For long term investments, here’s a researched article from business-standard on how long you should remain invested to ‘ensure’ some profit in your ventures –
Among other things, one take home message is – Start Investing Young! Sooner the better.
25 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted Uncategorized
inFor long term investments, here’s a researched article from business-standard on how long you should remain invested to ‘ensure’ some profit in your ventures –
Among other things, one take home message is – Start Investing Young! Sooner the better.
24 Tuesday Sep 2013
Posted Financial Planning, Life and Living, Smart Consumerism
inTags
When we are thinking investment and returns, we mostly think of money/finance. However, on close inspection, it appears pretty much everything in life can be viewed through this investment-returns lens:
Education is investment; career, character, and wisdom are returns.
Food is investment; health and energy are returns.
Self-improvement is investment; net-worth and value-addition are returns.
One can think many such examples where it becomes easy to recognize the investments (like relationships, everyday habits,….). Once recognized, one can work to make these investments into either assets (beneficial and growth-oriented) or liabilities (draining or loss-oriented).
22 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted Smart Consumerism
inTags
Most often we debate this in our heads and try to pick to pick one that appears to make the most sense – economically speaking. However, I was very surprised when pretty much everyone I know questioned my sanity when I decided to buy a petrol hatchback! On questioning deeper, it appeared as if all of my acquaintances never bothered to calculate the net-cost-ownership over a given time period. What mattered to them was the pain at the pump whenever they went in to gas-up.
I took much explaining to do before folks would lose interest and try to hand-wave their way through. I decided to, if time permits, I’d draw a crude chart and jot down a quick-n-dirty explanation to drive home the point.
For my purposes, I make the following highly reasonable assumptions:
1) Current cost of petrol : Rs. 80/liter
2) Cost of Diesel : Rs. 55/liter. That’s a Rs.25 difference between the two. However, do note the cost gap between the two will certainly close in a short span of time.
3) Cost of diesel hatchback is ~1.5 lakh more than a petrol equivalent. If you chose to take an auto loan, this does work out to be the price difference between the two over the period of the loan. However, if you wish to minimize this difference, you’ll have to forgo the financing from these institutes/banks. Alternately, pray to receive a 0% financing with no other hidden charges.
4) I’ve assumed the price of petrol and diesel to remain constant over the time period of my calculations. That obviously will never be the case. Not only will the fuel prices rise, their prices will converge as well. But for a preliminary estimation, this forms a good start.
5) I’ve chosen to ignore the regular maintenance charges. Typically, a diesel car requires more frequent maintenance and is also on the expensive side, relative to petrol. This is direct consequence of the fact that diesel engines get their ignition from creating very high pressure. The parts and joints therefore need to be constructed to withstand that pressure. Petrol cars, on the other hand, have electric ignition making life a little easier.
6) The mileage: Typically diesels give more per liter than petrol. I’ve assumed a mileage of 15 km/liter for petrol and 20 km/liter for diesel.
With that in mind, we can estimate the running expense as follows:
Assuming one drives 5000 kms per year, with diesel costing 55 Rs/liter and petrol costing 80 Rs/liter, amount of money that goes per year of usage is –
$latex \dfrac{[(5000 km/yr) * (55 Rs/liter)]}{20 km/liter} $
Similarly we do the calculation for the petrol variant and change the number to reflects the kilometers used per year.
I’ve shown some numbers in the table below for usage of 5000, 10,000, and 15,000 milometers.
The numbers start from the baseline which is 0 for a petrol car and ~Rs. 1.5 lakh for diesel car, inline with our assumptions above.
The biggest conclusions that jump out immediately can be summarized as follows:
1) If one drives 5000 kilometers and less per year, it will take about 12 years of driving and ownership to bring petrol and diesel cars to equal economical footing. In other words, close your eye and buy a petrol car if you fall under this category (my parents and in-laws, for instance). The extra amount you might have wasted on a diesel vehicle can, at the least, be invested in fixed deposit and the 1.5 lakhs would grow to 2.5 lakhs over a period of 10 years! This would also coincide with the useful life of the car and you should be ready to switch over to another car.
2) If you drive about 10,000 kms per year (currently I drive close to 7000 kms per yr.!), it will take about 6 years of ownership and driving before the petrol choice will begin to start taxing your wallet. If your driving is between 5000-10,000 kms/yr., you should still choose the petrol version.
3) If you drive 15,000 kms or more per yr., you are better off going with a diesel vehicle.
21 Saturday Sep 2013
Posted Life and Living
inTags
I prefer to do my own laundry, but it’s not always possible to iron your clothes and they, at times, have to be outsourced. Typically, in Bangalore, the laundry lady charges Rs.3.5-4 per cloth. Today when we were charged Rs.20 for a saree, it got me thinking.
Folks returning from India get a rude awakening when they see prices in India. While we hardly felt the inflation while in the US, it’s a totally different story in India.
Over the last few months itself, prices of onion has gone up from ~Rs.15/Kg to more than 80/Kg. While most fruits and veggies still are cheaper – pound for pound – in India compared to that in the US, there are others that makes you wonder what the heck’s happening. With high import duties, check the pricing –
1) Petrol (gas – oline): This hurts! India at ~Rs 82/liter or ~$5.16/gallon. Current prices in US are averaging $3.43/gallon
2) Laptops: A similarly spec’d laptop is ~Rs.25,000 (~$416) more expensive in India.
3) Similar is the case for smartphones; they are at least Rs.5000-10,000 ($83-166) more expensive in India.
4) Cars: The same Toyota Corolla costs ~$7000-9000 more in India than in the US.
These notwithstanding, the things that are still (heading towards change though) thankfully cheaper in India include medical care, everyday grocery and produce, flight, manual labor (try getting domestic help in the US), and few other things that do make a difference in everyday living (think college education, most books, …)
But seeing that salaries in India are on the lower side, it’s hard to prop up the savings with decent living standards. It becomes necessary for both the husband and the wife to keep themselves professionally occupied. Moreover, it forces you to improve your financial literacy so a dollar (or rupee) could be made to grow better!
20 Friday Sep 2013
Posted Travelogue
inMy in-laws were in Bangalore and so we decided to take them to the Bannerghatta National Park! We had never been there ourselves. This made for a good occasion to get to know the national park and see what it really offers.
Anticipating large crowds on weekends, we planned to make this trip on a Friday (the 20th Sept. 2013). Since we’d have to take the day off, we planned the day so we can finish off much of the works that had piled up.
Initially we planned on using a public transportation. BMTC has luckily put up much of the information online at mybmtc.com which makes trip planning easier – such as this. Additionally, they have the really nice volvo buses with air conditioning that makes travel a pleasure – at least to some extent.
Seeing that public transportation was getting in the way of our other works, we decided to drive after all. The plan was to leave by 7:45am so we can beat the traffic. Much to my annoyance, we left by 9am! Took us an hour to reach mostly driving along the Bannerghatta road. The place isn’t really hard to find, but I anyway keyed in the coordinates on my GPS so we stayed on track.
Just before hitting the national park area, we were asked to buy a Rs.20 ticket for entry. Parking wasn’t hard to find since we were among the early ones to reach there. We didn’t have to pay for parking. Below is snap of the entry ticket prices for the national park –
On reaching there we discovered the first shuttle/safari starts at 10:30am. This was a relief. We bought our tickets and headed in towards the shuttle wait area. For 4 people (2 adults + 2 senior citizens) we were only charged Rs.745. I am not sure if the guy at the counter goofed up or there was some group discount we weren’t aware of! Based on my calculations, we were to pay Rs.925 (inclusive of Rs.25 for a camera).
The shuttle wait area if located towards the left of the entrance –
By the time we had stepped in, it was ~10:25am. We knew we’d have plenty of time for the zoo once the safari is done with. They had to wait for 30 people to make one group for the shuttle safari. We entered the shuttle first-come-first-enter basis. Guys that entered first took positions in the front of the bus. That’s the place to actually be. That’s where you catch most of the action with better view. The ringside view, if you will!
The shuttle bus had grill-bars all around with few circular and rectangular openings. A partial view of the shuttle bus can be seen in the picture below –
The shuttle route takes through (in that order) the deers, the bears, the lions, and finally the tiger safari before finally exiting out. I was holding an SLR camera that gave me some preferential treatment! The shuttle driver and helper invited me to the front of the bus. They would ask me how long to stop, when to resume, when to back up the vehicle a little. I was feeling a little uncomfortable with this preferential treatment since all of us in the bus had paid that same amount to be there. But they say ‘there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.’ The helper to the driver slowly whispers in my ears for tips. His number is Rs.400. Things make better sense now. I am comfortable with the preferential treatment and take my time and freedom with everything. I told him I’ll pay at the end of the journey, but not Rs.400!
I was a little taken aback to see ‘barricaded’ bears. Was hoping for some wild experience and not some extension of a zoo! You know, the free spirit kind.
No sooner did I have this thought, a lone bear walked right towards us on the open road. The excitement was back! The oohs-and-aahs could now be heard through the bus.
What follows are some pics of the wild experience –
18 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted Travelogue
inTags
After a bit of this-or-that, we finally chose to visit the Elim Resort at the Kanakapura Main Rd. in B’lore. This was chosen over the other (and seemingly less appealing) cave resort – Guhantara.
Gunhantara lost out by popular vote. Let me not get into the sordid details, but suffice to say it garnered very bad reviews courtesy of family and friends. We then went ahead to book a reservation to Elim. We did this about 24-hrs ahead of time.
A day-trip (cost us Rs.700 per ticket) was planned and a cab – TATA Sumo – was booked. The journey itself was pleasant enough since we started off by 8am to beat the Bangalore’s notorious traffic.
On reaching the Elim resort, we were surprised to find HUGE number of people already waiting to check-in! Nonetheless, we began the check-in process and recevied our coupons for both breakfast and lunch. The Hi-Tea (we’ll soon discover what it is) didn’t require any coupons.
A tiny plastic glass of lemon juice (?) made for the welcome drink. It was good to just about whet the appetite. Soon enough we made a dash for breakfast. Seeing the crowds and their clamor for breakfast, one would imagine most people might have been famished!
Breakfast in itself was pretty nice with a very decent menu –
1) Idli – was soft and good but seemed a little beat-up around the edges
2) Chutney and Sambhar – I am not a big fan of “outside” sambhars unless it has a reputation that has reached me well before the sambhar itself has. The chutney (or as a westerner would prefer – ‘sauce’) made of coconut and some lentil was a gastronomical delight!
3) Vada – This was fantastic too. No complaints.
4) Upma – The lesser said the better. Every spoon intake was a torture to the taste-buds. We wanted to avoid any food wastage and just about managed to accomplish that without throwing-up!
5) Dosa – Hot off the griddle. Masala dosa’s were picked while waiting next to the griddle where the chef masterfully crafted his artful dosa’s. They were pretty good as well.
6) Tea/Coffee – Just your average everyday tea and coffee. Nothing extraordinary.
The decent breakfast was followed by some outdoor games for which we borrowed the necessary paraphernalia with a refundable deposit of Rs.500. We had our pick in badminton, volleyball, and archery. We left out cricket. Can’t recollect if they had basketball, but I saw no court for it.
Having spent about 3-4 hrs. in the sun which also included some time at the swimming pool and rain-dance, it was now time for lunch!
After a decent breakfast, we expected nice enough lunch but that remained an unfulfilled expectation! Of course we weren’t expecting anything high-in-sky made-for-gods gourmet, but, well, lunch was a little too dull.
1) Cream of Vegetable Soup – It was alright. Little low on veggies and no identifiable flavors. Was hard to figure out where to place this if we were to rate it.
2) Chips and Salad – This was decent. Although it would be hard to go wrong with a salad. There was no salad dressing though.
3) Ghee-Rice and White-Rice: No ghee flavor in the rice. It could just as well have been white rice with some oil thrown about or rather plain white rice tossed in a bit of oil.
4) Paneer Curry and a Mix-Veg Curry – To be sure, it was hard for me to tell I was eating paneer. It certainly looked like one but the taste was absolutely like no other paneer I’ve ever had. I got even more suspicious as the day’s newspaper carried an article onadulterated paneer being sold all over in the market. A lady in front me began arguing with one of the staff members about the paneer accusing it to be ‘paneer dal’ and not curry!
The other mixed-veg. didn’t fare any better. Both of them as sad as a curry can get!
5) Gobhi-Fry – I think it was a failed attempt at gobhi-manchurian, may be? We’ll never know. If you throw in some ketchup and chilly sauce, it added some flavor to make it edible.
6) Curds and Raita – Didn’t bother trying them. From of the look of it, seemed nice enough.
7) Naan/Kulcha – This was good. Seemed to be the way it ought to be.
8) Non-Veg – Fish fry of some sorts, chicken curry, and some biryani. Being a vegy., I didn’t venture out in these aspects of the lunch menu.
9) Dessert: For dessert we had three options in semiya payasam, gulab jamun, and ice-cream. Most of us had a little of all three. Didn’t like the semiya, but gulab jamun and ice-cream were alright.
That was lunch. I had no stomach to photograph it! Following the wise words of the yore – “rest a while after lunch, walk a mile after dinner” – We rested a while on the green lawns under the sky that was now beginning to get cloudy. It was cooler and better than earlier.
We then proceeded for some indoor games. They had some decent options in carroms, table tennis, shuttle badminton, billiards-pool, foosball, x-box with kinect, and something that seemed like air hockey. Although the indoor games facility seemed a bit limited by its real-estate spread and also the number of gears for it, luckily most of the crowd was elsewhere and we didn’t have to fight for a turn!
By now the clock had walked itself towards 4:45pm, and with nothing more to do, we decided call it a day after the Hi-Tea. Turns out, a Hi-Tea in India is a term used to denote some accompanying mildly heavy snacks that is served with tea. We had bread-pakoda with ketchup! It was a bit hard to take it in, but the tea did help to push it down!
Soon after we started off, the clouds gave way to rains and thus ended a day out at Elim’s. Almost 9am to 5pm.
Overall, the place looked decent. cleanliness didn’t seem much of an issue. Restrooms were clean too, but availability of tissue papers would have been a plus. The hand drying air-blower was nonfunctional. Some more pics –