Rediff about a "Desi"

Rediff has an article about "Ramit Sethi," an American of Indian Origin, who has a written a finance self-help book. Supposedly a best seller, one part of his interview that caught my attention was

In general, we Americans are not very savvy about personal finance at all.

WE AMERICANS?

He goes on to say

There are reasons for that. The first thing we can blame is our education system. We are not taught about personal finance in schools, and even if we are, these are old boring classes with boring topics.

If that's what he has to say about American education, what will he say about Indian education, which is focussed only on memorizing whole paragraphs and vomiting it all over the answer paper?

Not even one word related to India, he has uttered in his interview, and this was published in "Indians Abroad" magazine!!

Firefox incompatible government websites

I've been having trouble using Firefox with many government websites, the last being the official site of the Indian Railways.

I can open the website, however when I try to check the ticket status,


It seems to process properly,


Oh, it makes me wonder if I visited some other website by mistake..


No, it leads to the same page as before!!

Tanishq gold scheme

I got a brochure from the Tanishq showroom near my house, which said about a gold savings/purchase scheme, and said that was the best savings scheme available.

The scheme is, pay Rs. 500 a month for 11 months, the 12th month is free and Tanishq pays a bonus of Rs. 300. So, by paying Rs. 5500 over 11 months, you can purchase Rs. 6300 worth of gold at the end of the year. This seemed too good to be true.

I thought, what if I purchased Rs. 5500 worth of gold now, and see how much I get at the end of the year?

Let's assume the gold price today is Rs. 1500 (yesterday, it was Rs. 1480), and I buy exactly how much I can purchase for Rs. 5500 or 6300. I also assume a 10% increase in gold price the next year (actual increase from last year was 4.5%) and over 5 years, gold price will increase a modest 1.5 times (over the last 5 years it was 1.46 times)

Increase Gold Price Wastage Purchase Price Purchased Gold (g) Sold @ T5 Profit @ T5 Outright – Tanishq scheme
T0 1500 15.00% 1725 5500 3.19 13152.17 7652.17 256.52
T0 1500 15.00% 1725 6300 3.65 15065.22 8765.22 1369.57
T1 10.00% 1650 15.00% 1897.5 6300 3.32 13695.65 7395.65
T5 150.00% 4125

There is no option of buying gold coins, the item with the minimum wastage.

This option is available in UTI Gold ETFs, which I assume, going for the SIP plan, if that exists for gold ETF. UTI roughly traces the day's gold price.

Month Amount Price Units purchased
T0 500 1500 0.33
T1 500 1513.5 0.33
T2 500 1527.12 0.33
T3 500 1540.87 0.32
T4 500 1554.73 0.32
T5 500 1568.73 0.32
T6 500 1582.84 0.32
T7 500 1597.09 0.31
T8 500 1611.46 0.31
T9 500 1625.97 0.31
T10 500 1640.6 0.3

5500 3.51
Average purchase price 1568.1
T5 After 5 years 4125 14468.18
Profit 8968.18


A Bank FD (6.5% ROI, Rs. 5500 for 5 years)
Principal 5500
RoI 6.50%
Duration 5
Amount 7592.31
Profit 2092.31

Thus, Tanishq doesn't seem to offer me the best savings plan as it claims in its brochure. Outright purchase is more profitable than going for this dubious "best savings scheme".

This scheme is definitely not geared towards anyone from middle-middle class or below, since gold is always sold at a premium over the other shops. They wouldn't purchase here in the first place, and they definitely would be prudent enough to see through the smoke.

Some Nice Songs

From one and a half decades back... I feel so old...

Ye teri aankhen juki juki - Fareb



Chappa Chappa - Maachis

Returning to India

In the last few months, I have seen many of those "onsite" guys coming back to the home office, and a sudden spurt in the number of "US return" people flaunting their designer sunglasses, "original" nike shoes, and the costliest car in the block. News websites say they return mainly due to "sentimental" reasons, decreasing wage gaps, and other BS reasons. I talked to many of them. Initially they gave the same kind of reasons - being close to family; came here for a vacation, will go back there after taking care of this problem project here; etc. Prodding further, or making them speak their mind, the real reason seems to be the IT companies recalling them, either due to project cancellation, or cost cutting over there, "resource rotation", and mainly the expiry of their visas. Even some greencard holders have returned - that was due to losing their jobs (and their sponsors). While it is a face-saving way to hide the real reason, why do those newspapers and websites give a phony reason?