Oops!

It’s been close to 3-months now since I last wrote — it’s the usual “life just got busy” excuse and I pick-up all the blame for letting things slip. We’ve also just entered a brand-new financial year and I wish each of you a prosperous year ahead. Lot’s of stuff did happen in between including some new investments and having to let go of the Swift in lieu for what I personally think is its perfect replacement. More on that in the coming weeks — I promise!

But first, guess what nudged me over the edge and back here?

A “Unit Account Statement” for LIC’s Market Plus scheme that turned-up in the post box. Now this happens to be one of D’s legacy mis-investments and upon opening the statement we discovered to our horror that a secret [off-market?] Rs 20 was being happily deducted each month under the guise of “Admin Charges.” I guess this has been happening each month since the investment was first made quite a number of years back. Don’t even ask me about it’s Market Value — it’s deeper than the Titanic’s depth of sink!

There’s a whole bunch of other columns for various other off-market charges — which thankfully were zero in our statement.

Here’s a sample —

• Allocation Charges

• Mortality Exp/FY Renw(*) [WTH?]

• Accident Charges [WTH? I hope I’m not charged for meeting with an accident!]

• Switching Charges

• Ser Tax Rsk Prm Chrgs [WTH?]

It’s time to cut the flab including another mis-investment — Money Plus!