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By:

Kaustubh Kale

10 September 2024 at 11:37:15 pm

Duss (10) Suron Ki Sunoge, Toh Sahi Kaise Chunoge?”

Dussehra may have passed a few days ago, but its lessons remain relevant throughout the year. The festival celebrates Lord Ram’s triumph over Ravana, who is famously depicted with ten heads. In the world of personal finance, these “ten heads” can symbolize the overwhelming number of opinions and advice people receive when managing their money. If you listen to every voice and follow every trend, you will struggle to identify the right path for yourself. Learn Personal Finance: Knowledge is...

Duss (10) Suron Ki Sunoge, Toh Sahi Kaise Chunoge?”

Dussehra may have passed a few days ago, but its lessons remain relevant throughout the year. The festival celebrates Lord Ram’s triumph over Ravana, who is famously depicted with ten heads. In the world of personal finance, these “ten heads” can symbolize the overwhelming number of opinions and advice people receive when managing their money. If you listen to every voice and follow every trend, you will struggle to identify the right path for yourself. Learn Personal Finance: Knowledge is Power In today’s fast-paced world, financial advice is everywhere - friends, family, colleagues, social media influencers, and unsolicited internet tips. Not all of it will be relevant to your unique financial situation. To navigate through the noise, it is important to take control of your financial education. Start by understanding key financial concepts like risk, return, liquidity, and time horizon for different investment products. Risk refers to the potential loss you might face with an investment. Return is the profit you can expect to earn. Liquidity indicates how easily an asset can be converted into cash. Time horizon is how long you plan to invest before needing to access the funds. Learning these basics will help you evaluate which products actually suit your goals and needs. By educating yourself, you will develop a critical eye that helps you distinguish between helpful advice and distracting noise. Whenever you analyse any instrument, all four criteria (risk, return, liquidity, time horizon) must be considered together and aligned with your financial goals - such as children’s education, marriage, buying a home, vacations, cars, or retirement. Having a foundational understanding of these concepts ensures that you do not fall prey to quick-fix schemes or misleading suggestions that often sound attractive in the short run but prove damaging over the long term. Have a Financial Advisor: Like a Family Doctor for Your Finances As you educate yourself, you will eventually realise that managing your finances can be challenging. This is where having a reliable financial advisor, much like a trusted family doctor, plays a crucial role. Wealth creation is a marathon, not a sprint. While basic financial knowledge helps you understand the dos and don'ts, a financial advisor handholds you throughout the journey, guiding you towards your financial destination. A financial advisor tailors their guidance based on your unique profile - your income, savings, risk tolerance, and future financial goals. A good advisor helps you stay focused on long-term objectives while steering you away from emotional or impulsive decisions. Hence, it is important to have a well-qualified, full-time financial advisor. The Dussehra Reminder The message remains: do not listen to ten heads. Choose wisely, stay informed, and have a trusted financial guide by your side. After all, it takes years of education, experience, expertise, and wisdom to write a prescription - so do not self-medicate when it comes to your wealth! (The writer is a Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial Advisor. Views personal. He could be reached on 9833133605.)

Jai Maharashtra!

Quaid Najmi
Jan 16
3 min read

Mumbai bids adieu to Uddhav’s 25-year rule


‘Thackeray Brand’ replaced with ‘Fiery Fadnavis’


 

Mumbai: The bitterly fought Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election results were on anticipated and decisive lines – with sobering lessons for all the players.

 

The Shiv Sena (UBT) led by ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is poised to meekly hand over the keys to the country’s richest civic body – over which it lorded for three decades - to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine.

 

The impending disaster loomed for days, the series of exit polls and sentiments of bookies – more than Rs One Lakh-Crore was pledged on the Mahayuti victory – plus, confident body-language of the Mahayuti leaders, that damned the fragmented Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi.

 

A leering BJP, which gunned for the ‘Thackeray brand’, is partly vindicated, considering SS (UBT)’s performance. The break-up of Shiv Sena engineered through Eknath Shinde in June 2022 paid rich dividends later, pushing Uddhav Thackeray out of power in the Assembly and now, even the BMC.

 

Deserting the BJP in October 2019 to later ally with Congress-Nationalist Congress Party as the MVA, Uddhav’s stars shone bright when he became the ‘reluctant CM’, flew high with his work during the Covid-19 Pandemic years, and even hinted for a ‘national role’ - till an eclipse on his regime suddenly started from Thane.

 

A betrayed Uddhav immediately threw away the trappings of power and promptly vacated ‘Varsha’ (CM official residence), as emotional supporters lined the route to ‘Matoshri’ (his private home), mourning the ‘death’ of the 30-month-old administration.

 

The MVA government fell, but the alliance grew in stature by humbling the BJP-NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Owing to various factors, again the tide turned in the Assembly elections that year when the MVA was virtually erased by the BJP-led Mahayuti triumvirate.

 

For the past year, hectic preparations were on by all parties for the series of civic elections across the state – touted as a ‘mini-referendum’. The BJP, armed with the divided Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party factions on its side, prepared for its final assault on the daunting ‘Thackeray brand’.

 

Genesis Of Nemesis

Brushing aside concerns and allies, Uddhav hurriedly patched up with his cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray, to grapple with the Mahayuti on his home-ground, Mumbai, where the Shiv Sena was founded by Balasaheb Thackeray.

 

A cocky Uddhav insisted on including MNS into the MVA, but the Congress stoutly refused and even parted ways to ally with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) of Prakash Ambedkar.

 

Several SS (UBT) bigwigs confided to The Perfect Voice how they had warned Uddhav on the MNS tie-up and its potential detrimental effects he airily shooed them off.

 

The partnership left the minorities, particularly Muslims who bore the brunt of Raj Thackeray’s mosque loudspeakers offensive, and large sections of non-Marathis in Mumbai – like UP-Biharis, Gujaratis, Marwaris – for the compulsion of speaking Marathi or shopkeepers must display Marathi signboards.

 

Though the final polls data will emerge over the coming days, Uddhav may have lost quite a chunk of crucial votes from the non-Marathis and minorities, who had accepted him as an unlikely ‘messiah’, till the Raj partnership was born.

 

Lessons For All

The BMC results indicate that the SS (UBT) notched a respectable defeat, the MNS proved an embarrassment and beneficiary, the Congress performed on expected lines, and Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde is bereft of the much-coveted ‘Balasaheb Thackeray legacy’.

 

The SS (UBT) has catapulted as the second-largest party in the BMC, Shinde’s party - facing a gradual decline – stands third; the BJP is the single-largest party but way short of the magical 114-midway mark in the 227-member BMC house.

 

“Akin to 2019 and 2022, political jugglery of the weird kind is not ruled out. If, by some quirk of fate, the SS (UBT), Congress and Shiv Sena were to join forces, they can keep the BJP’s hands off the BMC…!” said a Congress leader.

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