Category: Articles

It looks like the day when you see car drives around on their own without a driver is not very far. Google has developed the technology, and their self driven cars have already traveled 140,000 miles with just a little human intervention, and 1,000 miles with no human intervention at all!

I remember seeing videos of cars that park themselves and get awed, but this is super-awesome!

From the NYT:

The car is a project of Google, which has been working in secret but in plain view on vehicles that can drive themselves, using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver.

With someone behind the wheel to take control if something goes awry and a technician in the passenger seat to monitor the navigation system, seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human control. One even drove itself down Lombard Street in San Francisco, one of the steepest and curviest streets in the nation. The only accident, engineers said, was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.

Autonomous cars are years from mass production, but technologists who have long dreamed of them believe that they can transform society as profoundly as the Internet has.

The article later on states that mass implementation may still be 8 years away (optimistic), but that’s not that long now is it? Go read the whole article, and have a dreamy Sunday.

In a funny co-incidence Scott Adams published this Dilbert today, and Business Times published this story about wireless dead zones in the Bay Area – 83% of which belong to AT&T

To top it all – MG Siegler concluded his post on this story by wishing for two tin cans with a really long piece of string.

Prayers continue for a Verizon iPhone. Or a T-Mobile iPhone. Or two tin cans with a really long piece of string. All would be preferable at this point.

Not quite a wood block, but close enough. And you thought only cats were funny.

Gaurav Palvia wrote to me about his investment approach after reading my request on the OneMint poll results post. I am reproducing his email below (edited slightly), as I think it presents an interesting angle to investing, and how he approached the subject.

My favorite part is when he called up all the agents to meet him, and got free advise from them. Pretty clever.

Here is what he says:

I am writing this as a follow up on your suggestion on “Results of the OneMint poll” to write our experiences about investing.

I am a software engineer working in the software industry for last 10 years.

I started looking into investments/finance around 2008 as a hobby/alternate profession ..something to pass my time if I get bored with my daily designing/coding routine.

I got interested in it, so i am pursing CFA from www.cfainstitute.org. Cleared level-1 of it in 2009 and now preparing for level-2 in my spare time.

I thought I will share some info/knowledge/experience I gathered during this period.

I recall somewhere I read that “WEALTH GENERATION IS A VERY SLOW AND BORING PROCESS”. I think it says it all…

I mean… one in a million can become Rakesh Jhunjhuwala who accumulated huge wealth at such a young age.

If you think you have that kind of skill then you should just follow your gut; take as much risk as you can ..in the stock market..do trading…whatever…

For the remaining people like us ; we need to clearly understand the above principal of wealth generation…..and not give up.

In a nutshell – the above principal says…”do your homework on a regular basis and have patience”

Though I have a DMAT account since 2001, and I made a little money during BJP’s disinvestment phase by investing in Shipping Corporation in India and then in VSNL, but that time I was a speculator and I made money just by speculation, – and may be I got lucky.

I had bought SCI at 36 and sold it when it reached 91…so made a real cool profit.

But it’s only after 2005 I started taking investment a little more seriously. I inquired with colleages..and someone recommended me an independent financial advisor who suggested me some XYZ mutual fund using SIP. I sold it last year and made no profits out of it even though I kept it for 3 years or so.

So I said to myself that when everybody is making money from mutual funds…why am I not able to do so? I searched various sites but I was still not able to decide which site to trust for information…so I thought of a different plan..and a witty one 🙂

I called CitiBank and asked them for financial planning…in 2 days time their representative came to meet me..and suggested me varios plans and a 4-6 mutual funds.

I did the same with HDFC/ICICI/AXIS and in 2 weeks time i had all the data suggested by all these representatives.

I just zeroed in on those mutual funds that were suggested by all these representatives…the common ones….and then did a SIP on these Mutual funds on my own from my ICICI Dmat account.

And I could double my investment in exactly 2 years of time…last month I sold them as I needed some cash. So this was my first real profitable venture.

But during the time I kept reading…and reached on some conclusions as how investment should be done by a retail investor.

So I am just listing those ideas ……

1. I think for retail investors SIP / Mutual fund is the easiest way, as it shields us from doing all the equity analysis.
Equity analysis is a real full time job, and I suggest let’s leave it for experts. Mutual fund houses spend all their time/money/energy into it so a retail investor should just choose 4-5 well known mutual fund houses and invest money as per his risk appetite.
It also does not mean that choose any mutual fund from these houses. I think one should look for the following qualities in a Mutual fund:

a. Past 3-5 years annual returns. I guess any Mutual fund that gives above 20% return is good enough. But as we compare returns from other mutual funds…we may think even 20% is less so its best to choose a 3-star to 5-star rated mutual fund.

I normally check the rating of the fund from www.valueresearchonline.com. They have rated all the funds.

b. Credentials of the Portfolio Mgr. If the Portfolio Mgr is a C.A + CFA + IIM and has 15 years of exp in the industry and a proven track record..what else do you need? There are very less chances for him to make mistakes than for people like us who dont have that kind of credentials and experience.

c. Net Assets. Its very important to check the Net Assets of the fund. I will never invest in a fund which has say 10-50 crore of Net Assets only. It may return great returns..but it is that risky as well.
I will rather go for a fund which has atleast 500 Crore of net assets; has a established reputation…in the market for quite some time.

2. The second important question when a retail investor starts investing is..which mutual funds he should choose.
We keep hearing abt lot of sectors (Tech/Realty/Power etc) doing good at times…and keep hearing how some made fortunes by investing in these sectors.
But I think some one who is just starting to invest; he should not get bogged down by such stories.
I think if you are  a beginner, and if you can do a SIP in 5 mutual funds then you can choose 3 Equity diversified funds and 2 sector specific funds. But before investing – remember to check their rating/past history from a rating agency.

3. When to invest: I think if you are going the SIP way; it does not matter when you start investing. Because of the regular investing you end up buying units at an average cost…unless one is really unlucky and he bought all the units when the market was doing exceptionally well…and is now not expected to do the same in next 5 years or so.
But I guess it does not happen that way practically..if you choose reasonably well mutual fund and keep invested for 3 years or so ..you will earn reasonable returns.

As I said initially i had invested in a Mutual fund..and kept it for 3 years..but still i could not make much money of it.

It didnt mean that I lost money…I could still recover all my principal. The reason i did not make any money because i was fooled by an independent finacial advisor and I selected a completely wrong mutual fund scheme.

4. When to exit: I can suggest a couple ways as when a retail investor can exit
1. Set a target as when to exit. If i set a target that if i get 35% returns and it is good enough for me; then I should exit when i get 35% returns.

The other way can be that when I will get say 35% return I will just recover my intial amount and keep the remaining 35% to grow.

In this way I will never loose any principal and allow my remaining 35% to grow as well.

One can make it a little interesting as well by first recovering the amount that one could have earned in that much period in a bank F.D and keep the remaining invested. This way one can be sure to earn the bank interest rates on his principal and have the remaining to take all the financial ups/downs. This way I think I won’t lose my sleep atleast.

I think looking at the current times and Indian economy one should be more than happy to achive 35% return annualy and recover his principal when he gets total 50% return. So recover your principal when you earn 50% return and keep the rest of the money invested.

I am not a daily trader and don’t believe in daily trading as my profession is quite time taking and does not leave me with much spare time; but i keep a watch on my funds/economy/markets and I will never sell in panic but I will always sell when I see exceptionally good gains.

Also I am not discouraging some one to not invest directly in equities/commodities. I never found sufficient time to do thorough equity analysis myself …so I cant comment on that. But like an average greedy person I also keep on picking things from time to time 🙂

-Safe Investing
Gaurav Palvia

I thought the email was interesting enough and covered so many aspects that it would make a good read for other readers. More than anything else, it shows that investing is a personal journey, and you need to develop a style that suits you the most.

I’d be interested in hearing more such stories, please leave a comment or email me if you prefer that.

I was trying to look up something, and this Google auto-suggest intrigued me. Here is a screen-shot.

Really? stock market and virginity?

While I have no interest in knowing when most people lose their virginity, I do have a lot of interest in knowing if most people are in fact losing money in the stock market.

Personally,  I do believe that most people lose money in the stock market, but I don’t have any data to back it up. I loosely define “most” as more than 60%, and my sample set is the people I have known over the years.

I created a poll to test this out, and if you have a few seconds – please answer this small poll located at the bottom of the right sidebar of the site.

You have to answer with a Yes or No, to this question: “Have you made money in the stock market?”

It is anonymous, so no one will know your answers. Please vote now, and in the meantime I will look for other information around this.

The markets have been doing well lately, and people are getting interested in stock markets again. We have yet to reach the highs made earlier, but now the question on people’s mind is when rather than if.

2008 jolted a lot of people who were heavily invested in equities, and this chart of the Nifty is pretty good at explaining why. 

There were a lot of people who not only made money in stocks, but also regarded themselves as geniuses, and their portfolio was proof of their talent.

The fall not only took their money away from them, but also showed that they had just been lucky to ride the bullish wave.

That realization scarred a lot of people, and in India where equities are often related with making a quick buck, or gambling, people were only too willing to get rid of the vice, and pull their money away from the market.

Now, the market is doing well, and people are getting back in the game. There is nothing wrong with investing in equities, but you need to be aware of the fact that the market can be really volatile in the short run, and can give you extreme heart-ache with very little warning.

The Nifty returns chart below shows returns for the calendar years 2002 through 2009. This further highlights why the crash of 2008 was so bad. Things were going along so well for the past few years, and suddenly everything fell apart.

Over these 7 years, the market returned at a CAGR of about 15%, and if someone were to keep at regular investment through say a systematic investment plan, then they would come out in pretty good shape today.

But most retail investors don’t have such a long horizon when investing in equities, and exit at precisely the wrong time.

If you have stock investments, and plan to continue investing in the market, then the above chart is a good reminder of how one bad year can ruin your investments, and why having a long term horizon in equities give you stable returns when you look at it for a period of several years.

I am getting an increasing number of emails from freshers who are looking to find jobs on OneMint, and since that is obviously not possible – I am going to write about the steps a fresher should take to find jobs.

I know that this is not relevant for most of our community members here, but if you have some advice for freshers, please leave a comment below.

Are there enough jobs for freshers?

I think this is the question that looms large for all freshers who are not placed from the campus. If you don’t get placed right out of campus, then things are going to be a bit harder for you, but that doesn’t mean it is the end of the world. I think back to my own placement days and think of all the needless drama that unfolded in those few days.

The important thing to remember is that it is only a matter of time that you get a job. It can be a bit depressing at times, but keep your chin high and keep looking. Though things can may look gloomy now, in a career that will span for tens of years – a few months here and there won’t matter much.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at what you should do in order to find a job.

What is the first thing a fresher should do to find a job?

The first thing is to make a resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV) for yourself. You will need a resume to approach people who are in a position to give you a job. This has to be the first thing you do. There are several sample fresher resumes online, and you can model your own on any of these.

There is no point in contacting recruiters if you can’t leave your resume with them. If you don’t have one, then write one now.

Contact all friends and relatives

Finding your first job can be intimidating, and you want all the help you can get. Place calls to all your friends and relatives who could help you out. Send them your resumes and ask for help.

If you know people who are working for big companies, send your resume and ask them to upload it on their company job portal, and keep their eye open for walk – in interviews, and other company emails about jobs that match your educational background.

Get a decent email id

It is time to get a real email id now. You will need to email several recruiters, companies, friends and such, and you don’t want your potential recruiter to see that you thought the word freak would look cool as part of your email address.

Upload your resume on several job portals

Sending emails to random site owners will not help freshers (or anyone for that matter) in landing a job much, but creating an account on a job portal can go very far.

There are several popular sites that help you find jobs in India, and you should create an account in all of those. Here are some popular Indian job sites.

Times Jobs

Monster India

Naukri

NCR Job Portal: This is a newer website, whose founder reached out to me.

Apply jobs through these portals

Once you create the account, the next step is to search for jobs related to your educational background. Put in a few keyword variations and apply for the jobs that appear in the results. Persevere at this, keep applying for jobs and actively check your email for replies. When you get a reply, respond promptly and don’t forget to attach your resumes and answer all the questions they ask in their email.

Keep an eye out for walk in interviews

Companies conduct walk in interviews for freshers, and although these can get crowded, it is a good place to hunt for jobs and increases your employment chances.

Conclusion

It can get a little daunting to finish your education and find yourself without a job, but remember that this situation is only temporary, and eventually you will find something which will be a good stepping stone for your career. Follow these tips, and all the best!

Image by Nicolas Karim

Welcome to this edition of OneMint – economy and your finances.

Marcus Arkan presents Understand The A To Z Of Home Mortgage Canada posted at SMI Blog, saying, “Syndicate Mortgages provides Mortgage Canada News, and updates! And the Best Mortgage Canada Rates in today’s Market, no wonder more and more Canadians choose Syndicate Mortgages for all their Canada Mortgage needs!”

Sheryl Owen presents Change of Address: The Origin of the Ponzi Scam posted at Change of Address.

Leave Debt Behind.com presents Renting VS Buying a Home – Is Buying Always Better? posted at Leave Debt Behind.

Debt

Roshawn Watson presents 8 Questions for the Constantly Broke posted at Watson Inc, saying, “Recently, Yahoo Finance republished an article from US News entitled the “8 Questions for the Constantly Broke.” I enjoyed reading it. I wanted to highlight the major points from the article, provide some rationale and context for the advice given, provide some helpful and relevant rules of thumb for some of the various topics discussed, and share some personal anecdotes.”

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Citi Credit Cards Review: From Citi Platinum Select To Citi Forward posted at The Digerati Life

PT presents Excessive Credit Card Debt: How Much is Too Much? posted at Prime Time Money.

Hussein Sumar presents How to Negotiate Debt Obligations with Creditors posted at Debt Consolidation, saying, “If creditors do not receive on time payments from you, they will often report your delinquency status to the major Credit Bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). But what if you are willing to make payments to the creditors, but not the full amount they are asking for? For example, you have $15,000 of credit card debt and your minimum monthly payment is $375. However, you can only afford to pay $200 a month at the moment. How do you negotiate with your creditors so as to get the payment terms to your advantage and get negative items deleted off your credit report? That is the purpose of this article.”

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog presents Fixed or Variable, Why Not Both? posted at The Canadian Finance Blog, saying, “Combination mortgages offer exposure to both the security and predictable payments of fixed rate mortgages and the lower interest rates of variable rate mortgages.”

Economics

Kaushik Chokshi presents World Trends posted at Beyond Karma, saying, “World trends point to a deflationary depression…”

Sun presents How to Find a Summer Intern Job in Recession posted at The Sun’s Financial Diary.

Investments

Dividend Growth Investor presents Four Characteristics of The Best Dividend Growth Stocks posted at Dividend Growth Investor, saying, “Dividends provide investors with a return on investment even when markets are down. As a result investors get paid to hold their stocks through thick and thin.”

Infernios The Hoarding Dragon presents Hoarding Dragon Basics – Investing in Precious Metals posted at ThunderDrake, saying, “This website, through the guise of a dragon, offers investing lessons. This post entails a rather verbose introduction to the basics of precious metals. Those who walk away from this article should become more familiar with gold and silver as an investment!”

Madison DuPaix presents Comparing Different Types of Treasury Securities posted at My Dollar Plan.

The Investor presents Preference shares posted at Monevator.com, saying, “What are preference shares, and what advantages and disadvantages do they offer over normal common stock?”

Albie presents What is Impact Investing? – Social Business Tips posted at Matthew Alberto .com.

Mike Piper presents How Much Money Do I Need to Retire? (In 2 Easy Steps) posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “People think it’s a tricky question with complicated calculations. It really isn’t.”

FMF presents Avoid the “Ring-of-Fire” Countries posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “If you want to make the most of your investments, avoid these countries.”

Personal Finance

Consumer Boomer presents How to Compare Life Insurance Policies posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Let’s look at closer look at all the options when we compare the different types of life insurance policies and which might be best for your situation.”

Jessica Bosari presents 11 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Wallet | billeater.com posted at Billeater, saying, “11 yearly financial routines”

The Financial Blogger presents 4 Tax Refund Strategies posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “Receiving money from the government is always a lot of fun. However, you must have a tax refund strategy in place”

Mike @ Green Panda presents Friend or Foe: The Credit Card posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “The Credit Card: Friend or Foe? The problem is not the credit card, it is you! Let’s be honest for a second. Stop reading, grab your car keys and jump in. Look at the speedometer. It probably says that the machine can go over 100 mph. Do you really drive at that speeds?”

LeanLifeCoach presents Combating the Closing Techniques – The Assumptive Close posted at Eliminate The Muda!, saying, “Understanding the assumptive closing technique means you will be prepared to prevent yourself from falling for it. When a salesperson begins asking questions that require a positive answer be wary. When they try to hand you a pen be prepared.”

Steven and Debra presents The Homeowner’s Dilemma: To Amputate or To Suck-it-Up and Take One for the Team posted at The END TIMES Hoax, saying, “It’s probably about time homeowners who have decided to not walk away from their mortgages to man up to their decision and quit bellyaching about those who are walking away.”

Kim Luu presents Financial Security Takes More Than Being Frugal posted at Money and Risk, saying, “Most PF blogs focuses on saving money and investment, there are many other issues that still put people at risk despite a lifetime of savings.”

Jaqueline Dornbach presents How to Spend Less on Groceries posted at The Young Pastor’s Wife.

Rob presents Family Wealth Management posted at Stock Tips, saying, “Finances are an important issue among most families. Learning about family wealth management can help you stay on track with your goals.”

Jeff Rose, CFP presents How To Get The Best Rates For Term Life Insurance posted at Jeff Rose.

Richard Adams presents Four Steps For Decreasing Your Monthly Outgoings posted at Debt Assistance Guru.

Matt Mason presents Romance Without Finance is a Nuisance posted at FYMO Personal Finance Blog.

Tom Tessin presents 7 Steps When Negotiating for New / Used Cars posted at FGC Auto Blog, saying, “Are you thinking about purchasing a new or used car? 7 steps you can take in order to negotiate for one.”

Big Cajun Man presents Found Money Trap posted at Canadian Personal Finance Blog, saying, “If you find money, pay off debt!”

Super Saver presents Disputed Price Increase on Phone Bill and Won posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, “Last month, our phone bill was up 12%, with no changes made on our part.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of onemint – economy and your finances using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

First up, let me share this hilarious video of Hitler getting upset over the iPhone 4 reception problems. I didn’t get quite a few references in this, but still found it LOL funny.

He’s Upset About the iPhone 4 Antenna from MG Siegler on Vimeo.

On to some other stuff now:

World’s biggest gold coin auctioned for $4.02 million @ Business Week

India OKs market driven fuel prices @ WSJ

Foreign Currency Hedging: Diversify with EverBank CD Accounts @ Digerati Life

Ally Bank: Review of Online Banking Services @ Smarter Wallet

Target Date Retirement Funds @ Cash Money Life

Thinking like an Economist @ Weakonomics

Enjoy your weekend!

I was surprised to see this graphic in the Globe and Mail, which surveyed people in various countries and asked them if they’d like to move to Canada.  Specifically, they were asked to agree or  disagree with the following statement:

‘If I had a choice to live in Canada or stay in my current country, I would move to Canada’.

Here are the results.

These numbers look very high to me no matter which country I look at; more than half of all Brits want to move to  Canada? And more than three fourths of China? But, in general, it looks like a lot of people do look at Canada very favorably.

I thought I’d compare this data to Ethnic Origin numbers from Wikipedia, and here is what I found:

Mexico doesn’t figure at all, but a lot of other countries have good representation in Canada, and probably that is what prompts people from all over the world to want to go there. If you already have someone you know living in a foreign country, it becomes that much easier to think that you yourself can move, and have a good life there.

The Indian Rupee will have a symbol soon, and it will be one of the options shown below.

Per NDTV The symbol is the Hindi letter Ra with two lines.  I love the idea that the Rupee is going to have a symbol, and personally I like number 4 the most in this lot. NDTV had a voting feature and I saw that number 4 was in fact the most popular among their users as well. The symbol is expected to be finalized  on Thursday, and all new notes will bear the symbol.

Which one do you like the most?