When decisions go from ‘How to’ to ‘When to’

I am reading a really cool book. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink is a book about timing. Pink wants to turn timing from art to science and introduce a new genre in book titles, from ‘how to’ to ‘when to’. Pink says it matters when in the day we do things because his research shows that the human race has energy rhythms that are consistent across the world. Most people work better in the morning, hit an energy trough by about 2 pm and then recover by about 3 or 3:30 and then hit much higher levels by evening and 9 pm. What’s so great about that you may be asking? Well, for one, his work finds that scheduling a doctor’s appointment in the morning than in the afternoon may give you better care. Having your parole hearing in the morning carries a higher chance of being set free than in the afternoon. His advice: figure out your energy rhythms and then focus on your most productive and meaningful work in the time you know you are most effective. Leave routine tasks like admin work for the office day energy slump time.

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When mutual fund CEOs get over-smart

Rahul Dravid filed a police complaint recently accusing an investment firm of cheating him. He invested Rs20 crore in a firm promising a 40% return. He recovered Rs16 crore but is yet to get back the remaining Rs4 crore. Instead of trusting a sharp shooter for higher returns, had Rahul Dravid invested his Rs20 crore in mutual funds, what would his portfolio look like today? The average large-cap 3-year return is 7.31% and the average 5-year return is 14.47%. His Rs20 crore invested 3 years ago would today be worth Rs25 crore and had he invested 5 years ago, he would be sitting on a corpus of Rs39 crore. That is if he got just average returns and not top quartile returns. But he is looking to just recover his principal from the sharp shooter who promised him super returns. Dravid would have been better off in funds than with a ponzi scheme that he trusted in search of more.

Mutual funds have done well and have been in the news for mostly good reasons in the past few years. The number of retail investors is growing, the systematic investment plan (SIP) book is now at Rs6,500 crore a month and long-term investors have seen stability in their money growth. When seen in the context of large banking scams or the loot of investor money due to misselling of life insurance products, or the periodic ponzi schemes that loot not just the rich and the famous, the fund industry looks good.

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PNB, Nirav Modi, and a floating home loan that promises to really float

The PNB fraud has left many of us feeling cheated although no money has gone out of our pockets directly. We feel cheated because the rich and the well-connected once again appear to have managed to get away after stealing a large amount of money. The pictures of smug high lifers seem to be mocking those who play by the rules.

We feel cheated because we are made to feel like criminals when we intersect with the financial sector—each of us, every few years, has to redo our KYC details. The linking of Aadhaar to various services has now reached a level where a corporate chemist chain is sending texts to customers to link Aadhaar to the account. When we seek a loan, the due diligence process is exhausting; the contracts are not really two people agreeing, it is the weaker party (us) just signing what the stronger party (bank) shoves across the table. Miss one EMI or get behind your credit card payment and the hounding begins relentlessly. A friend’s sister is a senior bank manager in a state-run bank in a small town in middle India. A part of her territory is also the nearby rural clusters and some of her work is loan recovery. As details of the Nirav Modi theft emerged, her sense of disbelief grew. She said that when sometimes people defaulted on loans, she has actually threatened to walk off with a cow or a goat as collateral to make good the bank’s loss. For the poor people, who will surely be even less able to pay their debt with their asset gone, the loss would be mind numbing. But the rich get away with it because of political patronage, collusion and greed. Fraud of this kind corrodes the overall value system of a nation when people feel justified in cheating and not paying taxes.

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Ms Millennial gets her first job

Dear Ms Millennial,

I’m the salt and pepper hair woman who you may notice walking into one of your hangout joints and exiting quickly for the fear of raising the average age of the room. You must know that I occasionally step into or past your congregations just to inhale some of the new energy, the vibrant mood, the chirpy buzz. At your age, people like me were in an India that was very different. I remember sitting in a pub with my friends in the UK, post my Masters and just days before I returned home to Delhi. This was in 1994. Not that long ago. But two decades is indeed a long time. We were going around the table talking about what we will miss about life in Cardiff. We were a bunch of girls having a drink and I remember saying that I will miss the freedom of sitting in a public place having a drink without being judged or propositioned when I’m in Delhi. So, pardon my thinly concealed joy at seeing you girls out there at all hours without giving a damn.

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