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By:

Kaustubh Kale

10 September 2024 at 6:07:15 pm

Akshay Tritiya and Gold

As Akshay Tritiya arrives, gold once again takes centre stage in Indian households. For generations, buying gold on this auspicious day has been considered a symbol of prosperity, purity, and good fortune. It is not just a purchase. It is an emotion, a blessing, and a tradition passed from one generation to another. But beyond tradition, gold also carries an important financial lesson. Gold is not just jewellery. It is an asset. Gold During Uncertain Times Over the years, gold has proved its...

Akshay Tritiya and Gold

As Akshay Tritiya arrives, gold once again takes centre stage in Indian households. For generations, buying gold on this auspicious day has been considered a symbol of prosperity, purity, and good fortune. It is not just a purchase. It is an emotion, a blessing, and a tradition passed from one generation to another. But beyond tradition, gold also carries an important financial lesson. Gold is not just jewellery. It is an asset. Gold During Uncertain Times Over the years, gold has proved its worth not only during festivals, but also during uncertain times. Whenever the world faces wars, inflation, currency weakness, economic slowdown, or financial panic, investors across the globe look at gold as a safe haven. This is because gold has a unique quality. It is trusted across countries, cultures, and generations. It does not depend on the promise of one government, one company, or one currency. Why Gold Holds Value Unlike paper currency, gold cannot be printed endlessly. Unlike businesses, it does not depend on profits or management quality. Unlike real estate, it is globally accepted and easily valued. This is why gold continues to remain one of the oldest and most respected stores of value. It has survived centuries of change, economic cycles, wars, and financial crises. The Right Role in Your Portfolio That said, gold should not be treated as a shortcut to wealth creation. Equities and equity mutual funds still remain essential for long-term growth. Gold plays a different role. It brings balance, stability, and protection to your portfolio. When equity markets are volatile or global uncertainty rises, gold often provides comfort. A sensible allocation of around 10-20% to gold can help reduce overall portfolio risk.  So basically, while stocks and equity mutual funds play the lead role in your long-term financial goals, gold plays the supporting but essential role. Physical Gold Has Limitations However, the way you invest in gold matters. Buying physical gold during festivals may feel emotionally satisfying, but it comes with practical challenges. There are making charges, purity concerns, storage issues, risk of theft, and liquidity problems. A necklace may be beautiful, but you cannot easily sell only a small portion of it when you need money. Also, when gold is bought as jewellery, the investor often forgets to calculate the actual return after making charges and deductions. Smarter Ways to Invest This is where Gold Mutual Funds and Gold ETFs become useful. They allow you to invest in gold without worrying about lockers, purity, theft, or storage. You can invest flexible amounts, start SIPs, track value easily, and redeem conveniently when required. For investors who want gold as part of their financial plan, these options are far more practical than buying jewellery purely as an investment. Tradition with Financial Clarity Akshay Tritiya is a beautiful reminder that wealth should be built with faith, patience, and clarity. Buying gold is auspicious, but buying it in the right form is financially wise. This Akshay Tritiya, celebrate tradition - but also upgrade your financial thinking. Because true prosperity is not just about owning gold. It is about owning it smartly. (The writer is a Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial Advisor. Views personal. He could be reached on 9833133605.)

Food Waste As Compost Bin

Updated: Jan 13, 2025

Compost Bin

Hello Dear Readers,

This week, I thought of giving you a pictorial representation of the kind of vegetable and food waste you can add to your compost bin. As you can see in this slide, you have to keep adding all the ‘biodegradable’ leftover vegetable and other residues (I won’t call these ‘waste’) to your compost bin. Let me tell you one important thing.


All these residues are parts of the fruits and vegetables that we do not or rather we cannot eat as these do not fit into any of the cooking recipes that are there for cooking purpose. Now coming to the biodegradable thing. Although these leftover residues are not fit for eating by us, humans, they provide excellent source of nutritious food for those tiny little microscopic bacteria and other living organisms.


They have their own ‘cooking ideas’, ‘recipes’ and everything that is required for this purpose. These are the biological entities that ‘break down’ or ‘degrade’ these residues into fine, powdery material, that is, bio compost and release all the essential minerals and micronutrients needed to enrich the soil. This is a classic way of recycling the nutrients. These bacteria need optimum temperature to remain active. The required temperature in maintained by the decomposition reactions that occur inside your compost bin.


The leftover food residues shown in this slide are also biodegradable as they are animal or plant products, but it is not advisable to add those to the compost bin as they will take much more time to decompose than the normal vegetable waste. May be if you have a lot of this kind of waste being generated in your house, you might want to have a separate compost bin just for the meat, bones, egg shells etc. More about this next week. Till then, have a good weekend!


(The author is an environmentalist. Views personal.)

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