Suggest a topic

A lot of you reply to the daily emails with suggestions for posts, and I really appreciate that because it gives me post ideas, and I can write about stuff that is most relevant to you.

Normally, I take the gist of your suggestion; create a title of the post, and note it down on a virtual sticky note. But, the issue with this is that it is easy enough to miss an email, and sometimes the titles on the sticky notes don’t make any sense to me when I look at them later on.

So, I am creating a page here that is specifically for your suggestions for posts. You can leave a comment here suggesting an idea for a post, and if I know enough about the topic I will write about it.

That way we won’t lose track of anything you say, and if multiple people suggest the same topic for a post then I know that it should be written prior to moving on to other things.

Thanks for reading – and writing!

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1,786 thoughts on “Suggest a topic”

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  4. Manshu,
    Did the ONGC Stock split take place this month?
    Can you update a bit on this process of stock split and bonus and how and when does it reflect in the demat account.

    Reply

  5. Hi,

    India is now the second fastest growing economy in the world,most news papers mention this often.Could you write as to what actually is contributing to our economy? is it I.T, agriculture?What actually is accelerating our growth?
    Regards,
    G

    Reply

  6. How can retail investor invest in commodities (other than Gold)? Are there funds which cater to investment in, say, silver, copper, oil, cotton, etc.? Commodity Exchnges provide only F&O instruments which are for short-term basis only. Is there a way to invest for long term?

    Reply

  7. Information on Indians investing outside India: ways to do so, markets that can be invested in, instruments, special documents/permission required. Specifically, on trading in foreign index funds – Russia, China, etc. I am aware that there are F&O instruments but I am not aware if there is any ETF, index fund or mututal fund.

    Reply

  8. Hi,

    Can we get some more details on NPS (New Pension System)?

    Is it worth to invest in it for private company employees?

    Thanks
    Nimeesh

    Reply

    1. There is one post on that topic already, and let me update that with some new details that have come up. Will take a little time though, as everything that I does unfortunately 🙂

      Reply

  9. 1) What is the difference between equity and debts products? Please explain with examples? Are PPF, FD debt products?

    2) Which kind of mutual funds are better? Growth or Dividend?

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the suggestion Shipa, and I’ll write a post on this. Also, thank you for following up on my email and leaving a comment here. Too often, people email me and when I request them to post a suggestion here, they don’t do anything. Makes me wonder if my time is less valuable than others.

      Reply

  10. Online Insurance premium comparison chart for term plans.

    I think this would be really helpful and cost effective for people who are looking for insurance.

    Reply

    1. Insurance is not my strong point so I avoid writing about it, but a lot of comments have come about insurance so I plan to at least begin covering this in a little more detail. I’ll try my hands on this post though I am not sure if I’ll actually be able to write it.

      Reply

  11. Not really a topic but a question. Does return show on MF sites (such as Value Research) already include fund’s expense ratio or that has to be factored separately? Is annual expense of AUM is only expense investor bears or is there anything else that’s not mentioned (corrollary: are brokerage commissions, fund manager’s fee, marketing/operating expenses, trailing commissions all accounted for in expense ratio?)

    Reply

    1. Yes that has the fund’s expenses factored in. The NAV is the value at which you should be able to buy or sell a fund.

      NAVs are calculated after expenses have been taken into account, and the expense ratio takes care of all the expenses that the fund charges you.

      Reply

      1. Thanks, but if NAV and return already includes fund’ expense ration, why should expense ratio be part of decision making process at all? Even then, many websites recommend that, every thing else being equal, one should go for fund with lower expense ratio. This is often big part of advise on Gold ETFs or Index funds.

        For example, suppose I get 15% return on two funds A & B with expense ratio of 1% and 2%. Then actually, fund A got 16% return before expense and fund B got 17%. Is this understanding right?

        Reply

        1. Because expenses eat into returns, so if you have two gold ETFs that are only going to hold physical gold, and one has an expense of 2% whereas the other has expenses of 1% the 1% one will perform better. There could be discrepancy in this in the short run since the ETFs invest some part in money market funds etc. but over the longer run you will find this to be true.

          Just looking at NAV doesn’t do much for making a decision on which mutual fund to buy.

          Reply

  12. I recently got an email about no penalty Fixed Deposit. I don’t remember if I got that email from Axis bank or from one mint but most likely it was from Axis bank. Unfortunately I deleted that email and now I am in need to open FD with no penalty feature. I cannot find details on their website. Do you know FD scheme of such nature from Axis.

    Reply

  13. Hi Manshu,
    I following your blogs for quite some time and you are doing an excellent job…
    I am from IT BFS sector. Do you suggest any good certification programs like CFA, FRM 🙂
    Thanks.
    Anand

    Reply

    1. Thanks Anand. I don’t know much about certifications for someone from IT BFS. CFA is a really involved program and be sure to go through all the details before enrolling in it because it’s designed towards finance professionals and takes a lot of time and resources.

      The industry does seem to be moving towards Agile so you could look at some Scrum certifications as well.

      Reply

  14. Hello Manshu,

    Thanks a lot for your reply. Well the 9.25% was not too much of a fight, I got that rate as against a rack rate of 9.5% as I am a preferred customer from the bank I took it from.

    Basically I wrote to you to understand, why I couldnt find an analysis like the one I did on any of the Personal Finance sites. So for all this while i was wondering if I am missing something.

    Well I guess there isnt much to choose between case A and case B, because even in Case A, FD was just an example. I can very well earn upwards of 10% over 3 years from various instruments eventhough my outglow is fixed at 9.25%. In that case the difference in interests will be much more than even 50K over a 3 year period time frame.

    Anyways, thanks for your analysis. I guess someone out there needs to put up some material of looking at a similar situation in the context of Case A.

    Reply

  15. Hello, I have been reading in a lot of places regarding to keep the Auto Loan as less as possible. However, i do not understand the math behind it. Have a look at the below thought and let me know.

    2 months back I bought a car worth 5.5 lacs. Luckily i had all the money in the bank and could afford to buy it outright. However, I went ahead and got a loan of 2.75 lacs and paid the rest from my pocket. Here is the logic

    Loan Details:
    Loan Amount: 2.75 lacs
    Interest rate: 9.25%
    Loan Tenure: 3 years
    EMI: 8800
    Total Interest paid: 40,970

    If I put the same amount of money in a standard fixed deposit recurring for 3 years at 8.5% per year, here is what I get
    FD Amount: 2.75 lacs
    Interest Rate: 8.5%
    Tenure: 3 years
    Interest Received: 76,254
    Amount on Maturity: 351,000

    So in effect by taking the loan I have saved myself 36,000. Even if you take it post tax you are in profit. In other words, the higher the loan amount or longer the tenure you would be in more profit. I wonder what am I missing ??

    Reply

    1. Hi Swanand,

      Interesting question, so is it normal for people to get car loans at 9.25% these days, or did you get a deal because of your employer or something?

      A 1 year fixed deposit with Indus Ind fetches you an interest of 9.5% these days, and you got a car loan for less than that, which is the reason I ask the question.

      Anyway – if I were in this position I’d look at it the following way.

      Case A – Put the money in a FD, and take a loan. In this case you get interest Rs. 76,254 and pay interest Rs. 40,970, so the net interest you gain is Rs. 35,284.
      Now, I have a liability to pay Rs. 8,800 for the next 36 months.

      Case B – Pay off the car payment with my money right now, and free up Rs. 8,800 for the next 36 months. Create a recurring deposit with it at say 8.5% which is the FD you took.
      The calculator here shows me that this will come to Rs. 361,117 at the end of 36 months.

      8800 x 36 = 316,800 is my own money out of this, so the interest I get from here is Rs. 44,317.

      So, in this case since there is no interest outflow I gained Rs. 44,317.

      This is one angle of looking at it. Of course, what I do depends a lot on factors beyond math like I shun personally shun debt as much as possible, and others might not mind it so much, but this is one way to think about it.

      Reply

  16. Hi Manshu,
    I was looking for some good term insurance and couldn’t locate it here, would it be good if you can give some valuable inputs on it?.

    Thanks.

    Reply

    1. I’m yet to come across something that convinces of the utility of ULIPs, and makes me look at them. Until that time I think my time is better utilized looking at other topics. Thanks for your suggestion, and you’ve written a good post yourself.

      Only observation I have is that often it’s handy to take a product within a category – analyze it in detail – and then use that knowledge as examples to make your point.

      Reply

  18. Hi Manshu,
    Thanks a lot for your excellent articles.Can you please write an article about how economy works.What decides/limits about the amount of currency a country can print.why not a country become rich by simply printing money?.Also can you please suggest articles/books to understand how economy works.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Shankar. I can’t think of any books or articles on the top of my head, but I will try to hunt some for you, and write a post on this topic as well.

      Reply

  19. I hear that investing in silver is a great idea for 2011. From what i understand, MMTC is the cheapest seller of silver. But their selling price is 54000 per kg Vs 45000 which is the trading value of silver. Now if i buy it at 54000 then i am not going to make any money till the market value crosses 54000. I was told by MMTC that the 9 grand premium has to be paid as MMTC cost/mark-up etc. I can someone tell me if there is a cheaper way to buy silver? Also if i buy silver online what are the capital gains implication when i sell it? thanks.

    Reply

    1. Mukund – Here is a post I did on silver ETF alternatives that has already discussed options that you’re looking for.

      http://www.onemint.com/2010/11/16/silver-etf-alternatives-in-india/

      And here is a more detailed post about NSEL. I can’t really give you a one word answer saying a or b is best because everything has its pros and cons, so you’ll have to read these options and evaluate them based on your needs.

      http://www.onemint.com/2011/01/13/e-gold-and-e-silver-from-nsel/

      Reply
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