What to get in place of iPhone Xs Max -512 GB

I have a love and hate relationship with Apple. I love their Macbook air and earlier pros but hate their newly launched phones and newly launched macbook pros. This is especially because of their ludicrous prices for the same.
And for that ludicrous price you get even less functionality. Apple sometimes do innovate, if they don't innovate then they polish the features for sure. I will give them credit where it is due. Like- Magsafe charger ports, 3d touch, making fingerprints mainstream and awesome trackpad on laptops.
But iPhone XS Max is a beast of which wants more money than a 1060 GTX laptop.

This blog is just a rant if ever a 512 model is sold out which definitely would.
For the same price let's see how much features we can get-
1. Note-9 (Price-61900)

2. A noise cancelling headphone Bose QC35  (Price -29363)

3. A 400 GB class 10 microSD card

4. A smartwatch which need not to charge for 4 days minimum(Price around 29990 )

So what you got if you don't get the Max of iPhone Max(Mentioning the features which iPhone doesn't have)

1. A phone with a stylus which acts as Remote
2. A phone with headphone jack
3. A phone with expandable memory slot(total of 528 GB including above memory card)
4. A phone with larger battery
5. A phone with fast charger included out of the box
6. Best of the class wireless noise cancelling headphone
7. A tizen powered smartwatch with almost a week of charge

and you would still paying less than 135K INR.(Combining all 4)

Also remember these 4 are not mediocre products, they are best in their class. 

This blog is to think outside of the box for your any of the investment and is not limited to iPhones only. Purchase what you need or may need in future not what you want just out of desire. Think usability vs spending price. In economical terms think about utility of your purchase always.

Lastly some points where iPhones exceed any android in the ordered fashion:

1. Only iPhones can shoot 4k @60 fps right now- I am simply fan of this feature and kudos to Apple for doing it, but I have no use of it.
2. faceId is unparalleled feature- but again, I can live without it.
3. AR games- that's a great process technology wise.
4. Better software updates- that's a good thing about apple that even iPhone5s is getting iOS12.

recently got updates about iPhone XS that it got few problems- 

 1. Beauty mode is on permanently in the front portrait mode.

2. Charging having some problem

I am not bashing apple for these issue, probably some software glitches.

#NotaSamsungFanInGeneral #ButNote9Rocks https://www.dxomark.com/category/mobile-reviews/

Portfolio Management in 2017

I had a book called "Intelligent Investor" from 2015 but couldn't get time to read it. Due to which my portfolio get good punishment in till the end of 2016. Here are the stats

• Started investing from July 2015
• Till Dec 2016. If my invested amount was x, it's market value was 0.9x
• Means I was in overall loss of 10%.
• Started reading investing books from Jan 2017.
• After much juggling here are the stats after a year ie at the end Dec 2017.

• Total amount invested, Y =1.8x
• Total current market value= 2.25x (1.23Y)
• Total dividends recvd      =  3.3% of x (1.8 % of Y=3.3% of yearly return)
• Total profit booked          =8.6% of x   (4.7 % of Y=9% of yearly return)
• Total profit perceived      =23%+1.8%+4.7%=29.5% of Y =34% of yearly return

As you can see this year I started with -10% return at the start of year to +30% overall return at the end of year. This may be a luck or hard work, I don't know. But I surely know one thing that "At the start of year I gave a target to myself that my portfolio's dividend should be around saving account's interest given by bank. And see I am pretty close to it. This 3.3% vs 3.5%. Where as you have to give 10% tax on saving account interest while dividends are tax free. If you give tax on 3.5% then effectively interest earned by saving account would be 3.15% which is less than what I earned in dividends. This was what wanted from my portfolio and I am happy to get it.

The purpose of this article is motivate people to come to financial knowledge. I am not suggesting to jump into share market by reading few books unless you want to keep track of your portfolio by yourself. Share market has been historically beaten inflation as well as Fixed deposit income. If you want to dive into it. Then I would prefer you to start with mutual funds. I have taken some mutual funds which gave me return more or less than mine. So why take the burden on yourself, study few mutual funds and start with small amount. Take long term approach in the share/equity market.

And last but not the least- Keep learning.

Investment mistakes I made and how I corrected it

I was a Doordarshan guy, ummm ... rather, I am still a Doordarshan guy. Since my childhood whenever I used to see news there was stock news on a daily basis. I couldn't understand how it worked. But, the only thing I knew that we gamble in it and we can earn or lose the money quickly there.

But anyway, I was curious about it and I was sure I will enter into it someday. When I started or rather before starting I made some big mistakes, like

1. I was sure I will start investing in it, but when ? This was not decided, this is where I failed miserably. I should have started just after job joining i.e. Nov 2011. Rather I started in July 2015. I have taken some sample stocks I invested in 6 months after July 2015. So, I have taken an example of average price from May 2012(which I missed) and Jan 2016 after 6 months from July 2016. So if you notice due to delay, I have to spend almost 70% more on same stocks. If I factor inflation and my stock weightage, I have paid around 80% more money for the same stocks. In reverse way you can think that if I would have started investing around Dec 2011. My profit would have been more than 80% till Jan 2016. Moral: Start as early as possible and invest regularly.

   	May 2012	Jan 2016	Increased Cost %
   Adani	46	85	84.78
   Apollo	67	140	108.96
   Arvind Mills	75	313	317.33
   boi	300	100	-66.67
   CG	130	130	0.00
   cipla	300	600	100.00
   grasim	500	734	46.80
   HDFC Bank	500	1050	110.00
   IndiaBulls	200	720	260.00
   Infosys	600	1150	91.67
   ITC	160	203	26.88
   JP Associate	70	9	-87.14
   JK Tyre	15	120	700.00
   Mohit Indus	40	60	50.00
   MOIL	271	217	-19.93
   Morepen	3	37	1133.33
   Muthoot	123	193	56.91
   NMDC	164	93	-43.29
   Pidilite	171	555	224.56
   Powergrid	100	140	40.00
   Rallis	113	172	52.21
   REC	108	92	-14.81
   SCI	58	91	56.90
   SIB	22.1	19.1	-13.57
   SBI	190	209	10.00
   TataMo	301	370	22.92
   TVS	39	281	620.51
   Total	4666.1	7883.1	68.94

2. Not having financial knowledge before investing. If you want to invest in equities for long term then you must have some knowledge beforehand. This was my second biggest mistake. If you analyse the above portfolio the P/E is close to 25. This is what exactly Benjamin Graham is put as a upper level. So I am still at high risk. And all this happened because the book "The Intelligent Investor" was sitting idle on shelf when I started investing. Moral: If you want to invest in equity by yourself read some investment books and do some dummy trading/investment. See the graph what happens when you invest without knowledge. More down than up. 
   
3. Ignored the value of SIP and mutual funds. I knew that I am not good enough to know market. Despite this fact I didn't go SIP route initially. This was because I never had someone who recommended it and those quick ads like "Mutual Funds are subjected to market risk and blah blah. " This kept me away from it till long time and missed golden opportunity to make some money. Moral:  Start investing in mutual funds through if you are not an expert.
4. Going after quantity instead of quality. Although this point can be covered under point No. 2. But I find it a separate issue. There may be chances that you can find a great stock with high price tag and low P/E and a good enough stock at pretty low price per stock but at high P/E. Moral: Don't go after quantity rather invest in quality but make sure you don't pay a premium price i.e. higher P/E. Like if I would have invested in MRF in Mar2012 @10k.  Today's value is close to 56k and at this price P/E is still under 16. Having lots of penny stocks is no good.
5. This 5th point is actually the first point, the mistake I made was - purchasing an endowment life insurance plan, in which I was able to get double the return in 15 years which was accumulated in those 15 years. This sounded reasonable at that time whereas I was not able to calculate the return percentage for the same. Let's talk about the figures- I paid around 260000  and returned the policy in 4 years, if I had done some SIPs or even bank's RD it would become 4 lakh and 3.5 lakhs respectively. But I returned the policy and got only 160000. My overall loss is around 200000. Again around 80%  of loss :( . Moral: Don't go for endowment insurance plan, its returns are pretty poor and your money remains stuck with your insurer. Keep an SIP or RD for investments.
6. Not having stop loss on my investments. This was one of the early days mistakes for which my portfolio is showing losses. Always put stop loss according to your risk appetite and companies fundamentals so that your hard earned money doesn't go waste.

These are a few mistakes made till date, however I tried to correct it one by one as soon as I realised them. Here are course correction steps:

1. Completed reading few investment books before investing much. ("The Little Book That Beats the Market" and "The Intelligent Investor"). See my portfolio vs benchmark report as of now. 
   
   
2. Started few SIPs.
3. Invested in quality stocks. (Read large cap and Companies with strong fundamentals).
4. I keep buying stocks at regular interval (averaging) and especially at dips like Brexit and Demonetization.
5. Tried to lower brokerage charge by buying in bulk.
6. If  you have quality share, don't book profit from selling all the it. Book only to take out the 50-60% of capital invested in that particular share . 
7. Booked profit in the Bulls run. When market gives you profit of 30-40% in a month or two. 
8. Keep listening some market experts and matched their suggestions with my existing knowledge and then deciding what to do.
9. Diversified my portfolio through investing in different sectors.

Learn here ..how to start investing 

http://rahulkumar07.blogspot.in/2017/01/pointers-to-stock-investment.html

declaimer : "I am a fairly new investor(less than 2 years old in market), so my view will be fairly limited to my experience of market as well as studies done by me. 

Pointers to Stock Investment

Investing in stock market is risky- we all know this fact. But how risky ? - This is the question which we all want to know or some people don't want to know just because being risky is enough for them to stay away from the market.

Before reading further let me put this declaimer : "I am a fairly new investor(1 and half year old in market to be precise), so my view will be fairly limited to my experience of market as well as studies done by me.

This article is all about how to learn and start investing in market without taking much risk. Let's start. (Earlier you start, better the returns):-

• If you don't want to track stock market on daily or monthly basis and fluctuations make your heart beat faster then go for Balanced Mutual Funds(Open ended with growth option).
• If you can bear the fluctuations and ready to take some risks go for Equity Mutual Funds
• If you want to save taxes as well while investing in Mutual Funds go for ELSS.

Note: Prefer Open Ended Mutual Funds with Growth Options only. Choose dividend Mutual Funds when you need regular returns from Mutual Funds.

If your risk appetite is still little higher than that and want to make your hands dirty with manual selections of stocks, go ahead with following steps in mind. These steps are meant for long term investment horizon.

• Start with small amount. Limit 5-10% of your annual income in first year.
• Purchase only quality stocks companies which you know and their annual turnover is respectable.(Nifty 100 or BSE S&P 200)
• Search for unpopular large companies, there may be some companies which may be part of S&P 100 or 200 but not so popular in masses due to their business model, such companies can be bought at bargain.
• Maximum price to be paid for any share should not reach more than 25 times their P/E.
• Search for the stocks which are at low due to some temporary issues. Like- Flood or some natural disaster affecting their business.
• Never buy a share which has been subjected to some lawsuits.
• Keep buying at regular interval. This will average your buying price and help in good return in long term.
• A great company may not be a great investment if you buy it overprices.(refer to P/E rule)
• Don't put all of your eggs in a basket. Means diversify your investment but not too much. Purchase different sectors.
• If you get chance to put your money in foreign market don't put more than 1/3 of your portfolio.
• Don't rely much on market forecasts and market experts.
• Never sell all of your stocks no matter how much market is overvalued.
• When you think market is overvalued sell the stocks and keep the money in bonds and repurchase when you feel market is undervalued.
• Never buy after a substantial rise or fall of market.
• Make sure company has paid regular dividend from last 5 to 10 years.
• Don't try to beat the market, try to make return close to market returns.
• Index funds does the best job as they don't try to beat the market.
• See cashflow statement of company and see if their income from operations is increasing through out the years.
• Look for the debt on company it should be less than 50% of their capital. (D/E should be less than 0.5)
• Start your investment from ETFs and Mutual Funds to understand market sentiments.
• Make a virtual portfolio from sites like moneycontrol.com and add your favourite stocks in it and match market return.
• Don't frequently buy and sell as brokerage charges and taxes can make your actual gain less.
• Take benefits of 1 year lock advantage for equity as capital gain is free from taxes. 

Hope this helps. Keep investing.