This is the first post in here that has taken the trouble to look some things up. Well appreciated.
I stick to my guns. There are various investment opportunities and I do not mind spending
some BTC to see how this comes through.
Never will I invest my entire pocket, nor will I expect any more returns than satoshi dice can give me. That is true for every investment on this planet.
As far as gold is concerned, putting it down for collateral and then expecting returns on that will be considered an investment. You do store gold for times when investment injection is required in various forms. I cannot see any potatoes or orange analogy here. In fact, you can even invest your gold directly in several places. eg.
http://www.sbimf.com/SBI_Gold_Fund/index.html. And they do not provide any prettier pictures.
Milaap provides loans, not donations, so you do get your money back at the end of the term. You also get tax benefits for Indian contributors, so not that shabby after all.
I must be honest to divulge that the main interest of mine to help the person, is his access to regulators. His social standing leads me to believe that he cannot cheat or scam anyone at this point or anytime in the near future. That was brought up to address the gambit of SEBI. I have not yet seen it, but I am keen to see how some of his moves work out for the Indian Bitcoin community in the near future.
He has also advised me that the next stages will be for Gold and Real Estate. Wish he had done Gold first, it would have been easier with the answers
That being said, I will not delete your post as it does carry some awesome valid questions.
I agree that my knowledge in finance may not be 'text book', but there are millions of Indians who have invested in FD's. No one is trying to prove that these are the most superior returns. This is another avenue to invest and it would be awesome if people can get their heads around it.
Thanks for the appreciation.
I think none of us in this thread are trying to dissuade "you" from investing. Its your money, if you think thats the best; then so be it.
As for gold, the thing is putting gold as a collateral happens in loans - in which the expectancy is to achieve a dream -- a business or education etc. That is not same as expecting a return as the person's goal is not that. Hence the potato and oranges analogy here. If you consider them same, it will be like saying "housing loan" and "personal loan" are same cause both are "loans". Is it true? Absolutely not, cause the underlying reason changes.
And yes, gold investment can be done in various ways - buying physical, holding futures, MFs, ETFs etc. Now the MF you point actually invests in an ETF which in turn might invest in physical delivery of gold (or track the spot price). They are thereby creating 2 layers removed from spot gold and hence the returns. From the same page:
"SBI Gold Fund is an open ended fund of fund scheme,
which will invest in units of SBI Gold Exchange Traded Scheme (SBI GETS). The scheme
seeks to provide returns that closely correspond to the returns provided by SBI GETS". Invest in SBI GETS and seeks to provide, hmm, here is the page for GETS:
http://www.moneycontrol.com/mutual-funds/nav/sbi-gold-exchange-traded-scheme-sbi-gets-/MSB211 1yr is rather positive. 3yr more than double. So basically investing in something which again invests in something is a bad idea and the worst example you can quote off. So it is not surprising they paint a bad picture.
Milaap does uses the word "loan". I have yet to find something which actually charges interest from those people. All the EMI payments actually ful fill the commitment of the principal. Again this is not investing. It is donation by proxy wherein I help and get my money back (though the donation should be with an open mind and expect no returns). The end goal is different - charity vs investment - another potato to oranges comparison.
I think you are missing the point here - its not about gold or real estate but then again if its about you investing your money, I guess its upto you.
Thanks for not deleting my post
The ideas being presented are not "text book" rather actual reality of this investing world. If you consider them textbook just do the math in this post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563303.msg6212639#msg6212639There is a way around this but given that I have yet to hear even mention of anything remotely connected; I have to doubt the financial understanding of the guys running this. Maybe some "text book" lessons when I can attend a Bangalore bitcoin meeting will be required
All said, if this is about you investing in something -- Please ignore this post.