enjoy it, and neglect yours, or you could choose to use your time to build your life. Do not sit around and admire the success of others while your dreams fall apart.

Be happy for them but put the focus on building a life for yourself. Do not allow others to use you to build their dreams and life either.  Cut a path for yourself and chart it. Do not be burdened down with other people’s load.

Focusing too much on your problems

You need to change the way you view difficulties in your life. The challenges you face most times aren’t the real problem: it’s how they are perceived. Change your attitude towards the difficulties you encounter.

See them as nothing more than minor infractions in your life; keep maintaining a positive attitude and you will be fine. You have the power to control your mind and how you view things. Use this to help you to keep your mind away from your problems and focus more on your goals. Let go of the stress by letting go of the problems.

Focusing on being right all the time

When you are focused on being right all the time, you are losing valuable insight into things. Not only are you destroying some great relationships but you are allowing your pride to sabotage your future.

Sometimes you have to choose to be wrong even though you aren’t to maintain and keep an important relationship. You must become confident enough to accept when you are wrong, and even when you are right; sometimes, you must be willing to back down.

Holding on to someone who is pulling away from you

It is important to build a great relationship, but you need to make sure the persons or person with whom you are building that relationship are offering you the same in return. It doesn’t make sense for you to be forcing yourself to maintain a relationship with someone who doesn’t want a relationship with you. Do not waste your time trying to prove to them how wonderful you are. If they can’t see it, then that’s their bad luck. Use your time and energy to build yourself up and find someone who will treat you right.

Loving others more than you love yourself

It is fine to love others, but you must remember if you do not invest into yourself no one else will. It is alright to give to others, but you need to be giving to yourself as well. There is nothing wrong with loving yourself and taking the time make sure you are being taken care of.

You won’t be able to take care of others if you aren’t well. The only way you can do that and give them your best is if you give yourself the best as well. Do not let anyone make you feel guilty for loving yourself and who you are. You can only be happy if you are happy with yourself.

Being too self-absorbed

You cannot spend your life focusing on you and not take some time to lend a helping hand to someone else. Being kind is what will help to make you happy. Giving to someone who needs it is what is going to make you smile on a bleak day. Being kind is what will make you feel as though you are contributing to human lives.

Expecting that people will always like you

You have to understand that not everyone is going to like you and want to be around you. People aren’t going to be nice to you all the time, and you must accept that and move on. Do not waste your time trying to convince them to love you. Accept the love from people who want to show it to you and forget the others.

Refusing to let go of the past

Letting go of hurt and pain is necessary for you to be happy. You cannot be holding on to things that you no longer have control over while trying to build something new. You must be willing to let bygones be bygones and leave them where they are. They are in the past for a reason; they should no longer be part of your life. Stop picking back up old pain and burdens that have weighed you down for so long. Rid yourself of them and move one.

Waiting for the right time to be happy

Happiness is not an event; nor do you have to achieve any specific goals to be happy. You must be happy where you are while working to get where you want to go. You should not be waiting around for some great accomplishment before you can be happy.

If you can’t be happy with little, you will not be able to be happy with much either. Choose to be happy now while working on achieving the goals you set for your life.

Life is filled with ups and downs, and you must be prepared to adjust to make your life as happy as possible and that includes making some changes. Even though you might not want to do so, you must realize that the temporary discomfort is good for you in the long run.

Accept these changes in your life and you will see the results you have always wanted.

Noise and news

The Fed hike came and went, and showed investors that a surprise that is anticipated is no surprise at all. When there's too much noise, it's best to ignore it

Now, when the US Federal Reserve's long-anticipated turnaround on interest rates is behind us, it's easy to be optimistic about its immediate effects on the financial markets. Precious little happened, and whatever did was just a weak version of whatever had been predicted. Dire predictions of immediate collapse were belied around the globe, except in assets like US bonds, which have a direct relationship with US interest rates.

After seven long years at a near zero level, US interest rates are finally heading up. The idea behind the doom saying was that emerging market stocks are held up by the vast amount of almost free money that is being poured into the global economy by the US central bank. When the flow of free money is turned off, then asset prices that were boosted up by it will surely reverse direction.

After all, there is a precedent for this. Back in mid-2013, when the then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke first hinted at shutting off the flow (the infamous 'tapering'), there was a wave of panic around the world as stocks, bonds and currencies collapsed. The rupee had a torrid time, declining by 21 percent in four months, it's slide being halted only by some emergency measures as well as the soothing presence of Raghuram Rajan moving into the corner office at the Reserve Bank. Finally, the tapering caper ended only when Bernanke backed off and postponed the taper.

The worry from that whole episode was that when the Fed finally starts to actually tighten the money, there would be carnage around the world, especially in emerging market stocks. That conclusion was obvious, yet wrong. Nothing much happened, and looking at the larger picture, nothing dire should have.

However, the right conclusion to draw from this entire episode--starting with the first talk of tapering to the actual tightening now, is not that anything is improving or worsening or on the mend but that these ups and downs will continue. Investors should treat them as nothing more than noise, and pay attention only to what they themselves have to do. The biggest bane of investors' life is to mistake noise for actual information. During events like the fed hike and the run up to it, the signal-to-noise ratio is even worse than usual. They are no worse or no better than before. Fundamentally guided investors feel that they must stay rooted to the reality of what is happening. Sometimes, this results in paying too much attention to the big picture. However, the big picture is not always relevant. Sometimes, the individual trees are more important than the forest.

Good companies are good investments in bad times too and conversely, bad companies are terrible investments even in apparently good times. Back in 2006 and 2007, when it seemed that little could ever go wrong with the India story, many of us enthusiastically invested in those infra and real estate names that turned out tobe worthless. That's because the noise convinced us that the good times would continue. Now, in the weeks preceding the Fed reversal, the noise may have convinced you to do the opposite. Neither makes much sense.

It's no one's case that these events do not have any impact. However, it's impossible for the individual investor to map them sensibly to any action that they can take. We've had a string of these alarms over the last few years, emanating from various crisis around the globe. There's none where the obvious response has eventually proven to be anything but a counterproductive kneejerk reaction. Eventually, this reversal--and the changes driving it--will also play out one way or another. But for the time being, there's nothing to do but ignore the noise.

Happily ever after, financially

What newly- weds Should do to smoothly integrate their incomes, expenses, financial values and risk appetites When two people with different attitudes towards money come together, defining common goals and forging a single path towards achieving those can be a challenge. But such newly- wed couples can plan for a financially secure future. A new couple’s financial situation changes from their bachelor days. If the wife also works, the combined income becomes substantial. If they live with the boy’s parents, they can save a lot. If both partners lived on rent before marriage, they can save by paying only one rent now. But, if they were living with parents and now move into a house of their own, their expenses rise and there is lesser scope for saving. While people do save and invest prior to marriage, it is rarely done with specific goals in mind. After marriage, a new sense of responsibility and urgency goads couples to invest for specific goals. After marriage, two people with different levels of risk appetite come together. One might have come from a background where a family member lost money in the stock markets. Another could belong to a family that owes its wealth to the employee stock options.  If the two partners have markedly different attitudes towards risky assets, a reconciliation of different levels of risk tolerance needs to take place. Let us see how couples need to work together on different facets of their financial lives. Savings: A newly- wed couple should aim to save and invest 20 per cent of their take- home salary. They should use the period between marriage and the arrival of a child to create a corpus. Expenses: When you live independently, you can spend according to own whims and fancies. Now, you must take your spouse’s attitudes into consideration. Loans: If there is an education loan, continue the  EMIs instead of pre- paying, provided the EMI is not too large. Tax deduction without any upper limit is available on interest repaid ( under Section 80E) on this loan. When buying a car, they shouldn’t buy the most expensive one they can afford, based on their combined loan eligibility.  Take only the loan amount you are eligible for based on one partner’s salary and for a tenure of three years. Avoid buying too many consumer durables on  EMI. If you plan to take a housing loan, aim to pay it off within eight years. Life insurance: While the husband usually takes adequate life insurance, the wife is often not covered sufficiently. The couple should buy enough, based on a calculation of human capital value and to cover various goals and responsibilities. After marriage, couples should define their responsibilities towards their spouse and children (yet unborn) on the one hand and towards dependent parents and siblings on the other. Based on these needs, they should buy adequate insurance and also nominate different categories of beneficiaries clearly, to ensure that in an eventuality, the money goes to the person it was intended for. Extra term insurance should be purchased to cover the liability from a home loan. Health insurance: After marriage, get your spouse’s name added to the health cover provided by your employer. Earlier, if you had an individual policy, shift to a family floater. Shift your parents to individual policies with adequate sum insured. Including them in your floater will make it expensive. Investing: The process of finalising goals can at times lead to friction. Financial security might be a priority for one; another could be ambivalent. If one partner is debt averse, she/ he might want to settle for a smaller house, while another could be game to take on a big loan and buy a bigger house. A financial planner can help reconcile conflicting goals, also ensuring that goal setting is structured and the implementation is thorough.  Couples should save for near- term goals in low- risk to medium- risk instruments like fixed deposits and short term bonds. If there is still some surplus left, couples should invest for long- term goals like a child’s higher education or marriage and their own retirement. Even small amounts saved towards these goals can result in a large corpus over time. Begin with low- risk instruments like Public Provident Fund, and then move to a combination of large- and mid- cap mutual funds. FIVE DO’ S FOR NEWLY- WEDS Try to save about 20 per cent of take- home salary Continue the EMI on education loan to avail tax benefit Ensure both husband and wife have sufficient term cover Add spouse to your employer’s health cover Try to optimise the tax benefit available on health cover FIVE DON’ TS Don’t spend on things your spouse might regard as wasteful Avoid the high leverage you are eligible for on combined salary Avoid too much personal, credit card and consumer durable loans Don’t include parents in your floater health cover Don’t exclude spouse’s risk appetite when investing Making the financial bond stronger

Kochi- the most preferred Indian city to live

They have named Kerala as God’s own country for real good reasons!

It seems that the clichéd statement of India being a land of paradox never goes out of fashion! The exponential growth of its  rapid economic development hasn’t done much in managing the contradictions.

A survey has now revealed that cities such as Gurgaon, which are the most preferred places to earn a living are not the best places to live! This interesting data surfaced during the research conducted by the economics research firm Indicus Analytics on residences, earnings and investments. Paradoxically none of the top ten cities that offer the greatest career opportunities feature in the list of top ten Indian cities to live! Six vital parameters including health, education, environment, safety, public facilities and entertainment were taken into account while preparing the  index of cities that are conducive for living.  Whereas the list of cities that offered the maximum earning potential was based on growth rate of employment, per capita income and listings on popular job websites.

Interestingly the  four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai did not fall in either of the two lists as these failed to feature in the list of ten best cities to reside, earn or invest! Nonetheless, these bustling metros were listed  among the cities preferred by the deep pocketed elite class  to spend their life.

The top 10 places, which offer the best employment opportunities include  Gurgaon, followed by Silvaasa, Noida, Faridabad, Rupnagar, Chandigarh, Surat, Bangalore, Gandhinagar and Pune. The best cities to live are Kochi, Kozhikode, Shimla,Thiruvananthapuram, Mysore, Goa, Thrissur, Pondicherry, Kannur and Thiruvalur.  The fact that  five of these cities are in Kerala, should be a matter of pride for any Malayalee though it could have come as a rude shock for many considering the pathetic state of affairs.

INVEST AND  LIVE  IN KOCHI , IN STYLE
WORLD CLASS, FOR THE HIGH NETWORTH
FOR QUICK RESPONSES , KINDLY CONTACT 9446022394

Sobha Isle, world class apartments in Kochi

Sobha Ltd.’s First Project in Cochin, “Sobha Isle” is aptly named as it is the first Island Home project of Kochi, which combines Urban living with astounding water views, greenery and pristine nature.

Coming up on a very beautiful and scenic island ,Silversand Island in Vytila, this project offers world class modern living amenities to its occupants. The privilege of driving thru a dedicated bridge to your exquisite home gives a new meaning to Exclusive Living.

Centrally located in Cochin City , Sobha Isle is just 800m from Vytila junction, which is one of the largest as well as the busiest intersections in Kerala. Vyttila hosts the Kochi Mobility Hub, which is a single node for different ways of surface transport, namely; local and long distance buses, Metro Rail and inland water transport.

Sobha Isle features world-class amenities with a state-of-the-art Club house, a landscaped podium with a Swimming pool, Gym, Children’s play area, Fishing Deck at the Bank of the River, and a plethora of indoor and outdoor games which cater to all the interests and hobbies of our customers.

Amenities Included

  

1.     At the podium level there will be a Club House and Swimming Pool

2.     Indoor badminton court

3.     Indoor squash court

4.     Table Tennis

5.     Billiards Room

6.     Card Carom and Chess room

7.     Gym, Yoga and Aerobics

8.     Hobby Room

9.     Association Room

This project is indeed going to be one of the finest living spaces of Kochi, where one can live an urban life in harmony with nature.

Kindly contact for more details : 
P.Rajendran.
+ 91  9446022394,
EMail: rightthiruvalla@gmail.com

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Holding on to perpetual losers

A lot of investors tend to hang on to poorly performing investments for far too long

Investment advisors' commonest lament is that investors are not patient with their investment. Investors buy and sell too often, and have an excessively short-term perspective. However, this is an impression that is primarily true of equity investors. Equity investors tend to sell their holdings for three possible reasons:

one: they've made a loss,

two: they've made a profit, and

three: they've made neither a loss nor a profit.

However, mutual fund investors seem to be guilty, if anything, of the reverse sin. There are far too many investors who hang on to mediocre funds for long periods of time, losing large chunks of potential returns.

Does that mean that investors should be trigger-happy about getting out of their investments? Not really. It means that most of us who invest in mutual funds need to distinguish short-term declines or underperformance from long-term poor performance.

When we look at the assets being managed by equity funds, they naturally mirror the long-term performance of those funds. In general, funds that have done well have had good inflows and are thus managing a large amount of money, and vice versa. The interesting thing is that there are lot of anomalies to this. There are funds that are doing badly but have a lot of money to manage. Mostly, they are funds that have done well for extended periods of time in the past so have a set faithful investors who are hanging in. That makes sense.

However, there are many funds that have never done well, have always lagged the markets as well as their peers and yet have thousands of crores of assets. The building up of these assets can be attributed to salesmanship, but the blame for its sustenance must go to investors who are not paying attention to their money. A lot of us have investments we are ignoring but which are bleeding potential returns. Investors need to weed out non-performers from their portfolios.

Understanding Your Investing Fears

The biggest fear of investing comes from losing a lot of money in the short-term. The bigger fear should be reaching retirement age and not having enough.

Consider a risk-averse investor buying low-yielding but relatively safe investments like short-term bonds or   investing in fixed deposits that return about 9 % over time.

Compare this with the returns of  investing Rs 5000.00 a  in Systematic Investment Plan (SIP). After 25 years of investing Rs 60000 per year, the safe investor earning 9 % will have just a simple interest returns  whereas the SIP investor will have Rs 15 Lakhs in his fund. It is just the power of compounding.

Investing in the market might be the only way to reach your long-term financial goals. The bond /FD  investor in this example may come up far short of their retirement goals due to being too conservative.

Tricks to Getting Over Your Stock Market Fears

Here are a few tricks to get you past the fear of investing:

Combat fear with knowledge –

Learn how the markets work. Read about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Come up with a simple investment strategy (sometimes called an “Investor Policy Statement”).

Make the leap into investing –

When you start investing, the amount you can lose is relatively small. Learn through experience how much you can stand to lose (your “risk tolerance”).

Keep learning about investments and refine your strategy –

 It’s okay to change strategies if you realize you made a mistake early on in your investing career.

Commit to long-term investments –

Don’t judge your own investment performance after a month or a year. Stocks are long-term creatures and sometimes take a while to mature. 

Don’t let temporary losses bother you too much – 

You are not investing the cash you need to survive tomorrow or next month. The fear of investing can be hard to overcome. No one likes to lose money, even if it’s just temporary.

Making that first leap into the market may bescary. But “it’s scary” is not a good excuse to avoid investing altogether.

Overcoming the fear of investing

Investing is the most important element of our financial future — but sometimes it takes a while before we really get it, so to speak.

Biggest success factor: Pull the trigger

There are many reasons why investing believers have not turned into investing doers. These two come immediately to mind:

·         They don’t think they have enough money.

·         They have fears about inflation or other extraneous factors they can’t control, and so forth.

Those reasons may sound valid, but no matter how valid the reasons sound, they still don’t remove the simple fact that, if you don’t invest now (and you continue not to invest), you will discover somewhere down the road that retirement is not an option for you.

Action reinforces action

The biggest single factor for your future financial well-being is simply to start investing. The human mind is wired in such a way that, once we begin with something, we acquire an emotional attachment to it , and we will make significant sacrifices to keep that thing going, whatever it is. It may be allegiance to a political party or figure, a cause, or values like eating correctly, respecting the environment, and, of course, getting rich slowly.

Our minds will continuously reinforce the positions we take: the people who don’t invest might nod their heads sagely and agree that investing is essential to their future financial health … and continue on without investing.

How do you break the inaction mindset?

The key to success, therefore,  is to simply break the bad habit/mindset and replace it with the healthier one. The biggest thing holding people back from getting started on their investing careers is very simple: They just don’t know how to get started.

To get started, you need  two things:

1. Knowledge

The more you learn about any subject, from exercise to investing, the less intimidating it becomes. More knowledge also adds mental ammunition to take the jump and stay on course, all the way to retirement. Also, the more knowledge you have, the more assurance you will feel that you’re not making obvious mistakes. There are many resources, free and paid, to learn more about investing.

2. Simply setting aside money

Interviews with people who successfully turned their financial lives around show that success started with scaling back our lifestyles and making a simple, yet firm, decision to set aside money for the future. It’s like the old Nike ad: JUST DO IT

Making the decision to cut back is the hard part. Once you have done that, you get to the choice of where to put that money you set aside each month.

Play to your strengths

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to investing, whether it be for retirement or any other future purpose. The point is: Figure out who you are and what you’re comfortable with, and go with that. Consider all the options and pick one or two investments that resonate with you.

Future flexibility

One of the beauties of investing, too, is that you are never locked in. You can change your allocations to include more savings. When you invest, you’re never locked in. You can always change as you go along and learn more.

But you’ll never have that flexibility if you have nothing invested.

There is no way you will enjoyretirement or financial freedom later in your life if you don’t invest.