Droplet Wealth

A friend of mine asked - How can someone buy things without debt? How is that even possible? Life is impossible without debt is what he said. This conversation kindled me to write this. Can everyone be debt free? Is it really possible? No, everyone cannot be. It's  like asking can everyone be play for Indian cricket team. Nope, only those who work hard and have the determination to play will end up playing (let keep aside the politics). Frankly speaking, it's highly impossible to be debt free in your life.  In some way or the other we will be forced towards debt at some point in time. There could be some unforseen events like health issues for which we might go for debt if not covered with adequeat health insuranse. Whereas in all other cases we are forced to take loans, and that force is not external. We look around the society and force ourselves to buy things what is not needed at all.  There is no harm in taking debt to buy a house where you will live in f...

We were worried as financial advisers about the budget. Of course the Union Budget because if the budget was perceived to the be good then the markets would rally and our investors will not get discounts on their Investments. Discounts are always good, Who knows it better than you guys! The fact is good business shall always thrive irrespective of the budget and when we choose to invest in equities we invest in businesses that will do well in future. Note that we have used the word "Perceived". Again most of the govt policies being good or bad are perceptions of the people. A good businessman would identify each of them as an opportunity. A classic example is Titan which when was forced to import Gold due to "Govt Policies", it started Tanisq and today Tanisq is one of the largest contributor to Titan's Profits.  So now lets look at the Budget from the view it would affect us.  1. As a (Citizen) Owner of the Country and  2. As a (investor) Owner of the Comp...

We just put up a whats app status and One of the replies inspired us to make that into a blog.  Of course, like with all things @ Droplet, this one is not related to Superficial things like Budget/macro economics. So if you want to know our feedback on this year's budget, here it is -  ---N-----O-------C-----O-------M------M--------E---------N---------T-------S--- It is that. Because, in our fiefdom of Personal Finance, such things do not matter. Well then, let us use this opportune time to turn your attention to a more important budget, that is your  P ersonal budget .  Below are a few simple things that you should deliver on if you are want to make your country (ie., Family) Rich, Prosperous & Wealthy.  1. Earnings - Make sure you have an active Income and work to increase that income by 10% every year. Improve you skill sets, shift jobs, start a part time venture, do anything (legal) and try to increase your income by 10% year on ...

        So we promised we will suggest a different (better) way of Direct equity investing in our previous blog . Here we are with our simple thoughts. Read on Build your Capital  1. Give yourself an 8 year time period. Well, the obvious question then would be "Don't stock markets make people rich in quick time?" Not really. One would have "made" the money in one year but by staying invested for decades. 2. In that 8 year period build your capital by saving in products that are exposed to stock markets. aka Equity Mutual funds. 3. Why Equity Funds and not something else? That is because, this will give the experience of "Market Volatility" + compound your capital at a better rate.  That's only about capital. So how about the knowledge?  Built your Knowledge 4. During this 8 year period, Start reading books relating to investing.  5. Based on what you read, Pick the Stocks and make a note of the reasons for your buying ...

Read this interesting  article last week and thought of sharing it with all our readers. A client shared this story with us: It started at the grocery store. Every time we were shopping, my older son, then eight years old, would bug me to buy him a certain cereal he’d seen advertised on morning TV. The same thing would happen when we passed a toy store. He’d beg me for highly advertised action figures.  I realized it was time to teach him about how businesses work and decided that the stock market might be a fun way to do that.  We started small. I told him he could buy the stock of any company he wanted—so long as he paid with his allowance or with money received as a gift. I’d match his funds.   Of course, he was drawn to companies he could relate to: computer stocks, Manchester United, and the like. When we ate in a restaurant he liked, he started asking if it had stock, and if so, how we could invest.  Our stock market game not only t...

A lot of us know mutual funds invest in Stock Markets. Stock markets aka  Equities aka   share markets aka companies. So a simple thought that comes to our mind, why not invest in shares by ourselves. The self-realization that we are smart than others props this thought to the next level and we commit. If not this then the greed of becoming Wealthy soon props this thought. If not now, then at some point it will. So you are caught and our job as advisors is to help you escape. Let us caution you - The very purpose of this post is not to Frighten you from Stock Markets but to frighten those who think stock market is a place to become filthy rich over night by investing based on a random tip. Read on. We have for now kept the legends who take personal loans and invest in the stock market away. We are only talking about individuals passionate about investing and want to make serious wealth by Investing in Stock Markets. By serious, we mean a number no less than a few...

C lick here to read in Tamil We know so many people that have a home loan. How much ever they try to, they still pay a minimum of 40% to 90% of principal as Interest to the lender. We delved about this and wanted to give our readers a plan that helps them reclaim the interest portion.  We have normally noticed that most of the home bought are about 40 lacs. WIth 20% down payment, the loan amount comes to 32 lacs. On a loan taken for 15 years at 8.6%, the EMI works out to be INR 31,700. If the loan is duly completed in 15 years, the total interest paid is 25 lacs. Now we have to do plan to get this 25 lacs back.   But the plan is good only if there is no extra payout that the borrower has to make. So we suggest that you extend the loan tenure to 20 years. This will save you 3,700 per month in EMI. Next, Invest the EMI savings in a good equity fund for 20 years. Let's see what happens now.  As one can see by simply managing one's investme...

There are a set of genuine standard questions shot at us from people whoever we have met so far -  Will my capital be safe? Will I seriously make money? How do you say I will make money if I stay invested for a long period? My money in a fixed deposit or LIC is always safe or at least my capital is protected.   Mutual funds are risky. So... WILL I LOSE ALL MY MONEY? This clearly indicates how fearful people are towards equity-related products. We are so tired of answering them with all the possible answers to ensure that they understand it better. Yet, the fear has not moved away. So we thought of writing a blog with an object of making everyone know what will happen to his or her money and whether MF is risky or not! Point 1 - Never put your money anywhere for a period of 20 to 25 years with the intention of protecting your capital alone.  Point 2 - By doing so, you are forcing your money to lose its value.  Point 3 - You have inve...

Everything is associated with Risk. Even NPS does. What matters the most is how long you stay invested. We read an interesting article about NPS and thought of sharing it with our readers. Read on -  Pension funds have marginal exposure to the distressed firm - Many debt funds with the mandate to invest in corporate debt securities have been left saddled with bonds issued by the indebted IL&FS and Essel group companies, resulting in a sharp erosion in their net asset values (NAVs).  While the exposure of mutual funds has been making headlines, the holdings of other investment vehicles have been largely been under the radar. A  BusinessLine  analysis shows that pension funds under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana also hold these stressed assets, albeit to a smaller extent.  Scheme-C of the National Pension Scheme invests primarily in the fixed income securities issued by corporates. The portfolios of the ‘Scheme-C’ from the tier...

You need money to make money. Alternatively, you need a disruptive idea to make money for yourself and others. Not everyone would become an entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, Gates or Zuckerberg and hence let us say one needs money to make money. That is the critical resource more than anything is for those who aspire to retire and follow your passion or live a decent life post retirement. This is the reason why we say make your money work for you the moment you start earning!                 A millennial approached us for investment with an expectation of 15% risk free returns. We said, there is risk associated with it and you should invest quite long time (5 to 7 years) and should be OK to adjust for a year or two in case of any uncertainty. And we asked, do you have any savings? NO. Any loans? YES. End of the conversation the millennial said, will get back. After a month the millennial called us and said I'm not ready to take r...

Earlier, we wrote a blog  about investing 30K and earning an income of 50K every month. Most of them might have thought that they need such a huge amount to start investing. Nothing so! At Droplet, our wish is to be all-inclusive and that constant endeavor has resulted in this blog.  I think it is relatively safe to assume that an average middle-class earner can save 5K monthly. Now next we are trying to secure this Middle-class earner's future. In the Financial world, the future is always and always 15 years after . Hence we will plan with 15 years in our mind -  Droplet Team advises that a saver should split his investments into 2 parts one. One for Security and another for Savings.  Part One - Security-   As long as you are alive your family will live in your shade. But, God forbid, Something happens to you? Who would the family lean on? That's why Droplet recommends that the breadwinner's 1t "Investment" should be in " protecting his life...

                Investing is simple but not easy. Meaning, anyone can step into a broking firm open a demat account and start investing. However, in reality not all those who have a demat account or someone professionally qualified have succeed dramatically in the equities market. If knowledge is the only required criteria then all the chartered accountants & finance professionals would have been millionaires and minting money on their investments.                When asked about investments & knowledge, Warren Buffet candidly replied – “If book knowledge made great investors, then the librarians would be all rich”. Ideally, it is the behavior, which differentiates successful investor from the rest of the world.                               ...

Very soon Google & Facebook's artificial intelligence-equipped robots will throw ads that will show you can save taxes up to Rs 46,500 on investment of 1.50 lacs under 80C. The second amount of the first sentence is enough for middle-class families to forget about tax saving forever. So for those not convinced about tax saving, let Droplet tell you a few important things about Tax Savings -  1. It helps you achieve a better rate of return irrespective of the instrument. (Ask us how you will be surprised to know the answer) 2. It inculcates the habit of savings.  3. It helps in retirement planning. (Oh! Seriously)  Ok, what we intend to inform our readers is -  1. Are they really eligible for Rs 46,500 savings on Tax 2. How much should they optimally invest to save Taxes under 80C.  Droplets has taken the example of 3 Salary profiles here and explained how much each of them can claim under 80C and what would be there Tax savings -  ...