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By:

Kaustubh Kale

10 September 2024 at 11:37:15 pm

Nine Financial Tips for a Prosperous Navratri

As Navratri draws to a close, I wish you and your family happiness, prosperity, and continued success. Festivals are a time of celebration, but they also serve as a valuable reminder to reflect on our financial habits and strengthen our financial discipline. In the spirit of the nine days of Navratri, here are nine essential financial tips to help you stay on track with your financial goals and make your journey towards financial freedom smoother and more secure. Build an Emergency Fund Make...

Nine Financial Tips for a Prosperous Navratri

As Navratri draws to a close, I wish you and your family happiness, prosperity, and continued success. Festivals are a time of celebration, but they also serve as a valuable reminder to reflect on our financial habits and strengthen our financial discipline. In the spirit of the nine days of Navratri, here are nine essential financial tips to help you stay on track with your financial goals and make your journey towards financial freedom smoother and more secure. Build an Emergency Fund Make sure you have at least six months of living expenses saved in a bank fixed deposit or a debt mutual fund. This reserve will serve as your emergency fund for unforeseen situations and ensures you are prepared for any rainy days. Review Your Asset Allocation Revisit your investments to ensure they align with your goals. For short-term goals within three years, bank fixed deposits, recurring deposits, or debt mutual funds are appropriate. For long-term goals beyond three years, a diversified combination of hybrid/equity mutual funds, direct equities, and gold should be preferred. Do Sufficient SIPs Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) are the backbone of disciplined investing. At least 25-30 percent of your in-hand monthly income should ideally be invested through SIPs in mutual funds, equities, and gold. This consistent approach will steadily build wealth over time. Make Lumpsum Investments Along with SIPs, voluntary lumpsum contributions into long-term assets whenever you have surplus funds can accelerate wealth creation. Even occasional lumpsum additions make a significant difference to the overall corpus. Increase Your SIPs Annually As your income increases, make sure your investments grow as well. Increasing your SIP amounts every year helps your wealth stay in line with inflation and your rising lifestyle needs. Increase your SIPs yearly and anchor them to at least 30 percent of your monthly income. Stay Invested Remain invested until your financial goals are achieved. Avoid redeeming investments unnecessarily. Frequent withdrawals disrupt compounding. If liquidity is required, consider taking an overdraft loan against your investments rather than breaking them prematurely. Health Insurance Safeguard your family with adequate health insurance. Opt for a minimum cover of 25 lakhs per family member with comprehensive features. Remember that relying only on employer-provided insurance is risky. Independent health insurance is essential. Term Life Insurance Protect your loved ones with a pure term life insurance policy. Ensure a cover of at least ten times your annual income, along with provisions for any outstanding loans. Stay away from mixing insurance with investments. A simple term plan is the most effective solution. Consult a Financial Advisor A full-time, well-qualified financial advisor can simplify your financial journey. Professional guidance ensures disciplined planning, correct product selection, and proper execution of your financial strategy. May this festive season bring abundance and lasting financial peace. (The author is a Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial Advisor. Views personal. He could be reached on 9833133605.)

The Art of the (Middle East) Deal

Writer: Kiran D. Tare
Kiran D. Tare
Jun 28, 2025
3 min read

Though elected on an isolationist promise, President Trump’s Middle East doctrine has alarmed MAGA purists by embracing strength and strategic entanglement.

Within hours of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Trump, with characteristic bombast, declared victory and called for peace, while warning both Iran and Israel to respect his unilateral ceasefire. The so-called ‘12-day war’ ended leaving Trump’s anti-interventionist supporters in ideological freefall.


For a man elected to end forever wars, a careful examination shows that Trump’s Middle East doctrine has proven anything but isolationist. The Iran strikes disappointed the MAGA faithful, sending many of Trump’s supporters into paroxysms of rage.


Trump is willing to engage in short, kinetic bursts of action to secure national interests. His administration has certainly renounced the liberal interventionism that followed the Cold War, which was protracted, expensive and morally freighted, and replaced it with a doctrine of calibrated unilateralism. Each strike is a show of force and each threat a test of nerve in this Trumpian doctrine.


Trump’s Middle East doctrine marks a clear departure from his predecessors. Whereas George W. Bush pursued grand ideological crusades in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Barack Obama sought to recalibrate American influence through diplomacy and multilateralism, Trump has favoured coercive pragmatism.


The clearest example remains Trump’s 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful general and regional powerbroker. Where conventional politicians might have balked at killing a sovereign state's top commander, Trump pressed the button. “To terrorists who harm or intend to harm any American, we will find you; we will eliminate you,” he said, before issuing a warning to Tehran: “We are ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary.”


Trump has weaponised economic coercion with the same theatrical style. In 2019, when Turkey launched an offensive against America’s Kurdish allies in Syria, Trump responded by threatening to “destroy” the Turkish economy, imposed sanctions on officials, hiked tariffs and dispatched Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo to Ankara. Within two weeks, a ceasefire was brokered. Sanctions were lifted and American forces withdrew.


The same playbook was deployed over the fate of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor imprisoned in Turkey. When President Erdoğan refused to release him despite a diplomatic quid pro quo, Trump imposed Magnitsky sanctions, doubled tariffs on Turkish metals and tanked the lira. Erdoğan eventually yielded.


If coercion is the stick, recognition is the carrot. On a surprise visit to Riyadh in May this year, Trump, to the shock and surprise of many, announced the end of American sanctions on Syria, now under new leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa, once the commander of Jabhat al-Nusra - al-Qaeda’s Syrian franchise. “It’s their time to shine,” Trump declared.


What binds these episodes together is Trump’s rejection of post-9/11 orthodoxy. In 2017, he declared America would “no longer use military might to construct democracies in faraway lands.” He praised the Gulf states for charting their own course while criticizing erstwhile American regimes for having wasted trillions in Baghdad.


Trump’s message, in this sense, has remained consistent, if not always comfortable for his most ardent backers. His decision not to immediately withdraw from Afghanistan early in his presidency earned him scorn from Breitbart, a longtime cheerleader.


Still, he has largely governed as he promised - not by retreating, but by refusing to remake the world in America’s image.


This doctrine has delivered episodic wins on Trump’s terms but limitations are evident in his struggle to contain more complex conflicts. Despite lofty rhetoric and arm-twisting, Trump has failed to bring either the Gaza war or the Russia-Ukraine conflict to heel. Allies may chafe and MAGA purists may grumble, but for Trump, projecting power remains the proof, and not the contradiction of ‘America First.’

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