A brief overview of personal investment and an introduction to Simplus financial consultancy services pvt. ltd
We are a Bangalore-based personal financial services firm established in November 2007. We have the required expertise and experience to advise individual investors on financial and investment planning. However, we prefer to deal with individuals who do not leave everything to us and take some trouble to acquaint themselves with at least the basics of these important areas of their financial lives.
Our first and most important piece of advice to every individual is: Never expect an investment adviser to take greater interest in your money than you yourself have a duty to take. It is your money. You are responsible for it. You have to take responsibility for it. Investment author Frank L Netti has an excellent quotation that focuses on financial responsibility: “By law you have the right, by nature you have a duty, and to your family you have an obligation, to be a good steward of all your assets.”
If you shirk financial responsibility, what can happen to you is best summed up by this anonymous saying: “When a person with experience meets a person with money, the person with experience gets the money. And the person with money gets the experience.”
To start you on the path to becoming an enlightened and responsible investor, we are attaching hereto, some important material for you to go through, so that you understand the foundation upon which later advice is given. The said material serves one more very important purpose. You have to form an opinion whether or not you agree with our investment philosophy. Only if you do, should you continue with us.
Our first paper is A Guide to Personal Financial Planning. Financial planning is like preventive medicine on the financial front. There are certain critical areas of your finances that you should be aware of, where a few necessary steps must be taken. If this is done, you will be able to deal effectively with most adversities that could arise from time to time in your financial life. You will also be able to achieve financial freedom sooner than later.
The second paper is A Guide to Mutual Fund Investment. It acquaints you with some sound investment strategies for mutual fund investment. There is a disclosure document attached to this paper which contains information that we are statutorily required to provide you with, as well as some additional information. You would do well to go through this paper very carefully.
The third paper is A Guide to Equity Investment. By no means are we suggesting that you should get into stock market investment right away, especially if you are unfamiliar with this avenue of investment. However, virtually all advice you receive from stock brokers is biased and wrong. It would therefore be in your interest to have a basic idea of what sound stock market investment is all about.
If these papers appear to make sense to you, then we would urge you to go through our detailed PowerPoint presentation on Personal Financial Planning. If this paper has been sent to you by email, you will probably find the PowerPoint presentation attached to the same email. If you are reading printouts of this document and you want to go through the presentation, please let us know your email id and the presentation will be emailed to you. If you have any questions thereafter, you can email us and seek our help in drawing up a sound financial plan for your future. Our contact details appear at the end of this literature.
Essentially, investment is for three purposes. The first is for parking funds or keeping some funds aside to meet emergencies. The concept of emergency funding has been explained in detail in our PowerPoint presentation on financial planning. The second is to earn regular returns. This is an area where most people make mistakes. When you are of an age where you can actively work and earn money, your earnings, whether from employment, profession or business, constitute your regular income. It would be most unwise to place your savings in further regular returns avenues such as bank fixed deposits.
The third purpose for which we invest is growth, or to build wealth. During your active working life, the vast majority of your savings should go into growth avenues of investment. History has shown that equity, real estate and your own small business are the only three avenues of investment that have consistently beaten inflation and delivered genuine, wealth-enhancing returns over periods of 10 years or more.
Business of course, is not for everyone. But all individuals can invest in both stocks and real estate after obtaining some basic knowledge about these avenues. If you are not familiar with stock market investments, the right approach would be to invest using strategies such as highly conservative systematic transfer plans of mutual funds, explained in our second paper which is a guide to mutual fund investment.
If you want to engage our services for financial planning, we need some further information about you and your family. This information will be sought from you later, depending upon your response to this material. We do not charge for our advice. But we expect the implementation of the financial plan to be made through us. Let us make it very clear that we never thrust either our advice or services on anyone. But if you choose to proceed through some other financial intermediary, or take our advice and do not implement it, no further advice or services will be offered by this firm to you.
If you want to avail of our services only for investment and not for comprehensive financial planning, then we require details about the quantum of investment you want to make in a lump sum and / or the quantum of monthly investment installments that you can comfortably manage.
Deepak K Rao (MBA – Finance)
Founder Director
Simplus Financial Consultancy Private Limited,
# 296, Ground Floor, 12th Cross, 9th Main, 2nd Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore – 560 011.
Mobile: 95355 69667 Phone: 080 – 26578496
Email: deepak@simplus.co.in