Alternative Assets | wealthymatters

Dithering Over Diamonds

January 7, 2020 2 Comments

Honestly, I love diamonds. And love coloured diamonds more.

And I have had a bit of good luck with them. In 2008,in the midst of the financial crisis, I bought a few yellows from a person with a cutting and polishing factory, who had little use for them in a market with a decided preference for the white variety. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much yellows had since then become quite the fashion ! And better yet, have the appraiser inform me that one of them was not yellow but green actually!Way rarer and pricier !

So beginners luck should be encouraging me to gamble once again…..But I find myself conflicted. Seriously conflicted. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets Tagged with Australian diamonds, coloured diamonds, DeBeers, Diamond fraud, Diamond loans, diamond price, Diamond price manipulation, Diamond Trading Company, Diamonds, Green diamonds, investing in diamonds, Investment diamonds, Lightbox, Oppenheimer, postaday, Russian diamonds, synthetic diamonds, Yellow diamonds

Taking A Personal Loan To Buy A Home

May 31, 2018 Leave a comment

wealthymatters Now the general idea is that a body takes a home loan to purchase a house and a personal loan to defray marriage related expenses ,to take that vacation in Europe etc…..

Home loans are always secured loans. So the rate of interest generally tends to be much lower than almost any category of loan. And then of course for being such a good child ,the government gives you tax breaks too ! But there are cases where a personal loan is your best way forward to become a home-owner. Consider the following cases:

1.A place like Vasai-Virar might be one of the fastest growing regions in the MMR when it comes to lower priced homes that could also potentially make great capital investments. But start making enquiries and you will start finding out that a whole lot of properties are “Collector Passing” and that apart from the odd co-operative bank or the occasional patpedhi, no home loans to purchase such properties is possible from most lenders. Moreover, the interest rates of loans from these sources makes personal loans from major banks look attractive. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with budget homes, capital appreciation, co operative bank, collector passing, construction, home loan, hostel, house purchase, housing society, land development, land investing, leave and licence, loan, lodge, MMR real estare, pagadi property, pagadi system, patpedhi, paying guest, personal loan, postaday, real estate, real estate investing, redevelopment, resale property, secured loans, unsecured loans, Vasai, Virar

Fixed Deposits And Equities In The Barbell Strategy

May 26, 2018 Leave a comment

wealthymatters

If the all the risk-reward stories of the portfolio theory mutualfundwale don’t grab you, here’s an alternative strategy for the independent investor : The Barbell Strategy.

Here’s what it involves :

Building a portfolio that recalls a barbell. That is : On one side, there’s a basket of extremely safe investments. On the other side, there’s a basket of extremely speculative plays. The weight is distributed between two extremes, with almost nothing in the middle. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Entrepreneurship, Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with alternative strategy, asymmetric risk return scenario, asymmetric risk reward ratio, Barbell Strategy, conservative, derivatives trader and arbitrageur, Fixed Deposits, hyper aggressive, hyper conservative, illiquid stocks, independent invester, mildly aggressive, minimize downside risk, multi-bagger, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, networking, postaday, risk measures, risk-reward, speculation, strategy, ultra safe, unlimited upside, unlisted shares

#XRBIA Chembur Central – Making Lavish Living Affordable

March 17, 2018 Leave a comment

wealthymatters Mumbai is a city where real estate is so expensive that a lot of people, even those who are far from poor, make do with tiny homes in old dilapidated buildings and others resign themselves to living in far off suburbs in the MMR where homes are cheaper and then suffering the inevitable long commutes into the city.

Now the problem of living so long in an environment where we train ourselves to expect less by way of lifestyle, as an inevitable compromise to get on with the business of making money in Mumbai, is that we often forget to open our minds enough to ask if this much of compromise with the quality of life of ourselves and our children is really inevitable. For those of us living a cramped life in really old houses, are there no other locations where the houses are newer and the social infrastructure comparable to those in older neighbourhoods of the city ?And for those of us commuting for hours everyday, are there no better located homes, such that long commutes are cut short and we literally find time to actually live life in the Maximum City? Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Theory Tagged with #XRBIA, affordable housing, affordable luxury, capital appreciation, Chembur, Chembur Central, connectivity, Ghatkopar, home loans, infrastructure, Investing in rental real estate, Maximum City, Mid Town Location, postaday, real estate, real estate investment, rental yields, targeted at millennials, zero documentation home loans

Beware ICO Scams

February 26, 2018 Leave a comment

wealthymatters Today the vast majority of people would find it hard to explain what block-chain, cryptocurrency, initial coin offers (icos) etc. really are. But all of them probably have read at least one media story of instant fortunes having something to do with such buzz words and quite a few people are eager to try their luck at making their own fortune.

Ignorance and greed is a deadly combination and a whole world of scamsters have jumped in to rip0ff people. Not only is the internet full of ads for initial coin offers but scam artists have bought their way into the pages of mainstream financial papers in India to talk about the success of their icos in other countries, including places like Panama.

Of all the ICOs world-wide last year, its believed that over 60% of the businesses have simply disappeared by early this year.

Its truly easy to run an ICO scam. All scamsters have to do is : Read more of this post