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A page on personal finance

FINANCIALPLANNING

Get Moneyminded
The big thing to happen is the coming to India of the Certified FinancialPlanner (CFP) mark. Only a CFP licence allows an individual to work as a financialplanner.

Total financial solutions. Tax planning, the choice of insurancepolicy or mutual fund and what have you—the financial planner provides all under oneroof. He has a ‘big picture’ vision of your financial life—defining yourgoals, saving for them, covering risk and providing for retirement. For instance, he willhelp you figure out what impact reducing a Rs 15,000 home loan EMI to Rs 10,000 would haveon your retirement kitty.

The balancing act. Investors tend to buy stocks when the market ishigh and sell in a slump. The planner educates you on the merits of a long-term approachand helps rebalance your portfolio.

What price planning. You’re likely paying your CA about Rs 2,000a year merely to help you with tax-planning; the financial planner will probably bill youonly as much. There are various models for charging clients—fee per hour, fee perplan, some earn commissions from funds and policies they sell you or a combination ofthese.

BHEL: Powering Ahead

BHEL is sitting pretty with a hefty order book (Rs 12,200 crore as of March 2002). Despitethe general lull in the economy, BHEL bagged new orders worth Rs 9,836 crore in theprevious fiscal, up 77 per cent from Rs 5,557 crore a year ago. At its current price of Rs174, the stock is trading near its 52-week high of Rs 196. With power sector reformsspurring business activity, BHEL is expected to post a net profit of Rs 590 crore infiscal 2003, a rise of 32 per cent. This translates into a PE of 7.8 times at the currentprice. That’s worth buying.

Order BookYear Rs crore1997 10,6001998 9,7801999 10,0002000 10,5002001 10,0002002 12,200

Expert Advice: Funds
Should I invest in Pioneer ITI BlueChip?
Pioneer ITI BlueChip Fund is one of the best equity funds around. Over athree-year period, it has outperformed the market—while the BSE Sensex fell 1.9 percent during this period, this fund returned an annualised 20.4 per cent.
Recently, Templeton agreed to acquire Pioneer ITI AMC. Now, a change in sponsor could leadto a change in fund management style. Although Templeton and Pioneer are poles apart interms of profile—Templeton manages mostly debt schemes, while Pioneer is orientedtowards equities—Pioneer unitholders needn’t worry. Templeton has assuredcontinuity in fund management. So, you can invest in the BlueChip Fund with theexpectation that its profile, which has yielded good returns in the past, will bemaintained.

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To manage your money better, read Intelligent Investor or log on to www.iinvestor.comand also get personalised information and analysis from our experts who answer queries onsmall savings, insurance, loans, taxation, mutual funds and shares.

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