Investment Planning, Why now?

In an article by Ranjan, he mentions about Power and Magic of Compunding for savings/investments. He writes,

Case 1: You start now with a yearly investment of Rs 1000 and stay invested for 40 years.

Case 2: You start after 20 years from now but invest Rs 2000 instead for 20 years.

In both the case, the amount invested is Rs 40,000. Assuming a common growth rate of 10% in both the cases, in case 1 , the accrued balance works out to Rs 442,593 . The accrued balance in case 2 is Rs 114,550. 

 You can compare the above 2 cases using a simple calculator by Hugh and the results will explain why you should invest now.

The simple way to start investing regularly is SIP (not, Session Initiation Protocol).

The day your money is invested is a day that it starts working for you.

software tips/thoughts – perl

A good read for Perl Engineers (for Systems Engineers at SOT), about ’tie’. Read the comments too. 

One more step UP

As we grow, we would like to take some time to look back and say thanks to everyone who have been directly and indirectly instrumental for the growth of our company. We have reached another milestone of being approved as 100% EOU under the Software Technology Park scheme of Government of India.

Our commitment of better growth for our Clients, Business partners and for our employees continues. Thank you all.

Job Opening – ASP.NET, C# programmer – Web Services

Responsibilities:

As a Software Engineer, you will be closely working with the US technical team in development of world class e-commerce application, for a fast growing internet retailer. You are required to co-ordinate with the Business and Marketing groups to translate requirements into functional, scalable components using Microsoft Technologies.

Criteria:

• Proven Experience in .NET, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, SQL Server
• Strong client/server database experience with SQL Server stored procedures and triggers knowledge of distributed computing concepts.
• Experience in designing .NET databases and developing web pages using .NET Web scripting languages
• Advanced MS SQL experience is added advantage.
• Experience in Web applicatiosn is desired.
• Excellent communication skills is a must.
• Quick Learner and real doer
• Hard-working
• People like you and like to work with you
• Willing to travel abroad

Benefits:

Unique & Excellent Compensation and bonus, Job Security, Career advancement, good team culture and nice work environment

About Company:

Silicon Oyster Technologies (SOT) is a fast growing IT Services organization with offices in USA and Offshore development Center in Chennai. We specialize in Custom Software development, Outsourced Product development and ecommerce application development. Our clientele includes small companies to Fortune 100 organizations. We aim to offer good career advancement, excellent compensation, job security and nice work culture for our employees.

Experience: 3 – 5 Years

Education: B.E / B.Tech, MCA, M.E / M.Tech / MS

Job Ref. code: SOTMSSE01

Our First Online Advertisment – Yahoo

If you make a search in Yahoo for telecom domain, UNIX, solaris and many other keywords, there are chances that you will see a sponsored link of our Company. We are available in Yahoo Search now and soon in Google search too. A sample screen shot.

What is web 2.0?

Watch the video…

Job Opening – Senior QA Engineer

Responsibilities:

As a Senior QA Engineer of the Unified Messaging Product Development team, your primary responsibilities will include participation and implementation of all aspects of product quality assurance relating to current and future software releases. Configuring complex multi-tier voice platform, create and apply test data, facilitate corrective action from development teams, validate effectiveness of implementation from installation scripts to telephony user interfaces. Attend engineering meetings to gather/understand QA requirements, produce test cases and follow QA guidelines. Ideal candidate is a fast learner who will quickly pickup configuration of internal products and third party products that are part of the solution. You will be closely working with a highly skilled technical team.

Criteria:

• Must have ability to write scripts to expedite/automate activities using shell/perl or other scripting languages.

• Hands-on experience in Quality Assurance of telecom/networking equipment such as soft-switches, media servers and application servers, based on Linux or UNIX highly desired.

• Knowledge of C or C++ programming desired.

Benefits:

Unique & Excellent Compensation and bonus, Job Security, Career advancement, good team culture and nice work environment

About Company:

Silicon Oyster Technologies (SOT) is a fast growing IT Services organization with offices in USA and Offshore development Center in Chennai. We specialize in Custom Software development, ecommerce software development, and consulting. Our clientele includes small companies to Fortune 100 organizations. We aim to offer good career advancement, excellent compensation, job security and nice work culture for our employees.

Experience: 4 – 7 Years.

Education: B.E / B.Tech, MCA, M.E / M.Tech / MS

Key Skills: C,C++, Telecom, Networking, Senior QA Engineer, Quality Analyst

Job Ref. Code: SQANTR02

Benefits of Public Provident Fund

Why PPF?

For one, it scores high on safetysince your principal amount invested carries the Government of India badge of honour. Two, with Big Brother watching, your investment in a PPF also qualifies for tax breaks under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. What’s more, even the interest earned (8 percent compounded annually) is free from income tax, making it the first among equals for debt-based products. A similar product will have to earn 11.5 per cent at the 30.6 per cent tax rate to be equal to the return that the PPF gives. And there is yet more to come: there is no cost to entry, maintenance or exit on this product.

You can either open a PPF account at any branch of the State Bank of India  and its subsidiaries, a few branches of the other nationalised banks, and all head post offices in the country. Once you open an account, do keep count-your investment is restricted to a Rs.500-70,000 band in a single financial year. And you can jolly well chip in to this account for15 years. Unlike in a bank recurring deposit or insurance payments, you do not need to deposit the same amount every month or year. Hassle-free investment every year would keep the doctor away.

Before maturity, you can make withdrawals from your account starting the sixth financial year. You may even apply for a loan from the third year on.

Compared with debt funds and the fixed deposits, PPF gives the biggest bang for the buck. Axe the tax, make PPF sound more like a perennial profit fund!

Source: Outlook Money – 31 January 2007 Pg.52

from Auditor’s office

Talent in India and China – Thoughts

Excerpts from Todd Raphael’s post (presentation by Kevin Wheeler of Global Learning Resources):

• “We’re heading into a talent storm in Asia” with repercussions in Europe and the U.S. that are yet unknown. Asia will dominate the world economy by 2040.
• Asia houses 1/3 of the world’s talent, many not well educated. The small number who are educated are in “tremendous and constant demand.”
• China and the U.S. have a lot of similarities in terms of the percentage of jobs that are in manufacturing and mining, but China’s heavily agricultural, and the U.S. is heavily service-oriented. China’s future will include fewer ag jobs and more service jobs.
• China and India have too few educated people, too high a savings rate, not enough jobs, and not enough people willing to relocate. Chinese leaders fear that “they can’t generate enough jobs.”
• The highly talented and skilled — a tenth of a percent in China and India, Wheeler estimates — are paid a “tremendous amount of money.”
• 1.24 million college students can’t find jobs in China; there are “incredible, incredible challenges economically.”
• India’s pace is slow; China, as a totalitarian regime, can get things done (e.g. building a road).
• It’s a myth that low-level work is being done in Asia; companies such as Motorola, Google, H-P, and Cisco are having Indian teams devise software systems.
• The universities in China and India have loose standards as far as what constitutes an engineer; it could be an auto mechanic. “It’s very hard to know what you’re getting,” Wheeler says, unless you go to a handful of top universities to recruit.
• Wheeler says “you’re going to have to have very good recruiters in those countries”; you can’t expect to send someone over there and expect them to be successful, and you can’t easily find a local person who’s going to be a successful recruiter.
• “The best way to get talent in Asia,” he says, is probably to grow your own.” They work hard; they crave a better life (many are unhappy with it as is); are often very individualistic and motivated; want their families to feel their successful; are interested in other cultures; and women are equal to men and are “really sharp.”
• Recruiters must redefine their jobs for Asia; they must provide mentoring and coaching as to how to be successful; they need to use travel, the Internet, and more to encourage interaction with the headquarters. Have people travel back to the home country.
• “There’s so much energy, so much potential. You can almost feel it in the air there.”

Individual’s Investment Strategy

At our office, there are some questions repeatedly asked by our staff. One of them is what should be their personal investment strategy. Personal investment strategies varies for individuals. The key things to keep in mind while planning are emergency cash requirements, tax savings and insurance for themselves and family. Henceforth we will also have some useful investment information posted in this blog. To start this series, an article in Economic times, gives some useful information.

Excerpts:

I am a 26-year-old lecturer in an engineering college. I got married recently. My annual income is about Rs 1.90 lakh. I am interested in investing in mutual funds in order to generate long-term capital gain (5-6 years). I would also not hesitate to invest in the share market. I have not taken any insurance policy (not interested) nor any loan. I save around Rs 80,000 per annum easily. Could you suggest what should be my investment strategy, taking into consideration tax saving also
— A K Tyagi

Since you are just 26 years old, there is a long time frame for you to make the necessary investments to build wealth and capital. This also opens up many avenues for you to invest in. Since you do not have any existing investments, there are a series of steps that you should follow. First, you must ensure that there are liquid funds available with you that might be required in some emergency. An emergency can either be some medical or even non-receipt of income for a few months. At the same time, you must have an adequate amount of insurance. This will include medical insurance as well as life insurance.

There are several medical insurance policies available in the market that can cover the medical expenses of your family. There is a wide range of policies for life insurance, too. After this, you should focus on investments, along with tax saving emphasis. Your provident fund plus the life insurance as well as medical insurance premium will allow tax deductions. In terms of investments, you would have to focus on long-term savings where a higher exposure to equity exists. Here you can select equity linked savings schemes as one of the options for investments.

Furthermore, depending on the break-up of your goals, your other investment will be structured. This will include using a pension scheme to provide for your retirement or even saving for a house and so on. The nature of the investment like medium term or long term, and the reason for which this is required, will determine the exact makeup of the options selected.

Note: Our intention is to share the information we think is good and would vary for every person. The best way to plan your investments is you, your needs and your tax consultant.