Ravi did not know where to look!!! Ravi is a hard working professional who is looking to invest wisely to save up for his and his family’s future. Ravi depended on his friend and paid advisor, who was a thorough financial market professional, for all his investments. His friend provided the right advice that helped Ravi meet his investment objectives.
The current economic and market environment was highly uncertain. There were many issues surrounding markets both domestic and global. The media was full of these issues and there were loads of free advice offered on markets and investments. Experts were saying sell this asset or buy that asset. There were dire predictions for the economy and the markets. There were also predictions that things will get better.
Ravi was bewildered. There is only one economy and one market and like a chess game there were many permutations and combinations thrown out by the media. Who to believe and who not to believe was a difficult choice as every media had its own experts.
Ravi then met up with his friend and paid advisor and told him of the issues he was facing in taking an investment decision. Equities were both a buy and sell, bonds were both a buy and sell, gold was both a buy and sell and real estate was both a buy and sell going by the media.
Ravi’s friend told him to stop being influenced by the media and to take his own investment decisions. Media is good for knowing what is going on, as its job is to report facts. Media should never influence one’s investment decision. It is a sure fire way of going wrong and as Ravi rightly put it everything was both a buy and sell.
Ravi was told by his friend to take into account factors such as his own investment horizon, the state of the markets and the economy and the value proposition each asset class offered. Once Ravi had done his homework, he can structure his investments accordingly.
Ravi then took the help of his friend to do his own analysis and arrived at the best investments for his portfolio. Ravi does follow media on what is going on in the markets and economy but he does not let that influence his investment decisions.