India's next big investment story

Who is going to script India's next big investment story?

The flamboyant Rocky:

The elusive Professor?:

The confident Porinju?:

Well it is going to be:

The common man (and family of course!)

Investments in equities and debentures has gone up by 72% Year on Year according to the RBI.

In absolute terms it has increased by more than 38,000 crores.

However one needs to wait and watch to see whether this is a temporary phenomenon driven by the buoyant performance of the stock markets or have the Indian households starting understanding the value of investing in equity.

Useful Apps for those visiting India

Planning a trip to India?

The following apps will make life easy for you:


OLA/UBER:

Download either Ola or Uber (in case you don't already have it) once you reach India.
Ola is an Indian version of Uber.
Don't know what Uber is?
Well...

The international airport has Wi-Fi
But I would recommend you to download both.
It would be a breeze to travel from the airport to your hotel or Air BnB accomodation.
You also don't need to argue about the fares with local taxi drivers.

Flipkart/Amazon

Both sell almost everything
Right from underwear to mobile phone.
Oh wait...
Flipkart doesn't sell Kindle :P

Myntra/ABOF

In the mood to buy fashionable clothes?
Here are two websites which will help you out

Pepperfry/Urbanladder/Furlenco

Staying in India for longer?
Rented a house?
Buy furniture from Pepperfry or Urbanladder
Or better still, rent it from Furlenco!

Bigbasket

You can order groceries and other household essentials

OLX/Quikr

Indian version of Craiglist.
Online classifieds websites.
Better still, they can even offer you free courier service

Makemytrip/Cleartrip

Will help you book hotels and airline tickets

99acres/Magicbricks

Feel free to either rent or buy a house.
Apart from these two websites which will be helpful to buy a house, you can also check out Housing.com.

The power of Rs 500

Spending Rs 500 (About $8) per month isn't a big deal for most people reading this post.

Once a month, you can do the following with it:

a) Eat at a fast food place

b) Shop for a book or a tshirt on Amazon

c) Go for a couple of movies

d) Get about 4 pints of Heineken

Yeah sure, all of them make you happy.

Satiate your craving.

Over ten years, you may have end up spending 500x12x10 = Rs 60,000 (Not counting inflation)

At the end of the day, will you take all this money to your grave?

Now let us see what happens when you invest this amount through SIP in a mutual fund:

a) At 12% over ten years, your corpus would be worth - Rs 1.16 lakhs

b) At 15% over ten years, your corpus would be worth Rs 1.39 lakhs

c) At 20% over ten years, your corpus would be worth Rs 1.9 lakhs

d) At 25% over ten years, your corpus would be worth Rs 2.66 lakhs

At the end of the day, will you take all this money to your grave?

So would you trade that moment of happiness to sacrifice for the future?

You can also check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDvdy7bKjEc

Useful tips for sales newbies

A salesperson is the lifeline of any business.
Some of these behavioral traits take years of experience to learn and more importantly - practice.

However the sooner they are implemented, the faster is your progress.

Here are some tips:

a) Be on time Or Inform the your prospect/client that you will be late -

Ahh yes.. Germans, North Americans, Japanese and individuals of most other nationalities are always on time. However most of us Indians are yet to adopt this way of life wholeheartedly. And what if you are a resident of Mumbai? You are almost, always late! Even though you may be rushing all the time.

Well coming back to title - try as much as possible to be on time. Prioritize your work, set your watch half an hour in advance and do not procrastinate. If all these fail, inform the other party that you will be late and therefore are giving them an option of rescheduling the meeting. There are two benefits - You will avoid stress and your prospect's time would not be wasted.

b) Always share minutes of the meeting with all the appropriate participants -

'The faintest ink lasts longer than the sharpest memory'
Got the point?

Apart from ensuring none of the points are missed there is another advantage.
Imagine that the decision maker is absent in the meeting and you are meeting his minions.
Either because of Chinese whispers or unscrupulous behavior, your message is not delivered in its original form to their master.
Your entire case would be defeated!

DON'T LET THE SNEAKY MINION WIN-

Document everything and let everyone know what happened!




c)  Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Hahahaha..

I know. It is inappropriate. But couldn't help it!

Okay, here is the one:

Most important message for a salesperson.

Even if you know the CEO/Founder/Director/Decision maker of the company, you must try to know more people. This has the following benefits:

• People move. If they like you, they will remember you. They will call you. They might give you business. Result - You create a strong network.
• You would get different perspectives. Suppose ten different people in the same company refuse to buy your product. And each gives a different reason. This is nothing but market research gold mine. If the feedback is genuine you would get great insights on your product, competitors and real needs.
• Read the last few words of the image? ..said basket has a hole. What if the person you are talking to has integrity issues? Is being bribed by a competitor. Hence keeps saying no to you..

So what are you waiting for?

Spend less than 180 £ a day and live lavishly in Mumbai

Having lived in Mumbai for 30 years, I thought of writing a post just for those from UK who are planning to holiday in the Maximum City.

Inspite of being the most expensive Indian city for expats, a visitor from UK can spend almost a week over here and be treated like royalty.

The best time to visit Bombay..oops!... Mumbai is between December and February. During this time, the city is blessed with pleasant weather. Rest of the year is spent oscillating between sweltering heat and the famed yet difficult monsoon.

Let us assume  you plan to arrive on 12th of Jan and depart on 17th of Jan.

Booking a room: Since this is a popular time for tourists to arrive, the room rates are costlier. Among the options, I would recommend Vivanta by Taj just for their delicious breakfast buffet at Tratoria! The stay would cost would be between 700 and 800 pounds depending on the hotel you choose.

Intracity travel: I would recommend you download Uber or Ola App or both as soon as you land in the city. The drivers won't find it easy to fleece you and the vehicle would be in a fair condition. For Uber, the fare estimate is given here. Which means if you wish to travel from Taj Vivanta at Cuffe Parade to Haji Ali (approximately the distance from Brent Cross to Manchester Square), it would cost you approximately Rs 200 (2 pounds) in a Uber X category vehicle.

Places to visit: Oh, there are many (Will be dedicating a seperate post for this)! Apart from Haji Ali which I wrote about, you must also visit Gateway of India, Jehangir Art Gallery at Kala Ghoda (Mumbai's art district),Nehru Centre in Worli (which has a beautiful section called Discovery of India that takes you through how India has changed over several centuries), Mannat+Jalsa (if you are curious about Bollywood), Navi Mumbai (Navi Mumbai literally means New Mumbai) and Malabar Hill. Inclusive of food, you won't be spending more than 25 pounds a day (assuming 2 adults)

In fact here are some off beat things you can do in Mumbai: https://www.thrillophilia.com/places-to-visit-in-mumbai#offbeat things to do in mumbai

Easy way to predict the corpus you can create

Not investing in mutual funds through SIPs yet?
New investor in SIPs?
Keen to know the value of your mutual fund corpus after a few years?

Use this simple calculator

For instance, if you invest Rs 5000 per month for 5 years and assume growth of 15% year on year, your corpus would be worth Rs 4.48 lakhs.

Happy investing!

How to shop during GOSF

(Source: http://www.medianama.com/wp-content/uploads/GOSF.png)

So GOSF (Google Online Shopping Festival) is just a day away.

GOSF was started in 2012 in India on lines of Cyber Monday.

This is how GOSF has grown through the years:

2012

• Held on 12/12/12
• Partnered 90 e commerce websites
• Received bad feedback

2013

• Held between December 11th and 13th and got extended to 14th December
• Partnered with 250+ e commerce websites
• According to Google, partners had sold out stock within 15 hours of going live 
• Attracted 2 million users
• Performed extremely well for participating companies (Example: Tata Value Homes sold more than 50 apartments in 4 days!)

2014

• Will be held from December 10th to December 12th (3 days)
• 450 companies participating

Here are a few ways by which you can make most of this as a shopper:


1) Make a list:

(Source: http://www.memecenter.com/search/list)

One cannot underestimate the usefulness of making a list. Create a list of products you want to buy. This will ensure you only focus on buying the products you need and avoid impulsive purchases.


2) Allocate a budget:


(Source: http://dravenmade.blogspot.in/2014_01_01_archive.html)

Cannot get simpler! Allocate a budget and you won't over spend!


3) Patience:


(Source: http://car-memes.com/patience-meme/)

You must be patient enough to browse through all the deals being offered. Getting a really good deal is like finding out a needle in a haystack. So allocate a couple of hours for only discovering the appropriate deal.


4) Check out the Rs 299 section:

Branded products priced between Rs 600 and Rs 1500 will be sold for Rs 299. Products will be delivered free of charge and COD option will also be available.


5) Be Aware:

Don't get drowned out by all the noise surrounding the GOSF. Keep your eyes and ears open for really good deals that may not get featured in GOSF. Some smart companies might come out with sudden and lucrative offers during this period.


6) Shop between 8 am to 10 am & 5 pm to 8 pm:

This is just  a hunch. Since many people would be travelling around this time, the chances of encountering website down/server down issues would be less!


So Happy Shopping! :)


References:

Hashtricks http://hashtricks.com/gosf-2013-attracts-2-million-visitors/

Medianama: http://www.medianama.com/2012/12/223-how-indias-ecommerce-companies-did-on-gosf-day/

Firstpost: http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/great-online-shopping-festival-2012-starting-on-december-12-60467.html

Economic Times: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-11-15/news/56115125_1_great-online-shopping-festival-google-india-nitin-bawankule