Hey folks!

Hello and welcome to your weekly update on investments, personal finance, cryptocurrencies, and more. In today’s newsletter, we will talk about one of the safest modes of investment – Fixed Deposits and deep dive into the rule of 72 to learn how you can estimate the number of years it will take to double your investments. We also help you decode how the US Fed’s interest rate chatter shook the crypto markets, teach you a thing or two about money and investments with Robert Kiyosaki, and end the read with a fun crypto crossword.

Strap your seat belts as you embark on a power-packed reading experience.

Are you looking to balance your portfolio with a low-risk investment alternative or are you simply looking to park your hard-earned money in a low-risk investment product? If yes, Fixed Deposits offer you a low-risk, relatively safe investment alternative. Watch the video below to learn more about different types of fixed deposits and how you can make the most of your investments by opening one.

Moving on, let’s understand the Rule of 72 and how it can help you estimate the number of years you need to stay invested to double your money.

There is no pleasure like the pleasure of seeing your investments grow with time. And the icing on the cake is when you see your investments double; that is, you get a 100% return on your investments. What if we tell you there is simple math to estimate the number of years in which your investment will double? It is called the Rule of 72.

The Rule of 72 is a quick, useful formula that is used to estimate the number of years required to double the invested money at a given annual rate of return. Alternatively, it can compute the annual rate of compounded return from an investment given how many years it will take to double the investment.

Formula: 72 / Expected Rate of Return

Applying the rule of 72 will look something like this. You have invested ₹1,00,000 at 8% per annum in a bank FD. Now, to calculate the approximate time needed to double the invested amount will be 72/8 which works out to 9 years.
Your one lakh will turn to two lakhs in 9 years' time. 

Here are some important things to know about the Rule of 72:

• The rule of 72 is a good starting point as it gives an estimation; it is advisable to use the Future value of money formula to calculate the exact time.

• The Rule of 72 is focused on compounding interest that compounds annually.

• The Rule of 72 works best in the range of 5 to 12 percent, but it’s still an approximation.

Remember the rule of 72 when you are making quick calculations while evaluating investment opportunities.

In another week of rangebound trading, crypto markets traded sideways with slight downward selling pressure. The total crypto market cap is back below the $1.1 trillion mark, as ETH underperformed BTC over the week, trading just below the $1.6k level, while the latter continues to trade above $26k.

Structurally for the broader markets, we are seeing an increase in BTC's market cap dominance to now reach almost 50%, while another important cross-pair ETH/BTC has also hit its lowest levels in 14 months, suggesting investor preference for BTC.

The big catalyst for crypto markets last week was the macro developments around the US Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory. The Fed paused further interest rate hikes during its meeting but also suggested that it is ready to keep interest rates "higher for longer" in order to keep inflation in check.

Institutional adoption too continues to gain steam, with Japanese financial services giant Nomura's digital assets subsidiary Laser Digital introducing a new fund providing bitcoin exposure to institutional investors. Also worth highlighting is that crypto VC firm Blockchain Capital was able to raise $580 million for 2 new funds!

For the broader crypto markets, there were a lot of token-specific events causing outsized price movements.
There was high volatility in Optimism's OP token as the Foundation announced a new airdrop scheme and later also revealed selling some OP token for operational expenses, resulting in a fall in the token's price.
There were several tokens with positive price movements, the pack being led by Chainlink's LINK token which has been on a steady rise since the launch of CCIP and integration plans with SWIFT.
Whale accumulation and long-term holding behavior were responsible for the outsized positive price movement of DeFi Lending majors AAVE and MKR as well!

• OP $1.26 ⏬ 10.36%

• LINK $7.24 ⏫ 10.32%

• AAVE $62.19 ⏫ 2.27%

• MKR $1,272.87 ⏫0.47%

(All data here is as of 3.00 pm, 25 September 2023.)

As a crypto enthusiast, you should understand what’s causing all the price action. So here’s some news to help you digest the market’s ups and downs.

• Ether (ETH) has reverted to be inflationary amid plunging activity on Ethereum, which could weigh on the token’s price, analysts say. Network fees, a proxy for usage, plunged more than 9% this week to $22.1 million, the lowest in nine months, data by blockchain analytics firm IntoTheBlock shows. Read more here.

• Mt. Gox, the crypto exchange from which bitcoin (BTC) now worth almost $23 billion was stolen nearly a decade ago, has delayed the deadline for repaying people by a year, its trustees said on 21 September. The new deadline for the now-defunct exchange is Oct. 31, 2024, instead of Oct. 31 of this year. Read more here.

Today we revisit the classic. No personal finance booklist is complete without Rich Dad Poor Dad and the book has been a bestseller for years for a reason. Many of you might have read this book, but start reading it again with an investment perspective and you will end up learning a lot.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not

By: Robert T. Kiyosaki

This book penned by Robert Kiyosaki more than 25 years ago is a timeless guide to financial literacy that imparts significant knowledge about capital accumulation and achieving economic autonomy. The book has stood the test of time and is as relevant today as it was at the time of publication. A standout feature of the book is its ability to simplify intricate financial principles in a language that can be easily understood. The book delves deep into concepts like assets and liabilities to make the distinction clear and also enumerates how smart debt utilization helps create wealth.

This book is a bible for financial literacy and is indeed worth your investment.

Before you get on with your day, don’t forget to flex those brain muscles with our weekly crypto crossword

Answers to the crypto crossword#15

1. Ommer

2. ApeCoin

3. Bitcoin:

4. TradeFi

5. WorldCoin

6. Peer

7. Stablecoin

8. Lovelace

9. Sharding

10. Polygon

11. NFT

That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around.

See you later, folks! 👋

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