Naveen Garg's Blog

Dilemma v/s Decision

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Today the whole day was full of dilemma about one critical thing. The more I thought about possibilities, options, workarounds and consequences more confused I found myself. Then finally I approached the matter in a methodical way and was able to reach to a conclusion. Though this discussion sounds very trivial, the effect of this dilemma was non-trivial with so many positive and negative thoughts stirring my mind all through the day.

After this experience I had a few words with myself and realized how important it is to be decisive rather than being in dilemma and keep on thinking about something again and again. Being in decisive state feels a lot better. One important point to remember about being decisive is that you always make the best choice. Later on it may or may not turn out to be the right choice.

Another aspect of decision that I understand is the importance of keeping options and possibilities open for the future. This is about not being too adamant on your decision once it is made. Ego is something which has to be kept out of the decision making process as this helps in avoiding fatal mistakes. When things have to be let go.. let them go and when you have to take back your decision ..don't hesitate.

Goalpost

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Though the word 'Goalpost' resembles the career of most of us who are in the pursuit of something big; however, over the years I have realized that this is nothing but something imaginary as there isn’t a particular goalpost for anybody. It is something which keeps on moving with every success and failure.

In case of failure some people just take it as their destiny and move on with the next best option and some people just give up thinking that they were on the wrong path or that may be it was a dead-end at the right path. In this case I would say that these people in fact never had any goal or they termed something as their goal which didn't even qualify for it.

In the other case the situation is a little complex and takes the mind on a ride of roller coaster thought process very often. We decide something and work hard to get it but by the time we achieve it we realize that there is a lot more to be achieved and we again feel running behind in the race and a new race starts for a new goal. In other words we just keep moving our goalpost. In one sense this is interesting as this makes us try for something bigger and helps us in getting the bigger picture. To some people this eventually becomes the reason for frustration as they always see someone more accomplished or better positioned. The choice is ours and how we take it completely depends on us.

My personal experience tells me that a good option could be the middle path. While aiming for something bigger will be the driving force, enjoying the achievements on the way is also important. It helps in feeling so much efforts put in competing and achieving worthwhile. The idea is not being overwhelmed by race and competition but to enjoy the journey of achievements.

The Miscellaneous

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:17:00 +0000

This blog is the collection of my findings of miscellaneous expenses that many students ignore in the beginning while planning the finances for their MBA abroad. Due to these factors the total actual cost of my MBA has gone up significantly than what I had budgeted for initially. So it will help others to keep an eye on these points.

Currency fluctuations
When I applied for MBA in Canada in Oct 2010 the currency rate showed on the websites was close to 42 INR/CAD. Since then it has gone up significantly and these days it is touching 47 INR/ CAD. Though no one can predict the currency movements with surety but having this factor in mind and adding some buffer for this will surely help in better planning. There are some websites which provide forecasts for currency rates. One such site is www.forecasts.org

Actual Rate of currency for buying and transferring money
The rate of currency that you see on websites is significantly lower that the actual rate that you have to pay while buying or transferring money to some international account. This includes mark up by financial institutions, commissions and services tax etc. So for example if you see 46 INR/CAD on website what you actually might end up paying could be 47.2 INR/CAD. So please plan your finances carefully while estimating in foreign currency. Also different institutions charge significantly different rates. My observation is that banks charge more than what other like UAE Exchange or Cox and Kings charge.

Networking cost
The living cost given by colleges in their MBA brochure are generally on the higher side. Actual monthly living cost can be found out by contacting some seniors from the same college or from the same city. However this cost will generally include only the regular living expenses for rent, food, phone, Internet, utilities and transportation. At least in case of MBA, networking is very important and there is a price tag associated with it. My friends have suggested me to budget for 2000-4000 dollars just for the networking parties and hang outs which is not an insignificant amount. So please keep this item also in your mind.

Books
While planing for my finances I kind of overlooked the expenses for books which is actually the reflection of what we see in India. Here books are not that expensive even if we plan to buy them original and new; however, this is not the case abroad. What I have understood is that books there are very expensive if you want to buy original and new. There are some ways out such as borrowing or buying from seniors, taking books on rent or in some cases buying from India. However it will be wise not to ignore expenses for books altogether.

Wardrobe
If you are not so fashion conscious person like me then getting prepared for MBA will be a surprise for you. You will have to buy so many things from suits to formal wear, from new shoes to so many other things. But the bottom line is.. all this is important. So budget a good amount for changing your wardrobe.

Travel Cost
We all know that international travel is expensive hence has to be budgeted specifically. If you are going for a two year program that plan for at least 2-3 trips based on how frequently you want to visit your home.

Interest expenses
This one was the biggest unsettling parameter in my case. If you are taking a significant loan to fund your loan then please be informed that you 'might' have to pay the interest amount along with your studies. If this is the case, there will be a significant additional cash outflow while you are still in the college. If you get a loan for which interest has to be paid only after completion of studies then this is not a point for you to worry about.

Student Exchange Program
If your college provides student exchange opportunities and you wish to opt for it then it will be wise to add some extra cost as appropriate.

Other shopping expenses
Apart from new clothing there will be 10s of other things that you will have to buy before you land abroad and if you want to avoid spending in dollars for every small thing. This will also not be insignificant amount so budget some money for this as well. Example in this category could be luggage, utensils, some gadgets and accessories.

Misc
Even after considering all the above mentioned items there will be many things for which you should plan a buffer amount. I would term this item as 'Misc' and it could be anything such as a bicycle to commute, medical expenses, some kind of permit fees or anything else. It is highly advised to budget some amount for unforeseen items.

Disclaimer: Through this blog I don't intend to scare you about expenses associated with abroad studies but to help you plan better for it! I hope this will help at least to some people.

Book Review: Don't Sweat the small stuff at the work

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 07:16:00 +0000

My latest reading is a book titled "Don't Sweat the small stuff at the work". I had this book for almost three years but buried under a heap of papers and I never bothered to figure out what it was about. Finally I started reading it and interestingly it turned out to be the most useful and practical book I have ever read.

In this book the author Richard Carlson has given very simple and obvious tips to reduce stress in life and be more productive and effective. Most of the tips are work related as the title suggests. The book is comprised of small 2-3 pages 100 chapters, each discussing about a simple tip to reduce stress and improve efficiency. As I read the book, I could relate my own professional life with most of the points raised in the book. I could flash back and find out similar situations in my professional and personal life as mentioned in the examples given in the book. With the examples and their solutions written in the book, I always thought how differently could I behave in my own similar situations and almost in every case I was able to find the answer.

Also this reading was very opportune considering a big shift in my life. This along with numerous discussions I had with my friends and my own thought process has resulted in significant enlightenment as I would put it. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who wants that it would be better if things were different in his or her professional life.

Inflection Point

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:24:00 +0000

I am wondering why am I sleepless at this hour. So many thoughts from past and for future are running through my mind. Flashbacks from school and college days, glimpses from personal and family life, adventures from professional life.. all are making their appearances. All this with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan music and a lovely weather is creating an aura for some deep thinking!

At this juncture in my life and career when I am making a huge transition, the perfect term that I can think of is 'Inflection Point' meaning significant change. Life is changing and is changing dramatically. The culture I will be a part of, the climate I will live in, the people I will be surrounded with and the topics I will be talking about. All this is good change and is for better.

Having seen the toughest time of my life and having surpassed the biggest apprehension of pursuing a costly abroad MBA, I see a significant change in myself. Things look much simpler to handle (at least for the time being). No challenge looks too big now. The entire pursuit so far has brought significant changes in the way I approach different type of situations. This has been an immense learning.

Coming out of comfort zone is no small thing. In past four years since I started my career I have become used to of my account getting replenished at the end of every month. Money is taken for granted and all the facilities were taken care off by the employer. I am excited to see so many challenges in the near future.. I hope I will sail through!

At peace with chaos

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:40:00 +0000

We all wish that things in our personal and professional life should or must be the way we want them to be but this is far from reality. Every now and then chaos surround us and drive us crazy. The negative effects of this are multifold and affect almost everything in our life.

With plethora of activities going on parallel in professional and personal life, preparation for MBA and departing friends, things were seeming to be going out of control. Then I thought there will be much more chaos going further so is there any way I can handle this better? During a discussion with a friend of mine over a cup of Cafe Mocha at Barista the words of wisdom were uttered.. first be at peace with chaos..embrace it.. and she will love you back!

Lately I have been trying to be at peace with chaos (though along with efforts to reduce it!). A small but simple technique to reduce the chaos or letting it get me is to use sticky notes on my computer regularly. Sounds very trivial but this has helped me reducing a lot of tension of remembering so many pending tasks. I also make a separate high priority list as well. Every day target a few of these high priority tasks and rub them off. Another good way to reduce chaos is avoiding half-completed tasks. I believe half-completed task consumes the same amount of memory in our brain as a completely pending one.. or may be more with some worries as add-ins!

To me, being at peace with chaos means not taking everything too seriously and expecting life as it comes. We have no crystal ball nor are we astrologers, everything comes as it is supposed to. Do your best and let other things wait!.. or in other words..'Chill Maaro' or in Kannadiga.. 'Chill Maadi'

Are there some distant worries? Let their turn come!

Things also go right.... Mostly

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:24:00 +0000

Do you remember yourself discussing with your friends or family that your day was wonderful and you completed 10 things that you planned and it feels really nice when things go right? Well, I believe there are not so many people like this and to a large extent I am also not.

Now switch the context and think about how many times at the end of day you discussed that you did not like the lunch in the cafeteria or traffic was horrible and that you were pissed off due to that? You are not alone..join the majority! What happened to all the other good things happened during the day or the things which went absolutely fine?

It is our general tendency that we almost completely take all the good things in life for granted and behave in a manner such that only the things which went wrong were only the most important things. A little bit of thought to this point can do wonders in our lives. Just accept the fact that life is not perfect for anybody in this world. The richest man or the most powerful person also faces a couple of things going unexpected.. Big Deal... there are so many other things which went well. Also most of the times we don't have any control over the things which are not as we want them to be.

I believe small imperfections in our lives make it interesting. This morning I was going to Airport to see off a friend of mine and another friend was driving the car on the Express Highway to the airport at the speed of 120 KMPH! Many people long for this kind of high speed drive but after a while my friend got bored as there were no hassles, not much traffic and no need to change gears! So in other words, these small imperfections make us to change gears in our lives, apply our mind, handle bad situations and learn from mistakes.

So next time when we discuss about something which went wrong, it would be a nice idea to think about 10 other things which went right!

Being human!

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:36:00 +0000

'Being Human' generally ignites some thoughts about our responsibility towards human rights, nature, society and under privileged, I agree with all this in its entirety. In India these days 'Being Human' also symbolizes actor Salman Khan's organization for social cause. However, while reading Richard Carlson's book 'Dont't Sweat Small Stuff at Work' I got a new perspective of this term. It's about letting yourself being a human.

In the race of life most of us have left the life behind. We are running for that extra comfort, a little bit of more money and that one more achievement in career. I am also not spared of this! In a way I don't see anything wrong in this philosophy as such, as at least to me this has some element of making your life useful. However, the author of the book has presented a really interesting point in one of the chapters (No.81, page 227). The point is simple and already known - 'To err is human, to forgive is divine' but in a slightly different way 'To err is human, to forgive yourself is divine'. If it is getting complicated, the idea is that being humans we all make mistakes and we should learn to forgive ourselves just like we are taught to forgive others.

Author says that the life is a 'Work in Progress' and I totally agree with this thought. We build our life one experience at a time and learn from our mistakes. If we don't learn to forgive ourselves we will just end up living a resentful life as the life passes by. This idea is somewhat on the similar lines of my own quote which I like very much - 'There are no good or bad decisions, there are only best decisions that we take in given circumstances'. So idea is that, if before taking any decision we know that it is not the right decision, we would not take it. It's not actually a mistake but the best decision at that point in time. But later, if our decision does not turn out to be right it becomes a mistake.

The best way to deal with this situation can be one of the following two at the high level; either you just forget it and move on considering that mistakes are just a part of life or you can analyze the causes and do better next time in a similar situation. I believe either way is fine and is a personal choice but the important thing is that you should be able to forgive yourself because 'To Err is Human'!

With this, I forgive myself for making the biggest mistake of my life so far!

The student loan story

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 22:23:00 +0000

In the entire process of starting my MBA, the most painful part was getting Education Loan from India and this exposed me to some complex and some unprofessional side of the loan process. I wish to share my experience on some key points in this post so that others going on this path can avoid some of the trouble.

Start the process as early as possible
All the MBA aspirants apply to multiple colleges and some people get multiple admits as well. However due to various reasons such as multiple rounds of applications, wait list or others the admits come at different times from different institutes. So as soon as you get the first admit and you are sure that you will join the program if you don't get any other, apply for the loan but first check with you respective bank if you can later get it converted for some other program at no or very little extra cost. This will save you a great deal of time.

Prefer Public sector banks 'as far as possible'
I had a very very bitter experience with a major private sector bank even when they have a dedicated education loan arm. I had to apply to the public sector bank after waiting for one month. In a nut shell I found the public sector bank much more professional and organized. They processed my loan in five working days. So avoid private bank as much as possible.

Margin Calculation
I was totally bowled over on this point. On bank's website you will see margin written as 15%-20% but that does not tell the complete story. That is the minimum margin that you will have to put in but there is no limit for the maximum. What does this mean? Let us see some examples (I am assuming public sector bank):

Example 1: You are going for Indian education. In this case maximum loan limit will be 7.5 lakh. So if margin is written as 15% on the website it will be 15% till the total fees is 7.5/0.85 = 8.8 lakh.

As the fees goes up, 7.5 lakh remains 7.5 lakh but your margin goes up. So if the total fees is 15 lakh. Your margin will be 50%. So you have to give 7.5 lakh to the bank and they put their 7.5 lakh and give 15 lakh to the college.

And if your fees is 6 lakh, you will get loan for just 6*0.85= 5.1 lakh

In case of Indian education this margin thing does not make much difference as such unless your total fees is less than 7.5 lakh and you want loan to fund it.

Example 2:
A. You want to go abroad and total fees is 50 lakh.
B. Maximum loan available for foreign education is 20 lakh (with collateral and cosigner).
C. Margin on website is 15%
D. You are arranging 'some' funds from abroad may be a collateral and cosigner free loan from a foreign bank. Let us assume 20 lakh. So you need 30 lakh from Indian bank but max available is 20 lakh

Now here the problem is that even when you are not using same collateral for the foreign loan and also the cosigner is exclusive to the Indian loan, the bank will tell you an unwritten policy that you cannot take the other loan for the same program. But you want to take it as the interest rates are very low in developed countries.

If you don't show that loan here is the calculation:

Total Fees: 50 lakh
Loan by Indian bank: 20 lakh
Your funds: 30 lakh (at least that's what you tell the bank as you don't want to bring other loan in picture. And also don't forget that you will need your funds for living and other expenses)

You can at least convince them that you have some relative in that city who will take care of you living so you need loan just for tuition. This will help in margin calculation.

So here is the calculation:
Bank assumes that you want tuition fees loan for 20/50 = 40% amount and 60% you will pay. So your contribution margin becomes 60% (not 15% as written on the website). Meaning every time you want to make a payment to the college you need to deposit 60% amount with the bank and they will add 40% and then will transfer 100% to the college. And this transaction has to happen through them only. So how do you use foreign loan? Well you can't and second you don't have 30 lakh (generally!) as you will need your funds for living expenses.

So be careful before paying any money to the bank for loan processing. Get these things clarified. Thankfully the above mentioned private bank was not bothered about the foreign loan.

Women Power!
I came to know that public sector banks have policy to give 1% discount in interest rate to female students. Although no use to me but may be to you if you are a girl!

Mode of interest payment
If you pay interest along with your education you get 1% discount in interest rate in public sector bank. Unfortunately the private bank did not give me the option to pay it later. But this condition varies depending upon program's reputation and might be negotiable in some cases with private banks. So check for that.

Interest Rate comparison
Try to arrange as much funds from the foreign country as interest rates are very low in most of the countries which are possible MBA destinations. In India private bank will offer a little less rate.

The shocker!
A friend of mine got the loan from the same private bank for the same amount without any cosigner and collateral! I had to handle the 6 weeks' craziness for the same loan even when I was providing collateral of more than double value, a cosigner, an additional cosigner and one guarantor! So I believe things are pretty random!

{added later..}
Early loan payment policy
This is also one crucial point to consider. As the interest rate of Indian loan will be high, you would like to payback it as early as possible. However sometimes banks charge fine for this early payment of loan. Based on my experience I found that public sector banks don't have such rule but private ones do.

{added later..}
Processing charges
The public sector bank which which I dealt had a policy under which they would charge 1% of the total amount as processing charges. However if you actually use that loan they would adjust that amount. While the private bank will charge straight 1% and no adjustment later. So if your loan amount is 20 lakh, you will pay additional 20k to the private bank.

Final words of wisdom.. it helps (A Lot) to have some networking with the bank manager where you are applying for loan!

First lesson in management: Save time on web

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:55:00 +0000

We all have 24 hours in a day and we always had. However over the years I have found myself busier than ever before. I have so many things to catch up and my sticky notes are full of pending tasks. I am with my computer almost 15 hours a day and stay connected to all my real and virtual friends but I am busier than ever before.

As I am getting prepared for MBA, one advice that I am getting repetitively from seniors and others is to manage time properly and make best use of it as there will be so much to do at B-school: Lectures, Assignments, Club Activities, Networking, Exploring opportunities and last not the least cooking!

So I considered the activity which takes most of my time to gain some of my time back and the activity is 'Staying Connected'. With all its benefits, social networking is taking a serious toll on my time and most of it is actually not required. Here is the list of things that I tried to reduce some of the nuisance caused due to social networking without compromising any of its benefits:

1. Go invisible on Chat or Messengers.
There are at least two or three messengers installed on a typical computer these days and tens or some times hundreds of friends sitting in different time zones are online. So somebody is always online. Even if I don't ping most of them I feel tempted to see who is online and are there any interesting status messages. So I found it useful to uninstall useless messengers and login in Invisible mode on messenger.

2. Report spam or unsubscribe as many useless mailers as you can.
While surfing or performing actually useful tasks we tend to register our mail ID on many websites and then start receiving mailers, promotional offers etc from them. This not only increases the junk in our mail box and we actually end up wasting time reading some of the useless mails. Also sometimes useful mails remain buried under this junk. It will be a good idea to unsubscribe as many useless mailer as possible or report spam wherever applicable.

3. Disable unnecessary notifications from Facebook
You can love it, you can hate it but you cannot Ignore it.. that's Facebook. Now that it is impossible to not use Facebook we can still try to reduce the time we spend on it and still stay in touch with our friends.

The first way is to change the e-mail notification settings. Keep only those setting which are really important. We anyways see notifications when we go to Facebook. Getting e-mails for everything on Facebook creates nuisance and wastes a lot of time.

Second thing that you can try is to not use 'Keep me signed in' functionality. Using this functionality it becomes very easy to login to Facebook just by accessing the URL without typing Username and Password.

Next is to Unlike all the unnecessary pages that we don't want to follow any more.

4. Avoid keep checking mails all the time
I am in the habit of keeping on tab opened for my Gmail all the time and I am sure many of do the same. Even when I don't get useful mail very frequently and waste a lot of my time. Plus most of us have smart phones these days. So it is a useful idea to fix some time during the day when you will check your personal mails.

These are just some of the things that I have tried and I see that I have a lot of more time to perform my other important tasks. Based on individual habits there can be many other such ways to save time.

Hyderabadi nostalgia!

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:13:00 +0000

Clock is ticking and I am counting my final days in Hyderabad. Sitting idle in the office makes the time even more challenging. In the huge amount of free time these days my mind goes back to past three years in Hyderabad (Hyd) and all the good and bad experiences I had here. Hyderabadi Nostalgia.. that's what I would term it!

For various reasons this place will have a significance in my life at least for a long time to come. I have spent almost all of my meaningful career till now in Hyd. The pride of working for Microsoft and all the associated benefits are deeply associated with this place.

It was Hyd where I made some really nice friends and they were practically my life support system in many respects. I owe a lot to my these friends. Thanks for being with me in my good and bad times, and also to keep me motivated to pursue my dream.

Mostly I have seen the newer part of the city with big buildings of IT companies, newly built nice apartments, wide open roads and place to hang out with friends. overall the impression is good and I had fun here over the past three years. The fast bike rides on Airport Expressway, early morning visits to Osman Sagar Lake, Discs, Pubs, Movies and countless restaurants will be part of my memories.

Like every good thing come to an end (sometimes for better!), the time has come for me to move on as well. But I am super excited that at least for next two years I will stay in a wonderful city of Toronto to pursue my MBA. I have already seen a large part of the city on Google Street and have heard a lot of good things about the city from so many people.

So moving on with great memories of Hyderabad...

So a new journey begins...

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:28:00 +0000

In my previous posts I have written about my pursuit of MBA many times and most of the times it was about one more try, one more failure and one more try again! So now it's time to put a full stop to all that as I am about to embark on a new journey by pursuing my MBA. Yes, I have finally been able to crack it and joining Rotman School of Management, Univ of Toronto, Canada for my MBA starting this Fall!

When I look back it all seems to be an amazing journey. There was a time around three years back when I was very much puzzled and wanted to do just anything. Thought of GRE, prepared for CAT and feared of GMAT and international MBA due to associated cost. Over the period of past three years I have taken multiple daring decisions and failed in some of them but fought back again every time. All this is really special to me.

First milestone was the decision to go after international MBA. I decided to go for it and not think about distant factors mainly the cost until I have an actual admit in my hand. GMAT, which initially looked very trivial kind of exam, made me understand the concept of 'Marginal Utility' in depth. It look a lot of efforts to improve just a little bit and finally a decent and competitive score to start applying.

Second significant step was choosing the programs I wanted to apply to. There were numerous parameters to think about. GMAT Scores, Location, Cost, Probability of getting admission, Recognition in Finance industry, language, placements, deadlines and many others. Those who have seen the spreadsheet that I prepared while researching on the MBA programs would agree with that. There were more than thirty parameters I captured for the tens of MBA programs across the world. Significant research efforts over so many sleepless nights! I am glad some of my friends also have been benefited due to this. Finally I zoomed in on six-seven colleges to try my luck. One year of complete failure apart from an interview call from IESE, which I could not convert (luckily, in retrospection!).

Year two, I gave a little boost to my profile by clearing CFA Level 1 (in Second attempt!) gained one more year of experience, did a couple of more things to improve my profile and fought back with vengeance. Seven applications, four interviews and one convert! So finally I have MBA admit in hand and that too from a college which is known for Finance in the world.

The whole process of MBA applications has been very rewarding so far. Firstly, it has proven my fighting spirit! During this process while answering the essay questions I did a lot of introspection about my skills, achievements, weaknesses, strengths etc. In the end, I think I know myself better. Application process certainly improved my writing skills as well.

One important thing is that in this entire process my family and many of friends have provided immense support in various forms. At times I felt tired and wanted to quit but they motivated me by encouraging me to try once more and run the last lap. Thanks to so many friends who commented on my essays and helped me improve. Many friends connected me to people across the world to get some useful information about MBA programs, economy in some particular country or so much of other useful stuff. Thank you all! In the end thanks to all the friends who helped me in arranging finances to pursue my MBA! I will be indebted for all this support guyz! It has made me more humble. Last but not least, thanks to my managers at Microsoft who found my aspirations exciting and provided their full support.

So one journey ends and a new journey begins!

Canadian Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 09:23:00 +0000

In last some days I did good amount of reading about Canadian economy on Wikipedia. Through this reading I came to know a great deal about Canadian economy, what are it's main influencing factors, main industries and how it shaped in its current form in past couple of centuries.

The beginning of Canadian economy was dominated with Fur trade. Fur, which was a luxury item in Europe and mainly in Britain, was sold in exchange of other useful items. Later, when forests in Britain were depleted, focused shifted to lumber trade. Large forests in Canadian river valleys and basins were cut to support this trade. This trade required a large number of workers which resulted in large scale immigration to Atlantic regions of Canada.

Gradually some form of governments started taking shapes in various parts of Canada and tried to reduce dependence on Britain but later they realized that due to their shallow market they might end up becoming a satellite market of USA hence they again focused on the ties with Britain and other parts of Europe.

Due to the vastness of its territory the Canadian state wanted to build a strong railroad network to leverage hinterlands and wealth available there. This left most of the state governments bankrupt which became the main reason for all these governments to come together to form a dominion state.

Later agriculture started taking shape mainly in central Canada and large quantity of food grain exports started. Later oil and other minerals were discovered in various parts of Canada and the economy started booming. Along with increasing prosperity the banking industry also took shape and today it is considered as one of the most reliable banking systems in the world.

Canada being a relatively low cost destination in the neighborhood of USA, many US companies started manufacturing facilities in Canada especially in the central part. Like any other developed nation, Canadian economy has also seen a shift towards the services industry and today 3 quarters of the workforce are employed in the services industry.

Though the Canadian economy closely follows the US economy, still it has maintained some unique features especially in banking, subsidy, public welfare and foreign policy.

I want to.... Version 1

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:46:00 +0000

1. Complete my MBA with major in Finance and perform well in that.
2. Make a successful career in Investment field.
3. Write a book someday which would be recognized by the targeted audience.
4. Publish at least one good paper.
5. Learn how to swim.
6. Complete CFA.
7. Start at least one venture of my own.
8. Take out at least one family out of poverty by enabling it's kids to get good education.

Canada's Top companies: An Observation

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:34:00 +0000

Out of curiosity or in the attempt to improve my knowledge of Canadian market/economy, i found the list of companies which create the benchmark of Toronto Stock Exchange http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif(TSE/TSX). Here

I then went to Google Finance and searched for each of these companies to get the very basic info about these companies. Though nothing like a great discovery I observed some patterns which I want to document here.

1. The list comprises of a lot of natural resources companies (as expected) and out these companies most of them are in Energy and Gold. Considering that Canada is a minerals oriented economy, I was expecting a much diversified proposition.

2. Canadian businesses are very much integrated with the US (again as expected) and also many of these have operations in South America. To my surprise only few of these companies have operations in Asia and Europe.

3. Though I saw many companies producing/transporting crude oil and gas, I didn't see much about refining.

4. There were a few Telecom companies in the list but there was not a single Software company.

5. Unexpectedly power utility companies did not figure in the list.

These comments are nowhere related to research but are pure observation and also reflects a bit of my Indian context. Just a part of exploration.

Who moved my cheese?.... Yawn!

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Fri, 27 May 2011 19:01:00 +0000

As I am getting prepared for my MBA I thought of getting into MBA mode by starting reading some of the books suggested by college Profs. One popular name I saw on the list was 'Who moved my cheese?' I have seen this tiny book on almost every book stall over the years so thought of starting with it.

The way book started looked some interesting expecting that there will be some interesting reverse analogies between the behavior of mice and humans. Some insightful statements like any other self-help books and may be some other interesting stuff..

I have completed 20 pages out of 32 pages and there is nothing happening apart from the character Haw going back and forth in the maze and thinking the same thing again and again just in different words...

YAAWWWWN!!!

I got so bored in this tiny book that I could not stop myself from expressing my boredom on my blog. This is the crappiest book have ever read!

Behavioral Finance: Something new to explore!

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Some days back I stumbled upon a term 'Behavioral Finance' and followed by this site. I found this term very interesting and started to explore more about this. I came to know that this is a very fertile research area for Finance, Economics and Psychology. Following my curiosity, I am digging more deep into this, however till now only thing that I could get hold of is that there are so many terms/sub-categories in this field. Any permutation or combination of the terms in Economics, Finance and Psychology will make a new term in Behavioral Finance!

Most of the material that I have referred till now is research oriented and becomes too technical(Boring) for a objective person like me. Seems this will prove to be something interesting to chase at least for some time! Trying to find some interesting and simple reading in this field.

A farmer who can make stock experts look down

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Today was a holiday and interestingly market was open.. wooha! What could be better than this. So most of my day was occupied watching NDTV Profit and CNBC. Both of the channels show programs in which investors from across the country dial-in ask stock specific queries. In one such program today a farmer from somewhere in Andhra Pradesh called and asked an 'expert' opinion:

Farmer: "I got some shares of Infosys in its IPO and I am still holding it. Shall I continue to do so?"
Host: (Thinking) - WTF!.. "How many shares sir?"
Farmer: {---}
Host: rate?
Farmer: 160 (if I am not wrong)

Both the hosts look at each other and the experts on the show also look uncomfortable!

First Host: Sir, I am up for adoption!
Second Host: Why not me!

They do some calculation and the number comes out to be 1.09 Crores! One of the experts (Fundamental analyst) excepts the brilliance or patience whatever you may want to term it and keeps quiet!

The technical analyst, even though not willing to comment, says something and suggests some support level or barriers and smiles!

Template Screwed up

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:19:00 +0000

I was trying to change the look and feel of the blog after keeping the same theme for more than two years and in the process screwed it badly. Need to spend some time to fix this over next some days :(

Recession is for Individuals not for big corporates

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:08:00 +0000

Just saw a talk by Russel Napier, Strategist - CLSA on CNBC, given to an audience of Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP). In the talk his main point was that American equities are available at good valuation and people should buy it. To substantiate his argument he presented a lot of data of US stock markets captured in past 140 years. He also highlighted a couple of very interesting points which to some extent are applicable to other markets as well.

First point that he mentioned was that valuing equities based on dividend yield does not hold good anymore. The reasoning is that in the recent past a lot of large corporations have returned money to shareholders not just in the form of dividends but also in the form of share buybacks. Hence this also has to be accounted while doing the calculations.

He said that being the symbol of capitalism, the US economy has seen almost everything that can be expected from a free economy. It has seen high growth periods, recessions, political turmoil, a lot of innovation among other things. His point was that even being such a great economy, the US markets also could not sustain P/E more than 20 for long in the history and every time came down to more sustainable levels. So according to me the take away from this point is that even though Indian economy might be like an Oasis in the midst of financial uncertainty, there is every good or bad reason that the markets will come to their logical levels after seeing such a dramatic rise in past some weeks.

One other very important and catchy point that he mentioned is that the recession is for individuals not for big corporates. It is individuals who lost the jobs, who defaulted on their loans, who saw pay cuts and live fearing due to uncertainty. For big corporates, he mentioned that the recession was short lived and got over long back. Markets value has increased significantly since the bottom of market, bankruptcies were bailed out, earnings are almost back on track, there are more than $400 billion lying in cash with the corporates and many such data points. So in the end it is the individual who is affected because there is 10% unemployment in the US or may be because lesser people are doing more work.

He argued that the model of the society is not sustainable in which individuals are scarified to save the corporates or in which the corporates dictate the policy.

9/11 v/s Lehman Brothers

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:35:00 +0000

While reading the novel 'After the darkness' I just thought that there so many similarities between the two most influential events of the past decade: 9/11 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers. When I thought more about this,I found even more similarities in terms of the political and media treatment of these two events.

The magnitude of both the events was enough to send shock waves across the world and was not centered only in the USA. After 9/11, the US came cracking down on many countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran. The world order in the international politics also took so many turns. This kept the uncertainty lingering for many years and after effects are still very much there. Similarly, two years back the collapse of Lehman Brothers rocked the entire world. In the true sense, the effect of this event was much bigger than the 9/11 as every single country and and a large chunk of the world population felt the impact of it in one way or the another.

After 9/11, we saw the US taking many steps for the homeland security and also made its international security policy much more cautious. The visa laws changed, business ties with other countries were altered and a lot of negative sentiment prevailed for the foreigners. Similar things are happening in the US again but in the different context. This time it's for job security and security of American financial supremacy. Many laws and regulations have been passed to stop international professionals entering into the US job market. The USA, which is supposed to be the mecca of the capitalism and free economy, is taking many efforts to give advantage to its own companies and work force. Though, politically nothing is wrong in this, however this shows some similarity with the actions taken post 9/11.

When it comes to media, the two events got equally high visibility. Earlier TV channels kept showing pictures of tumbling twin towers for months and years, and now in the past couple of years, the story of Lehman collapse has been discussed every day, at least on the business channels. There were movies made and novels written on 9/11 and similarly there are many books already on stands taking some inspiration from Lehman saga, be it fiction or some other form of writing. I am sure some big shots in Hollywood must be charting out their own plans.

Network Investing

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:26:00 +0000

We all know the term 'Social Networking'. In its current form Social Networking means different things to different people. It is generally facebooking, orkuting or some other form where people keep track of friends and family. They share experiences, photos, videos and comments. The power of this can be imagined with the fact that Facebook surpassed Google as the most hit site in the world.

To me, with all other conventional uses of Social Networking, one other aspect is very important which is exchanging of stock tips and ideas with the people who are on the same track. Any news of interest is just spread among the group members rapidly and many a times it has benefited us.

We have formed a very interesting group with a common interest but different outlook and approaches. We have a person who is full time technical trader, a newbie iBanker, a Chartered Accountant, a strategic financial consultant in an MNC bank, a black hole of latest news and myself. So the idea behind this is that a new idea is thrown in the middle and everybody jumps on it, giving a different perspective. This collective thinking process is complimenting each other's skills and resulting in improved multi-dimensional thinking of the markets. This is fun!

Investing in What do I need

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:45:00 +0000

As my investment activities have gained momentum in the past few months, I am trying to find out new avenues to apply my brain and skills. In the quest of some non-conventional approach (at least I think so!) I zeroed in on a theme which I would like to term weirdly as 'What do I need' theme.

As I represent the young India on which the whole world is putting its bet, I have started to think in terms of my own needs or people around me. What these people will need in next 5-10 years. There are many good aspects of this thinking based investment approach and I am already reaping some benefits out of it. Though the conventional wisdom of Fundamental Analysis is still my base approach, I have given that approach a mighty and aggressive color using my new theme.

So on what will I and my family will spend in the next few years? Going by just simple observations I noticed that people like me will not mind spending a few thousand rupees per year on fitness. Increasing health consciousness and corporate offers by various companies to their employees have given a great impetus to the organized Fitness Care business. So when Talwalkar's came with the IPO, I was sure to apply for it and it is giving me more than 90% as of now. I am still holding my position.

Increasing awareness towards various types of Insurance products is a good opportunity for the Insurance companies. Over the past one decade private players have also established themselves as mature players in the market, which was almost entirely covered by the Govt sector companies earlier. Now with the cut-off date of Stock market listing for the insurance companies approaching near, I believe corporates who have established Insurance business can create significant value for the investors. Govt sector insurance giants are highly unlikely to get listed anyways. So there are couple of significant private players in this domain such as Reliance, Birla and Bajaj. I have put my bet on Reliance.

The last important example that I would like to give is the organized fast food business. It is no secret that fast food chains are integral part of today's youth culture and this is only going to increase in the future. So when India franchise of Dominos came to the market with IPO, I put my bet on it as well. Though I jumped the boat with only 30% gains on the listing day, the stock has tripled since then.

Similarly there are other key areas which I am keenly interested in from the value creation perspective. I am waiting for some serious education loan provider to come to the market, I have placed my bet on a Casino company, an education provider, a stock brokerage company among others.

This new approach is not substituting the conventional one and I am still very much invested in the sectors like infrastructure, banking and other stocks picked based on the approach mentioned in the previous post.

Happy Investing!

The 20-30% runway!

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 06:03:00 +0000

It has been many years since I started taking interest in stock market. During most of this time I mainly concentrated on high quality A category stocks or say Nifty and Sensex stocks. However, over the past few months I felt some craving to try something new, so I started penny stocks, Z category stocks and stocks which are not market darling and trading near their 52 week lows when the market is at 30 months high. May be this is the effect of coming across the term 'Contra Approach to the markets' which I learned while studying for CFA Level 1.

The approach says, 'Do not follow the herd'. Meaning, when the whole market is bullish it's time to be bearish and vice versa. There are many indicators for the practitioner of this approach which I am not going to discuss here. So I started with devising my own approach with a contra view and interestingly many of the picks based on this approach have given 20-40% returns in just a couple of weeks or months.

One thing that I have observed while following this approach is that earlier my portfolio used to look very neat and tidy but now it looks a complete mess, at least prima facie. Many, not so known, stocks are there in my portfolio and most of the times the total return figure is in red for most of them but the trick is that every other day a couple of them hit circuit and I keep booking regular profits.

As I have just started dabbling with this approach I am still trying to fine tune it. The first thing that I am trying to do is the reduced scatterings of the portfolio. As the time passes I am hopeful this will mature and will continue to give good returns.

ISB: Banking and Capital markets conclave

noreply@blogger.com (Naveen Garg) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Today I attended ISB's 5th annual Capital Markets Conclave, which for the first time incorporated banking and became 'Banking and Capital Markets Conclave'. It was a full day event with a key note speech and a panel discussion on each of Banking and Capital Markets tracks. It was a nice experience to listen to some of the big people in the banking and capital markets in India.

The key note speech on Banking was given by Mrs. Vedika Bhandarkar, the Managing Director and Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse,India. She carries more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry. She talked about banking as global phenomenon in pre and post financial crisis world. She highlighted that the banks of the emerging world have become bigger than they were before the crisis and that the case is opposite in the developed world. She also mentioned four main focus and opportunity areas for Indian banking industry: Rural sector, Tapping good talent, Infrastructure and Technology adoption. One other thing that she highlighted is that as Indian corporates are going global, they would expect the Indian banks to support them in the foreign territory and that this is a huge opportunity for the Indian banking industry.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion on Indian banking industry, reforms, challenges and opportunity. The panelists were from the institutions such as Kotak Bank, SocGen, Muthoot Finance, HDFC Bank etc. They discussed about RBI policy and its effectiveness, the global crisis was termed as North Atlantic crisis!, Indian banks going global, Micro-finance, Infrastructure and need for corporate bond market.

--Delicious Lunch--

Following the lunch it was time for Capital Markets. The keynote was given by Mr. Sanjay Nayyar, the India CEO of KKR. He talked about how Indian markets have emerged over the past two decades and where are they heading to. He also talked about what are the high level challenges in Indian Private equity markets and what we, as a country, need to do to see a better future of the markets.

The keynote was followed by another panel discussion on Capital Markets. Among the panelists there was a popular name Mr. Ramesh Damani. Others were people from Morgan Stanley, a corporate law firm, an M&A expert, a bond market expert, the chairman of MCX-SX etc. I liked the opening remarks of each of the panelists as they talked very authoritatively about their own domain and expertise. Some of the remarks were really informative. However, the one thing that I did not like about this panel is that, in the open discussion everyone was talking about only one thing: Corporate bond markets are not developed in India. Though I agree with the concern but what about the one which does exist: The Equity capital market and we all know about it to a large extent. Apart from this last piece, I liked the conclave very much.

Looking forward to the ISB's 'Services in Emerging Markets' Conference on 23rd and 24th of this month.