Retirement Planning - How much is enough?

Disclaimer - Neither I am a financial advisor nor recommending any financial solution. This is plain layman view.

I am back again with a very random post with no linkage to what I do in professional life but certainly one area which always keep me excited. Finance/number crunching it is.

Of late one though kept me bothering how much is enough for future. While philosophical answer will suggest there is no end to what you can call as enough but thinking practically you can probably realize that what you are comfortable with right now will hold good even in future taking everything else as constant. You can certainly think about improving the stature but that is an uphill task where the hill keep on getting changed once you ace it.

Coming back to finance world - corporate finance 101 focus primarily on time value of money. What can be bought with X amount of money might be out of reach with same X amount of money in Y number of years. If this X,Y is troubling just recall the common phrase from your parents/grand parents - hamare jamane mein itne paise mein itni cheeze aa jaati thi (in our time, for this amount I was able to buy so many things). For example - a single lollypop some 10 year back costed may be 0.5 rupee but now probably cost around 2.5 rupee. To put it in simple words, money keeps on loosing value with each passing year and inflation is one to be blamed for that. Historical trend suggests an average 6% (Year-on-year) rate for inflation. 

To answer question how much is enough is a tricky task as this number will differ from person to person. For someone like Super cop Singham for whom 6000 Rs/month is enough because his zameer has dum as his necessities are kam (mere zameer mein hain dum kyunki meri zarurate kam) and may be for our great Ambani jee even 6000 lakh Rs/month may not be enough (not because his zameer doesn't have dum but because his necessities and daily expenses are huge to maintain his current life style). 

Simple excel calculation can tell you for 6% inflation 1 Rs today will be equivalent to 3.82 Rs at time of retirement age of 58 years, that is after 23 considering your current age of 35 years. That will also mean that you will get to live 24 more year post retirement and the value of 1 Rs will balloon to 15.47 Rs (47 years from now). Considering around 20% margin (I invented this number) over average current life expectancy of 69.93 years in 2021 in India . Why more you ask? Because if you were able to read this far and also intelligent enough to search and plan for retirement then you are above average and that would mean that you will get to live more (unfortunately from financial planning perspective). Moreover, when it comes to averages some number have to be above the average to make up for those numbers which are below average. 

Now comes the question how much is enough. If you are a minimalist of age 35 years and able to make ends meet with 20,000/month then multiply 20000 with the column 'Total Corpus needed at time of retirement' to get ideal retirement corpus at time of retirement or 20,000 to 'Present Value of FV corpus (@6%)' to reach amount that you need now (at present time) to stop worrying about retirement corpus completely. Rough calculation suggests that 2.3 Cr s what you require at time of retirement for someone with monthly expense of 20K after 23 years from now. Now doing a reverse engineering with that number will suggest how much you need to save per months to reach that number (roughly 25K/month assuming you have no savings as of now for minimalist person). I am ignoring all other future surprises and commitments like family/child's, your future health expenses, etc for which you should be maintaining separate corpus. If this sounds daunting then you got to relook at your finances and identify ways to either fix your finances or your expenses/lifestyle or probably both. 

Here goes the calculation which I did for person aged 35 years with monthly expense of 1 Rs/month having 23 years of professional career ahead and probable life of 24 years post retirement. I am also taking liberty to assume growth on future investment as 9% per annum and inflation rate aligned with historical inflation rate of 6% per annum. Choosing a expense number as 1 Rs so that you can multiply it with current expenses  to reach your corpus amount. As I have already considered your current saving growth at 6% inflation target you can forget about that part. If you hope to live beyond 82 then too bad! You may have to plan for additional earing avenue or probably cut your expenses. And, luckily if you live lesser then think of this as leaving a legacy for your next generation to act as a seed capital for their startup which you always thought about but never dared to open. After all in my opinion, there is a very thin line between being coward and practical.

What the lower part of calculation suggests is if you have mentioned amount as your current saving in "present value of FV corpus" then you can live peacefully and work only to take care of other commitments. Also, assuming that your current saving will only beat the inflation of 6% and you aren't making any specific effort to grow your capital other than getting into govt/sovereign bond. And finally the calculation for monthly saving you need to meet the retirement corpus target. All can be multiplied with number which you expect to be at your disposal at time of retirement/month.

A very long post but made an attempt just to understand where do I stand. From Gyan perspective, this is what calculation tells us but in real-life there are N number of things can happen and you can't plan for that But planning never harms as it helps to identify the challenges and any future regrets that I wish if I had done this or that. Train will anyways hit you if you aren't able to take any action but at least you will be aware that train will hit you at some point in time and you will be at peace.

Note - I have primarily used FV and PV function in excel to calculate the future value and present value. Used PMT function to calculate the monthly investment needed to meet the retirement corpus goal. In order to keep the calculation I had to make several adjustments but not something difficult to update. Will share the public link of the excel with columns that can be updated to get the actual number. It may not really give the Y-O-Y view but consolidated numbers can certainly be seen.

G20 Summit and Some random stuff

Though I was suppose to write account of my first week classes, here I am writing a random post on G20 summit and random stuff. Future doesn't look bright on my resolution to use this page as note-'book' for my classes.

While reading some random stuff, I came across this article - India to provide $10B for eurozone bailout. Hon. PM Manmohan Singh came up with revelation during G20 summit which was kinda surprising. A counter article to on this action was published by firstpost with starting line as - 'When one’s beard is on fire, it is folly to ask for a matchstick to light one’s bidi.' 

The statement was kinda funny but it summed up the situation in true spirit. With India facing a double digit inflation, slow industrial (or is it negative) growth, falling GDP numbers, policy paralysis complains and the rampant political situation and corruption puts India itself in danger of economic mess. What surprise me is when countries like USA, UK have refused to add any money to IMF coffer what's the point of committing such action on own by country like India which itself faces problem of its own? I am not saying USA and UK are the country to follow, but this time they are really acting as per situation. I feel in turbulent time like these Nouriel Roubini idea's are showing real significance. On my personal thoughts - when own house is on fire you shouldn't run for saving neighbors house. On lighter note may be economic advisory council have watched 10 Lakh movie famous beggars song - "Garibon ki Suno wo tumahri sunega, tum ek paisa doge wo 10 lakh dega" before recommending this bailout fund money. And hoped this $10B will infuse $10B*1M to Indian economy. But I always have feeling that Indians (or is it Humans) have 'that' spirit in them which will make them tackle any problem when there are no escape. :-)

On other (or shall I say Real) side of life - days are passing quite fast. By the time I notice, I see another Friday looming ahead with loads of cases pending on to-be-read-before-class and assignment to be completed. Life is tough and will be tougher in days to come, not sure if my batch-mates shares the same thought or not? I probably won't say TGIF for next 2.5 years (hopefully it will be only 2.5 :D). Probably hostel oriented course would have helped to keep the anxiety level down. With many stakeholders extending their support for my IIM run, it is becoming a moral obligation to do good rather than anything else and eventually aiding to the pressure. Luckily I always gets company of good people around me. Many thanks to each and everyone helping me in some way! IIM is teaching me to be humble.. hehe

Random Post : Read List - Books to Read

Another incoherent post of mine. Nothing great in post body so read no further, to save some time.

An year (10 months to be precise) has gone by since Chennai lost its last wicket to Bangalore and I am definitely not talking about IPL. IPL is just waste of time according to me.

To put fact straight, I did missed Chennai some time and solely because of the library near to my PG which provided books at cheap and best rental price. And yes do miss the cribbing against Chennai sitting with friends at apartment in Chennai, but that's altogether a different story, we can very well crib even while sitting in Bangalore.

Something wrong with me for sure, what I am talking here.  Coming to point, I got hold of a library near to my place in Bangalore some 10 months back and after 55 magazines and 63 books issued on card I thought of putting the read-list on my page. Have highlighted the good books for my readers so that this visit won't be a utter waste provided you like reading book, otherwise undoubtedly visit will prove to be a wasted affair.

Title	Date Issued	Date Returned
Atime To Kill	15-Apr-12	Currently Reading
Dork : The Incredible Adventures of Robi	11-Apr-12	15-Apr-12
God Save the DORK	01-Apr-12	11-Apr-12
Mickey Mouse FEB-11	11-Apr-12	15-Apr-12
Chandamama (Hindi Small)	06-Apr-12	11-Apr-12
JOHNNY GONE DOWN	29-Mar-12	01-Apr-12
Vengeance of Ravana	24-Mar-12	29-Mar-12
King of Ayodhya	17-Mar-12	24-Mar-12
Bridge of Rama	03-Mar-12	17-Mar-12
Armies of Hanuman	22-Feb-12	03-Mar-12
Demons of Chitrakut	11-Feb-12	22-Feb-12
Siege of Mithila	02-Feb-12	11-Feb-12
PUL TOOTANE SE PAHLE	21-Jan-12	02-Feb-12
Bombay Duck Is A Fish	17-Jan-12	21-Jan-12
Theatre road ke Kauve	07-Jan-12	17-Jan-12
Prince Of Ayodhya	28-Dec-11	07-Jan-12
CAN LOVE HAPPEN TWICE?	24-Dec-11	28-Dec-11
Honor Among Thieves	18-Dec-11	24-Dec-11
English August : An Indian Story (Ji)	07-Dec-11	18-Dec-11
Delhi Is Not Far	07-Dec-11	14-Dec-11
MICE IN MEN	01-Dec-11	07-Dec-11
Flight of Pigeons	01-Dec-11	07-Dec-11
Keep off the grass	19-Nov-11	27-Nov-11
No Onions Nor Garlic	19-Nov-11	01-Dec-11
The Immortals of Meluha	15-Nov-11	19-Nov-11
I too had a love story	27-Nov-11	01-Dec-11
CALVIN & HOBBES :THERE'S TREASURE EVERYWHERE	05-Nov-11	15-Nov-11
How To Work A Room: Your Essential Guide To Savvy Socializing	05-Nov-11	15-Nov-11
CHOKHER BALI [PB]	30-Oct-11	05-Nov-11
CALVIN & HOBBES: REVENGE OF THE BABY-SAT	30-Oct-11	05-Nov-11
Cricket Today	27-Oct-11	30-Oct-11
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The	27-Oct-11	30-Oct-11
False Impression	16-Oct-11	30-Oct-11
Champak English	11-Oct-11	15-Oct-11
Chandamama - Hindi 01-MAR-11	05-Oct-11	11-Oct-11
Chandamama (Hindi Small)	02-Oct-11	05-Oct-11
Prison Diary 3	05-Oct-11	15-Oct-11
CARRIE (B) PB (REISSUE)	24-Sep-11	05-Oct-11
KANE AND ABEL	20-Sep-11	24-Sep-11
Great Train Robbery, The	13-Sep-11	20-Sep-11
YOU ARE THE WORLD	11-Sep-11	24-Sep-11
SOMETHING UNDER THE BED IS DROOLING	04-Sep-11	11-Sep-11
Hannibal	24-Sep-11	11-Oct-11
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The	11-Oct-11	27-Oct-11
5 Minute Tales Of Wisdom	27-Aug-11	04-Sep-11
Memoirs Of A Geisha	27-Aug-11	13-Sep-11
Paths Of Glory	14-Aug-11	27-Aug-11
Presidents Of India	14-Aug-11	20-Aug-11
Prison Diary 2	20-Aug-11	27-Aug-11
A Prison Diary	06-Aug-11	14-Aug-11
Twist in the Tale	06-Aug-11	14-Aug-11
Zero Percentile Missed IIT Kissed Russia	30-Jul-11	06-Aug-11
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD	16-Jul-11	24-Jul-11
Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money	09-Jul-11	16-Jul-11
Shall we Tell The President?	09-Jul-11	10-Jul-11
Myth=Mithya - A Handbook of Hindu Mythology	16-Jul-11	30-Jul-11
CHANAKYA'S CHANT	02-Jul-11	09-Jul-11
The Kite Runner	29-Jun-11	02-Jul-11
The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes	26-Jun-11	29-Jun-11
THE ALCHEMIST	19-Jun-11	26-Jun-11
E=MC2	19-Jun-11	26-Jun-11
COMEBACK	18-Jun-11	19-Jun-11
Pirate Latitudes	17-Jun-11	19-Jun-11

Not sure why the extract ran on the library portal returned repeated entries but suppose some different books may have been issued as library never allow re-issue of the book.

Now in another 2 months time when I will be forced to read or shall I say fed with some other books at IIM Bangalore, I  am verge of closing my library account. Or possibly will wait till i will get screwed at IIMB over reading trivial stuff. Leaving the decision for future. I have gone greedy in the end and have set target for remaining 2 months of membership  to read a minimum of 3000 pages. Lets see how it goes. Most of these reading were done during my 2.5 hour of horrible daily travel to my office and if the book was good then sometime at home or during weekend.

Library are indeed good thing, you get to pick books which you would have never picked in normal circumstances.

To be continued..

Back

Its a cliche' now but still would say I am back. I do this many a time, I go away from blogger to post back with the comment as 'I am back'. Though it was different this time I blocked access for my blog page thinking never to come again and keep the posts to myself. But now I have decided to open it again for public viewing. I hope things would be different this time and will be having loads of stuff to write.

To be continued..

New Year - 2012

Hello,

Its been really long long time since I posted something here. Its not that, I purposefully did this nor was the case that I had nothing to write. Lot of things were there, and I always had loads of thing to write, but as usual procrastination and laziness did this to me.

Lot of things changed since I switched company. Not even a day have gone by when I didn't feel of running back to old place. Not that my new company is bad or I am not enjoying my stint with new company. I am perfectly enjoying my work and company too, but somehow things have gone predictable again. Everything has, came back on same old routine. And here was I who thought everyday will be bring new things afterward. When everything had to be like this only then what was the point. In fact, life is meant to get bored with all the triviality around you.  

I have been reading like I never read before. Joined runners club. And left over time on movies,serials and lot of other stuff.

And well, last but not the least - Thanks for visiting my page even though I am not writing often. Wishing all my blog readers a very happy new year 2012. Cheers!

P.S. - Not a resolution but would try to write at regular interval. Take care.

THE 5 year Moment!

This blog page is slowly turning into my random musing. So to not much is there for blog reader for checking my blog page anymore.

The year 2011 is like a year of milestones for me. Completed 5 year of my blogging, 5 years after passing out from college and today marks the completion of 5 year in my organization as well as in IT sector. There were moments when I could have taken a different path altogether but things just happened and I was definitely here to stay. Not sure how long I will last long further but definitely there is air of uncertainty. Have learned the lesson; no matter what happens, what we do, life keeps going on. Though I have said in my previous post to be regular on the blog page, I really find it difficult now-a-days. The inspiration factor is lost, but this is not the end.

Many more to come..

Homecoming

It is almost a cliche' to say - I was thinking something for my blog-page since long time. I have decided to return as usual, not sure how much long this tryst with my blog page will last. New post coming in couple of days! Loads of milestones are covered and some are nearing, more about them in next post. World has changed, so has everyone except..... except....

Pursuit of HappYness

How often does it occur to you that you start planning to write something and you don't get the right words to start with. At least this happens to me quite often. I write I press backspace, again write and then press backspace button. And in the end I do not get the right words and eventually start with something totally unrelated like what I am doing here to get the flow.

Pursuit of HappYness - though the title suggest has nothing to do with the movie and its central character Christopher Gardner and his acting on the favorite Hollywood theme or say any movie industry theme, where the hero suffers in the beginning of movie but carries special talent, shows special traits and emerge as champion in the end. Whatever!

I have been thinking lately what people actually look forward for? And reached on conclusion that everyone in this world runs to achieve a single goal - "to get happyness". Crap about being a business czar, a famous personality, a powerful officer or even anything better than their current status is just the mean to reach the common goal. Probably that's the reason we find few people happy with life though they are running with minimum support system and why some people are frustrated to the core even though they are filthy rich.

Happyness can be as simple as getting a tasty chicken burger while standing in the burger shop with appropriate change in pocket or it can become abstract and complex as understanding the mindset and thought process of someone standing in front of you. Well chicken burger was an over do, but I can't help as I am dreaming of eating it since past two days. But definitely one of the most amusing and difficult thing is mind reading until and unless you have paranormal powers.

And as the saying goes we get bored with the thing which we get in plenty and then evolve to aspire for something else every time we achieve our milestone. Take for an example, when we were kid balancing on the bicycle gave us utmost pleasure as we achieved the goal, same was with getting into our preferred course in graduation or later to our preferred job or even seeing India winning the cricket world cup this year. But question is how long does it last, and how quickly we forget the achievement and aspire for something bigger, something better to reach the ultimate goal. Or probably we as human being are never satisfied with what we are, where we are and the reason behind being 'we'. So ultimate goal is just a mirage rather than being a reality till the moment we get or shall I say 'accept' the ultimate GYAN that  - rather than running behind something unknown just enjoy the moment because nothing last longer, neither happyness nor the sadness. A friend of mine recently quoted a very nice thing, it goes as -

"The problem is when ambitions don't meet abilities. I have the ambition for a president , but abilities, that's a completely different story. this is what causes frustration most often."

Ending it abruptly as I don't think I have any other random thought for the moment. Rest for later.

I have used Y in place of I for the obvious reason. If still it is bothering you then the reason is - once you figure out what happyness is all about you will not bother whether its Happiness or Happyness.

P.S. - Though I have generalized the idea but there would be many people who would disagree with this. This post is definitely not written you and not even for those who agree to it. And neutrals - Man! why you are even reading this post.

P.P.S. - I may or may not be waiting for the moment where I can say - This part of my life... this part right here? This is called "happyness."  So, stop getting the idea.

God

Disclaimer : - Do not read this post if you are sensitive with respect to God and Religion. As content of this post is going to hurt your feeling. And also don't look for me to kill because of post content. Thanks to all orthodox, god fearing people for not reading any word after this. If you still read further then screw you and I am not responsible for any damage done.

I'm back - this is what T-800 Model 101 of terminator would have had told at this moment. And with what, true machine sense and doubtful on every subject which comes around. Rather than giving more of BS I will come straight on the point. I think I need a change in my blog design. This design doesn't have new post link, which is possibly stopping me from writing a new post (or say  BS).

I have started watching Mahabharata TV serial recently, to complete it end-to-end for all the episodes which I missed due to electricity outage during childhood. Its indeed an epic saga and I suggest everyone should watch it, in fact watching it now was making more sense to me and definitely in nonsense way. I am planning to come with my own version of Mahabharata pretty soon, with each episode and action analyzed from different angle.

Coming on the topic God - if someone mention about Mahabharata then not mentioning about lord Krishna would be more like a sacrilege. I was wondering why Gods are never showed ugly and dead beaten by poverty. Guess God were defined as those class of people who are affluent, good looking and with hottest girls in town as their companion. Similarly I never saw any Goddess as ugly and cry-baby instead they are the hottest girl in town and never land a dumb ahole like what you see beautiful girls landing with, Instead they too get a God and hottest dude in the town as their companion. Why? Also they are either born at some king's palace or are raised at house of richest person in the town if there parents are in Jail. Why? Why? They have magical power and weapons to fight people, can't they work like how Iron-Man or Batman works? Or are they want to justify their power by saying they are from Krypton like Superman or from Jupiter like Sabu ? List is endless with lot many super hero available in this world. Well I would like to mention one more superhero before I go back to BS - he is Kick-ass. Why can't God be like that. :P Why? Why? Why? 

Why Gods are like hot-chick magnet that wherever he will go hot chicks will flock around , this is so unfair for common people and also to effort given by Barney Stinson. Why God's have brainwashed people so that they can't see the unfair ground. Why whatever they do are fair and same stuff if done by common person attracts wrath of the society and is mostly a laughing stock.

After watching Mahabharata I was totally confused why did Krishna came to real world, was the terror instigated by Kansa was beyond the level what terrorists are doing in current era? Looking at the suffering of current era people, I can definitely say that this is the time when God is suppose to come in this world. If not now then when?Or are God's afraid that they will not be able to handle the situation? Or they do not want to hold the sinking ship? If not then what was the use of taking birth as Krishna in Mahabharata time and Rama in Ramayana period. 

One important point - how Media will react if God will come into existence in this era? Will they be attacking God's privacy like they are doing for all celebrity or will they keep their mouth shut in fear of getting screwed by God's wrath? How many fan following will be there on Orkut, Facebook, Twitter? Will his twitter account will be verified like Sachin Tendulkar or will he prefer to have non-verified account like Salman Khan. How many people will be impersonating God and How many will be requesting  God with this message 'Please re-tweet this once God'. Hahaha.. Yeah these are genuine question - mind you. :P How many video hits will be there on YouTube and other video hoisting sites for any God's appearance? And most important what actually God will be doing? Will he be killing the terrorist and corrupt politician or will he hold back the fire and will take  bribe from them to live his life peacefully like other great heroes are doing?  Or would be updating his twitter status that what is this happening in this world? (definitely he wouldn't be able to prefix it with Oh God!) haha .Or will God be playing lottery and jackpot or will be betting on sports like  Emraan Hasmi in Jannat, as he would be knowing all the results beforehand. Cm'on, he is God.. forgot? More I delve into thoughts, more confused I get and more questions comes. So leaving this point here only for reader to ponder upon.

One more thing, lets take the case that God came into this world, then what happened to their progeny? Do they live among us? If yes, then what happened to the God's traits and magical skills? Why God didn't pass on the traits and skills to their children. Wouldn't it would have had been a beautiful world with God's progeny being a boss of this world. this was unfair from God's end. Or did God believed in keeping certain knowledge to himself to avoid things getting common later. Or did he foreseen the patenting rule applied on the genes and scientist doing behavioral analysis to develop similar mechanism into every human being making everyone as a God, causing more confusion. 

Note : My post shouldn't point that I am an atheist and well it definitely does not represent though that I am a theist either.  But yeah I can definitely put my status as confused over religion and God. And mind you - any comment specifically pointed to any religion in the comment section will be honored by me with a solo post on your God and your country  in mostly mutated sense, so no sh*t! Last but not the least, no hate comments are allowed.

Google Wave

My first impression about Google wave. Well it was supposed to come a month back ,time when I started using the wave but mostly laziness was putting it in 'things to do later' list.

- It is an attempt by Google to save their bandwidth and space requirement. So Google would be the one who would be highly profited by this entire business. Reason - ever wondered when you are sending mail(forwards) to group of friends how much space it takes at Google server? Well they all get a copy of the mail ,so if the mail size was somewhere around 500kb and if you sent it to 10 people then total Google space used was around 10*500kb + 1*500kb (10 for your friends Inbox and 1 for your sent item). And now top it up with another 500kb in your Inbox (obviously how would you forward a mail if it doesn't exist in your mailbox). Now the wave would be using only 500kb space and that's because when you receive a wave you just drag your friends name to the wave . This will eventually save A LOT of space for Google. And I am damn sure however big they are, they too have space constraints, and nothing could be better than wave to handle it.

- It is another attempt by Google to manipulate the way people think. As all the data is centrally stored you would immediately know if someone is manipulating your data or if someone is replying to you wave(I would say it as mail). Now comes the real fun. say you are typing something and your friends too would be seeing what you are typing at each and every key stroke. Again I am not talking about disabling the feature, else it would loose its charm. Now the fun is, other party would be able to see at every point what you are thinking, what you are changing after writing it and crap like this. Think about it, its like reading someone's mind. No proposal would go through wave because once you thought it and wrote it , no matter you edit it later but if the other party have seen it there is no going back. You would be screwed. People would be questioned, why did you disable this feature? Or why did you thought like that. haha. Pseudo couples would get more reason to fight as if existing reasons were less in this world.

- To use the smiley, translator, making wave public and things like this you have to use robots. Its wouldn't be easy for common people to understand the idiosyncrasy of wave. Though features are damn good but how you expect mass to get it. Even have seen techno-savvy people having trouble using the service right now. And tragic but funny - heard one news that someone committed suicide as he was not able to understand how Google wave works. No offense meant to his soul, but man!!! its insane to commit suicide for such silly reason, you could have written in suicide note about bad mess food, stupid college education system or even over stupid education system. And if that was not good he could have mentioned failure to get any failed reason. Crap.

- Google need to do a lot of work on bandwidth utilization, because it eats the bandwidth like hell. And when I am saying hell, it means definitely hell here. With my 6mbps speed it runs like a horse between formula racing cars. Think about India where the internet speed is called BROADBAND when it is 256kbps, which eventually gives a download speed of 32kbps. And anything above 256kbps is luxury and there is nothing above 2 mbps internet speed. You rnet would be screwed once you would be using the wave.

Over all its a good attempt to combine everything under a single window. Google is trying to win the market once again by doing all these tricks and that's the reason they came with this idea quickly in preview version only. And at the same time maintained the charm by making to it by invitation only. Those who started using Gmail since the initial days knows what I am talking. It was by invitation only at that time but it was beta version at least which devastated the yahoo mail completely by incorporating the chat and Google lab features with the mail. Wave too us e invitation but for a change this time it is preview version, God knows when they will actually come up with the beta version and when the full fledged version. One thing which they are loosing right now is the charm of their social networking site called Orkut, which has been taken over by Facebook now. I hope Google is not sitting silently over it and might be thinking something to win it back. May be Wave would do the magic. More to come on it soon.

P.S:- This post was in my draft since sometime and did not care to post it.

P.P.S. :- This is mostly my understanding after going through several document available on forums , if any of the reader have different thought please do post it in comment area.

Google Tricks

One of the most amazing feature, simple but no one thought before. Enable this feature in your GMail if you think on some day(oops late night) you may send some REAL truth to your Boss or Friends (acquaintance) , either due to intoxication or due to frustrating events happening with you.


And it will save you from embarrassment later. But yeah dont enable this feature if you think you will propose through a mail either to your girlfriend or boyfriend late night after thinking pros and cons of your action. Because even though you are mentally aware but after solving these 5 questions, probably you may not send the message. ;-)

Online Marketing

Time for a lesson on online marketing - a layman perspective(advanced and choosy of course)

This thought came after seeing the change in ad pattern on hotmail which was probably trying to come in Yahoo Beta version plans. Those who use hotmail might have notice it that the advertisement which used to be on top of the page horizontally is now in right side of the screen,vertically. The way in which yahoo beta version is advertising. I am not sure who advised them to come with the advertisement in right bar , vertically and that too with pictures in it. Yeah it indeed catch the eye and you can't miss it, but at the same time it irritates too. And that is the reason due to which I restored the classic version of yahoo mail after trying the beta version. Hotmail, high time to introduce features like restoring, else I don't see myself using hotmail in long run probably. Best way of online marketing, is how google do it. How come you are so good ,google. I hate you I hate you. Text advertisement in vertical right bar. And pictured  advertisement in right bottom of the page. In none of the case, I ever clicked the ad though.  For me advertisement in horizontal bar was more like a theme, which made feel good inbox. Wonder who gets trapped in the net of this online marketing. [:thinking]

Moral of the story:-  Pictured advertisement in vertical right bar is a bad idea of online marketing.

Reincarnation!!!

And finally decided that I will take out some time from my ad hoc kinda busy schedule(People in Indian IT industry do understand the meaning of ad hoc kinda busy schedule :|) and will write something be it a trivial stuff or any serious stuff, but yeah not on daily basis, once in a week. Lets see for how many more months/weeks I am able to keep up with it.

Next post to come soon!!!

Adios!!!