Rent A Villa Abroad

March 22, 2014 Leave a comment


wealthymattersI love to travel.But organized tours and business hotels are not really my thing.The strict timetables of the former and the sameness of the latter take away from my enjoyment of a place.The over the top luxury of the top end  hotels of the Dubai variety,is exciting but not always restful and pretty soon budget too becomes an issue.

Personally my best experiences have come from family managed inns and motels.Not only have they been extremely pocket friendly but the rooms and their decor refuse to fade into a sameness in my memory.The personalities of the staff and their knowledge have helped me get more out of my holidays.And often the food they served or the take-away they recommended has turned out to be more satisfying than 5 star fare.

Today I came across PPA villa properties.This website is a great place to look for lodging options if you wish to enjoy a leisurely vacation in France,Italy,Spain,Switzerland,North Africa or Thailand.The website lists properties in these counties region-wise along with the facilities available on them and the number of guests who can comfortably share the premises.You can search through these properties according to your weekly budget and the time of the year you wish to travel.

Renting these villas is a great idea if you are travelling with your family,especially your extended family or a bunch of friends.This way,you can enjoy greater privacy and space at a fraction of the cost of staying in a luxury hotel.

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The Benefits Of Offering Multiple Payment Options

March 22, 2014 Leave a comment


wealthymatters

Many small home-based businesses, web enterprises and medium-sized companies limit their payment methods to one or two because they feel that it’s easier to process and track sales that way even though payment flexibility offers more convenience and value to their customers. However, modern technology makes multiple payment processing just as easy for and it can increase business.

Here are some reasons why offering multiple payment options can help your business:

1. People not only like choices, sometimes they need them. Analysis of shopping cart abandonment rates for online retailers shows that the major reason that consumers stop short of completing a transaction is limited payment options. Offering flexibility increases customer satisfaction and sales.

2. Using only an online payment service or only credit card payment options forces customers who don’t have one or the other to either create a new account or use a vendor that accepts their preferred payment method. Anything that sends a customer elsewhere or introduces extra steps in order for them to complete a transaction is going to affect your sales and customer relations. Read more of this post

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The World’s Biggest Life Insurance Policy

March 19, 2014 1 Comment


wealthymatters

Guinness World Records has announced the World’s Biggest Life Insurance Policy ever issued.

However,neither the record keeper nor the issuer would say who is covered by the massive policy.Dovi Frances, the adviser who arranged the policy, would only say it went to a well-known technology billionaire from California.

The wealthiest of the wealthy often buy life insurance for several reasons.Primary among them are tax purposes.In many countries,a wealthy estate is often hit with a hefty tax bill, and there may not be enough cash to cover it, since many millionaires and billionaires hold their wealth in investments.

This $201 million policy overtakes the previous record of $100 million.It is more complicated than most. It’s underwritten by 19 different insurance companies, each with a slice of less than $20 million. If a single company took the risk of the whole policy they would go into bankruptcy if a claim were to be made.

The yearly premium is in the low single-digit millions.

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Sensex Churn

March 19, 2014 Leave a comment


wealthymatters

The Sensex churns by over 50% over a 10-year period. That is to say, if we begin a decade with 30 stocks in the Sensex, by the end of the 10-year period, less than 15 of those stocks are in the Sensex. This churn ratio was below 15% in the 1980s, but has steadily risen over the last 20 years.

Moreover, compared to other large emerging markets or the West, the Indian market churns much more (eg. the Dow Jones index (US) has 23% churn, the Hang Seng (Hong Kong) 30% and the Bovespa (Brazil) 39%). So, why has the Sensex’s churn gone up so sharply in the past 30 years? And why does the Sensex (or the Nifty) churn so much more than any other large stock market in the world? Back in the days when the Licence Raj prevailed, the Indian economy was fairly ossified. Unless you turned up in New Delhi with truckload of goodies for the powers that be, your company did not go anywhere. As a result, hardly any companies entered or exited the Sensex during that era.

Then, 1991 came and Manmohan Singh unveiled his ‘New Economy Policy’. Over the next 10 years, the Sensex churned 63% as a host of stalwarts from the Licence Raj tumbled out. So out went Hindustan Motors and Premier with their vintage cars. Along with them a slew of textile companies – Bombay Dyeing, Century Textiles, Futura Polyster – also found themselves ejected from the Sensex. Among the 20-odd entrants into the Sensex were several representatives of the post-liberalisation India, including Infosys, HCL Tech, Satyam Computer, Zee Entertainment, Cipla, Dr Reddy’s, Ranbaxy and ICICI Bank. In effect, the intense churn in the Sensex reflected the revolution that the Indian economy underwent in the decade post-1991.  Read more of this post

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Investing In MNC Stocks

March 18, 2014 Leave a comment


Wealthymatters

Though MNCs shock shareholders occasionally as when they decide to delist or pay hefty royalties, they have always rewarded investors handsomely. In fact, MNCs have been wealth creators for investors across time cycles. Even in turbulent times such as the last three years ended March 14, the CNX MNC index has returned 7.93% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) against 5.55% CAGR returns generated by CNX Nifty. That is why MNC shares are good for long term investments.

There are some corporate governance issues in this space. But the management quality is good and investors  can consider MNC shares for investment with a three-year time frame.

The CNX MNC index consists of eight different sectors that fall in both — defensive and cyclical segments. Defensive include FMCG, IT and pharma whereas cyclical include metals, industrials, chemicals, consumer discretionary. Defensive MNC stocks do well on the bourses in tough economic times when the overall economic growth is anaemic. Cyclical stocks  suffer  during low-economic growth. So investors can invest in MNC cyclical stocks during downturns to harvest a gain when recovery takes place.  Read more of this post

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