Risk of not investing in Equity.

Rajeev and Sanjay are classmates. They both had same level of knowledge and smartness when they completed their graduation. Rajeev hates to take the risk of traveling in a vehicle for the reasons only best known to him. Believe me; he travels only by walk wherever he goes. But Sanjay is ready to take risk. He uses all the mode of transports time to time convenient to him.

After 10 years of their graduation, they connected to each other on facebook only to know that they both are working for the same company. Rajeev is working as an accounts executive in Chennai branch. Sanjay is working as a Director-Finance in Mumbai, the head quarters of the company.

What made this huge difference? The ability and willingness to take risk.

Similarly investors should not hesitate to take risk. The ability and willingness to take risk by investing in equity will potentially increase your wealth considerably.

A person who is investing Rs.5000 per month for 25 years in safe avenues like FD or PPF will get around Rs.47 lacs; whereas if it is invested in equity it has got a potential to grow to Rs.1.64 crores. Huge difference! Isn’t it?

There are two types of risks. One is blind risk. It is something like driving a vehicle without knowing how to drive and driving without understanding the road rules. The other one is calculated risk where we know how to drive as well as the road rules.

An investor needs to take well calculated risks; not blind risks. One should know how to invest as well as the investment principles and techniques.

Suppose you don’t know how to do that and also don’t have enough time to learn those things, it is better to outsource it to someone who knows investing better. Mutual funds and Portfolio management services will serve this purpose for you.

Investing in equity is a risky proposition. At the same time staying away from equity is also a risky proposition, because inflation is like a slow poison, which will eat away the value of money over a period of time. That is if inflation is 6%, your investment should give at least 6% post tax return to maintain the same money value for your investment. If it is giving less that 6%, then your money value is eroding. If it is giving more than 6% then your investment is really growing. Equity is one such investment which has got a potential to beat inflation in the long term.

Don’t hesitate to invest in equities. Beat inflation and accumulate real wealth

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

8 Investment Myths To Be Avoided

Today I am going to debunk a few investment myths. You will know ‘why individual investors are failing miserably and how you can avoid being one of them’.

I am too young to plan for retirement

Have you started planning for your retirement? You may be saying ‘who me? I am too young to be thinking about retirement”. It is not so! Rethink. You should have started thinking about it yesterday. Because time flies quickly. If you were smart, and planned for retirement when you are young, your retirement years will be really those “Golden years”. If not you need to compromise and you need to work longer and retire later than others.

East or west FDs are safe and best

Nothing wrong in investing in FDs. FDs are really safe and it gives us fixed return. But there is no meaning in investing all your money in FD. The post tax return of an FD will hardly beat inflation. If your investments are not beating inflation, then your money is losing its purchasing power. FDs are safe but not always the best option.

I can never be as good as Warren Buffet or Rakesh Jhunjhunwala so why try?

In the words of Warren Buffet “Success in investing doesn’t correlate with IQ once you’re above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.” You don’t need a super brain for making investment decisions. You only need common sense and discipline. If you don’t have enough time and expertise, then you can get assistance from professional financial planners.

Stock markets can earn me quick bucks

This is a common myth among investors. Stock market will reward the long term investors. Stock market is a system which transfers money from investors who are fearful and greedy to the investors who are balanced and rational. You need to be calm, patient, disciplined, and rational. You don’t have to be smarter than the rest; you have to be more disciplined than the rest.

Timing the market is important

Investors often spend a lot of their time in trying to identify when the market is very low or high, and timing the purchase and sale of investments accordingly. In other words, they want to time their exit when the market has reached its top and to time their entry when the market has reached a bottom. This not a practical idea because there are so many influencing factors to the stock market. Predicting all the factors and making investments is practically not possible. Instead of that stagger your investments through SIP, STP and stay invested for long term.

There is no such thing as too much diversification

Diversification is needed. A well diversified portfolio can be created with 10 stocks or 3 mutual funds. Having more than 20 stocks or 6 mutual funds can dilute your returns. The reason is you are not only investing in best stocks and funds, you are investing in above average and average stocks and funds. So your returns will come down. Instead of over diversification, you need to concentrate on a few stocks. It is possible to achieve the required diversification with a few stocks or funds.

The best way to make money is investing in what is hot

If you are investing in what is hot, then you are following the crowd. If you follow the crowd, you will get what others are getting. You will not get anything more. You need to be fearful when others are greedy and you need to be greedy when others are fearful. So don’t go by the market trend or the hot pick of the month. Think like a contrarian and follow value investing.

Saving tax is the only objective for me to Invest

Which group you are in? There is a group of people who invest just to save taxes. They will not bother to invest anything more than that. They will meet their objective of saving tax. There is another group which invests to save tax as well as to save for their other life goals like retirement, children’s future. They will meet the objective of saving tax and achieving other life goals. Kindly check you belong to which group.

You can be an assured successful investor if you could avoid these investment myths.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

Mutual Fund SIP: For Short term or Long term?

It may look very strange when everyone is advocating Mutual Fund Sip for long term, what is the necessity for this debate on ‘Is Mutual Fund SIP for Short term or long term?’.

Theoretically doing a Mutual fund SIP for long term will work for investors. But for practical reasons we need to commit a Mutual Fund SIP for short term. That is we need to break that long term into many 6 months or 1 year periods and commit your Mutual Fund SIP for first 6 month or 1 year.

Then at the end of 6 month or 1 year renew your SIP for another 6 month or 1 year. You need to renew like this till you complete your predetermined long term period.

You may think it is an unnecessary paperwork and waste of time. But you will be completely convinced when you have finished reading this article.

Contribution towards Mutual Fund SIP Changes:

How much you are contributing towards Mutual Fund SIP changes over a period of time. At the beginning of a career a person will be able to commit Mutual Fund SIP for small sum of amount. As he progresses in his career, he or she will be able to increase his contribution towards Mutual Fund SIP.

Similarly, when someone reaches a stage where he need to spend more on kid’s higher education, daughter’s wedding, buying a house or meeting a major financial commitment, it is difficult for him to continue the same amount of Mutual Fund SIP contribution.

So whenever you renew your Mutual Fund SIP at the end of 6 month or 1 year, you can look at your cash flow position and based on that you can renew the Mutual Fund SIP for the increased amount or the same amount or the reduced amount.

Portfolio Review:

Also it gives you a chance to review your portfolio with your advisor once in 6 months or 1 year. The scheme which you have chosen for Mutual Fund SIP is performing well when compared to its peers or not? You need to review this periodically. The scheme may turn out to be a laggard.

The scheme may be performing well when you have chosen for doing SIP. But over a period of time, it could have derailed from its performance. This is something like our cricket players. They will be in a good form in the game for some period of time. Then they will lose their form after sometime. So you need to periodically check up whether the fund is performing NOW or not.

If you are committing a Mutual Fund SIP for 10 years, then the advisor may not be coming back to you whenever you call him for reviewing your portfolio. If you commit for 6 months or 1 year he or she will be definitely coming to you for renewing the Mutual Fund SIP. You can have a review with him or her at that time. When you commit Mutual fund SIP for long term, generally we ignore to review it. It may generate poor returns. You can avoid this by periodic review.

Equity Exposure in Overall Portfolio:

How much equity exposure you can give to your overall portfolio can change the amount of Mutual Fund SIP in equity and debt. As the age goes up, your ability to take risk comes down. So you need to change your equity mutual fund SIP contribution periodically.

How close or distant you are to achieve your financial goals will also decide your equity exposure. If you have got long period to achieve your financial goal then you can have more equity exposure. When you have short period to achieve your financial goal, then you need to reduce your equity exposure.

Rebalancing your portfolio based on your predetermined asset allocation will also decide your equity exposure. All this can change your Mutual Fund SIP amount in equity funds.

So committing a Mutual Fund SIP for long term looks good on paper. For practical reasons we need to commit for short term and renew it at the end of every short term till achieving our financial goals.

In this regard, instead of committing a Mutual Fund SIP just like that, having a long term financial plan and committing Mutual Fund SIP based on that plan will be really fruitful. This will make a solid difference in achieving your financial goals.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

What Is The Right Mutual Fund For You?

If you are planning to invest your money in equity funds, there are plenty of options in front of you. Broadly the equity funds can be categorized into index funds, diversified funds and sectoral or thematic funds.

Your friend could have told you index funds are safe and cost effective. Your colleague could have told you, infrastructure is going to be the next big theme. So invest in infra funds. As an investor you are confused with the information overload and would like to choose the right type of fund for you. I will unveil this to you today.

Index funds Vs Diversified Funds

Index funds are just index trackers. They aim to replicate the movements of an index. Index funds will hold all of the securities in the index in the same proportion as the index. There is no research and analysis on which stock to invest. There is no human input. They just track and replicate the index. There is no active management and there is no fund manager. So they enjoy the low cost advantage.

On the other hand, diversified equity funds will invest in non-index stocks also. The fund manager and his team will do an in-depth research before investing in each and every share. The aim of the fund manager is to outperform the index. Most of the diversified funds have outperformed the index with a huge margin. As these funds are actively managed, the expense ratio of these funds is relatively higher. But you are well compensated for the extra fees you pay. The returns you see in the above table are the net returns after adjusting all the expenses.

If that is so, then how come the concept of the index fund is so popular and accepted? In the developed countries, matured markets, grown up economy it is REALLY difficult to beat the index. So the extra expense on the active management will reduce the return. So index funds are better and popular there.

But in a country like India, where the economy is fast growing, market is still not matured and the country is in the transition phase of moving from a developing country to a developed country there are lot of better opportunities with the non-index stocks. That is why in all emerging markets including India, it is possible for the fund managers to outperform the index.

So, diversified equity funds in the long run (5 years and above) will outperform the index funds in all the emerging markets like India. That is why you need to choose diversified equity funds when compared to index funds.

Diversified Funds Vs Sectoral/Thematic Funds:

Sectoral fund invests in a particular sector. There could be a “Pharma Fund” which invests only in the pharmaceuticals sector. You can also see the funds like banking fund, IT sector fund, FMCG fund. The performances of these funds are restricted to the opportunities available in those particular sectors.

Thematic fund invests based on a particular theme. There could be an infrastructure fund which invests only in infrastructure based stocks. There are thematic funds available in the other themes like capex opportunities, energy opportunities, rural India, PSU opportunities. The performances of these funds are based on the success of those themes. Thematic funds can invest only in those sectors favoured by its theme.

On the other hand, the diversified equity funds can invest across various sectors and they can follow many themes. There is no restriction. The fund manager can invest a sizable portion in any particular sector or any theme if he thinks that sector/theme can do better in the future. Also he can move from one sector to the other sector and change his theme intermittently based on the changes in the market outlook.

This flexibility of moving from one sector/theme to the other sector/theme is not available with sectoral/thematic funds. Even if the fund manager of the sectoral/thematic fund thinks that, this particular sector/theme will not do well for the next couple of years, he is forced to remain invested in the same sector/theme. Whereas the diversified fund manager can change to another sector/theme if the outlook for a sector/theme changes.

Most often, the market creates hype on a particular sector or theme. Then investors get a feeling that this is going to be the next big sector/theme which is going to drive the market. This is only an illusion.

“Technology is the next big sector” – This is the hype created by the market in the year 1999. Everyone around you could have talked about technology stocks. Mutual funds have launched so many technology sector funds like ecom funds, internet opportunities funds. Most of the investors believed this illusion as real and invested their hard earned money in these funds. Technology sector as a whole has got crashed during the year 2000 and all the technology funds have taken years to recover from their losses. But the diversified equity funds which had sizable exposure in technology stocks have revived faster than the standalone technology funds.

“Infrastructure is the next big theme”- This is the hype created by the market in the year 2007. Everyone around you could have talked about infrastructure stocks. Most of the mutual fund houses launched schemes based on the infrastructure theme. Market crashed in 2008 and infrastructure stocks were the worst affected. Investors learned that, the prospect which they have perceived for infrastructure in 2007 was only an illusion.

Sectoral/thematic funds are potential to deliver superior returns, but it is almost impossible to predict when they will do so. Also there is an inherent danger of getting inferior returns. But market will play with your greed and make you believe the illusion as true and take action. Beware.

So it is better to leave the choice to the fund manager regarding in which sector/theme to invest. He knows when to invest in a particular sector /theme and when to move out of a particular sector or theme.

Therefore, east or west the diversified funds are safe and best.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

10 Commandments of Successful Investing

Let me unveil the 10 commandments of successful investing today. These commandments strictly followed can make you a successful investor; make you richer. The successful legendary investors like Benjamin graham, warren buffet have followed these principles. So why not you…?

1) Decide your investment strategy and stick to it:

An investor may invest in SIP and when the market continues to fall he will discontinue his SIP. But market crash is the right time to continue your SIP. Because, during the market crash you will get more number of units and the averaging works out in your favour.

Another investor may decide 50:50 as his debt:equity asset allocation ratio. When the market goes up he may want to invest more in equity and hence he may change his asset allocation to 30:70. Actually when the market goes up one need to reduce his equity exposure to bring the portfolio back to his predetermined asset allocation ratio.

Don’t change your strategies midway. You know what is best for you and this applies to deciding with foresight the ideal investment strategy for you. Once the strategy is set, do not fluctuate in your decision each time you decide to invest. This would only mean losses instead of profits.

2) Conduct your own research on stocks:

It is not advisable to just depend on hear say and decisions of your neighbor, friend, relative or tips from the media or your stock broker and invest in stocks. It may seem easy but could amount to gamble. Being an informed investor investing your hard-earned money needs you to ensure if the investment would meet your financial goal. This could be done through research from various sources.

3) Learn to overlook short term fluctuations:

If you want to be a successful investor, you need to understand that it is futile to be affected by short-term fluctuations of the stock market. Investing in good and reputed portfolio ensures good quality of your investment and capital appreciation in the long run. The short-term volatility of the share market has got nothing to do with the long term performance of your investments and achieving your financial goals.

4) Resist investing in penny stock:

Some investors have a common misconception that it is better to invest in penny stock than in high value stocks. This is wrong as whether you buy stock at Rs.5. You need to see the background of the company before looking at the price of the share.

5) Discard the losers and pamper the winners:

There is a tendency among investors to sell off appreciated stock and to hold on to depreciated stock in the hope that it would rise. It is wrong, as it is possible that the shares which are not doing well may continue to underperform and the shares that are doing well may continue to perform in the future.

It is better to acknowledge you went wrong, swallow your pride and discard the loser stocks and lessen your losses. Your decision lies in deciding to suffer a one-time loss for future long-term gains.

6) Look before you leap

Even good company shares bought at the wrong price can be a poor investment choice. So devise some strategies like SIP, asset allocation to avoid this mistake.

7) Adopt an open-minded investment strategy:

It may be advisable to consider investing in good companies, however it is wrong to overlook the point that small start-up companies would make losses. Even such companies with good strategies and growth plans could contribute to long-term capital appreciation. Always have an open mind in taking your investment decisions.

8) Base your investment strategy on the future:

Investment decisions based on past happenings may not always be right. It is better to consider the happenings, but give more importance to the present and future prospects of the investment. An informed decision based on the fundamentals and mission of the company helps in long-term wealth creation.

9) Consider tax friendly investments:

Making investment decisions based on tax considerations may prove counter-productive. However minimizing taxes and maximizing returns after taxation would help. The long term capital gain tax is nil. So if you invest for a time horizon of more than one year you will have better post tax return.

10) Adopt a long-term perspective:

Adopting a long term prospective is advisable if you want to be a successful investor. If you want to get short term results, then you will be able to cultivate only coriander leaves. If you want to grow a large banyan tree then you need to wait for years. So if you really want to be richer and create wealth, you need to be a long term investor.

You could have seen a lot of success stories of people, who bought a good stock 10 or 15 years back and accumulated a good amount of wealth now because of the appreciation of those stock prices. But have you ever heard of a person accumulating wealth by trading in the stock market or moving in and moving out of the market?
By trading in market you may make profits in a few transactions, but you will not be able to make profits forever. There is a lot of difference between making profit in a single transaction and being a successful investor forever.

Knowing Vs Doing

There is a huge difference between knowing what we should do and actually doing it. The knowledge piece appears quite sexy; being interested, learning something new, coming up with that cool idea. The doing part sounds comparatively like routine work, no matter how easy this work may be to do or how obvious that it should be done.
Don’t fall into that “knowing Vs Doing gap”. Now you know the 10 commandments to successful investing and put it into practice to become richer.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

How To Retire Sooner and Richer?

The mindset of today’s young professionals is changing radically. They would like to have a semi-retired life in their late forties or early fifties by taking up a hobby instead of a regular job.

Somewhere within all of us, there is a dream to reach a point in life where we have enough wealth to be able to choose the work we would like to do and the pace at which we would like to work, if at all we feel like working; a point also referred to as financial freedom. Financial Freedom is also interpreted as being able to spend whatever amount you like, on whatever things you like, month after month.

Here is a step by step guide to Retire Early.

How long you expect to live?

First of all, you need to decide on “How long you expect to live?” This is going to be the starting point for your retirement plan. This you can decide by your health history and your family health history.

Will you run out of money?

You need to accumulate enough money required to live up to that age. You need to calculate the corpus amount required for retirement based on when do you want to retire?, how much you need to spend every month after retiring?, Inflation, tax, investment returns and the like.

There are two things which can make you run out of money in between. One is inflation and the other one is medical expenses at the old age. So you need to be very careful in assuming inflation when planning for retirement. Also you need to be adequately covered with right health insurance policies.

Retirement corpus Break up.

You need to divide your retirement corpus into two portions. One portion of it is the corpus required to retire at the regular age. It could be 58 or 60. The other portion is the corpus required to live between the early retirement and the regular retirement. Say if you want to retire at 50, what would be the corpus required to live between the age of 50 and the regular retirement age of 58 or 60. First you need to accumulate money for your regular retirement. Then you need to proceed to accumulate for your early retirement. This way you break your targets and it psychologically gives you a lot of comfort in achieving early retirement.

Don't fall for get-rich-quick schemes.

To retire early, definitely you need a sizable corpus. Don’t look for any short cuts and get-rich-quick schemes. Only with the increased risk comes the increased return. If any scheme assures low risk and high return, then it is going to be another scam. So stay away from those schemes.

Don't fear stocks.

You need to consider investing in a well diversified portfolio for long-term. Diversified Equity mutual fund schemes are better. By investing in a diversified equity portfolio you will be taking calculated risk and not blind risk. Equities will beat all other asset classes in the long run. So it is an important option for those who want to retire early. Reduce your annual cash requirements for when you retire by working out a careful budget. The monthly income required after retirement is going to be an important criteria for deciding the retirement corpus. If you are comfortable with lesser income you can retire sooner. So you need to be careful in drawing a budget for cash requirement post retirement.

Investigate a better return on your savings.

Better return on your investment portfolio will help you retiring early. So maximize the return on your portfolio as far as possible.

Cut your current spending so you can save more.

Money spent is money saved. Spend less; save more; invest smarter and retire sooner. There are more number of ways to spend smarter to save more. Earn more now. Time is money. Don’t waste your time. Invest your time in revenue generating activities. Apart from your regular income source, there are other opportunities which you can exploit. You can create blogs; you can be a freelance writer; you can do internet marketing. There will be numerous opportunities based on your knowledge and skills if you take time to think and implement.

Take advantage of tax-deferred opportunities.

Tax deferment is an important tool for early retirement. Tax deferment means less tax now. If you pay less tax and you will have more money to save. You need to pay tax on FDs on maturity even if you renew them.Tax saving funds , Income funds and MIPs( Monthly Income Plans of mutual fund schemes) could be a better alternative to this. You need to pay tax only when you actually redeem.

Find out some ways to have an income.

Even after retirement you can have an income by way of a hobby or interest. You need not work on a regular schedule. Say you can be a trainer, you can be a blogger, you can be a consultant, or you can be an advisor in your chosen field. It generates money as well as it keeps you engaged after retirement. One of my clients has written a book and he is able to generate income from the copyright of that book year on year. If you are able to generate this kind of income, then you can retire early.

Retiring early is possible for each and everybody. You need to start planning for it little earlier. Professional assistance from financial planners will be of definitely useful to you, if you desire to retire sooner and retire richer.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

Is it the right time to invest?

Each and every investor would like to know when the right time to invest is. The ideal time for one to invest is obviously when the market is at a much lower level. So as to do the market timing, one needs to predict the market movements. Is it possible to predict in advance as to whether the stock market has peaked or will still rise to greater heights or the market has bottomed out or will further crash?

Warren Buffet, one of the successful investors and the world’s third richest person says,

• Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates, or elections.
• Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly buy and sell.
• I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.

It is highly not possible to predict the market always. The reason being stock market is not moving in a predictable or regular or particular pattern. But historically the stock market is moving up in the long term.

You could have seen a lot of success stories of people, who bought a good stock 10 or 15 years back and accumulated a good amount of wealth now because of the appreciation of those stock prices. But have you ever heard about a person accumulated wealth by timing the market or moving in and moving out of the market?

By timing you may make profits in a few transactions, but you will not be able to make profits forever. There is a lot of difference between making profit in a single transaction and being a successful investor forever. So time in the market is much more important than timing the market.
If there are investment experts who will be able to correctly predict the market they will not be writing or giving interviews about it in the media. They will be silently investing and making money without revealing their secret.

Successful mutual fund houses are not timing the market. They admit that it is practically not possible to do it. That is why they always maintain a fully invested portfolio. They will maintain a very small portion of cash to meet the liquidity requirements. They are not moving in and moving out of the market. On the other hand, the fund houses which tried to time the market by sitting on cash have delivered below average returns during the present recovery of sensex from 9000 to 17000.

Most of the big names in the stock broking sector were opening more new branches in the upcountry side during the second half of 2007 (when the sensex is moving closer to 20000 levels), expecting the market will go up further and their business will grow. But within six months, market has collapsed. At the second half of the 2008 these companies decided to wind up their newer branches in the upcountry as they were expecting further downside. But again within next six months market has started recovery.

SIP : SYSTEMATIC INVESTMENT PLAN

So, timing the market is really an obscure idea, investors should not fall prey for this. Perhaps a more appropriate question an individual investor should be asking is "Do I ever know when the right time to invest is?" The answer is “NO”. A long-term investor should invest on a regular basis during good and bad times. In the long-term, you will average out the ups and downs of the market.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

7 Secrets of Winning The Stock Market Game

Humans have a natural tendency to follow the crowd, but when it comes to stock market investing, following the crowd can often result in losses. Why replicate the mediocrity of the masses when you can clone the success of the World’s Greatest Investor?
The investment secrets of warren buffet have got unveiled here.

1) Look at quality businesses; not just the stocks

Warren Buffett said, “When I buy a stock, I think of it in terms of buying a whole company, just as if I were buying a store down the street.” Most investors don't analyse the businesses they invest in. They simply follow the symbols or brands of successful corporate houses.

If you are buying a shop, you will analyse about the products dealt by the shop, overall sales, consistency of sales, competition for the shop, competition strength of the shop, how the shop will manage the change in customer trends and so on. We need to apply a similar logic before choosing a stock. Don’t think that you are only buying a few shares of that company. Will you buy the whole company if you had enough money?

2) Are you willing to own a stock for 10 years? If no, then don’t own it even for 10 minutes.

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years. In the short run, the market is like a voting machine--tallying up which firms are popular and unpopular. But in the long run, the market is like a weighing machine--assessing the substance of a company. Looking at the short term opportunities in the stock market will not be a long term successful strategy. If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it even for 10 minutes.

3) Check thousands of stocks and look for very high bargains

Avoid investing based on the stock tips or recommendation. Do your own research. Analyse thousands of stocks before choosing the right stock to invest. Once you have chosen a right stock, wait till the share is available at a very high bargain price. Buying a right stock at the right price is the key to investment success. Investors have the luxury of waiting for the “fat pitch”.

It is really difficult for an individual investor to analyse thousands of stocks and finding out the right time to buy a stock. If this is the case, you can outsource this portfolio management to a professional financial planner or wealth manager. But you need to be careful in choosing a professional who is capable and at the same time customer centric.

4) Scrutinize how well management is using the resources.

Check how efficiently the management is using its resources like money, manpower and material. This management efficiency will in turn reflect in Return on Equity and Return on Capital.

5) Always stay away from “THE HOT STOCKS”

The hot stocks are those stocks which have some attention catching activity such as severe volatility in share prices, high trading volume or when the stock is in news. Stay away from these hot stocks.

Warren Buffett once said, “Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.”

6) How much money you will make?

Before investing in a stock calculate ‘how much money you will make’ in this investment. Of course, you need to make a few assumptions to do this calculation. But do calculate. Most often investors tend to ask the share is undervalued or overvalued. Identifying the intrinsic value of the stock is difficult and the various models available to calculate the intrinsic value are faulty. Warren Buffett wrote in a report “Unless we see a very high probability of at least 10% pre-tax returns, we will sit on the sidelines.”

7) Get rid of the weeds and water the flowers — not the other way around

People have this tendency of loss-aversion. That is when the share price has fallen down by 50%, they choose to wait. They convince themselves and others by saying “It will definitely come back”.
Also people will rush to book profit when their shares go up just by 10%. In effect investors tend to keep the loss making shares with themselves and they offload their profitable shares. Actually it needs to be the other way around.

These seven secrets properly applied in the stock market would be your roadmap to riches.

BEST TAX SAVINGS OPTION "ELSS"

There are so many tax saving investment options; how Mutual fund ELSS Schemes stand out from all other options?

A Mutual Fund ELSS is similar to diversified equity funds. That means the fund manager can invest in shares of various companies across various industries. The difference is ELSS has got the added tax benefit, something a diversified equity fund does not offer.

ELSS is part of the Section 80C instruments which are cumulatively eligible for a deduction from income up to Rs.1 Lakh. This gives the tax payers benefits from 10 per cent to 30 per cent (excluding the educational cess) based on their current tax slab.

The other tax saving investments like NSC, PPF will give only 8% return p.a whereas the Mutual Fund ELSS has got the potential to deliver more than 12% return p.a. Also the lock-in period in Mutual Fund ELSS is 3 years and with NSC it is 6 yrs lock-in and with PPF it is 15 years. Among the various tax saving investment option, Mutual fund ELSS has got the least lock-in period.

Ulips are also one of the tax saving investment options. But now everyone has realized that Ulips has got heavy front loaded charges. Moreover smart investors want to separate their insurance from their investments. They no longer see insurance as an investment; they see insurance as a protection plan. So the smart investors go only for pure term insurance and reject ulips.

This is how Mutual Fund ELSS stands out of the crowd.

Before deciding to go for Mutual fund ELSS, here are some points to ponder over. First check your overall portfolio. Does it need more equity exposure? If yes then you can go for ELSS; if no then you can go for PPF or NSC.

Second thing is to keep in mind, the equity investments are for long term, say 5 years or more. Though the lock-in period in ELSS is 3 years it is better to invest with a time horizon of 5 yrs or more.

Also investors need to keep in mind, SIP is the best form of investing in mutual funds and ELSS is not an exception. So doing an SIP in ELSS is a good strategy to be followed.

The poor performing ELSS has given around 10% annualized return in the last 5 years whereas the best performing ELSS has delivered around 25% annualized return in the last 5 years. So investors need to be careful in choosing the right ELSS scheme. Past performance, risk adjusted return, consistency are a few parameters to be evaluated in selecting a best performing ELSS scheme. Investors also can approach financial advisors for selecting the right scheme.

There are two groups of ELSS investors. Majority of investors belong to the first group. They will wake up late to these tax saving investments. For salaried individuals, it is typical that they will be informed by their accounts department somewhere around end of January to provide proof of tax saving investment immediately or else extra tax will be deducted from their February salary. At the neck of the moment, the choice ends up being guided by convenience alone. They tend to think about tax first and investments later. As long as something saves tax, its real benefits and features as an investment are paid less attention to. That means the investments will be chosen more for convenience than for suitability.

There is another group of investors. Though this group is a very small group, it is a very smart group. They will not rush for tax saving scheme at the last minute. They will plan in advance. That means they will have more time to choose the right product. They will save tax as well as choose a good investment option. They will also check whether this particular tax saving scheme will suit their overall portfolio or not; will this tax saving investment is going to fit into their comprehensive financial plan. That means they will consciously choose an investment which saves tax as well as helps them in achieving their financial goals like children’s higher education, buying a house, retirement plans.

So…now just check up which group you are in.

The above matter views of Mr. Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in