Archive for July, 2008

Tweets on 2008-07-30

A “must see” presentation. Don’t judge the presentation by it’s title — it’s applicable to a general audience.

Link: Brain Rules for Presenters.

Pay particular attention to slides 49, 51, 55, and 56. I strongly believe in the following two points made in the presentation: “There is no greater anti-brain environment than the cubicle,” and “When you’re […]

Financial Confessions: The Lure of Credit Cards and the Need to be Responsible

In describing my credit card usage policy, I said,

I should look at every other option before opting to purchase with a credit card.

For reasons that still remain a mystery to me, I recently used my credit card to pay for goods and services when there were a whole set of other options readily available to […]

To ICICI Bank: If Passwords Expire in One Year, Why Give Me a Welcome Kit With an Already Expired Password?

How’s this for a bizarre experience?
Last week, I opted to open a savings account with ICICI Bank. I am given a welcome kit with an Internet banking password mailer dated April, 2007. I try to login but receive a “User ID has expired” error message. I call customer care who gleefully inform me that the […]

Problem: How Can I Embed Presentations from SlideShare into My WordPress Blog?

Using this SlideShare Wordpress plugin by Joost de Valk.

Installation is pretty straightforward:

Download the plugin.
Unzip the downloaded file.
Upload the “slideshare” folder to the plugins directory of your WordPress blog.
Activate the plugin in the WordPress admin panel.
Start embedding SlideShare presentations!

You simply have to copy-paste the code (for example: [slideshare id=415548&doc=brainrulespzreview-1211213300619507-9&w=425]) provided in the “Embed (wordpress.com)” section of […]

Problem: Where Can I Get The List Of MICR Codes For Indian Banks?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintains the list of MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) codes for all Indian banking institutions (ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, et al.) at the following location:

http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/content/pdfs/68774.pdf

Thanks Gaurav for your query that resulted in this post.

Know Your Rights: Did You Know That Banks Are Liable to Pay a Penalty for Issuing Unsolicited Credit Cards?

Source: RBI Notification.

Banks have been advised that unsolicited credit cards should not be issued and that in case an unsolicited card is issued and activated without the consent of the recipient and the latter is billed for the same, the card issuing bank shall not only reverse the charges forthwith, but also pay a penalty […]

Wow! Experience: Hotel Haritagiri, Kalpetta, Wayanad

On a recent trip to Wayanad, we stayed at:

Hotel Haritagiri
Kalpetta, Wayanad, Kerala
Tel: +91 4936 203145/46/47/48

We checked-in at 04:30 AM on Day 1 and checked-out at 09:00 AM on Day 2 (pretty odd hours and we did cross the 24-hour mark). We asked to be billed for a single day. The person at the front desk […]

Tweets on 2008-07-09

I have a very interesting fact to share.

My mom, who did not have the opportunity to study beyond Standard 10, manages expenses such that they are well within her budget — happens like clockwork every month. On the other hand, I have a post-graduate degree, yet wage losing battles to keep my expenses within my […]

Tweets on 2008-07-04

You should do this today. Right now.

You can take preventative action right now to make the loss of a wallet easier. Just clean out your wallet down to the bare minimum, then photocopy or scan both sides of everything in your wallet. This will help you to easily remember everything that was misplaced and easily […]

How to Calculate the Loan Amortization Schedule (EMI, Principal, and Interest Components) for Your Car Loan?

Download my Car Loan EMI Calculator Excel workbook.
This workbook has six sheets, one each for a loan duration ranging from one year to six years.
Select the sheet corresponding to the loan duration you’re thinking of. For example: select the sheet labeled “4 Years” if you’re looking for a car loan that you want to repay […]

Site Statistics — June 2008

I’m pretty close but still have some way to go before I hit the 20K pageviews target that I have set for this site. I’d love to hear a few tips from you on how I can get there.

Why It’s Not Such a Good Idea to Take a Loan from Your Employer Even if It’s Interest Free?

I have made this mistake once before and thought I’d share my experiences. Here’s why I believe you should not opt for a loan from your employer:

Any loan from your employer ties you to your job. You can’t come out until the loan amount has been cleared in full. You might argue that you can […]


Subscribe

Subscribe to my RSS Feeds

Get new posts in your Inbox

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner




Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.