Irresponsible behaviour of electronic media

Dear Friends,

Form last some days we have been witnessing the growth of so called 24 hour news channels, almost everyone of them claiming no. 1. Some play it rough, some sensitive adn some hilarious but each of them trying to aquire more of TRP slots.

Journalism was known as the third eye of public to maintain transparnecy upto any levels. Their work to dig out hidden facts to let the truth prevail was commendable. Yes our society needs journalists who have the courage and ability to bring out truth but only truth, but now adays what we see is the pure murder of journalism.

Some channels air "Lost comissioner’s dog" as breaking news and for some "cat in trouble" is the national issue that they deem to make it a national disaster and could air the story adding vetenary doctors views on TV.

My message to them ‘Guys wake up! do some serious work you have lost your quality’ there are many issues that are hindering national progress why not take on them. like BBC or CNN they too work 24×7 but they always come out with quality.

I call upon your views to make us understand that we agree with the current report card of so called 24×7 electronic media???

 

Irresponsible behaviour of electronic media

Dear Friends,

Form last some days we have been witnessing the growth of so called 24 hour news channels, almost everyone of them claiming no. 1. Some play it rough, some sensitive adn some hilarious but each of them trying to aquire more of TRP slots.

Journalism was known as the third eye of public to maintain transparnecy upto any levels. Their work to dig out hidden facts to let the truth prevail was commendable. Yes our society needs journalists who have the courage and ability to bring out truth but only truth, but now adays what we see is the pure murder of journalism.

Some channels air "Lost comissioner’s dog" as breaking news and for some "cat in trouble" is the national issue that they deem to make it a national disaster and could air the story adding vetenary doctors views on TV.

My message to them ‘Guys wake up! do some serious work you have lost your quality’ there are many issues that are hindering national progress why not take on them. like BBC or CNN they too work 24×7 but they always come out with quality.

I call upon your views to make us understand that we agree with the current report card of so called 24×7 electronic media???

 

Importance and avenues of investing

We all have heard that money gains when it rotates. Money stopped is money lost. It is an important function of the Economy of a country. If we keep our money with us only and do not invest it anywhere then we are stopping the streamline flow of money. There are many question rises to our mind regarding investment so here are some FAQs and their answer.

Why should I invest?

We should consider investing if we want to earn a return on our idle resources, generate a specific amount to meet specific goal in life, or make provision for an uncertain future. We must, however invest with knowledge and full care in order to meet any of these above stated objectives

.What are the Investment options available?

There are variety of investment options available in the market we are going to discuss them briefly. As a matter of fact there is much of debate that which investment option is best. We should invest on the basis of amount we desire to invest, liquidity, risk taking capability etc. some of the main investment options are stated below:-

1.    Real Estate/ Non movable property: It is one of the oldest option of investment practiced from a long time ago. It requires a large amount of money and many hassle full paper work and formalities. If I rate it on the scale of 1 to 10 I would give it 5 marks because it is relatively low risked investment. It gives return after sale (In case if you do not rent it.) the return on this investment can make fortunes too.

2.    Financial Securities including Mutual Funds: investing in financial securities could also give us good returns In this there are many options available in Financial Securities sector that has various returns percentages. The more we go for higher returns the more is the risk and less risk gives us less returns. Let us discuss some Financial Investment instruments briefly.

v Equity/ Preference Shares: higher returns higher risk since the value of shares are volatile but gives good returns if invested for long term 2 – 5 years or more.

v Mutual Funds: Mutual Funds are also associated to market risk but give good returns around 12 – 18 % if the fund managers are good and decided on the type of scrips they invest in i.e. their investment portfolio.

v Bank Fixed Deposits: the are one of the most common mean of investment practiced in India they are relatively more safer than Mutual Funds and Shares but their returns or Interest are much lesser they only give returns @ 4.5% - 8.5% which varies with the term of deposit.

v Debt Instruments i.e. Securities and Bonds: Fixed income securities issued by Central and State government, Municipal Corporation, Government bodies and commercial entities like Financial Institutions, Banks, PSUs, Public limited companies and also structured finance instruments. They are one of the lowest risked instruments and Government Bonds and Investment options like NSC, KVP POSB deposits are considered as risk-free investments due to their sovereign guarantee.

3.    Bullion Market: This option is also very volatile in short term but can  yield better returns if invested in long term. Nowadays it has become very easy to invest in such market we don’t need to buy it from a jeweler we can also invest in it through commodity exchanges like MCX and NCDX. They offer a ‘Vaayada’ facility in it, which is very convenient for a common investor to trade in it but the short coming is that it requires a in-depth knowledge of such markets and it become very difficult because less knowledge and research work is available on them as compared to Stock Markets maybe because they Commodities are in their primary and developing stage we can hope positive for the future.

What are my Investment Objective and why should I Plan for them?

We would normally have three objectives, namely Safety, Return and Liquidity. We like our investment to be absolutely safe while it generates handsome returns and provide high liquidity. It is difficult to achieve all three objectives simultaneously. Typically one objective trades off against another. For example if we want high returns, we may have to take some risks, or if we want high liquidity, we may have to compromise on returns. If we have a regular income we may prefer to growth oriented investment. The objective therefore depends on individual profile.

Impact of Inflation on your investments

Running to Stand Still (or, the Impact of Inflation and Taxes) 

Everyone knows that inflation eats into savings and increases costs. But what a lot of people grapple with is how does one insure oneself against inflation? Now let us discuss why it is important to invest wisely particularly if you do not want to keep running (working hard) just so that you can stand still (maintain your current standard of living). 

Consider the post-tax, real rate of return

 

Whenever you consider an investment option, remember to evaluate the expected rate of return in real terms. In other words, deduct your expected compound annual rate of inflation for the investment period from the compound annual rate of return that you expect from your investment.

 

For example, say you are considering a bank fixed deposit that promises you an 11% annual rate of return over the next five years and your expectation of inflation during this period is 7% (compound annual).

 

For this investment, your real compound annual rate of return is only 4%. If your income from this investment attracts a 30% tax rate, then your post-tax real rate of return diminishes further to 0.7% only! A number nowhere near the 11% that you might be using to evaluate this investment option!! An investment with such characteristics is a classical example of running to stand still.

 

Let’s look at how you could improve your 0.7% return. If you are willing to take on a slightly higher level of risk, you could invest this money into an income mutual fund with a dividend investment plan option. Such an investment is likely to yield around 11% post-tax returns (since dividend income from mutual funds is non-taxable). This would effectively result in a post-tax, real rate of return of 4%, far higher than the 0.7% that the bank fixed deposit would earn for you.

 

On a 10-year perspective, Rs10, 000 invested today in bank deposits (yielding 0.4% post-tax, real rate of return) would be worth Rs10, 722 whereas the same amount invested in an income mutual fund is likely to be 38% higher at Rs14,802. Presumably, this should compensate you for the slightly higher risk to which your investment is exposed.

 

The above example highlights that inflation and taxes are important factors to consider while evaluating investment returns and how a little more attention to your investment decisions can result in a significant improvement in your financial health.