Invest, Invest, Invest !!!!!!!!

CRUDE PRICES AT 142$/BARREL !!!!

INFLATION CROSSES 11% MARK !!!!

US UNDER RECESSION !!!!

INDIAN ECONOMY UNDER SLOWDOWN !!!!!


These news headlines are making frontpage news all throught this year. Now, in this tough situation if I'm going to talk of investing, I know people are going to laugh at me, and particularly If I'm talking is investing in equities. Thats a big NO NO. Dalal street? not a safe place anymore. Last year, around this time, it was more like everything you touch is gold scenario, but now things are more like everything you touch is dust. I knew some fellows who used to spend most of their working hours on online trading portals, their coffee time discussion used to be all about how they made big money trading stock, giving stock tips to friends supported by their logic and news flows. I always used to wonder if it was all that plain and simple. BOOM !!! there a came a day somewhere in mid January of this year, the whole pile of dreams and expectations of these so called "stock market gurus" came down like a pack of cards. The markets are just moving in one direction from there on - DOWN. So all through this year, I havent heard these guys talking about stocks at all, its more about IPL and Euro cup. I just had a chat with some of these guys asking them why arent they sharing their wisdom anymore. There were mixed reactions. Some dint want to talk about it, some still had some reasons to support their buys, and some are still in denial saying this is just a phase which would pass by. There were 3 kind of expressions I could see on their faces, one of fear, one of hope, one of disappointment.

The above paragragh doesnt really tell what message exactly is my title conveying. Its simple - Invest. Everyone knows what this means, everyone have been doing this, and everyone will keep doing this. However, in reality, investing is a very complex word. It works differently for different indivizuals, perceived differently as well. Most of them treat their insurance premimums they are paying as investment, for some it means real estate or gold, and for few others its putting their money in stock market, but what most of them do is just get into one of the above and thats where they lose. They fall and suffer, nevertheless, lessons are not learnt. Its always like if this doesnt work lets try something else. The golden rule by which all financial planners swear by, dont put all your eggs in same basket, is always ignored. What one got to chose is setting goals and planning their investment using different asset classes, may it be gold, real estate, equity, fixed income bonds, fixed deposits, etc., so that the end of result of all this is when one of these dont work your whole corpus is not totally destroyed. Have a realistic plan and stick to it.