January | 2012 | wealthymatters

Highest And Lowest Prices Of Gold

January 29, 2012 1 Comment

wealthymatters The table below is sourced from http://www.indiagoldrate.com/india-highest-lowest-gold-price-history.htm .

After crossing the 29k mark when gold fell to around 27k it was pretty scary,especially when the fall in the Rupee against the Dollar seemed to lessen the extent of the fall in gold prices.The palpable fear in the press didn’t help one bit.Personally I held back a lot round last Diwali and this New Year.Perhaps looking at the chart below might have helped a lot then. Read more of this post

Filed under Precious Metals, Tool Kit Tagged with Gold, gold price correction, gold price correction 2011, gold prices, highest gold price, Jim Rogers, lowest gold price, postaday

Auspicious Days To Buy Gold In 2012

January 28, 2012 Leave a comment

wealthymatters.com Considering buying gold?Not beyond indulging in a bit of superstition?

The following are some of the days considered auspicious for gold purchases in 2012 according to the Hindu calendar. Read more of this post

Filed under Precious Metals, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with Akshaya Tritiya, auspicious days to buy gold, Bullion, buying gold, Dhanteras, Diwali, Gold, Gold Investment, Gurupushyamrit, postaday, pushyamrit, Shradh

Gaurav Mashruwala On Teaching Kids About Money

January 25, 2012 5 Comments

wealthymatters.com Following is an excerpt from yesterday’s TOI.

A question that is frequently asked by the parents of young children is: How do we teach a child about the value of money and which is the right age to discuss the subject. The standard answer is that irrespective of their age, children today are already exposed to money-all the time, through media, through daily transactions with goods and services. Money is not just a currency of exchange, but an important factor underlying people’s lives, decisions, conversations and choices. Therefore, the child understands the power of money, says financial planner Gaurav Mashruwala. She or he starts believing that money can buy most things, especially given the onslaught of advertising. Most parents believe that exposure to money means discussing banking, investment, stocks, etc. However, money is about so much more-discipline, gratification, patience and value. In reality, there are four aspects of money-income, expenses, assets (investments) and liabilities (borrowing), says Mashruwala. A child needs to be exposed to all these aspects in a systematic manner. The right age to expose a child to money management is the day the child learns to spend money. Read more of this post

Filed under Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with bank account for kids, Budget, chocolate bank, financial planner, Gaurav Mashruwala, piggy bank, postaday, teaching kids about money

Milaap and Rang De

January 24, 2012 15 Comments

Philanthropy is of interest to me.But I have my own preferences when it comes to giving viz.:

1.When it comes to giving money I prefer to do it anonymously.When it comes to giving of skills I prefer to do it personally.

2.It is very important to me to in no way demean or belittle the recipient.

3.I want to empower people by my assistance,not cause dependency.

4.I dislike cold charity.

5.I dislike competitive giving.

6.I abhor hard selling by charities .

7.I dislike super exclusive philanthropic cliques.

8.I hate profiteering off the poor and self-serving , hypocritical philanthropy.

9.I would love to have the option to give as little or as much as I can or want without being judged.

Milaap and Rang De are my 2 new discoveries.I haven’t test driven them yet,But I promise I will blog about my experiences with them later.In the meanwhile you can find out more about these microfinance organizations from their respective websites here:http://www.milaap.org/ and http://www.rangde.org/ .In case you have wished for an Indian version of Kiva here is your chance to be a social investor.Rang De has been around for a while but Milaap is newer.So be warned and start with just what you won’t mind writing off as a mistake.I repeat I have not personally tested either site as yet.

Filed under Philanthropy, Tool Kit Tagged with anonymous giving, Charity, empower, giving, giving money, Kiva, microfinance, microfinance organizations, Milaap, Philanthropy, postaday, Rang De, social investor, social sector lending

Last Chance ELSS

January 22, 2012 Leave a comment

wealthymatters.com ELSS =Equity Linked Savings Scheme ,is a special category of mutual funds that invest predominantly in stocks. They are very comparable to diversified equity funds. The only differences between regular diversified equity funds and ELSSs are the 80C tax benefits on investments upto 1 lakh and the lock-in period of 3 years,incidentally the least among all 80C tax-saving avenues. It means that once you invest in an ELSS , you cannot withdraw your investment for a period of 3 yearsHowever,the DTC proposes to phase out the tax breaks on ELSS , so this avenue may be closed in the coming years.But, you can still invest in it this year and get tax breaks.

The best ELSSs have not done too badly during downturns and have given excellent returns in boom times.The reason has been the lock-in period. These funds have not suffered due to large scale redemptions when the market sentiments have tanked.Moreover, fund managers keep a portion of the mutual fund corpus, around 7-10%, as cash,even in good times, so that they can meet all redemption requests. This cash is invested in very short term debt investments, generating meager returns. This impacts the overall returns of the mutual.Since the fund manager of an ELSS knows that funds cannot be withdrawn for 3 years, he can invest all the funds in equities and keep less money as cash and provide good returns in the long term. Read more of this post