Spend less than 180 £ a day and live lavishly in Mumbai

Having lived in Mumbai for 30 years, I thought of writing a post just for those from UK who are planning to holiday in the Maximum City.

Inspite of being the most expensive Indian city for expats, a visitor from UK can spend almost a week over here and be treated like royalty.

The best time to visit Bombay..oops!... Mumbai is between December and February. During this time, the city is blessed with pleasant weather. Rest of the year is spent oscillating between sweltering heat and the famed yet difficult monsoon.

Let us assume  you plan to arrive on 12th of Jan and depart on 17th of Jan.

Booking a room: Since this is a popular time for tourists to arrive, the room rates are costlier. Among the options, I would recommend Vivanta by Taj just for their delicious breakfast buffet at Tratoria! The stay would cost would be between 700 and 800 pounds depending on the hotel you choose.

Intracity travel: I would recommend you download Uber or Ola App or both as soon as you land in the city. The drivers won't find it easy to fleece you and the vehicle would be in a fair condition. For Uber, the fare estimate is given here. Which means if you wish to travel from Taj Vivanta at Cuffe Parade to Haji Ali (approximately the distance from Brent Cross to Manchester Square), it would cost you approximately Rs 200 (2 pounds) in a Uber X category vehicle.

Places to visit: Oh, there are many (Will be dedicating a seperate post for this)! Apart from Haji Ali which I wrote about, you must also visit Gateway of India, Jehangir Art Gallery at Kala Ghoda (Mumbai's art district),Nehru Centre in Worli (which has a beautiful section called Discovery of India that takes you through how India has changed over several centuries), Mannat+Jalsa (if you are curious about Bollywood), Navi Mumbai (Navi Mumbai literally means New Mumbai) and Malabar Hill. Inclusive of food, you won't be spending more than 25 pounds a day (assuming 2 adults)

In fact here are some off beat things you can do in Mumbai: https://www.thrillophilia.com/places-to-visit-in-mumbai#offbeat things to do in mumbai

Gold Will Still Double From Here!

I was cleaning out my 'to read' pile recently and found notes I took at an industry meeting back in 2012.  One of the notes I had written down was a quote from a presenter and read as follows:

Gold will still double from here, use GLD & gold stock mutual funds.

I have no idea as to the full context of the presentation - although unsurprisingly it was from a presentation by a firm that is a gold dealer - nor why I jotted down that particular comment.  But it caught my eye as I reviewed my notes from that conference, and since we didn't take any action to include gold in our portfolios I decided to take a look at how gold has played out and see if we might have missed out on something.

We dug into some data and found that the exchange traded fund SPDR Gold Trust (ticker: GLD) traded in the $40-50 range throughout 2005 and then shot up over the coming years, topping out by spending most of 2012 in the $155-180 range.  So GLD had tripled in the seven years preceeding the conference session when I had jotted down that pearl of wisdom, as it was right around $165 in mid-November 2012.

Over the last few weeks GLD has been hovering around $125*. . . meaning over the past nearly four years gold has lost 25%.  But at least investors have received  some cash flow in the form of dividends. And GLD doesn't even pay dividends, so that loss has gone right to investors' bottom line.

By contrast, the iShares exchange traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 (IVV) has moved from around $145 in the fall of 2012 to around $215 recently, a cumulative 48% capital gain.  Plus IVV has paid a dividend amounting to something just under 2% per year of annual income.

Put another way, a $100,000 investment in GLD in November 2012 would now be worth about $75,000; the same investment in IVV with dividends reinvested would be worth around $170,000.

So, as it turns out, I'm not sad that we once again ignored a popular investment, we did not jump on the bandwagon and that we stuck to what works based on academic evidence.  Although, in fairness to that speaker, and to make sure that the title of this blog isn't clickbait, I do need to circle back and say that I agree with him:  I have no doubt that gold WILL double from where it was in fall of 2012 to over $300 and beyond.

It's just that I might be retired, sitting in a rocking chair with a shawl over my shoulders before that happens!

*Amusingly, when I googled GLD this morning, one of the headlines that popped up was "Gold's SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) Is Ready to Rally"! It was all destined to double at $165 and now six years later at $125 it's ready to rally...I guess gold bugs are counting on a broken clock eventually telling the right time!

Easy way to predict the corpus you can create

Not investing in mutual funds through SIPs yet?
New investor in SIPs?
Keen to know the value of your mutual fund corpus after a few years?

Use this simple calculator

For instance, if you invest Rs 5000 per month for 5 years and assume growth of 15% year on year, your corpus would be worth Rs 4.48 lakhs.

Happy investing!

Mark Carney ‘serene’ about pre-referendum economic warnings

Governor of Bank of England – Serene on Judgement of MPC/FPC

With the indications increasing, that economic activity had held up more than expected since the June referendum, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has fortified his blatant warnings regarding the negative impact of Brexit on the economy before MPs. In recent weeks with the firming of business activity surveys together with resilient retail spending data, has led to assertions from supporters of Brexit that the warnings of recession of the Governor has now been shown as scaremongering together with the quick to reduce interest rates, by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee – MPC, after the vote.

 However, these charges were denied by Mr Carney at the time of replying to the questions before the Treasury Select Committee. He stated that considering all the events since the referendum he was absolutely serene regarding the judgements made by the MPC as well as the FPC – Financial Policy Committee. He further added that they certainly welcome the signs of stabilisation and that the Bank had anticipated a bounce back in the much observed Purchasing Managers’ Index – PMI surveys when the interest rates were reduced on 4 August.

Biggest Downgrade in Modern History – Growth Forecasts

That recover had provoked the economic forecasters of a host of City of London to revise their expectation of a recession in the second half of the year, though a sharp go-slow in the growth is yet extensively predicted. Mr Carney had mentioned before the EU referendum in May that a technical recession would be possible in case of a majority Brexit vote by the British public.Interest rates were reduced last month by the Bank to a new historic low of 0.25% and had pushed on another £70bn of Quantitative Easing as it revealed its biggest downgrade in its modern history in growth forecasts.

Mr Carney had repudiated the charges that levelled by the pro-Brexit Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg stating that the Ban had issued dire warnings before the vote, replying that he had heighted risks aptly. Moreover, the Governor had also added that the financial impetus the Bank had instigated together with its rapid offer of liquidity to the banking system had been one of the main causes the financial conditions seemed to be alleviated.

Traders Clambering Back

Moreover the Governor had also added that the implementation of the Bank on monetary stimulus and its rapid offer of liquidity to the banking system had been the main cause of financial situations being steadied. He commented that they had made the crystallisation of those risks less probable. Mr Carney had also mentioned that the Bank had `helped ensure that what was surprise for financial markets passed smoothly and that allowed us not to have an overshoot’.

Sterling has faced a record fall against the dollar in the two day in the wake of June 23 vote, dipping to its lowermost rate against the US currency in the last 31 years.The Bank of England had stated in August, that it could cut the interest rates again later in the year if the economy declined on the predictable. Presently the traders are clambering back their bets on another cut in view of the more positive economic data.

One Retirement Housing Risk No One Talks About

A recent discussion in the forums of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners involved whether or not people should pay off their mortgages when they get to retirement.  I've got my opinions on that, but one side of the argument I had never heard before came from an ACP colleague* and I thought it so important to consider I wanted to share a snippet of her response:

We are often called upon to bring up the subject of awful things that can happen. The "why you should have a mortgage" story belongs in this area. Several years ago my father-in-law bought a home in a half-built housing complex in central Florida just as the housing crash started. The subdivision had new houses standing empty, unsold, when he had a change in his health that required he move. 

We had to sell in a terrible market, we had to sell under duress, he lost all his equity, but he didn't lose more than that. The mortgage on his house served as a stop-loss in that situation. The bank shared the risk.

Whether it's because enemy armies are tramping across your land, or the local nuclear power plant developed a leak, or you have a stroke: sometimes you simply have to get out of Dodge. Having a material portion of your wealth tied up in an illiquid asset is simply bad planning.

Like many things in personal finance, there is no one correct answer to this mortgage question, and a lot of it has to do with personal temperament and personality - as another colleague said 'I can calculate correct thing for you to do, but a spreadsheet doesn't have to sleep at night!'.  

But it is important to consider as many sides of a question as possible before you can decide which answer is right for you.

* If you know anyone in New England who could use unbiased, fee-only advice from an expert in financial and tax planning, you'll be doing them a favor by sending them to check out Wendy Marsden of ProsperiTea Planning.

How Doing House Chores Can Give You Health, Wealth, Time and Enjoyment

House Chores? Seriously? This is 1 of the ultimate personal financial tips that Frugal Daddy is giving? Yes, this works like magic. If you coupled this lifestyle concepts with minimalism and frugality, you are not very far off from the most exciting lifestyle that you wanted to have.

Let me explains. This can only happened without maid, parents, nanny or any external help (part time helper).
Health
My family are living examples. Without me noticing, I developed "6 packs" of muscles in my tummy.  I was shocked one day when my wife asked me about my tummy. I have to confess other than the once-a-year IPPT, I don't exercise nowadays. I will start soon to exercise, I know. haha.

Where are the muscles from? I simply do all the house chores and taking care of my child concurrently, with the help from Frugal Mummy, and the magic occurred. It helps better that both of us are working full time and need to take care of child 24/7 ourselves with the help of infant care and childcare.

I know, some of you are starting to wonder, wouldn't it be too stressful instead that lead to poor health? No! These are chores that need to be done anyways. Just by "Who". It will only be stressful if you think it is. All in your mind. That is why busy people can make more time and lazy people always think that they have no time. Ok, I always tell people I don't have time nowadays.

I start to wonder why average women in the past live longer. Not because they like to nag the men to outlive. Maybe, there were many housewives and they "live well" by doing house chores.

Wealth
What is the cost of employing a maid? This includes providing food, insurance, medical and necessities. Maybe $1,000 all in per month? Why pay if you can avoid? Of course, there are instances you need a maid. Example, taking care of someone. I am saying in the perspective of if you have the choice to do all the house chores by yourself.

How about parents? I am not sure about this. I never rely on my parents much since tender age. I paid my polytechnic tuition fee anyway. So why now? There is a conventional wisdom why westerners are more independent than Asians in general? Maybe because they live away from parents from age 18? I don't want to touch too much on this aspect as it is super sensitive especially if I talked about parents' allowance and expectations that created as a result of this favour. Good for you that you have parents that willing to be your maid. But, I will do it myself for all the benefits that give me.

Time
Here is the counter initiative concept. Naturally, many people like to comment that time spent on being minimal, frugal and doing house chores are time taken away. I beg your pardon. You spend time earning the money to spend money to buy time? Get it? You may argue the employment hourly rate ratio is lower than time spent doing house chores yourself. Is it? Unless you can generate cashflow every moment of your free time. And we are talking about using your free time to do something for your family that your entire family will enjoy, including yourself. In some instance, time are spent doing nothing to supervisor the maid or wait for external helper to complete the chores.

Moreover, when you do all the house chores by yourself, you get to bond with your family members better. Everyone is involved in making a decision for every small aspect of the house. We helped each other and we appreciate everything and being organised. We saved time not to clutter unnecessary items and we get inner peace when the house are so clean and minimal. You no longer need to spend time thinking where is this, and that. You no longer need to travel all the way to buy something that was already in your storeroom somewhere for decades. Time saved, isn't?

Enjoyment
Wait, don't turn off the page yet. Yes, doing house chores is enjoyable. As mentioned above, you get to involved the family and bonding is created. You enjoy every aspect of your house that you doing your best to pay for. You enjoy the privacy of not having the maid or any external people around. You will not create a false impression for your family, including yourself, that chores are done magically without any effort. You spent a lot of effort to earn the money, so that you have more money to buy the time? Clever you.

Anyway, I am a proud parent because my child helped me mop the floor, wipe the table and tidy up the place from as young as around 20 months old.

So why not today, you spend the long weekends, i mean few hours only and not the entire 3 days, to do house chores by yourself? You can actually do it during weekdays too to avoid doing any during weekends.
Is it really a house "Chores"? I would think it is a house activity. It is my privilege to serve my family, together with my family.