Investment

The way Indian investors save is changing day after day. The trend now is slowly shifting with more and more opting out of traditional fixed income schemes like Bank fixed deposits, Public Provident Fund, Post Office Savings Scheme, etc. Although this is good in a way considering the low interest rates on offer (5% to 7%), retail investors are having a tough time determining whether they should switch to direct stock investment or mutual funds.

The primary reason why it makes sense to invest in mutual funds and stocks is because they have the potential to offer inflation-beating returns. But investors are often confused in deciding which investment avenue to choose between the two. Both mutual funds and direct stocks carry a high investment risk and investors are expected to determine their appetite for risk before making an investment decision.

What is a mutual fund?

A mutual fund is an investment product that pool financial resources from investors and invests the capital raised to achieve a common investment objective. A mutual fund invests in a diversified portfolio of securities across asset classes and money market instruments. The performance of a mutual fund scheme is highly related to the performance of all its underlying securities.

What is direct stock investment?

A direct stock investment takes place when an investor buys shares of a publicly listed company during live trading hours at the stock exchange. When an investor purchase shares of a company, he becomes the shareholder of the company.

Understanding the major differences between stocks and mutual funds

If you are new to investing, it is important to understand that direct stock investment is much riskier than mutual fund investment. Mutual funds invest across asset classes and fixed income securities and have a diversified underlying portfolio. This is not the case with direct stock investment because when you buy shares of a particular company you are only investing in that particular stock. Investing in stocks require extensive research whereas even a novice can invest in mutual funds and give themselves a chance to earn capital appreciation. Mutual funds offer active risk management as they have designated fund managers who are responsible for trading securities daily to help the scheme achieve its investment objective. With direct stock investment, investors are solely responsible for maintaining the hygiene of their portfolio and have to trade their shares to earn profit. However, mutual fund houses do not offer active risk management at free of cost. Investors have to pay annual management fee in the form of expense ratio which is levied on every mutual fund scheme.

Who offers better returns? Mutual funds or direct stock investment?

Mutual funds have the potential to offer far better risk adjusted returns as compared to stocks. That is because one single unit of a mutual fund scheme is a combination of multiple stocks. So, even if one asset class or underlying stock of a mutual fund fumbles, investments made in the other asset classes even out the losses. When it comes to direct stock investment, if the company whose stock you bought fumbles, the value of your shares will go down as well. Stocks are highly sensitive to market vagaries which is why a slight change in the market has a direct impact on its performance.

To earn long term capital appreciation, it is essential to diversify your investment portfolio. Stocks do not diversification whereas mutual funds do. Mutual funds offer active risk management, stock investment does not. With stocks, investors have control over their investment but with mutual funds investors can only buy units as the fund managers decide which stocks to buy or sell.

Before investing your hard earned money in either of the investment avenues, please understand your investment objective and invest according to your goals.

Change is inevitable. We all through different life changes and so do the people surrounding our professional and personal lives. After every few years, the priorities in our life change but one need always remains constant in most scenarios, the need to create wealth. Our need to create wealth constantly reminds us to keep saving and investing in different investment avenues to create long term wealth through adequate diversification.

To understand how you can invest your finances appropriately at different life stages, continue reading:

Young professional (High risk appetite)

Someone who has recently graduated and have kickstarted their professional career, such individuals generally do not have liabilities or responsibilities and can take risk with their finances. A young individual can invest in stocks or equity mutual funds keeping a long term investment horizon in mind. Equity funds are a high volatile investment but generally offer decent returns over the long term. If you are saving 50% of your income, you should invest at least 30% of it in equity. At this point of time, one can avoid considering conservative schemes. Small caps and ELSS can be ideal for investment at this stage in life.

Happily, ever after

When you enter marriage and exit adulthood, your responsibilities increase, and this is the phase when you may face financial difficulties. What is better to do is to discuss all the financial responsibilities and divide them with your spouse. Then you can evaluate your existing wealth, consider the new liabilities, evaluate your existing investments, and then reshuffle your investment portfolio such that investing every month doesn’t affect your monthly expense budget. Living live as a young professional with roommates is different than living with your spouse and sharing responsibilities.

Starting a family

This is the stage in your life where you probably would want to reconsider your risk appetite and add / subtract investment schemes from your portfolio. If you are a parent or parent to be, there will be several expenses including frequent visits to the doctor. However, it is essential that you ensure that you save at least 30% or your total earnings. When investing at this stage, you may have to change your investing to goal based investing. If you are planning to have a child, you will have to start building a corpus that will take care of their nurture and upbringing. Goal based investing is recommended at this point of time as you will have start saving enough to take care of their school and college education fees.

Saving for your golden years

Once your children are old enough to take care of themselves, you enter the stage or are near to retirement. Retirement is something which every hard working individual looks forward to as they are free from all the responsibilities and want to spend the rest of their days tension free. By the time you near retirement you might have built a decent corpus to help you take care of all your expenses. Since you won’t be earning anything, you won’t be able to save and mostly will be living on a fixed budget. Ensure that you learn to keep your expenses to minimum so that you have enough corpus to tackle life’s unforeseen exigencies.

If you smartly invest at different stages of life and wisely utilize your money you will never run out of money. Diversifying your investment portfolio with mutual funds can be a good idea and as your responsibilities increase you can decrease your investments in equities and increase your investments in debt. If you adequately diversify your investment portfolio you might be able to create wealth at every stage of your life.

Business success and growth can be achieved by impressing clients and improving your company’s performance. As long as you can provide consumers with high-quality products and services, your business will likely survive. Unfortunately, there are moments when your business experiences major setbacks because of a lack of significant resources. This may include a lack of funds, tools, and equipment, or even manpower. When this happens, business processes are disrupted, which eventually leads to inconvenience both to you and your clients. To prevent this, you need to prepare backup strategies or find a strategic partner who can help you deal with possible business challenges.

The Importance of Strategic Partnerships in Business

Some business owners get overwhelmed with challenges in running a company. Aside from building plans to attract more customers, they also need to find time to fix internal processes. This includes hiring competent and reliable employees or investing in advanced tools and equipment. Unfortunately, not all companies have the ability to secure all the resources that are essential in fixing their business processes. Most of them lack funds, while others don’t have the right knowledge and experience to handle certain tasks. Good thing, companies can rely on strategic business partnerships to solve these issues.

Strategic partnerships refer to an agreement of two businesses to combine their efforts and work together to achieve a common goal. This helps companies, especially small businesses, have access to valuable resources essential in improving their performance. Here are some of the remarkable benefits of having strategic business partnerships:

• Gain knowledge and skills in running a business.
• Get funding for your future campaigns.
• Help identify opportunities.
• Build a team of skilled and talented individuals.

Strategic Partnerships You Need for Your Business

• Marketing—Partnering with a marketing agency helps increase your chances of building successful campaigns. You can look for companies doing print ads or digital marketing campaigns to help you produce high-quality and effective promotional tools. This helps you improve brand awareness and business visibility, which helps attract more clients to your business.
• Logistics—If your business heavily relies on delivering goods, you need to find a logistics partner. You have to ensure that your customers can conveniently get their orders on time. Also, you need to reduce the chances of your items getting damaged. Thus, a trusted logistics partner can help you address these concerns. You may also consider partnering with a reverse logistics provider so you won’t have issues dealing with returned goods.
• Financial management—If you are having trouble looking for a reliable accountant, bookkeeper, and other staff who are money experts, you can rely on other companies to solve the issue. There are software developers who can help you get hold of advanced accounting tools and other resources you might need to improve financial management in your company. On the other hand, if your business is based in Toronto, find Toronto accountant with good results
• Technology Integration—Using advanced tools and equipment requires time and patience. Whenever you invest in the latest tech tools, you have to train employees to use them properly. This ensures that they won’t commit errors and continue staying productive while doing their jobs. To minimize risks and mistakes, you can work with experts in technology integration. These companies assist business owners in onboarding processes and provide useful training programs that employees need to keep up with business processes.

Businesses need strong and reliable connections to survive, especially if you are part of a highly-competitive industry. Thus, you need to find a strategic partner who can help you fulfill your goals and help you achieve your company’s vision. Working with trusted companies can help you significantly improve your business performance. Doing this does not only benefit your company, but it will also give your clients more reasons to keep supporting your brand.

How to save tax? This is one of the questions that bothers almost every investor. Every year thousands of tax payers find out tax saving investments at the end moment in order to save on tax. This could result in choosing investment options that do not align with the portfolio of the investor. Let’s look at some of the best tax-saving investments:

1. Equity-Linked Saving Schemes (ELSS) – ELSS funds invest a majority of their corpus in equity and equity-related instruments. Thus, ELSS tax saving mutual funds offer the dual benefit of tax saving and higher returns. These funds have the lowest lock-in period of just 3 years among all the other tax-saving investments. ELSS tax saving funds are eligible for ELSS tax-exemption of up to Rs1.5 lakh u/s 80C. An investor can save up to Rs46,800 by investing in ELSS tax-saving
2. Unit-Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP)–It is a combination of investment plus insurance. ULIPs are insurance policies that provide an individual with the potential of wealth creation while simultaneously providing them with the security of a life cover. Under the ULIP scheme, a part of the premium goes towards life cover and the rest is assigned to a common pool of money, called a fund, just like a mutual fund, that invests in debt or equity or a combination of both. These schemes have a lock-in tenure of 5 years. The premium paid towards ULIPs are eligible for deduction u/s 80C for up to Rs1.5 lakh p.a.
3. Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) – It is a government-sponsored savings scheme accessible to Indian residents who are above the age of 60 years. The maturity of this savings scheme is 5 years, although it can be extended by 3 years. The interest rate on SCSS is declared at the time of purchasing the scheme.SCSS offers the highest interest rates as compared to different savings investments available in India. SCSS schemes also offer tax benefits of up to Rs1.5 lakh under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
4. Public Provident Fund (PPF) – It is a tax-saving investment scheme offered by the Government that offers a fixed rate of interest and returns on the investment amount. The interest rate on PPF is revised and paid by the Government every quarter. It is one of the most popular long-term investment options due to its combination of safety, returns and tax-saving attributes to its investors. These securities have a maturity period of 15 years. PPF accounts fall under the EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) category in which the principal amount, interest earned, and the maturity amount is exempt from tax. The amount deposited during a year can be claimed under the overall limit of 80C deductions.

However, one should not invest just for availing the tax-saving benefits. Investments do not follow the concept of one size, fit all. Hence, an investor should choose an investment option that best suits their financial profile. Their investment havens should align with their financial goals, investment horizon, risk appetite, and other parameters. Happy investing! 

Methodical venture Plan bit of leeway can be taken by any speculator who can save at any rate 500 rupees for each month. A few supports offer SIP Plans with a speculation as low as 100 rupees. Be that as it may, for the greater part of the assets least speculation every month is 500 rupees. The vast majority have misinterpretation that to contribute enormous totals of cash is required. Yet, beginning with a sum as low as 500 rupees for each month can amass tremendous riches in long haul. People have numerous fantasies or objectives like better instruction for youngsters, remote excursion, dream home or cheerful retirement. However, with constrained salary the vast majority don’t see how to arrive at those objectives.

Deliberate speculation Plan focal points are not constrained uniquely to low measure of venture. We realize that it is practically difficult to time the market highs and lows. The vast majority lose cash putting resources into offers because of timing the market as opposed to being a long haul speculator. Indeed, even the best of the financial specialists or brokers regularly miss showcase course. For a layman or financial specialist with brief period and assets to research market moves, Systematic speculation Plan bit of leeway is unmatched. With rupee cost averaging one can put consistently in values without agonizing over planning the business sectors highs and lows. In long haul, rupee cost averaging collects riches which is a preferred position of Systematic speculation Planning.

Typically financial specialists continue averaging same number of offers/unit at whatever point there is a decrease in the cost and never while the cost is rising. In the long bull run this might be an open door misfortune as no further speculations are made. Rupee cost normal through SIP works independent of market highs and lows. At the point when the market continues diminishing, progressively number of units are collected and less number of units are aggregated when market is expanding.

To take Systematic venture Planning advantage you should keep contributed for long haul. Truly it is seen that SIP works best when contributed for long haul. Prior, consultants used to recommend 3 to 4 years as long haul. Yet, after 2008 market breakdown, financial specialists couldn’t recuperate their misfortunes even in the wake of contributing for just about 5 additional years. It is smarter to consider long haul as a full market cycle instead of in years.

Taste putting enables speculators to be adjusted in their venture choices. Taught and Balanced speculation is another bit of leeway of Systematic venture Plan. Speculators with long haul objective situated ventures regularly don’t take venture choices in scramble and keep away from frenzy selling or ravenous purchasing. It is seen ordinarily that financial specialists who partner their speculations with objectives are increasingly adjusted in their choices.

One can pick various interims like every day, week by week, month to month or quarterly averaging while at the same time contributing through SIP which is another Systematic speculation Plan advantage. Financial specialists have the choice to pick fixed dates on which their records are charged for the fixed sum they wish to contribute. In the event that the day picked happens to occasion, sum gets charged on next working day.

Another Systematic venture Plan bit of leeway is the adaptability in installment alternatives like ECS (Electronic Clearance Scheme), Auto charge and post dated checks. Out of the choices, ECS is most advantageous choice for the majority of the speculators.

For little financial specialists who wish to put under 50000 every year in a common reserve, PAN card isn’t compulsory. KYC can be finished with submitting voter personality card or driving permit.

There is ONE most ideal approach to locate your best interest in 2013, 2014 or well past. In the event that you couldn’t locate your best venture choice in the event that it was on a short rundown gazing you in the face, contributing cash is going to be disentangled for you.

Your best way to deal with contributing cash is to have an objective at the top of the priority list and after that look at your speculation alternatives, in light of YOUR needs, as far as: liquidity, wellbeing, development, pay, and duty points of interest. The alternative that positions most elevated and best suits your needs or needs is your best speculation choice. This basic procedure has profited straightforward for financial specialists before and will work in 2013, 2014 and past. Also, it will enable you to evade real mix-ups on the off chance that you put in light of an objective – by wiping out decisions that don’t meet your requirements.

LIQUIDITY and SAFETY: If you may need prepared access to your cash after you’ve contributed AND can not bear to assume a misfortune: disregard development speculations like stocks or stock assets, long haul security reserves, land, and assessment favored records like IRAs and retirement annuities. Your best speculation choice is to surrender the prospect for better yields, higher salary, and tax cuts… until your monetary position changes. For the time being contributing cash means keeping it sheltered and fluid in the bank or in a currency market finance in the event that you need it for a budgetary crisis. Better to be as careful as possible.

When you are prepared to contribute with a long haul skyline (like for retirement) contributing cash for GROWTH ought to consistently incorporate stocks and maybe land also. For most people the best speculation alternative for stocks is expanded stock common assets. The simplest method to put cash in land is with claim to fame land value reserves. In any case, the normal financial specialist acknowledges hazard to procure better yields; and common finances offer great liquidity on the off chance that you need some cash back. To get a TAX ADVANTAGE put resources into assets through your 401k at work or in a customary or Roth IRA account with a shared store organization.

Contributing has for quite some time been one of the top approaches to win cash and to cause your cash to develop. Regardless of whether you’re beginning with a little or a great deal, you can acquire a ton of cash contributing and truly boost your benefits by picking the best kinds of ventures that are accessible and differentiating them.

Today, our venture specialists are going to discuss some extraordinary spots and approaches to contribute!

Stocks

One of the longstanding approaches to put is in stocks. While years back this used to be one of the most prevalent just as gainful approaches to contribute, there have been numerous better approaches for contributing that have truly prevailed over stocks as one of the top approaches to contribute.

Stocks can in any case be entirely gainful however and, in spite of the fact that they might be unsafe, there’s a great deal of cash to be caused exchanging the securities exchange and exchanging stocks to can be more predictable than different kinds of ventures.

Forex Trading

One of the approaches to put that is rapidly developing in prevalence is Forex exchanging, Forex exchanging, or money exchanging, offers a gigantic market for financial specialists to get into. With a normal day by day turnover of around $1.3 Trillion every day, there’s very a great deal of cash to be in the Forex exchanging market.

Forex exchanging can be exceptionally dangerous however, and except if you’re a specialist and experienced broker, having an incredible Forex exchanging framework on your side while exchanging Forex is vital to your prosperity.

IRA Investments

IRA records have for quite some time been a reliable, steady and gainful path for individuals to contribute. Indeed, even with just a little encounter, an IRA speculation record can be a truly productive path for somebody to procure cash and truly have the option to boost their benefits over the long haul.

There are accounts of individuals placing some cash in IRA accounts, disregarding it for two or three years and returning to see significantly more in their record from their speculation. An IRA record is an incredible method to contribute over the long haul too in light of the fact that profits are commonly more predictable than numerous different ventures and consequently it offers an extraordinary route for individuals to contribute cash and see a pleasant, steady and stable return.

The most ideal approach to contribute is to put utilizing various techniques so as to differentiate your ventures and ideally boost security just as benefit potential!

Contributing on the web can be a great method to acquire cash, and where and how you put can have an immense effect in how much benefit you gain! For a considerable length of time individuals have realized that contributing is one of the top approaches to gain cash, regardless of whether you’re beginning with a little or a ton. Since the gigantic ascent in fame of contributing on the web in the course of the most recent few years, numerous spots have gotten significantly increasingly famous just as beneficial as approaches to contribute.

Today, our venture and account specialists are going to discuss some incredible approaches to contribute on the web!

IRA Accounts

One of the top approaches to contribute and win relentless and steady, yet truly beneficial returns is an IRA account. An IRA record has for quite some time been an extraordinary method to contribute and acquire more cash, anyway some IRA speculation records charge expenses to begin or they make you start with a bigger entirety of cash to begin in the IRA account.

It’s vital to pick an IRA account that doesn’t have any charges and furthermore an IRA account that gives you a chance to begin with a little or a ton, so you can augment your benefit and acquire cash in any case!

Forex Trading

Forex exchanging has for some time been an extraordinary method to contribute and, since FX exchanging turned out to be extremely prominent on the intrigue, has become rapidly in notoriety. With a normal day by day turnover of around $1.3 trillion, there’s very a great deal of cash to be made in Forex. Forex exchanging can be unsafe, and except if you’re a specialist broker it’s incredible to have a Forex exchanging framework that can truly enable you to benefit in Forex!

Putting resources into Peer To Peer Lending Networks

One of the quickest developing approaches to contribute online is through distributed loaning systems. Distributed loaning systems let individuals put resources into advances on the web and offer unfaltering, steady just as entirely beneficial returns. You can expand your ventures between various sorts of credits in these records also!

Individual to individual advances are rapidly getting to be one of the top approaches to contribute and have an extraordinary benefit potential whether individuals begin contributing with a little or a great deal!

One of the keys to gaining cash contributing is to enhance your speculations, this can give you greater steadiness, consistency just as benefit and enable you to acquire all the more reliably in the commercial center!

Contributing is something that ought to be given need by any individual who wishes to have a splendid and agreeable life later on. Be that as it may, regardless of numerous individuals putting resources into different ways, some of them neglect to prevail due to having poor speculation plans. This implies such individuals do contribute however don’t have plans that can make those speculations produce the foreseen returns. A wise venture plan considers differing factors both in the sort and long haul. Henceforth, considering the fitting elements before making speculation arrangements is among the essential determinant of the profits to be inferred.

One of the most significant elements is the hazard in question. In many speculations, the higher the sum contributed, the higher the hazard required since if the cash contributed produces the normal outcomes, the individual with more cash will acquire more significant yields. This implies in the event that an individual contributes a lot of cash, at that point they will receive huge rate consequently if the cash gets a positive return. Then again, an individual who contributed limited quantities, their profits will be little similarly as their dangers.

Another significant factor to consolidate in a speculation plan is the timeframe that the cash contributed is probably going to bring returns. A few ventures are momentary where the financial specialist gets returns in under a year while others are long haul where they acquire returns over five years. The long haul speculations are generally perfect for plans like retirement or for undertakings which are not liable to occur until after a considerable timeframe, for example, teaching ones little youngsters in advanced education establishments. Henceforth while picking in what to put resources into; one ought to consider the time wherein they might want to have their cash and the benefits.

Another significant factor to consider is the foreseen future presentation of the field that one puts resources into. Some venture fields, for example, innovation and genuine homes in creating territories are required to pull in colossal returns later on. This implies on the off chance that one puts resources into such fields at present, at that point there is high probability that the cash contributed will pull in a ton of benefit later on. To figure out which field is probably going to be gainful in future, one ought to inspect the exhibition of the specific field both right now and in the ongoing past. On the off chance that the specific fields has been developing and expanding in worth, at that point most likely the pattern will proceed to what’s to come.

While making a speculation arrangement it is additionally fitting to consider broadening as one of the components to figure out where to interest in. This is on the grounds that regardless of anticipating the eventual fate of a venture choice, the pattern may change and one may wind up making almost no profits or notwithstanding losing the cash contributed. In any case, in the event that one puts resources into differing fields, the likelihood of the considerable number of ventures choices not going true to form is low. This implies on the off chance that one arrangement doesn’t create the ideal outcomes, at that point the financial specialist can depend on other/s to cover for the one that neglects to deliver the normal returns. Thus, with an appropriate speculation plan, one can promptly contribute their cash and get great returns either in short or long haul.