A helping hand from numbers leads to objective opinions and confident decisions!!!

In my role as a mutual fund distributor, for equity funds, I have taken to only professing index tracking mutual funds. Various studies across years have shown that most of the active mutual funds do not match up to ROIs given by passively managed, index tracking mutual funds. However, it is commonplace to hear converse arguments in Indian context – statements like “India is not an index market” or “It is still sometime before index mutual funds beat active mutual funds”. Mostly, these are generic statements, backed up by opinionated data. SP Global does bring out performance scorecard every six months for Indian mutual funds also. A detailed study of this document is very revealing and trashes the argument that “India is still an active fund market” That said, I feel even SP Global's SPIVA study compares performance of active funds with respective index. To get a real world feel, one should compare it to index funds which even though low on expenses, do have costs. And then,...

Image source: Atherenergy.com Discussion with self: Me: Let’s buy an electric two-wheeler “The Number’s me”: Why? Me: For pottering around. Ok, for using it for certain tasks where I don’t want to take my car “The Number’s me”: Like? Me: Forget it. I know where you are going. You will say numbers justify driving the car or any other vehicle one own’s to the max and not buying new set of wheels “The Numbers Me”: You can simply say u want to buy the scooter to justify your penchant for buying the latest fad or you like to ride a two wheeler and feel the wind in your hair. Just don’t try to make it appear as if it makes financial sense. That’s it. I said it. Numbers mostly will not be in favor of getting a new set of wheels if you already own one and are the only one who rides / drives. What goes into this number work: -           Cost of two wheeler, depreciated over say 7 years, with 25% remaining as resale value -  ...