Investment Risk and Growth | RK Mohapatra | Book Review

Investment Risk and Growth

SUBJECT: 4/5
EXPLANATIONS: 3.5/5
RELEVANCE: 4/5
WRITING STYLE: 3/5
OVERALL: 3.5/5

My Musings

Personal finance is one of the most important aspects of an adult’s life and more often than not it is also the most ignored one. Many people don’t take their finances seriously and often the reason is ignorance and laziness.

While laziness doesn’t really have a cure, in Investment Risk and Growth, notable financial author R.K. Mohapatra takes us through the nitty-gritty of investments and risks and tells us a lot about how to secure our financial future.

Read on to know more about my thoughts on this book.

What to expect?

Investment Risk and Growth is a book that talks of a very specific subject.

While it does help in understanding the various nuances of personal finance and more specifically investments and risks, the book will mostly appeal to people who already have at least a functioning knowledge of finance and various financial terms.

The illustrations and the examples

Investment Risk and Growth uses a generous amount of illustrations, graphs and examples to drive home the concepts that it intends the reader to understand.

There are also a couple of tables that add to the vast amount of information that the author provides.

How good is the writing style?

The author uses a language that is a little academic in nature and as a result, I often felt that I was reading a course book on finance.

There is a good amount of emphasis on the explanation of various concepts through examples and illustrations, which I think will appeal to those who are fascinated by numbers.

I like the fact that the author undertakes great pain to make the reader understand various important computations like returns, tax liabilities, capital gains or losses, financial ratios, equity ratios etc.

What I liked?

I like the way the book is structured in a well-defined manner. Just after giving a basic idea about investment and risk, the book delves into the various options that are available to Indian investors for investment according to their age, risk appetite and financial needs.

Thereafter, the author discusses various investment options in detail – equity, gold, debt, real estate and insurance.

The author also mentions legal aspects and related provisions while talking about various options. This additional information especially when it comes to taxes was an added bonus.

Please note that this information is only up to the financial year 2017.

What I did not like?

There were mainly two things that bothered me in this otherwise informative book –

(1) there were a couple of editing mistakes here and there

(2) there were more numbers than text.

Investment Risk and Growth had a lot of computations and I felt that the explanations accompanying these computations were insufficient. I personally, would have loved it had the author explained the concepts in an easier language and without those cumbersome examples.

The language of the book, much to my dismay, was a tad too academic and that made a lot of difference to me as a reader.

My final verdict

Investment Risk and Growth is a book that will add value to whoever who decides to read it.

Though it is a book that will appeal to a very niche category of readers, I think the author has done a decent job of making the reader understand and become familiar with the many aspects of investment and risk.

I personally would have loved it if the book had more of theory than numerical. This is because when it comes to numbers, I like many other readers prefer to give them a miss.

Pick the book if

  • You have a vague idea about personal finance and are looking for widening your horizons.
  • You enjoy books that have lots and lots of numerical examples.

Skip the book if

  • You aren’t looking for a book on personal finance.
  • You are a beginner and are looking for learning only the basics of investment and risk.
  • You are looking for an in-depth academic read on the topic of investment and risk.

Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of Investment Risk and Growth using the link below.

Amazon

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