Kavitha Menon's Blog

Peer groups include family, work colleagues, friends etc who influence our decisions with respect to several aspects of our lives. It is natural behavior to conform to general norms followed by these groups. Unfortunately pressure to conform to peer group norms can cause severe damage to financial wealth. Common money mistakes that one makes due to peer pressure can be avoided if you can recognize them and taken corrective and preventive action. I have enumerated such mistakes that investors make due to peer pressure. 1) Making money decisions to maintain status in society: Here's an example of a client who was born into a rich business family, lived in South Mumbai and had a roaring family business. In his mid forties a family dispute broke up the entire business and he found himself left with no assets and no business. He had no means of starting afresh and had taken heavy private loans at ridiculously high rates of interest to fund high living expe...

As parents retire and age, adult children have the additional responsibility of looking after their physical, emotional and financial well-being. Care for parents, whether independent or dependant, includes three important areas Medical Care Investment and Income Management and Estate Planning I have expanded briefly on these areas. Medical Care  Everyone goes through a stage which requires long term medical care of parents. One needs to plan on financial aspects of such care. In the good old days of joint families, at least physical care was never an issue as miscellaneous aunts and siblings could take care of the elderly. In the absence of such a support structure, it is necessary to plan in advance for a scenario where one of your parents would require long term medical care. The cost of care includes not only actual medical expenses but also the cost of lost hours of work and the cost of arranging external arrangements like appointing full time nurse, infrastructure ...