Sr. Tech Consultant

Good news.. I am promoted to Sr. Tech Consultant! ( Why was i not that before.. after all i am a great guy)

So it suits my age.

Daily Renewal - Part 2

Ok.., Entertainment also done.

We had a three hour party at Rain Forest, Adyar, Restaurant.

So all except one thing is done.

Now i have to do some work - but feeling sleepy!

Daily Renewal

- Had 8/2 suryanamskars
- one spoon chayanprash after breakfast
- took pankajaksthuri to home ( its better at home as people here in office are eating my Rs 175 pankaja kasthuri ) !
- Read one chapter of stepehen covey's 8th habit - so i am nearing greatness

Saibaba in Tiruvanmiyoor

Saibaba is in our Area - Tiruvanmiyoor for the past one week. See link.

I am among the most affected. Because I work in office in three shifts - Morning, then a baby sit at home for 1.5 ours, then afternoon session, then drop sreedevi at home have tea, and will have a third session. When i come for the third session - the traffic is fully jam. Lots and Lots of devotees coming out the yagna place blocks the Road..

My father went and saw him. He did not have a pass, but when blocked by volunteers, he said "I am directed to this door". Thus he got an entry to the VIP area and got to see him.

I am not interested in the concept of human gods, but him being a celebrity figure, i would have liked to meet him. Today when i went home to drp Sreedevi, i just crossed the Tiruvanmiyoor junction, a police jeep speeded up and asked me to stop. I stopped and waited, then lot of cars passed by. Sreedevi then shouted "Saibaba".. I looked , but i could see only the car. Saibaba was sitting in the front along with one his devotee who was driving..

I missed a chance to see a Celebrity figure.

A very good site - for MF comparisons

ValueResearchOnline is a very good site for MF comparisons. It offers a Fund Selector tool which is very handy.

Go for 5 star rated funds.

It is not the "market timing" but time in the market that matter

lachu doing homework!!!

Lachu Reading!

Guru

Saw "Guru" - Its a movie based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani.

First half was thrilling scene by scene. Second half was slightly dull. But i liked the moview very much and also the persformances of Abhishek Bachan and Mithunda.

Its all about "Villager, Vissionary,BusinessMan, Winner"

Abhishek's character is very well portrayed. How he creates opportunities is interesting. Here you can find a good review on Guru film.

Indiato overtake ____ by 2050

I read two reports:

One says - India to overtake United states to become the second largest economy by 2050.

Another says - India now only second behind china.., will overtake China to become the most populous nation by 2050.

Let us wait and see!

Worries

"I've had a lot of worries in my life,most of which never happened"

- Mark Twain

Passport News:

I submitted my passport for re-issuing...

Things went fine. As usual there was some confusions and last minute runnings due to the over confidence i have in filling forms..

When I reached the end of the queue for submitting application.., I was told that the application and documents have to be filed ( the colur of the file depends on the district you are ).

For filing, i took the help of a agent outside and then discovered that some pages more have to be photostated.. Then a running for that..

Anyway it was over at 11:30 and was sleeping in lodge after that.

Alls well that ends good. Hopefully it will end good when i go and collect the passport on Feb 6th between 2-5pm!

Car parking

See my car parked at the TOP! Its nice to see such a system in chennai.

It was started some three-four months back. But then was stopped because one Esteem car fell down as the iron ropes corroded within month of installation.

I was very disappointed to see such a good system fail. So i am very happy when it is restarted again. So my car is at TOP.

Financial advice

Its great..

Financial advice to three persons within a day..

I talked with a young muslim man. He wants to invest in MFs(Mutual Fund), but does not want to invest in MFs where money will go to buy shares of banking institutions and liquor companies. This he asked me, when I suggested that MFs are the best investment in a Islamic way. I tried to convince him.., living under a non-Islamic government he has to take that compromise as investing in stocks directly needs time and knowledge. Then finally i suggested to look for special funds which invests in oil sectors, blue-chip companies etc.

My Father invested a large amount in three NFOs (New Fund Offers). I told him it was better to invest in a known performing fund. Also NFOs has more initial costs. He then said he asked for NFOs. Good! patients ask for medicine directly, rather than letting doctor prescribe.

Today I was called from a meeting. I was asked in which tax saving funds he should invest. I said "HDFC Tax Saver" and "HDFC Long Term Advantage Fund". Hope they are good. I am feeling like a Financial consultant now - speciality MFs.

looking for a new mobile

The three mobiles I had till date -- Erricksson T18 (1999), Nokia 8250 ( 2001) and LG B2000 ( 2006). I am in hunt for a new one.

Who will be the lucky one ?

Change

"Let us become the change we seek in this world"

- M K Gandhi

Systematic investments

I have dared to start SIP(systematic investment plan)s in these funds:
1. HDFC Top 200 Growth
2. Franklin India Flexi Cap Growth
3. DSP Opportunities Fund Growth
4. HDFC Equity Fund Growth

As usual on final selection - i just selected - there is no logic.

Life

"Life always is about our ability to start afresh, from scratch"

- Alexis leon

Travel bookings

Last 2 hours I was spending my time booking tickets to Cochin, Chanaganacherry, Trivandrum.

Me travelling to cochin in search of re-issuing my passport, My parents travelling back, and my wife travelling to Tvm.

Lachu is not travelling!

I learnt a few things. One thing - The site irctc.co.in (railway tickets) gives two options - "i-ticket" and "e-ticket".

"i-ticket" will be delivered to your postal address. It acts like a normal ticket. If you want to cancel that you will have to go to a reservation counter. "e-ticket" is more internet friendly. Its a print ticket. You will need a government identity card to travel using that ticket. But all cancellations etc can be done using internet itself.

But today i found one advantage with "i-ticket". You can specify in "i-ticket" mode that you need the ticket only if you are allotted atleast one lower berth. This is very handy. Because while reserving using Web, one thing i have found is you are never allotted berth according to the preferences we say, although it is available. Using this option we can get what we want. perhap irctc should introduce this in "e-ticket" also.

Also using "e-ticket" we cannot reserve "Waiting list" tickets. That also should be changed. If we have a PNR number, that should be enough. Why restrictions in e-ticket mode ??

And for reserving a flight ticket to Trivandrum, I evaluated these sites
1)www.airdeccan.net
2)www.makemytrip.com
3)www.yatra.com
4)www.travelguru.com
5)www.cleartrip.com

I used to reserve using the first two sites mentioned. But today I found yatra.com has the best options. May be you also would like to note down the sites.

Insurance Plans...

I did not like Insurance plans at all.. I am very much irritated in the point that somebody else will get money if i die.. and I preferred schemes like PPF and NSC for tax savings also..

Now with the arrival of "lachu" I see no problem in her getting the money if i die early!! But the problem now is with Insurance premiums.. They take more premiums as age increases..

So I preferred for a child plan. (My logic is - I have lost less than 3 years, as Lachu will be three years only on feb end. I cannot take a child plan before child arrives!!) If i take another policy, then i will repent on seeing the "premium amount" that i need to pay..

Moral of the story1:Insurance Policies have to be taken at a young age!

Moral of the story2:People have to be taught how to work with money at a young age and not at 32 as in my case.

Moral of the story3:Better late than never!

Touchwood: Hope the India Inc. will not collide this year due to my fresh interest in Investments!

Mutual Funds - 2007

Some MFs shortlisted for investment options:

Equity Schemes:
HDFC Equity Fund
HDFC Top 200 Fund
DSP Merrill Lynch Equity Fund
Reliance Vision Fund
Franklin India Prima Plus
Franklin India Flexi Cap
SBI Magnum Contra
DSP ML Opportunities Fund
SBI Magnum Global 94

ELSS Schemes:
Magnum Tax Gain Scheme
HDFC Long Term Advantage
HDFC Tax Saver
Pru ICICI Tax Plan
Franklin India Tax

Do you want to try ?

alternate career - part4

I am good at these::
1. Scheduling things
2. Understanding People

But sometimes i suck while managing people... in a highly people oriented software industry. I should try my hand with Real machines and see how i fare there..

Disclaimer: I still do software.. Was just thinking if i want a career change.. which doors should i try!

alternate career - part 3

I have now interest in something which i was never good at.. managing money..

alternate career - part2
alternate career - part1

Happy Pongal!!!!

Mutual Funds - Resolutions for 2007

Found a good article - Mutual Fund resolutions one must follow in 2007

Resolutions:
1. I shall be careful about investing in NFOs
2. I shall always remember that NAV and Share price are different
3. I shall NOT TIME the markets
4. I shall NOT look at the DIVIDENDS
5. I shall invest according to MY NEEDS
6. I shall BALANCE my portfolio
7. I shall REMEMBER & IMPLEMENT the above resolutions

Disclaimer: MFs are RISKY, But not buying them is more RISKier

Perserverance

alternate career - part 2

i like being myself a marriage broker also.. when i see a girl i note down in my mental diary and try to see suitable mappings.. this is just one of the social service i have.. but in case of eventuality, i may take this as a full time job!

Alternate careers

Three alternate careers that i love to do:

1. Running a play school for agegroup 2-3 years...



2. Running a counselling centre for young guys/gals... ( i may start it when software goes down or when stock market goes down)

3. exploring unknown.. ( for this also i will have a website which accepts funding from my NRI friends in dollars)

Best investments

“Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.”

- Donald Trump

Qoutes

"In the power to change yourself is the power to change the world
around you"

- Anwar Sadat

in search of (?)

SSLC marksheet

In my school days.., all used to tell us SSLC marks are the most critical. Everytime, everywhere everone will ask. Even for jobs that would be a critical crieria. The full of kerala will be writing the exams, and the exams are (were) scam-free. You will be measured against the best in kerala etc etc.. Thats the reason why i studied hard..

But these days no-body asks. So I just thought of puuting it in blogs

No other use!

Even for address-proof I am using passport ... ( just remebered my passprt expired in september, so thats also useless!)

lachu at ECR dhaba

2007 resolutions

Although i did not publicize, i had some personal resolutions in my mind.

All of them broken by 3rd January.

Perhaps i will do a renewal in a weekly basis

Investment options

My investment ideas are changing:

1. Till I got married, I never did tax savings properly. I used to give money to "government" in tax while my money lied in savings bank account. Now i attribute my laziness for that behaviour. Hope government utilized my money properly for the well-being of others.

2. I vowed never to take Life insurance.. why give someone else the money after you die (!) . Now since Lachu is there, i am taking one ( not taken yet). Planning for some educational policy.

3. The best change that come to me - is my belief in investing in equity. I am interested in stocks markets, but since no time, i am investing only in MFs. Systematically investing a part of your money in MFs can yield you greater returns. I am not greedy for more, or cant spend less. But i have started liking better investment options for the small chunk i have!

4. Investing in real-estate seems to be good, but i cant compete with my NRI friends. They are making the prices grow like anything!

Best lesson learnt, but not practised yet by me: If you are planning to invest 24,000 in coming year.., invest 2000Rs per month, instead of waiting till the year end. In case if investment option is like PPF.., you will be able to take advantage of the compunded interest.. In case investment option is like MF.., then by investing regularly and systematically you also average out the market fluctuations..!

Dec 31, 2006

Seems to be a good day...

I have promised myself to be more pro-active in 2007. Its very difficult for me to overcome inertia.

So decided to do start all things in 2006 itself, so that i dont blame the new year.

And i did manythings today.

And in the evening.., i wanted to complete some official tasks, came to office, and what i was aiming got completed by 11:58pm, what a timing!.

so ending 2006 on a good note!