Bangalore’s elite ladies came together to be a part of Bishnu Dhanuka’s two-day workshop on financial literacy at Oakwood, UB City, Bangalore recently. His talks have caught the fancy of serious investors looking for direction. Bishnu Dhanuka is a businessman, a highly successful investor and a passionate teacher. When it comes to investing, he has been an ardent follower of Warren Buffett principles which explains his success in this field for over 50 years. He is a committee member of Bharat Chamber of Commerce. As a founder director of Millennium Mams’, Dhanuka has been invited to address various forums across India on financial literacy and investment principles. Some of them include FLO chapters of Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata; YPO Kolkata among several others. Millennium Mams’ is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to empower women through financial literacy. The founder directors Bishnu Dhanuka and Sanjay Bhuwania have designed Millennium Mams’, a classroom-based learning course which covers and explains the dynamics of Indian economy in an extremely simplistic and exhaustive manner. The altruistic organisation has educated over 1,000 ladies since its inception in 1994. Since then, many ladies who got in sync with the factors that influence businesses have chartered their own course to become successful entrepreneurs, business-women and investors. The Warren Buffett club is an extremely sought after lateral of Millennium Mams’ that was conceptualised and designed by Dhanuka as a study club for 16 ladies who were travelling to Omaha to attend Berkshire Hathaway AGM in May 2012. The simple principles of Warren Buffett are discussed threadbare in these classes and this model has evolved as the fine art of investing. Through these classes the famous myth that “losing money in stock is natural” is replaced by Warren Buffett’s rule of “never lose money”.
In a quick chat with Ritz Magazine, Bishnu Dhanuka shares some of his expert and easy financial tips with our readers.
- How did you start the Buffet Club?
Over two decades back, I decided to present a module for women where there’s flexibility and while these women continue to give their best at home, their money would still grow. There’s so much happening globally, so every woman must keep herself abreast with the changes and understand all the nitty-gritty’s around the world and get empowered, start their own ventures and learn how to invest wisely. Unless one is financially independent one cannot grow. 17 of our girl students have gone to Omaha, US, where Warren Buffet lives and attended the Berkshire Hathaway AGM. I started the Buffet Club seven years back in Kolkata and this year onwards we are taking it to many different cities.
- What does the group do?
We conduct financial investing classes. There are two year courses on financial investing and literacy. We don’t do individual portfolios. How the women use this general knowledge is upto them. We take women for factory visits and meet top director level executives of high flung companies so that they are aware where exactly they are investing their equities in. Some of our factory visits include Tatas, Telco and many other such factories. In Bangalore I’m conducting two-day courses -basic and advanced Buffet Club courses.
- Can you give us few easy finance tips that everyone can follow?
Analyse your personality, risk appetite and surplus fund. If surplus funds are not available don’t invest. Also invest in stocks and mutual funds of companies where the management is honest, transparent and fair. One must invest in companies that come under consumer monopoly like Colgate, HLL etc. After analysing if you have invested wisely, there’s no rush to sell and make a quick buck. This is how you can create wealth. Working women must invest in SIPs (systematic investment plans) where every month they can invest a small amount and after 10 years it becomes huge. Investing in fixed deposits is a bad idea as the real interest is less than the actual interest that you see. Real interest rate is interest rate minus inflation. There’s no tax on dividends for investing in SIP. Even ELSS (equity linked saving schemes) are good for investment. Managing your own finances is extremely important. Knowledge is empowering!
Registrations are open for the next session of The Buffet Club in Bangalore with Dhanuka on June 23, 2017. Contact Buffet Club Bangalore:
+91 93438 66333 Vandana Agarwal
nsn_agarwal@hotmail.com
+91 9845072438 Shalini Manglani
Shalmanglani@gmail.com
+91 98865 20331 Rati Mundrey
Ratimundrey@gmail.com
