Investing gyaan

I have always been smug with my assumption that a sophisticated finance professional will take care of all my wealth creation needs. But the day my over friendly and over smart advisor came, I was more confused when he left than when he had entered!! He talked about sophisticated jargons, terms, options, technology, software, analysis and at the end of it asked me to decide on my own risk appetite. Damn it, if I have to do my own analysis what the heck was he doing, sitting smugly on my sofa while I looked like a sheep in my own house.

To be fair to my financial advisor, he helped me understand that one must take responsibility for oneself. And he logged me on to the fascinating world of finance and investing. As part of the learning process I have built this e-scratch pad and have really enjoyed the process.

My initial learnings are that:
Investing is no rocket science and can be easily understood by a layman.

There are very interesting tools and calculators available which even a child can use and play with.

It's easy to be overwhelmed with the investment options. 650 odd Mutual Funds, More than 2000 scrips to choose from, options, futures, commodities, real estate, deposits, insurance, tax saving schemes and bonds like PF,NSC,KVP, Infrastructure bonds, et al....... At times I feel the importance of the proverb: " Ignorance is bliss"

Apart from the overwhelming options, you are faced with finance jargon, terminologies, irrational behaviour of the stock markets and smug finance professionals.

Wait a minute. It's critical to be responsible for your wealth and as I said in the beginning, it's pretty interesting too! Here's a indicative list of what you should know for a start and I promise I'll take them one at a time.

1. Why to Invest, Golden rules of investing, Your Financial planning steps.
2. Introduction to stocks, derivatives, options.
3. Introduction to Mutual Funds
4. Introduction to Insurance
5. Product review.
6. Sensex review.
7. Asset allocation, Time, Value of money, etc....

More will follow.......