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Advice
Cryptos Risks are Structural, its Returns are not
Ganesh’s winning bet in the 1983 World Cup final was worthless because it was unenforceable. Crypto carries a similar risk. Even when prices move in your favour, weak regulation, custody failures, fraud, and legal irreversibility can wipe out gains entirely. As crypto returns compress toward levels seen in traditional assets, its risks remain open-ended. Without enforceability or recourse, a “winning” investment can still end in total loss—making crypto suitable, at best, only for speculative “mad money,” not for serious financial goals.
Banking
Unclaimed Assets: Easy Searchability, Not Opacity, Cuts Fraud
India’s ₹2 lakh crore pile of unclaimed assets remains largely out of reach not because citizens are unwilling to claim them, but because the system makes discovery nearly impossible. Official portals demand prior knowledge of assets, defeating their very purpose. As a result, meaningful restitution is rare, while private intermediaries succeed where the state does not. Without a unified, searchable database focused on discovery, initiatives like Aapki Poonji – Aapka Adhikar risk becoming symbolic rather than transformative. Truth be told, transparency—not opacity—is the real safeguard against fraud.
Uncategorized
How options trading became India’s new smoking habit
Once romanticised like smoking in 1960s cinema, options trading has become India’s new aspirational vice. Cloaked in technical jargon and regulatory legitimacy, it promises quick wealth while quietly delivering losses—over 93% of retail traders lose money. Recent SEBI orders expose an ecosystem of sophisticated extraction and misleading “education.” If options trading is to be deglamourised, regulation alone won’t suffice; it will require sin taxation, punitive treatment of speculative gains, and sustained cultural signalling—much like the long battle that stripped cigarettes of their allure.
Banking
Retirement income: Systematic withdrawals win over dividends
Investors often prefer “income” like dividends over withdrawing capital, even when withdrawals are more tax-efficient. Austin, investing ₹5 crore for retirement, shared this instinct and favoured the dividend option to avoid “touching capital.” Behavioural research by Shefrin and Statman shows investors treat dividends as safe, approved income, while selling units feels uncomfortable. This mental accounting bias is widespread and reinforced by the social-media push for “second incomes.” But relying only on income requires a much larger corpus and can derail retirement planning. Recognising these biases helps investors accept disciplined SWPs or products that withdraw only from gains.