Saturday, January 20, 2007

Koffee with Anu

Koffee with Anu, With Jayaram and Parvathi was superb tonight (Jan 20th, 2007) on Star Vijay.

Jayaram was superb as usual with the best jokes and timing and delivery... Hats off...

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Naan Kadavul and Alwar

Ultimate Star Ajith in Tamil Filmdom, has ensured that he vents out his
feelings, with the movie "Alwar", for being dropped from "Naan Kadavul"
unceremoniously, as reported in newspapers and journals for the return
of the huge advance, using tough tactics.

He dons the Avatar's of Vishnu to kill his enemies, from being pious to
a killer, is the storyline. He utters "Naan Kadavul" every time he kills!

Asin comes in and goes, nothing special with pimples..... Kirthi Chawla acts well.

Vivek comes in and giggles, but for very few scenes only. Probably the
story could have been interlaced with more comedy, to make it a sure
hit. Hoping that some more editing of unwanted chase and fight with the
Oriya Police Officer is cut, and more comedy - thought provoking ones -
done by Vivek and Mayilsamy will add value. For ex. Mayilsamy can come
in with another Avatar for comedy two more times, and in the last one,
Vivek should get totally offended to run behind Mayilsamy, in different
get-ups....

Now it gets average rating only. Understand that the weekday crowds are a dull and the weekends pull in cash.

BTW, I am not sure whether Alwar's are depicted right?

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Did Shilpa Shetty got paid to get racially abused?

Did Shilpa Shetty got paid to get racially abused?

My take is this, with the amount inv0olved of Rs 3 crores, or 400,000 sterlings, there is a chance.

Her mother prays for eviction, faster bucks.

At 31 (might be more though), does she needs these cheap publicities to survive?

Bringing down India?

Never go back and work at the Colony Empires..... There are good, but as they say, some can be rotten, like one in a bushel....

She can change her name to Shilpaa Shetty, to reap gains.

Shah Rukh Khan

The promo for Crorepathi no 3... goes like this

The small boy, is foind of asking questions and likes only that... he has made it one step at a time in house, life (twice farted e.r. farting parotta) and now in the Crorepathi seat! (asking questions to ring in 45 lakhs an episode, getting canned in 2 days, whopping Rs 1.8 crores commitment already!). Not bad Shah Rukh can. I still remember Circus, where he was the ugly one, just making it with the act!

Funny though!

I remember the fart joke of Salman Khan with Aishwarya in one movie, I thought Ajay Devgun was great in that!

How to Calculate your insurance needs

The main thing what the insurance guys miss out while selling is trying to find out the exact take home income and the family needs, than pushing for tax benefits.

For example, if a person's take home is 6 lakhs (50K monthly) and the family expense all inc is about 25K, the nett savings would be 25k, and he or she can/should invest only 40% of that amount in insurance.

Simple, how did I arrive at the formula?

Well the basic need of a person is to save for his family, right? So the investment is to be in the Stocks, Mutual funds, gold etc. So 30% should go to that of nett. Now left with 30%, which can be used for his long term needs, vacation, emergency funds. So the rest is 40% for insurance. Out of which the mediclaim for a reasonable amount of 10K per annum to be kept aside for the family. Now the rest is available for insurance manipulations.

Now the quantum of needs...

First based on the average inflation adjusted returns for a 30 year old is 8.5%, hence for example, if the family is spending at 25K or 3 lakhs per annum, the logic would be to have 75% of that when he is not around. (We have to remember there is some nest egg and properties, additional). That gives an amount of 18,750 monthly (225,000 annual). So the termlife insurance amount to be (sum assured) would be 26,50,000/-.

Typically the premium would be at 0.5 to 1% per lakh for a termlife for 25 years. So the outgo is, Rs 26,500 max per annum. This to considering the money back policy, if taken, would suffice. Keeping the survival, and the children's earning age, one should try to be insured till 70, with the excess income each year set aside for ULIP investments or a combination of termlife and mutual funds (giving extra yardstick).

This should be taken with utmost care with the following example (as above)

Take home - 6 lakhs
Expense - 3 lakhs
Savings - 3 lakhs

Mutual funds/Investments - 90,000
Emergency funds/house - 90,000
Mediclaim - 10,000
Insurance - 26,500 (not to be more than 25% of any income)
ULIP - 83,500 (long term - for all in family).

Now the other question, typically asked to me is, what if my income is below above example? Well, use the percentage, keeping in mind ULIP comes last, to tide the market with insurance as well.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Career Dips

I read in ET recently about a formula on how your career goes up and down.

Governed by a formula y = 2x + 3 sin(x) where x is the year of your experience

Now using excel draw a graph) to see your dips.

Following example is of mine, starting from 1990 till I would retire. Amazingly, this works. True to the extent of my career in the past.