Tool Kit | wealthymatters

Renting Textbooks

September 23, 2014 2 Comments

wealthymatters We in India are fortunate in that many publishers have subcontinent editions of textbooks that are priced less than their international counterparts.

Its only when we go to the US, in pursuit of higher education, that we have to face the steep costs of textbooks, especially when we are on a budget due to limitations on the foreign exchange allowance allotted to us and the weakness of the Rupee. Xeroxed and cyclostyled study materials are not so common in the US, where it is seen as theft of intellectual property.

A smart saving option, under these circumstances, is to rent text-books, at least those you don’t plan on using extensively or keeping with you for any length of time. By doing so you can save 40-90% off of bookstore prices. You can use a service such as campusbookrentals.com which offers free shipping both ways of your rented books, flexible renting periods and allows you to highlight in the textbooks you rent, i.e. use them exactly as if you owned these books. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Tool Kit Tagged with byr back options, making money by renting out your textbooks, postaday, renting textbooks, saving in college, saving on education costs, saving on textbooks, selling your tect books

Binary Options Trading

September 23, 2014 Leave a comment

wealthymatters Are you looking for a way to increase your money on the side? Perhaps you’re already doing pretty well in life: Your business is bringing in a fair amount of money, your stock market investments are doing well, you’re driving a very nice car and you’re even using a high end dating service. However, you know that complacency is the enemy. If you do not go out and work hard to maintain your success, it could fade. You want to keep making money in all possible avenues so that you can be more successful every year. If so, you should know about binary options trading.

Basically, this is a type of trading that works with the Forex, or foreign exchange, market. You can also trade with commodities, indices, and even stocks, but not as heavily. Most of it is centered around the exchange market, looking at the currency pairings and seeing how they move up or down in value when compared to one another. This is a multi-billion dollar industry, turning over far more money every year than the stock market, so you know that you can make money if you know what you’re doing. In fact, maybe you’re already active in forex trading. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with asymmetric risk reward ratio, binary options, binary options trading, commodity trading, forex, forex trading, index trading, postaday, stock trading, win no matter what happens

Investing In Solitaires

September 17, 2014 Leave a comment

wealthymatters While the BSE Sensex, the country’s equity benchmark, and gold prices rose 68% and 70%, respectively, since 2010, the price of one carat of high quality solitaire has doubled during the same period to around Rs4 lakh from close to Rs2 lakh, that too without any wild swings. And there is the added advantage of being able to flaunt them.

A solitaire is priced anywhere between Rs75 lakh to Rs 20,000,depending on its weight and other parameters. There are some 123 factors that diamond sellers follow around the world. The major ones that determine the price of a diamond are its colour, clarity, cut and carat. A flawless diamond with a certificate from an international lab is considered the best quality. This last point is the most important. You will find a lot of cheaper stones with local certificates.

If you sell an old solitaire, with a certificate of authenticity from an international lab, jewellers across the country offer 90% of its prevailing market price.

Filed under Alternative Assets, Tool Kit Tagged with investing in diamonds, investing in gemstones, investing in solitaires, postaday

Investing In Unlisted Shares

September 17, 2014 15 Comments

wealthymatters If you’d like to be part of the action and excitement of various start-ups, you can consider investing in unlisted shares. But there are a few challenges to overcome and difficulties to bear up to.

Since these companies are unlisted, very little financial information is available. Also, because there’s no formal platform to trade these shares, the demand-supply situation varies and the price at which deals are struck are a function of the quantity, demand-supply situation and the sentiment prevailing in the secondary markets.

Unlike listed stocks, the unlisted space has few brokers and trades are made through known sources.Often, a broker accumulates small lots of shares from employees who have earned them as ESOPs, or from investors who have bought earlier and are looking for an exit. Once the broker has a sizeable chunk of shares, typically worth more than Rs 1 crore, it’s offered to HNIs.

Unlike listed shares, where a holder can exit through the stock exchange, liquidity is poor in unlisted companies. You would have to look for an IPO or another buyer. Read more of this post

Filed under Paper Assets, Tool Kit Tagged with investing in shares, investing in unlisted shares, postaday, stock investing, unlisted shares

The Grim Side Of Foreign M&As

September 17, 2014 Leave a comment

Yes, there is the successful take-over of JLR by Tata Motors, but most of India Inc’s big-ticket overseas acquisitions in the past five to seven years have,eroded wealth. The reasons for this range from high leverage taken to acquire a company , adverse changes in business cycle, or simply , failure to turn around a loss-making unit.

Tata Steel-Corus

Tata Steel acquired Corus, four times its size, for $12.04 billion in 2006. The valuation was more than one and-a half times its initial offer and was paid mainly through debt. Eight years down the line, Corus hasn’t contributed much to Tata Steel’s earnings. The European business was loss-making till FY13 and has not yet shown strong signs of a turn around.

Hindalco- Novelis

Hindalco acquired Canadian company Novelis for $6 billion in 2007, making the combined entity the world’s largest rolled-aluminium producer. However, the high leverage, resulting from the acquisition and the slowdown in aluminium demand, post acquisition, have led to the company’s stock stagnating at the same level, adding nothing to its value. Read more of this post