Theory | wealthymatters

5 Financial Homilies To Reconsider

March 10, 2011 1 Comment

Financial advice always needs to be nuanced.What is good for one person in a certain situation many not be so good for another in a different situation. Unfortunately people are always looking for simple advice and rules of thumb.If we over-generalize on generally sane financial advice we can come to a sorry pass.

Here are some common homilies that need some reconsideration:

1. A house is always a good investment:A house is a tangible investment that you could potentially live in.You could rent it out and make some money.Maybe it will help you save tax.Maybe you could invest in one to save for retirement.Generally saving for a house to live in is good in that it gets a family to start saving.But at the time of buying a house it’s important to remember that you are buying a house and not a home.So do not go sentimental and over pay.Buying a house requires a deal of legwork and hard-headed thinking.Overpay and you will have to worry about the fluctuation in market prices.Try to buy an encumbrance-free house at a discount.It adds a greater measure of safety to your investment.Buy when the markets are down to safeguard yourself.Next how you pay for the house makes a big difference.Try to put down a large payment to save on the total interest you will pay.Shop around for a good loan if you need one.Read the fine print.Check if there is a penalty on prepayment.Lower rates matter.Also check if the interest is calculated on a declining balance.Check for hidden costs starting from the processing fee,the lawyer’s fee and structural engineer’s fee and insurance.When you consider the EMI you want to pay, don’t be too optimistic.Pay increments and bonuses might not come on time.Remember that over longer periods something is bound to go wrong.It’s the way of life.Also if you pay too much of your income into house payments you will not have any money left over to diversify into other assets and derisk your investments. Read more of this post

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Life of a Solopreneur

March 10, 2011 Leave a comment

This post was originally posted here :http://www.pluggd.in/ekla-chalo-re-story-of-a-single-founder-solopreneur-297/.It gives a good idea of what it is like to be a solopreneur and do an Ekla Chalo Re.I like the idea of starting off immediately by onself without waiting for a perfect launch.After all, a lot of ventures fail but if you never start you can never fail much less succeed.Just contain the downside risk and maximize the upside potential and begin!But do read the story of Sumeet of Kreeo before you begin.

As an entrepreneur one must be focused on being successful whether as a team or single! What is most important is starting up and getting into execution mode rather than waiting for a perfect situation (team, funds, prototype, and customers). None of your dreams will come true if you just keep dreaming and planning. You can’t learn swimming without getting into water.

Coming to the dilemma of starting up as a team (one of the most important factor for getting funding also) or a single entrepreneur. I think it has no impact on the success of your venture. You will need a leadership team for sure but it’s not important to have it in place right from the start (VCs will tell you otherwise), a team can be formed as you move on (only if you don’t need VC money). Read more of this post

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with Cranes Software, Ekla Chalo Re, entrepreneur, funding, Kreeo, leadership, MBA Goa Institute of Management, mentor, NIIT, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, Satyam, solopreneur, St Stephens, Sumeet Anand, team, VC

9 Ways To Make Money On The Stock Market

March 7, 2011 6 Comments

Here are 9 ways listed by Whitney Tilson to pick diamonds in the stock market:

1. Out-of-favour blue chips. Even the world’s greatest companies encounter problems or otherwise fall out of favor. Correctly differentiating between those suffering temporary rather than permanent issues is the key to success here. As long as the positive fundamentals of the company’s business remain intact, and new management is willing and capable of bringing the company on track buying out of favour blue chips can be very profitable.

2. Distressed industries. Buying a good company in a distressed industry is often a great way to make money.

3. Turnarounds. Turning around a broken business is difficult and often takes much longer than expected — but when it occurs, a stock can rise many-fold.

4. Overlooked small caps. Among the thousands of publicly traded stocks that analysts don’t cover are fine businesses that are cheap because either no one is paying attention to them or their stocks are thinly traded. Read more of this post

Filed under Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with activist, blue chips, cheap stocks, distressed industries, growth, growth investor, growth stocks, momentum investor, Money, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, small caps, stock investing, stock market, stock share, turnarounds, valuation, value investing, Whitney Tilson

5 Ways To Lose Money On Stocks

March 7, 2011 Leave a comment

Here are 5 situations that Whitney Tilson lists where investors can lose money:

1. The game has changed.Bargain Hunters and Bottom Fishers Beware!There’s a fine line between opportunity and trouble when a once-strong business goes into decline.

2. High and rising debt. Value investors are naturally drawn to companies in trouble — that’s what makes stocks cheap if the difficulties prove to be temporary. But too much debt can ruin even the best-planned turnaround.

3. Consumer fads. When investors extrapolate far into the future what are highly likely to be impossible-to-maintain growth levels, trouble follows.

4. Serial acquirers or mega-acquisitions. Given the research showing that a significant majority of acquisitions are value destroyers for the buyers, it’s remarkable how frequently investors get excited about roll-up stories or big acquisitions.

5. Aggressive accounting. The gray areas in accounting leave managements considerable leeway in how aggressively or conservatively to represent company operations. When a company’s accounting treatment creates more questions than answers, something is usually wrong.

Filed under Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with accounting, acquisitions, debt, fads, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, Stock Share Investing, Whitney Tilson

The Dhandho Investor

March 6, 2011 4 Comments

This book is pretty small – just a little over 200 pages.And I love it.I am naturally a bargain hunter and love shopping in sales.I also love getting high quality goods at bargain-basement prices.So It’s small wonder that I am attracted to value investing.The danger of shopping in sales is that a person picks up things they don’t have any use for or items that are not a perfect fit just because they are cheap.Then there is a danger of buying poor quality stuff just because it seems to cost so little.The same applies to buying stocks cheap.Sometimes the whole market is beaten down and all stocks seem cheap, but if I buy stocks of companies I would not normally buy because of their poor returns to investors,just because they are cheap,I am left with the problem of selling them when the market and the stock recovers.This is a problem for me personally as I have a tendency to get married to my stocks.At other times a stock sells for low P/E multiples simply because there is something fundamentally wrong with the company. Stocking up on the shares and hoping for a turn-around is pretty foolish.But I am an optimistic type and I need to force myself to turn away from such situations.Over a period of time I have found ways to control my habits.When the markets are down,I first establish a budget and then try to make a list of likely stocks and arrange them in order of attractiveness depending on Buffett-style criteria and tell myself that I’m to invest over 80% of the budget on only the top 5 of my list.I find this stops me from stocking up on not so great businesses that I might find hard to sell later.Then I have accepted the fact that I am a speculator at heart.I no longer try to fight the urge but try to use the Dhandho Principles that come pretty naturally to me to gain out of my speculative tendencies.This is a book I recommend for all investors like me who like value investing but can’t overcome the urge to speculate.

Here is a round up chapter-wise of what is found in the book:-

Chapter 1

Pabrai starts the book by discussing the term “dhandho“which is a Gujarati word meaning “business”. Gujarat is a western coastal state in India that has served as a hotbed for trade with Asia and Africa. The Patels are a community of particularly entrepreunerial Gujaratis whose entrepreneurial ventures led to them forming a dominant part of the East African economy by the early 1970s. When Asians were thrown out of Uganda in 1972 on the basis of their race, a flurry of Patel immigrants landed in Canada, England and the United States. Read more of this post