Celebrities Prefer Real Estate, Mutual Funds, Insurance, Gold & Bonds While Homemakers Prefer Equities
Be it clothes, diet, hairdos, jewelry, lipstick or bindis, the homemakers imitate their favourite celebrities in many ways. But when it comes to investment there seems to be a lot of disconnect between the homemakers and their role models.
While most TV actors prefer real estate, mutual funds and other asset classes like insurance, gold and bonds, real life saas and bahus seem to prefer equities. If any proof is needed to prove this fact then one should tune in to the investment-specific shows like Saas Bahu and Sensex, Buy or Sell, Your Stock and Sauda Aapka that deal with retail investors’ queries on investment ideas on business news channels like CNBC TV 18, NDTV Profit and Awaaz.
Take the case of Kanika Masand, an ex-teacher from Indore who resigned her job for personal reasons. Her husband encouraged her to follow the equity market on business channels. Once she became familiar with the fundamentals of market, she bought shares of frontline tech major Satyam Computers.
Mandakini Jain from Mumbai is a small retail investor who has invested her money in engineering and capital goods major Siemens.
Kalpana Raj from Bangalore changes her role from a homemaker to trader and investor when her children go to school. “I switch on my TV and do short-term trading as well as medium to long-term investment. In trading I lose money sometimes but in investment I make money,” she said sitting in a leading business news channel’s Bangalore studio.
Television celebrities not only have deep pockets but also love to party a lot. So what has kept them away from the party at Dalal Street? If homemakers are flirting passionately with the volatile and unreliable market, why do the adventurous celebrities fear the ‘Sen-sex’? If equity market is not their preferred investment option then where do they park their money for better returns?
Pooja Bedi prefers to invest her money in real estate and mutual funds because she doesn’t understand equity market.
Rohit Roy feels real estate and mutual funds are safe investments. “I don’t know the basics of stock market and neither have the time to understand them. But mutual funds are safe because there are experts to take care of your money,” says Rohit.
So feels Anoop Soni, “Mutual funds offer a variety of schemes for safe investment. If you choose the right product the returns are quite high.”
Sampada Vaze is an aggressive investor but her preferred asset classes are land and mutual funds. “Not that I don’t understand equities. Being an MBA in finance I know how stocks are valued. But I don’t have the time to keep track of the market on a regular basis,” she says.
Sangeeta Ghosh doesn’t have to worry about her investment decisions because her CA brother takes care of her financial planning. “I really don’t know where my brother invests my money but since he is well-versed in finance I am sure he invests my savings in right instruments,” she adds.
Karishma Tanna says she is done with bonds and prefers to park her money in real estate. “In property not only the investment is safe but the appreciation is also quite high,” she says.
Shweta Gulati is bullish on real estate and insurance-related investment. “Stock market is a big gamble. You don’t know what will happen to your money because the market goes up one week and comes down the following week. It can either make you a millionaire or wipe out your entire investment.
It happened to my father long ago. He had lost lot of money in stock market. Though many of my friends invest in equities I prefer to stay away from them,” says Shweta.
Iqbal Khan would love to invest in real estate but he finds the prices beyond his reach. “The rates have hit the roof. So the better option is mutual funds,” he feels. Hussain Kuwajerwala agrees with Iqbal, “You require huge finds to invest in real estate. Since I don’t understand equity market I prefer mutual funds because they offer lot of flexibility and safety,” he says.
