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Love at first sight!

Rucha Mulay, founder of R Pilates Studio in Pune is also the pioneer of equipment Pilates in the same city. Having flown for British Airways as an international cabin crew for 10 years, Rucha’s love for Pilates was a discovery during one of her trips to London that set her on a journey from where there’s no looking back. She was introduced to Pilates by a friend on that trip and says that it was love at first sight for her. She began frequenting the studio as it was healing her backache and soon she decided to bring Pilates to Pune.

After relinquishing her flying job, she enrolled herself for ACSM CPT (American College of Sports Medicine) then did all her Pilates certifications one by one. In 2013, Rucha started teaching mat Pilates classes at a gym and also started personal training at home. In 2014, she started her own Pilates Studio, R Pilates in Pune with only 1 reformer in a small apartment in her parents’ building. Today, she has a beautiful 1000 square feet studio in the most plush area of Pune with all the Pilates apparatus imported from Sacramento, California and a big family of 6 Pilates teachers, 150 clients and another branch opening soon.

Rucha’s inspiration to become an entrepreneur was her passion for fitness and Pilates. She believes that Pilates changes lives and she wanted her Pune people to have access to that through a dedicated studio in the city. As someone who doesn’t come from a business family, she was apprehensive about a few things while starting out. Return on investment, being a critical factor. Having invested a substantial amount in education and equipment, her fear was whether Pune people would be willing to pay the kind of money Pilates trainers charge in Mumbai.

Taking baby steps in the beginning, Rucha started on a very small scale where the overheads would not leave her restless. Initially, she invested some savings of hers from the British Airways job and her husband helped her too. She specifies that she didn’t take any loans. She gradually started adding equipment to the studio and when she felt the need to scale up, she calculated her figures, did a lot of homework and then made the move. The overheads were going to be 10 times more but the way their work had increased, she was confident that they would do well. “I had a very clear picture of our business in my mind.” states Rucha.

 

Having landed firmly on her feet with her venture, she shares her approach with us. “If you know exactly what you want to do, start small, watch the response, make your mistakes and learn your lessons in a small set up. Once you have tested the waters then dive in into the big pool. Always count your figures backwards. Give your business a strict teething period and make sure it picks up pace gradually. Set goals and talk to your team regularly.” While starting a business or even while scaling up, we know that finance is the key component. Since personal savings become a big part of investment in it, it is quite natural for one to experience that they are low on that reserve for a while. Rucha experienced the same after moving to a bigger studio where her overheads increased manifold and her personal savings took a back seat. However, she continued with her basic savings like PPF and left them untouched. Now that the new set-up too has been established well, she has been able to focus better on building up that reserve for her personal savings and has defined separate financial goals for herself and R Pilates where she has started two separate SIPs for future capital investment and her own retirement.

Rucha shares some wisdom nuggets generously for budding women entrepreneurs. “Unless you dive in, you are not going to be able to show your swimming skills. But do not dive in if you don’t know how to swim well as just moving your hands and legs in water won’t take you to the shore gracefully. Know your capabilities, know your limitations, work around them, have a plan B ready always and don’t think mediocre. Think big .”

 

 

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Financial Frenemies – what you need to know.

Friendship Day marks the celebration of the relationship we’ve shared with our friends, old and new. It’s a journey we cherish and hope to continue for a lifetime. Just as we trust these long lasting friendships to have our backs when we need them the most, there’s another critical aspect of our lives that we need to give a lot of thought to – our money management. Savings and investments are not habits that come naturally to everyone. These are lessons we learn along the way as we grow up, start earning and are told to take care of our finances. Yes, it’s for the very same reason that we make friends for – to have something of our own and more so, enough of it to fall back on when the need arises.

If you are new to financial planning and don’t understand how to invest, what to invest in and other related queries, it’s best to consult a financial planning advisor who can guide you well with this. While family members are advisors for life, it’s helpful to seek guidance from an expert who can provide clarity to you in your journey. Amongst the plethora of investment options available in the market, it’s important to know which ones suit you the most and invest accordingly. There are various choices which may seem very obvious or the most recommended however, it’s important to do your research and understand if they are really worth investing or consider other avenues.

It’s easy to fall prey to plans or people who promise high returns with low risks. While such plans do exist, they may not necessarily be real or lucrative offers in the first place. Speak Asia and Stock Guru are two such examples of dubious schemes in 2011 and 2012 respectively, wherein very high returns aka promising to double in a span of 6 months, proved to be a red flag in itself. Ankur Sachdeva from Delhi invested Rs. 11.6 lakhs in Stock Guru in 2012. He was initially skeptical and invested Rs. 2 lakhs in the scheme. When he received Rs. 40,000 back in the first month, he invested Rs. 10 lakhs more to never have got back anything in return. A very basic principle to bear in mind while investing in any scheme is to check if it has been verified by some regulatory authority such as SEBI. Reading the fine print is cumbersome in most cases so make sure to have a lot of questions for your advisor. Anything or anyone promising unbelievable returns in a short duration should ideally not be trusted. Anything that is too good to be true is never true.

Life insurance is another vehicle which is mistaken for investment because of its triple benefits of a cover for life, long term savings and tax benefits. Endowment plans are the most traditional and very often considered to be the safest forms of investments. However, these policies not only give sub-optimal returns of 4-6%, but also force the policyholder into a multi-year commitment. While there is a way out, which is to surrender the policy if you have paid the premiums for a minimum number of years, you are sure to face a loss when you do so. These investments not only prevent investing in other lucrative avenues but also don’t give returns which do justice to such long term commitments. Not to forget, very long lock-in periods which means that you could end up investing for as long as 20-30 years where the interest is only accumulated, not compounded.

As an investor, it’s also very important to be cautious of falling prey to trading. The thrill is a given with quick high returns that trading gives however, very often most of the investors have no idea of what business the company is in or why is it that the price of a stock is going up or down. Let us look at a simple scenario. Say for example Mr. A believes that the price of Stock X is likely to go up by 10% today and hence he buys at Rs. 100. X indeed rises to Rs. 110 and Mr. A sells it off to Mr. B who also buys it with a belief that the price will rise further. X further rises to Rs. 118 and Mr. B sells it off to Mr. C. Obviously, Mr. C also wants to make money and believes that the upward movement will continue. He therefore sells it off to Mr. D at Rs. 128. This continues till that moment when the cycle breaks. The last man standing ends up making a loss. As stated above, in this cycle, there is a high probability that none of the players have any idea why the price is behaving the way it is and even the fact that someone will eventually pay a price in anticipation of the price rising further. Trading is a risky activity and is under no circumstances a medium of creating wealth. While a lot of people have made money with trading, there is no guarantee that you will be one of them.

While there are several such financial frenemies out there that can misguide investors, it’s best to start with professional help and take things in your hands in a couple of years of learning the ropes. Our expert advice is to first identify your financial goals, investment horizon and risk appetite to know how, where and how much to invest. Mutual funds are a great way to start with through SIP as they can always be tailored to your needs whether, short, mid or long term. Having a mixed portfolio also ensures that not all your eggs are put in the same basket. After all, there is no greater wealth in this world than peace of mind. So, befriend the savings habit and trust us with all your financial planning needs. Wishing you all a happy & financially prudent friendship day!

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PPFAS – CAGRfunds conviction recommendation

PPFAS Fund Report

Parag Parikh Long Term Equity Fund (PPLTE) is the only equity fund that is managed by the investment team of PPFAS. As a recent entrant in the Mutual Fund Industry (fund was launched in May 2013), it is not the most popular fund in the market. At least we do not see people including them in the “Top 10 Funds to invest in 2019” list (Frankly, we find such lists to be very silly).

There are several reasons why we believe that PPLTE is a good addition to the portfolio for investors who exhibit all of the following traits:

a) Looking to add equity exposure
b) Willing to not withdraw their investments for 7-8 years
c) Keen to add some overseas diversification to their investments
d) Unwilling to risk capital erosion in lieu of high returns
e) Want to prioritize downside protection for times when markets don’t seem to be too ecstatic

If you think you are the one we are referring to, you should contact us to check if this is a worthy addition to your existing portfolio.

Reasons why we like PPLTE

Sector Allocation

PPFAS Sector Allocation

Several things stand out when we look at the sector allocation of this fund.

a) 22% of the corpus is kept in liquid resources, waiting to be deployed when opportunities emerge. Some might say that this will drag returns down (since liquid resources at best earn you around 6-7%), but let us tell you that investing in businesses at a price that seems affordable is better than buying something expensive. Also, investing when one finds good businesses to invest in is also an important consideration for long term wealth generation

“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price” – Warren Buffet

b) Substantial overseas exposure (~28%) adds to geographical diversification (orange bars are completely overseas). Out of this total overseas exposure, around 9.7% is in Google and 4.3% in Facebook. That adds to some real diversification to your portfolio! (Source: PPFAS Feb – March Factsheet)

Skin in the game

7.07% of the AUM represents own equity of the key persons in the fund management team. When people who are managing our funds have invested their own savings into the same, we know the commitment is for real. It is a good corporate governance practice to have their own financial being is linked with that of the investors. We give them a big thumbs up for this one.

Out-performance with focus on downside protection

As can be seen from the chart below, the fund has outperformed its benchmark (Nifty / BSE 500 TRI) at all times considering point to point returns. In terms of Alpha, the fund ranks #2 within the Multi-Cap category. PPFAS Performance comparison

However, out-performance is not what excites us. Active funds, after all, are supposed to out-perform their respective benchmarks.

What seems interesting and commendable to us is the ability of the fund to protect the downside during times of correction. Let us look at the 3 year rolling returns of the fund. The highest rolling return is 25% and the lowest that the fund has given over a 3 year period is 10%.

PPFAS Rolling Returns

This means a lot of things for you as an investor if you would have held your investment for a 3 year period at any point in time:

a) You would have generated a CAGR of at least 10% even if you would have exited at the very low point of the market which was some time in the second half of the last year

b) You would not have seen a negative return for a 3 year period on your portfolio EVER

c) You would not have lost your peace of mind over losing your money

For investors who are uncomfortable with too much volatility, the above means a lot. We believe that the reason the fund has been able to demonstrate this performance is because of its patient and down to earth fund managers – Rajeev Thakkar and Raunak Onkar. Although this is not a guarantee for the future, the above track record during testing times gives additional comfort to investors.

Mr. Thakkar is quite active on twitter and we suggest you follow him to understand his ideology if you are an existing investor or are likely to become one.

In case you have any further query, do reach out to us on contact@cagrfunds.com

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Learning from Warren Buffet Series – Part 5

Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder letter – 1983-85

Key Takeaways from the letters (in no particular order)

Learning 1

Allocation of capital is the key – Allocation of capital is the key factor to judge a business management or a fund manager. It is one of the most crucial factors which decide the fate of the business or fund. We as investors need to keep an eye on the capital allocation decisions of management. We often see management retaining large sums of the business earnings and reinvesting it in lower return of investment projects, unrelated businesses, just so that management can expand their empire or at times we see companies having a high dividend payout ratio when they actually need to deploy capital in their business. Both these circumstances are alarming. Market in general rewards management which has a history of good capital allocation decisions.

This is true for businesses and individuals alike as capital is not free, every decision we as individuals take to save, spend or invest capital matters.

Learning 2

Become a learning machine – To be successful one need to keep learning and updating oneself. To become a learning machine one has to voraciously read, think and aim to become little wiser every day. This concept been beautifully captured in an article on the Buffet formula in the widely read and followed blog “Farnam Street”. I strongly suggest that you read the full article here.

The biggest difficulty in life is not learning new things; it is to unlearn the old. Keynes articulated the problem crisply when he said: “The difficulty lies not in the new ideas but in escaping from the old ones.”

Learning 3

Invest in management who eat their own cooking – Buffet in his 1983 annual letter to shareholders lists down the major business principles which he follows and one of the most important one is that he has an ownership orientation instead of thinking like a manager. He and other directors are all major shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. This is one of the key takeaways for us as investors – look for companies with high Promoter holdings or mutual funds where the fund managers have their own funds invested.

Learning 4

Study your failures rather than your success – Buffet emphasizes that both in life and other aspects of life studying and learning from your mistakes is of great importance. He embodies it by giving a full detailed account of his reason of shutting down the textile business and the loss in earnings caused by the delay in taking this decision.

Learning from our mistakes has one added advantage we tend to not repeat them again in future (hopefully). As Charlie Munger says “All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.”

Learn more from Warren Buffet through previous parts of our series:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4