interest rates | wealthymatters

Of Bonds And Capital Gains

January 18, 2012 Leave a comment

wealthymatters.com For any drop in interest rates by 100 basis points, or 1%, very broadly you can see a capital appreciation of 5% on a 5-year bond, 7% on a 10-year bond and 10% on a 15-year bond.The higher the duration of the bond, the greater the capital appreciation.

Since bonds like NHAI and SBI come from the government, they track benchmark 10-year Gsec rates.The 10-year yield now stands at 8.25%. Suppose this were to drop by 100 basis points over the next one year, then it is possible that the NHAI 10-year bonds with a face value of Rs 10,000 could gain Rs 700 per bond and trade at Rs 10,700 and the 15-year bonds will trade at Rs 11,000. Thus for a 15-year bond, an investor could make a capital gain of Rs 1,000, or 10%.

However it is better to buy these bonds with an objective of holding till their maturity, and not merely for capital gains. This is because bond markets are not well developed in India and show very little activity. So, exiting many bonds could be a problem. Also there are very few products with a maturity of 10 to 15 years, hence the market prices may not reflect the true price.

Filed under Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with bond investing, bonds, capital gains, hold to maturity, interest rates, NHAI Bonds, postaday, SBI Bonds

RBI and its Repo Rates

September 28, 2011 4 Comments

wealthymatters Every time the RBI announces an interest rate change do you start wondering how it will affect the prices of your shares,how much you can get on your fixed deposits,whether it is a good time to buy bonds or bond funds,how much your EMIs will cost etc.?Then reading the following article from today’s ET is a must.It is written by Madan Sabnavis, chief economist of CARE Ratings.

Lag Effect of Rate Rise Worries Apex Bank

Every time the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increases interest rates, a plethora of voices are heard. Industry laments that their profits get squeezed affecting growth. Bankers aver that their interest margins come under pressure and non-performing assets (NPAs) get Read more of this post

Filed under Paper Assets, Theory Tagged with Fixed Deposits, interest rates, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, RBI

Economic Life,Sinking Funds,Amortization and RDs

April 22, 2011 6 Comments

Having an abundance of material resources and never having to hustle round in the last-minute to find the funds to do what we want to do is a good indicator of wealth.

I first came across the concepts of economic life,sinking fund and amortization as an engineering student.Adapted to our personal finances and business these concepts help us to always have enough money at the right time.

Economic life , a.k.a useful life is the period of actual usefulness of an asset.Beyond this period it is cheaper to replace or scrap the asset than to continue maintaining it.

A sinking fund is a reserve created by periodically setting aside certain sums in an account to replace an asset in future or to repay a liability.

Amortization refers to spreading an asset’s replacement cost over it’s economic/useful life. Read more of this post

Filed under Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with amortization, amortization calculator, asset, banks, business, capital expenditure, capital security, designer model, DIY, economic life, emerging economy, engineering student, future value, Inflation, inflation adjusted asset price, Inflation Calculator, Interest Rate, interest rates, labour, long term rate of interest, major upgrade, personal finance, post office savings instruments, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, RD, Recurring Deposit, repair, replace, resale value, reserve, scrap, scrap value, sinking fund, tax-efficient, trade in, useful life, variable rates, wage

The Yield Curve

April 6, 2011 5 Comments

The yield curve is a graph that plots the yields of similar-quality debt instruments against their maturities, ranging from shortest to longest. The yield curve is is also known as the term structure of interest rates. As yield curve shows the various yields that are currently being offered on debt instruments of different maturities it helps investors quickly compare the yields offered by short-term, medium-term and long-term debt instruments.

The yield curve can take three primary shapes. If short-term yields are lower than long-term yields i.e.the line is sloping upwards, then the curve is referred to a positive (or “normal”) yield curve. Below you’ll find an example of a normal yield curve.

5 Habits of Financially Successful People

March 9, 2011 1 Comment

Here is a piece I found while surfing at Wise Bread.com wealthymatters.com http://www.moneymanagement.org/Community/Blogs/Blogging-for-Change/2011/January/Five-habits-of-financially-successful-people.aspx Check if you have the following criteria in place if you are serious about being financially successful.

What is the true definition of financial success? Although it varies from person to person it can usually include: the ability to pay bills without worry, being free of debt, and having enough money in savings for things such as emergencies, family vacations, retirement, college funds, and more.

Being financially successful is easier said than done. There are no quick fixes or magic formulas for achieving financial success. Financially successful people understand the difference between wants and needs and how to create clear financial objectives for achieving their goals. Below are five habits of financially successful people. Read more of this post