I think we’re extremely lucky in this aspect. We don’t fight over money issues. D’s extremely creative and artistic; the art and craft she does are things that I can’t even think of imagining. But she’s least interested in managing personal and household finances. To her, a gilt would be something one is guilty of. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Travel is our #1 goal. Other goals always take the backseat. In fact, I’ve put-off some much needed touch-up (dents and bumps) to the Swift in order to meet our travel budget. I’m not a fan of “package” trips and thankfully neither is D. I plan our travel meticulously — everything has to be hand-picked […]
This one’s for the married/soon-to-be-married folks. Came from a thought I had while writing on marriage and finances. [polldaddy poll=3851710]
I never ask D how she spends her money. Neither does D ask how I spend my money. So long as we’re on track with our financial goals (individual as well as shared ones), we’re free to utilize our respective free cash flow in whatever way we want to. No questions asked. We don’t pool […]
One of the most important things that you ought to know about your spouse before marriage is the financial liabilities that he/she brings into the relationship. Because, after marriage, they really do become “our” liabilities. In our case, I’d explicitly mentioned to D that the Swift was on a loan — I recollect mentioning the […]
Having tried a good number of cell phones — including a QWERTY-one from Spice Mobile! — since the demise of my built-like-a-tank Nokia 6681, I’ve found the one that I was looking for: the Nokia E52. Here’s the top three things that I love about the E52: Call quality is exceptionally good. The battery has […]
Within our household, I am. D doesn’t really break her head over income, expenses, cash flows, saving, investing, taxes, etc. Whether Section 80C offers an additional savings avenue of Rs 20,000 per year through infrastructure bonds or not isn’t really a topic that she’d like to talk about. Her dad used to handle everything from […]
If D, through her finances, can help someone truly in need or make someone happy, she will go out of her way (including entirely dropping her own financial plans) and do her bit. Her philosophy is that if your money can make your present a better world (qualitatively, not quantitatively), then that’s where you should […]
As a family, we need health insurance coverage for myself, D, and D’s parents. Through my job, I have health insurance coverage for both D and myself. Through her job, D has health insurance coverage for herself and her parents — I could have added my name too, but didn’t see the need to. In […]
Because we haven’t yet seen a need for having one. But most personal finance advise that you read online suggest having a joint savings account with your spouse (especially when your spouse is working which means you can share household expenses and such) — I doubt if these apply in an Indian context. We were […]
If you and your partner are not in agreement with your long-term plans, actions on behalf of those long-term plans are useless. Source: amzn.to/bMo6qk D and I have a long-term goal: Financial Independence.
When D entered my life, one of my plans for this blog was to write about aspects of personal finance as a couple. I didn’t get a chance to really work on this idea until now — and that’s a good thing because it’s been nearly an year and a half since I met D […]