Moneylife Foundation engaged a packed audience at Vashi (Navi Mumbai) on how best to go about securing their financial future as also that of their loved ones.
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The Moneylife Foundation on Saturday held another interesting seminar, this time in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, covering a whole range of topics from how scamsters and pyramid schemes operate to the implications of a borrower's credit history on his ability to borrow and from building wealth through simple, uncomplicated means to the importance of wills and nominations.
NS Srinath, executive director, Bank of Baroda started proceedings by emphasizing on the banker-customer relationship and discussing the efforts at enhancing the relationship as also facilitating financial inclusion by educating people on banking products and services.
Sucheta Dalal, managing editor of Moneylife, and Debashis Basu, editor of Moneylife, then conducted an eye-opening interactive session on 'How to be safe and smart with your money'. Ms Dalal explained how investors must avoid losses by staying away from certain kinds of investments like chain marketing and pyramid schemes. The audience listened with rapt attention as she explained how these scamsters operate and advised investors to avoid falling prey to such frauds. Ms Dalal also spoke about the implications of credit card transactions and the implications of default and its impact on an individual's credit history and ability to borrow.
Mr Basu explained how a common investor can earn decent returns on investments by keeping things simple and not being seduced by misleading sales pitches of self-serving market intermediaries. He pointed out that one does not have to be an expert in stocks to be able to earn steady returns on equities. The Moneylife editor also delved into alternative investments like gold and real estate. "Gold is essentially a speculative form of investment, where you are placing bets regarding the movement of the dollar and rupee. Unless you are an expert on currencies, you should avoid gold as an investment," Mr Basu said.
In the second half of the day, the audience listened intently as Dr SD Israni, partner, SD Israni and Co, enthralled them with his acumen and his flair for narrating real-life stories that emphasised the importance of wills, nominations and transmission of financial instruments. Dr Israni has over 36 years of experience in the field of corporate, commercial and securities laws. His inspiring keynote presentation of over an hour included many personal anecdotes. He also pointed out the importance of making a will-irrespective of one's age. Dr Israni elucidated the complicated topic of wills by poiting out real-life examples. He also cited examples of how several years of delay in transmission of shares to rightful heirs leads to the shares being usurped by conmen in a series of well-executed steps to decamp with the assets. Also, people sometimes make changes to wills based on emotions. It is important to be in a peaceful frame of mind when creating and changing one's will, he said.
Thereafter, Aashish Somaiyaa, head-retail sales, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, initiated an interesting discussion on how to invest smartly in mutual funds. Mr Somaiyaa described the importance of financial health and explained the intricacies in choosing the right mutual fund. "Financial health is as important as physical health. Mutual funds can help you keep your financial health in check by investing in a systematic and disciplined manner," said Mr Somaiyaa. He talked about the psychological factors that play a big role in influencing the individual investor's decision. These lead to mistakes that can be avoided with the help of experts who can address the psychological factors in investing.
The last session of the day saw the panel members engage in an interactive session with the participating audience, who posed queries to the experts on a variety of topics.
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