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

Ever heard about the “Permanent Portfolio”? The genesis of this investment strategy lies in a book – “Fail Safe Investing – By Harry Browne”, written way back in 1999. This portfolio is quite unique and contrarian in the sense that it proposes one quarter of holdings each in investments such as gold (not jewellery), cash equivalents, long durations bonds and broader equity indexes. The premise is - "Every investment has its time in the sun - and its moment of shame". However, put together, such highly uncorrelated investments let one be one up on bad financial times of any kind. I admit this is the first time I have heard of such high gold and cash holding in any investment program. 5% to 10% is more like it. I would have mostly trashed this portfolio as some marketing gimmick if I had not come across excellent analysis done in this blog . While the said blog is in UK context, I would tend to believe same would be more or less true in Indian context too. Maybe better as our ...

First question: How much do I have? Second question: How much of it is liquid which I can move around quickly? Third question: Where all, and how much do I want to put my money? Fourth question: Does my budget have a provision for any urgent requirement to ensure I don’t need to tweak my plan midway? Final Question: What is the plan for pulling out some money from an investment which has done exceedingly well against established benchmarks? 

Annualized returns as on 30 Sep 2025 Asset Class 1 (Gold): -           One year: 52%. Outstanding performance by Gold -           10 year: 16.12% Asset Class 2 (Equities, basis Nifty 500 TRI ): -           One year: Negative 4.94%. Abysmal performance by equities in past 1 year, more so when compared to gold returns -           10 year: 14.35%. Now it does not look that bad even if you bring gold in perspective However, it is quite clear gold trumped equites both in long and short horizons. Good many people will be inclined to go for gold investments going forward, now that data proves gold trumps equities even in long horizon But hang on. What was the situation on 30 Sep 2024, and for good measure on 30 Sep 2023. Here we go… Annualized returns as on 30 Sep 2024 Asset Class 1 (Gold): - ...

Momentum investing: Deploy money in the “trend”, hope the “trend” to keep up, and keep reaping the rewards!!! Current example – precious metals like gold and silver have delivered super returns in past one year. Those BUYING GOLD & SILVER now are following a momentum strategy. They expect the good times for gold and silver to continue!!! Contrarian Investing: You are expecting the trend to reverse. Say I have good amount of investment in gold. I feel the price has run it’s course and now buying into gold or even not selling some is a high risk as prices may pull back (trend reversal). On the contrary, equity markets have not done well in recent past. Nifty 500 index return for 1 year ending 30 Sep 2025 is NEGATIVE 5.28%. If I decide to SELL GOLD and BUY NIFTY 500 INDEX, I am being a contrarian. Both have pros and cons. Personally, I prefer contrarian play. Cons of Momentum play: the (up)trend may stop once you put money on the line. Worse, it may reverse and you will now star...

Whether value of your primary home or the car you drive be counted in your asset inventory  ? Or in Indian context, the value of jewellery you possess? For a long time, I was on the other side of the fence – any consumption stuff should not be considered in asset inventory working. Now, my views have changed – the stuff which give you and your family “status” and let the world know that you have “arrived” are definitely worthy of being counted in your net worth. Ok, don’t roger me for being so subjective despite of running a blog obsessed with numbers. But even in numbers context, anything which can be liquidated for money maybe be considered in “Asset Inventory”, or more simply wealth status. I say “can” and not “should” because for consumption stuff, which serves only a particular need, it is upto an individual of what he / she plans to do with the money realised after liquidating the stuff. For example, when I scrapped my 15 plus year old motorcycle and got nearly 10% of pur...

Should an 80 year old   or near about person who has come about in possession of large chunk of money through some source, let’s say property sale consider deploying a large chunk of money in listed equity investments? General opinion: No, absolutely no. Too risky at this advanced age!!! Even if one is really inclined to invest in equities, should be in lowly amounts. Somewhere I read – equity allocation should follow 100 minus current age rule. If you are 80, equity allocation basis overall assets should be 20%. Never mind doing up asset inventory and asset allocation check on overall capital basis is rarely focused on. Well, I don’t subscribe to this “general opinion”. In personal finance, “personal” comes before “finance” and any generic statement does not take into account investor specific financial situation. What if an 80 year old: -           Has assured income which is at least 1.25 times his / her regular expenses? To...

You don’t know how well your money is doing until you have a clear picture where all your money is. That is where the role of periodically working out asset inventory comes into play. While it may appear to be a chore initially (and it is), if one perseveres, the results may be the best guide a very successful financial situation. The best part – you don’t need any fancy apps or other tools to go about it. Simple excel sheet or even a diary if you prefer writing can do the job near perfectly. I am deliberately not putting up any sample asset inventory format. That is left to each individual. The format you go by can be a simple one, with just the asset type & associated number against it. Or an advanced one where you also plug in realistic expected return. Maybe even a super advanced one (if I can say that), where you adjust the weighted average portfolio returns with expected inflation to get an idea how well your investments are keeping up with purchasing power capacity. Wh...