When I pre-closed the loan on the Swift, there happened to be a small difference between my calculations and the bank’s calculations, with the bank’s figures being higher. I didn’t bother too much about it back then, but now I know the cause for that difference. A 10.3% service tax levied on car loan prepayments. […]
Don’t just travel. Travel well. Lonely Planet Magazine, India. Amen! That’s what I believe. That’s why I avoid “package” tours.
I’ve automated our utility bill payments. But my definition of automation is a bit wide. Electricity, phone (both landline and cell), and wireless broadband are automatically debited from my savings account on the respective due dates. This is automation as we know it. However, for water supply, newspaper, and cable television, I pay six months […]
Mithun asks, My mom will soon be receiving a lumpsum (around Rs 300,000). How do I invest this lumpsum in her name in order to generate some monthly income? I’ve heard about Monthly Income Plans (MIP). Are they a good option? Yes. Monthly Income Plans are the way to go — but I’d recommend that […]
Read this article recently published in the Bangalore Mirror. Highlights. After recession, an insurance cover ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 crore is the most sought after by IT honchos and senior-level management people. With job losses and salary cuts, the industry has realized that conventional saving tools, which are stable and give […]
Indians receive a different treatment. Foreigners receive a different treatment. You can guess who out of the two gets the second-hand treatment. D had only one thing to say: “The Taj Fake Palace, Udaipur.” I agree. The second-hand treatment cost us approximately INR 35,000 for a night for a Palace Room — the personal butler, […]
Take a shirt. Stitch a pant to it. Then stick a pair of shoes to the pant. You really wouldn’t want to be seen wearing such clothes. Similarly, you wouldn’t want to buy the LIC Endowment plus Unit Linked Plan which purportedly combines Savings, Investment, and Insurance — in short, a guaranteed recipe to make […]
How would it sound when you need to tell someone that your life insurance policy is named ICICI Pru LifeLink Wealth SP? I’d run away if I had to say this.
Referring to my rants on Citibank, a reader wrote in: I saw your post on the Citibank ERA facility. Luckily, I didn’t face the photo issue, but I’m unable to transfer funds between the ERA Account and the Regular Salary Account. Do you know if this is doable? I didn’t and I wrote back so. […]
In response to how we plan our travel, a colleague wanted to know how much the “ridiculous amount” I was referring to in that post amounted to. Well, I can’t give a specific number for obvious reasons, but I’ll try and publish some figures. We set aside about 10% of our combined post-tax (take home) […]
A reader asks, I work for a multinational and my wife works for the Government. We normally use my salary for day to day expenses while my wife’s salary remains almost untouched. Where can we save/invest her income while keeping our peace of mind (not keen on the equity markets). Here’s what I read from […]
D found this on early morning TV. This is what happens when you have more manufacturing capacity than you know what to do with. Berries become cherries with a 47% markdown.
Thought it would be a good idea to take a break from those morbid What’s Your Fallback Tuesday posts. And what better a way to do that than to write about travel. And what better a destination to write about than Wayanad. Wayanad was our second trip post marriage. The first was to Rajasthan — […]
Though I advocate against it now, early in my career, I made a couple of investments purely with the objective of reducing my income tax liability. These investments simply don’t fit in with any of my financial goals. That led me to this thought: a “for income tax savings only” investment portfolio. You could put […]
When you hear the words “five, years, investment, product” all in the same sentence from whoever is pitching you a financial product your first instinct must be to get ready to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Because it couldn’t be anything other than a ULIP. Last weekend, I ran as […]
Telemarketer. Peddling an SBI Credit Card. Rs 800 in coupons (God alone knows for what) along with the credit card. A Rs 500 charge upon first usage. Seems they’re very upfront about disclosing these charges. I almost asked how much those coupons cost SBI to begin with. What a scam!
Going purely by the numbers I recently highlighted, both D and I ought to put our money into these infrastructure bonds. But, in my case, I don’t want to invest my money just for the purpose of lowering my income tax. I’d rather pay a marginally higher income tax, improve my cash flow, and invest […]
Of late, I’ve been thinking quite a bit on what I’d do if the following scenario were to happen. Suppose your ability to earn a regular income is hampered because you suffer a disability due to whatever reason (say due to an accident). How would you plan ahead and financially mitigate for this scenario? Remember, […]
From HSBC: You continue to enjoy a reduced interest rate of 3.25% p.m. (39% p.a.) on extended credit on your HSBC Credit Card ending XXXX. I’ve had this card since 5+ years and have never made a late payment. If my interest rate for being loyal and punctual is 39% p.a., you can imagine what […]
Here’s what I suggest. Ignore all those complicated analysis (an example) of yields and returns and comparisons with other fixed-return financial products. Buy these bonds if and only if: Your objective is to lower your income tax, and You fall in one of the highlighted cells below. In such a case, opt for the Series […]