“I got more than Rs.2 crore by selling nearly three acres of agricultural land at Sihi village, now Sector 83-84. I purchased six acres in a village in Mahendergarh district, built up a ‘kothi’ (bungalow) and bought a SUV,” Kanwar Yadav, 48, told IANS.
“I never thought that money would finish one day. I had to sell my SUV after one and a half years. Now I am working as a private security guard in a building on my own land,” he added.
His story is similar to that of many farmers who once owned land on the stretch between Gurgaon and Manesar.
Rajender Singh, Kanwar Yadav, Dharmender, Ramesh, Omprakash, Leela Ram, and Narender Singh, Mahesh Yadav, to name just a few, are from villages like Sikanderpur, Badha, Nawada, Rampura, Nakhrolla, Manesar, Narsinghpur, Mohamadpur and Naurangpur About 90 percent of the farmers from these villages sold their agricultural land to private builders either out of fear or willingness or greed.
Mahesh Yadav, 34, quit his job as a Haryana Police constable a few years ago when he received more than Rs.1.5 crore by selling land.
“He used to celebrate and give parties on the birthdays of his family members. Once he organized a party to celebrate the birthday of his pet. He drove a Mahindra Scorpio for two years. Now, he works as the driver of a private vehicle,” said an elderly resident of Sikanderpur village.
Mahender Singh, 50, received close to Rs.4 crore by selling nearly five acres of land in July 2008. After buying 10 acres of cultivable land in a village near Dharuhera in the adjoining Rewari district, he bought a Mitsubishi Pajero. After 18 months he replaced it with a Tata Safari that he sold in early 2012 and now drives a Maruti Swift.
“My seven-member family survives on the little rent that comes from my plot in Gurgaon city. I had never thought it would come to this,” Mahender Singh rued.
Ramesh, 38, has a similar story. After getting nearly Rs.80 lakh in 2006, he purchased some agriculture land in Rewari district, opened a hardware store and bought a Hyundai Santro car. By 2011, he closed the store, sold the Santro, and now he drives a
three-wheeler of his own.Omprakash, 40, of Rampura village now works as the assistant of a sub-contractor, building flats on the land in sector 82 that includes five acres that were once his.
“I had an emotional attachment with my land, but I sold it because there was a strong rumour that the government would acquire it,” Omprakash said.
“Many of the semi-illiterate farmers and their families, in the absence of proper guidance and experience, got into the habit of overspending without generating proper sources of regular income,” Anurag Bakshi, a former Indian Revenue service (IRS) officer, told IANS.
“They insisted on buying costly cars and building a bigger house than their neighbours’. There would be competitions in hosting lunches to which hundreds of villages were invited. They spent blindly on their marriage ceremonies,” Bakshi added.
And one day, the money just ran out, leaving them high and dry.-from the IndianExpress
Day: May 15, 2013
Categories
5 TV Broadcasters having a great May
This post is in continuation of my 5 Stocks series (see here)
5 TV Broadcasters having a great May 2013 (April 30,2013-May 14, 2013) are listed below:
| Symbol | Close on 30 April, 2013 | Close on 14 May, 2013 | Gain |
| TVTODAY | 69.2 | 88 | 27.17% |
| NDTV | 74.05 | 92.15 | 24.44% |
| ZEENEWS | 15 | 18.05 | 20.33% |
| RAJTV | 237.9 | 277.75 | 16.75% |
| NETWORK18 | 34.75 | 38.4 | 10.50% |
Categories
Life of a retail broker in NYC
I built my book of business at Morgan Stanley mostly from cold calling. I worked on Third Avenue in NYC from 1990 to 2001.
As a retail broker at Morgan Stanley, I told my co-workers that I was confident that if the firm gave me the same tools the guys had on the trading desks, on less than $1 Million, I could generate a $10
Billion loss in less than 5 business days and take down the firm. That’s what the firm did in 2008, when they failed to properly supervise and manage their mortgage security trader Howie Hubler, and those who enabled him. They took nearly six months to lose Billions; I could have generated losses like that in only a week or two, with the same tools. If the firm’s goal was to LOSE MONEY, they could have done so faster.After taking all those losses from trading and merchant banking, Morgan Stanley and Merrill and UBS practically require retail brokers to have an average account size in excess of $100,000. They do not pay retail brokers for transactions done for small accounts. Customers will be charged full service commissions to buy stocks and bonds, but the brokers share of a $100 commission to buy $20,000 of stock, in an account of less than $100,0000 in size, will be ZERO.
If the broker has over $100 million under management altogether, if the broker has that new customer buy $20,000 of a front load mutual fund, of the $1000 load charge, the broker will be paid between $250-$500. If the broker has less than $10 million under management or so, of the $1000 load charge, the broker will get ZERO.
People who can really benefit from having a full service broker cannot obtain that service, unless they have at least $100,000 to invest, a quarter-million in NYC. I had a lot of small accounts and educated my clients, but taking the time to teach people about the financial markets, was using my time poorly according to management. I was told to get bigger accounts from wealthier people, and if I wanted to help the world, write a check to charity from my additional earnings.
Most of the top producing brokers at full service firms in Manhattan have more than $1 billion under management, with a minimum account size for new accounts in excess of $250,000. Each and every one of their clients has so much money that any competing broker will be happy to do business with that client, even if that client is a flaming A.
Being a full service broker to a book of flaming A’s is not as emotionally rewarding as being a full service broker to people who have just $5 to $50,000 who you help grow to $10 to $250,000+ and who you help do important life planning, like buying a life insurance policy when they become parents, and having wills in place. A full service broker like that would be at Edward Jones or Ameriprise nowadays, but will be under heavy pressure from management to direct people to invest in mutual funds, not directly in stocks and bonds.
For readers who picture you can get better returns for a cheaper price on your own, most $1+ million accounts with full service brokers directly owning stocks and bonds outperform most mutual funds and most hedge funds and most individual investors at discounters. That only tells you what you already know: life’s unfair.
-By BigGuy
Categories
Linkfest:May 15, 2013
Some stuff I am reading today morning:
Akshaya Tritiya and the great Indian superstition industry (FirstPost)
LIC agents with bigger pay than Chairman (ET)
Tata Steel finally acknowledges its mistake (Mint)
Indian inflation slows to below 5% (WSJ)
Lehman’s bankruptcy worked out well for lots of people (Dealbreaker)
US Brokers go gray as youth unsustainable without cold calls (Bloomberg)
In soccer and investing, bias is towards action (Bucks)
Some new thoughts from Charlie Munger (InvestingNotebook)
The Cherry Coke effect (PsyFi)
Boring,diversified and tough to beat (CapitalSpectator)