HappinessWala

Thursday, October 1, 2009

RupeeManager in Private Beta Now

RupeeManager is a easy-to-use personal finance software to manage your money. It primarily helps organize one’s finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money goes and comes.

Measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. And that’s what RupeeManager helps you to get started with.

Other than tracking your earnings and your expenses, it is important to see if your money is working for your future. We have a feature where you can allocate your income among fixed expenses, discretionary expenses, short term savings and long term investments. It’s like assigning goals for your money.

Also, you will get an idea how to balance your portfolio according to your risk profile. You will match the portfolio with your risk appetite and see if you can take more risk or go more conservative. In other words, you get to decide your asset allocation strategy.

It is always good to remember that the software can only be as good as the data it has to process. Garbage In Garbage Out. But if you have started thinking of even using a Personal finance software you are well on your way to making every Rupee count

The guiding principles behind the RupeeManager has been posted before. Link

You may like to see the Manual before you want to participate in the private beta.

I have some of my friends participating in the private beta. Would you like to participate too? Please visit this post

Note to Readers

CFDs offer the ability to trade without having to physically own the underlying asset Contracts for Difference are traded on margin and are therefore a more efficient use of your capital.

My Other Blog

India's first online weekly on Personal Finance

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Back to School: Trying Out ToonDude from Zoho

$\Trip to Agra\$

My Other Blog

India's first online weekly on Personal Finance

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Freedom from Hidden Commissions in Mutual Funds

From the newsletter "The Honest Truth" from EquityMaster.

On August 1st, 2009 the Indian mutual fund industry enters a new era.

After years of pushing mostly irrelevant products through a distribution channel that grew fat on the ignorance of investors, the Indian mutual fund industry has been forced to lay bare the facts. From August 1, 2009 all Indian mutual funds will have a cap on what they pay their distributors. And investors can pay their distributors and financial advisors what they believe to be the value of the advice given.

Over the years, the elephants in the Indian mutual fund industry - and the distributors that made these elephants dance to their tune - have spread a series of questionable "facts".

Each "fact" was in many ways designed to support the immoral practice of letting commissions earned by many distributors determine which mutual funds they recommended. Funds were sold based on the commission structures paid to distributors, not based on which funds were best suited for the investors.

The elephants in the mutual fund were happy to dance along to the tune of many distributors. Every time a fund was sold (or mis-sold) it meant a larger "total assets under management" for the industry - and more fees for the mutual fund house. And better salaries and bonuses for all in the system.

Now, the mutual fund industry is in new territory, not because the giants chose to take the side of the good and right (in fact, they fought it) but because the regulator put a stop to the rot. The days of the symbiotic relationship between the elephants and the distributors are over.
From August 1st the mutual fund industry has to learn to focus on what is good for the investor. A new playing field for those not used to it. So many in the mutual fund industry stand at the gate, nervous and anxious - they don't know what is on the other side. The side that says, "This area reserved for those who are fair and care about their investors".

Welcome to the world of Quantum Mutual Funds
Well, the good news for investors is that Quantum Mutual Funds - the ant of the mutual fund industry - has been standing on the "correct" side of that gate for a long time.

We have been here since 2006. Not paying commissions to any distributors because we were alarmed at the scope for mis-selling in the industry.

Not because the law told us to be on the "correct" side, but because we were keen to build a business around a "correct" practice.

It has been a lonely existence, talking to investors, explaining to the media why we do what we do.

Quantum Mutual Fund was the 29th Asset Management Company, but the 1st to be clear which side of the gate we were on.
We were the smallest mutual fund house amongst all the dancing elephants, but we had the biggest idea: we were keen to build a piece of heaven here in the troubled world of mutual fund investing.

--
Ranjan Varma
http://ranjanvarma.com
http://personalfinance201.com

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Mutual Funds to Tap the Retail Customers

The Economic Survey has called for increasing the participation of retail investors in the mutual fund industry while stating that there is scope for expansion of the industry from the present levels.

The report has pointed out that in 2007-08 only 7.7 per cent of the country's total savings was allocated to mutual funds, thus leaving scope for growth of the industry.

Besides, it also said that the retail participation in mutual funds, which stands at 15 per cent at present, is expected to increase in the years to come as availability of products and investor education improve and the industry takes steps towards transparency and sound corporate governance practices to generate investor confidence.

The report has specially mentioned the turnaround witnessed in the performance of mutual fund industry, which had remained subdued in 2008. The report said mutual fund investments (net) in equity markets turned positive in March 2009 and were Rs 2,320 crore during April-May 2009, while they invested Rs 36,791 crore in debt instruments during the same period.

Mutual fund penetration in India is just around 3 per cent and there indeed is a lot of scope to improve that figure.

--
Ranjan Varma
http://ranjanvarma.com
http://personalfinance201.com