Mariners and Marriage

 Xxxxxxxx 3/O:
Sir I had a personal query..I am 3rd off in Anglo from XXXXXXX Jharkhand..only son of my parent..Now its time to get married so parents are seeing girl..they are getting some good rista but in these cases girl is working in IT company and staying in pune Gurgaon...
Now the fact is that I want to stay with my parents in XXXXXpur..My father has also build a good home for our family in  XXXXXpur and with God grace we are well settled in XXXXXXpur having small business..I am planning to switch to land in few years with good investment in my business..an I also want to marry a smart girl who can manage my home and take care of my parents on my behalf..when I am at sea but most of options which we are getting the girl is settled in other state..I will also be wrong to tell a girl to leave job and stay with us..please advice me what to do 🙏

Rajeeve Kaushik:
Things haven't changed much in last 32 years, the more they change, the more they remain the same.
I faced quite a same challenge that many years ago.
Of course in those days the ladies were not working as much but everybody was quite open about the fact that I will not stay with your parents when you are sailing.
Plus of late I am witnessing lot of failed marriages of youngsters in which case they are happening within a few months or 1 or 2 years.
So many years ago what I did was instead of going by my father's matrimonial I wrote my own matrimonial indicating clearly my profession and requirement of a girl from a family which values fine arts, music and creative talents.
But I also mentioned that the girl should be self employed or a professional like CA doctor etc.
By good Karma I got exactly the family that I was looking out for and a wife whom none can match.
Family Background matters a lot.
Because the same traits are carried forward to child.
I can see that now in my daughter how she is raising her own child.

So my suggestion is to ask your parents to take it easy.
Look for a girl from not only same milieu, but similar area .
I would suggest you sit down and write your own matrimonial.

You must keep a few things in mind.
Even though you are 27 you are still a third officer and at a stage when you cannot really carry your wife on board even if the company allows.
You will be spending substantial time in your exams so foreign travels also ruled out.
The ladies working in the IT sector today would be earning your comparable salaries so there is no incentive for her to marry you.
What you do in future should not govern your decisions today.
So be Patient and let things happen .
Warn your parents about complications of today's marriages.

Confession of the Day

 Confession of the day:
Though I try to advise only what I have learnt from my experience and  what I have gained from age what I'm currently doing...
But a lot of things are also from the mistakes that I have made...
made over quarter century that I am able to present in just two or three sentences...
If I write a book on these mistakes again then all of you will get confused as the explanations would be detailed and convoluted.
So the next best thing which I do is try to give you the advice in short 2-3 sentences.
These are the net take aways from not only my life and investing experience but also that of thousands of other mariners and shore based investors. These are also the broad conclusions from few of the stalwarts from whom I learnt.
Like Mark Twain said "There is nothing like original idea..." everything has been already thought of and created.
You can also call them your  chocolates for Orals.

© Rajeeve Kaushik

No mean achievement- this!!

 This month has been very special for me.
7 members have informed me about reaching their OCR mile stone.
Even more important is that none of their portfolios actually requires them to do anything further except maybe increase the amount of investment.
All of you who have achieved the entry into this basic one crore or OCR club , will now Marvel at the speed at which you will achieve Two Crore  and from there to 3 Cr.
The most important thing is that with your portfolio at whatever level it is ,you're safe and have covered all risks viz: Inflation, wrong Insurance, life risk, health risk and by filing your ITRs you're on the right side of the Income Tax Department.
Income tax will be the biggest risk for unaware Seafarers in future especially the old variety of my age who are ignoring IT at their own peril.
When I see more and more people enhancing their portfolio value, I feel more happy and satisfied as if it is my personal gain. Because with over 1000 people already past this mark and over two hundred already achieved their retirement value - it is my dream for every Seafarer to achieve financial stability coming to fruition.
However this is not just my mission, it also has to be yours as a "pay it forward ".
You must resolve that none of your shipmates in future will be ignorant towards the elements of Financial planning or Personal Finance.
You also have to be active and aware netizens and be aware of all changes that happen in the rules, regulations and economy of the country and globe.
It will pay you rich dividends.
Who knows some of you might be Warren Buffetts of tomorrow

God speed all of you.🙏

Quantum of Investment for Mariners

 XXXXX:

How much sip is sufficient for Chief Officer please guide

Rajeeve Kaushik:

For every rank I suggest everyone must invest at least 35% of one's earnings. As a chief officer you will not be taking breaks for any exams and most probably you would have already completed your family so now the expenses will be more predictable for you.

So I would suggest minimum 35% and maximum whatever your wife and you are comfortable with.

The investment should always be made by equal SIP or stp round the year without missing anytime.

Investment should be on permanent basis till your required goals are achieved and you should not start selling just because the market has gone down.

Today the market has gone all time high so certainly in the next 2 or 3 months it will go down at such moments one should utilise the opportunity to make bulk purchases.

Your ability to hold on to your national losses during market downtowns and also the ability to utilise that adverse time to make more Investments or even watch everything happening steadfastly, will also bring about a great change in your character and your life.

Monetary loss is something that we are mortally scared of so when you will see that without your doing anything your portfolio is losing and also gaining you will become very equanimous. 

So more than you -your family and friends will observe that now nothing perturbs you or disturbs you and your able to take important decisions in life quite easily.

SKIN IN THE GAME

 Very often I am questioned about the method of selecting funds to recommend.
Sometimes the questions are very specific at why am I suggesting different type of funds when all of us in the same profession and with a similar goal of retirement.
Sometimes I am also questioned about using a distributor for purchasing mutual funds.
These are very relevant and important questions and I must answer all of them with utmost sincerity.
Recently I was gifted two books of Taleb, one being with the same name as the title of this article.
So the methodology that I follow is very simple.
I mostly suggest the funds which either I am holding or I have held in the past but sold for consumption .
At the time of adding to the group ,I enquire about your rank,age and city of residence.
These parameters help me identify your financial status almost accurately and then when you contact me I'm able to judge your commitment to your goals. This I'm able to suggest a group of funds for your purpose.
Those of you who ask me simply the name of funds for a particular category ,I give you a list of 3-4 funds that you can choose from.
Since I have  access to a  pool of HNI investors outside of the mariners group I am able to question regarding the service offered by various fund houses which also matters apart from simply The returns.
I mentioned about the book because I have used the title.
A very important thing that I read in the book which actually got smile to my face is that one must only talk about what is there in one's portfolio and not give the opinion about that security.
So the strategies that I talk about are the ones that I follow myself and more importantly which have worked for me.
Now the most important question about using distributors.
It's a common knowledge that direct mode saves about 1% in commissions ( expense ratio). But that's only for Equity funds. For debt funds it's less than 0.2% sometimes even less.
What I have observed is that a fresh investor gets puzzled between the choices and modes of simple investing , and if he's from a small town then those facilities are also rare. Because of this lot of time gets wasted in Kickstarting the investment journey.
So my suggestion is to get hold of a distributor near your house if you don't have a AMC office and invest any amount in a debt fund in the AMC where you want to start your equity investment.
This will help you complete your KYC. After that you can start your equity investment on your own via online method DIRECTLY with the AMC.
In time you will graduate to Cams/ Kfintech and will start investing thru them via their app MFCentral.
Idea is that you don't waste time.
Time is of utmost importance in life and especially in investing and for Mariners it is even more valuable. If you have to buy that time somehow -  you should.

ALLOCATION TO MARKET CAPS

 IMPORTANT:
To get your allocation between Large cap,mid and small cap right, you don't have to be very specific in investing in the respective funds in that ratio.
Most of the funds ( including Flexicap funds) have a higher allocation to large cap stocks, except of course mid and small cap funds.
So even if you invest your investment surplus equally across various FLEXI cap fund and mid cap/ small cap fund the allocation  will automatically get taken care of.

HEALTH & ECONOMY

 

 

 HEALTH & ECONOMY

 

 When the Citizens of a country are performing a economic activity out of their education, skill and experience they are termed as Human Capital.
The value of their physical and mental output results in the GDP of a country.
Poor health of a person does not only cause physical discomfort and economic loss to him but also results in the GDP loss to the country.
This is on account of his not working, spending on medical treatment and also the secondary loss by the care givers, relatives etc.
This was best demonstrated by the historical pandemic of 2020 and later.
The expenditure even if made good by the insurance is still a big gaping hole in the GDP or national wealth  and a permanent loss in material terms and not notional.
A health conscious Indian could also suffer due to poor air quality and in 2019 this resulted in a loss of $30 Bn on account of deaths and respiration related diseases.
India being the diabetic capital of the world still does not have adequate data of the loss to the Individual and the country but surely is a recurring expenditure for the individual which could be minimum Rs.3000 person.
Since diabetes has secondary effect on health in Cardiovascular and neurological systems it can be considered to be the most expensive drain on the nation's health and wealth.
Mental health issues which as per my surveys are as high as 20% of the population accounted for over 1Bn$ in 2019.  
It was perhaps the high outgo towards medical visits and treatments for the hapless Mariner which brought about the MLC 2010 code, and may have been counterproductive for the Marine worker. However the short write up does explain the actual loss to the individual and the organisational ecosystem.
© Rajeeve Kaushik