Today our office cleaning lady was very worried .On enquiry we were told that her son got his first salary which was credited to his Bank of India account. But when he went to withdraw the amount, there was no balance; it has already been withdrawn. On further enquiry he revealed that someone asked him his debit card number for reissuing a new card and after some time also asked to share the  OTP which was just sent. Ignorant of the risk, he shared the details. The long queues before ATMs and Bank branches for exchange, deposit and withdrawal of […]

e-Term insurance plan is a form of term life cover, it provides coverage for defined period of time. If the insured expires during the term of the policy then sum assured is payable to nominee. Term plans are specifically designed to secure the financial needs of the family or liquidation of liability in case of death of the bread earner of the family. Low Premiums  The premiums for Term insurance policies are the lowest among all the types of life insurance policies. The premiums are low since there is no investment component and the entire premium goes for covering the […]

If you get an Income Tax notice don’t panic. Read the notice carefully. If you don’t know what to do, go through the following; Notice Under section 143(1) Mostly a good news! The most common form of intimation is under section 143(1). But at this stage it may be just an intimation, and you don’t need to take any action. Sometimes it states that your return has been successfully processed. The income tax department validates each tax return with its own record and this notice usually only points out apparent mistakes found out by the system. This intimation has two […]

Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on interest on Fixed Deposits and Recurring Deposits of banks have caught many savers with surprises. While buying Life Insurance, we are advised that premium payment upto Rs1.50 lakhs are tax deductible under section 80C and maturity proceeds are tax free under 10(10D). But it is not so always! Many insurance products do not qualify for full tax deduction and maturity not fully tax-free. The current low return on Insurance is further impacted by incidence of tax. TDS on Life Insurance Proceeds Insurance products tend to give you a deduction of up to Rs1.5 lakhs […]

 We’ve been writing to you regularly on latest on financial markets. I want to take this opportunity to share some relevant points and reemphasize some of our repeated advice exchanged during our interactions. But Good advice is boring and doesn’t change with time. 1)   The 3 key factors to success in investing are long term orientation, patience and discipline. 2)   The minimum holding period for equity investment is 10 years. This is only minimum. The preferred holding period should be in decades.   3)   You buy a house, keep it for your whole life and then pass it on to children; […]

The JFM (January, February & March) tax season fever has set in. The Insurance Agents and Banks relationship managers have become super active to push insurance products for tax saving for Rs1.50 lakh limit under section 80 C of the Income Tax Act. One needs to take an advice from a Financial Doctor before buying it from a medicine shop.  Firstly, before you start rushing to buy any products for tax saving, we suggest you to do some numbers crunching on the following; Estimate your annual contribution to EPF/PPF/Voluntary PF if any Take note of your Term Insurance premium/Online Term […]

The notion of ‘Bank’ in the mind of general public implies the image of a trustworthy and secure institution. We generally do not scrutinize the bank statements. We take for granted all the entries in the statement presuming it to be genuine and do not raise any sort of doubt. But the recent survey by ET Wealth has revealed that three out of five bank customers are not satisfied with bank and its practices. We discuss some of the reasons for their dissatisfaction. Mis selling : It is the experience of many customers that the Bank relationship managers’ are making strong […]

Are you prepared for your Children’s higher education? More than 1,30,000 Indian students have gone to USA this year to pursue  higher education. This is the highest number of Indian students in a single year and the second highest of foreign students in USA. Many parents desire  to send their children for higher education abroad for quality education and the trend is increasing every year. As per a study reported in Business Standard on 20th Nov 2015, parents are saving 30-40% of their income for children’s higher education. The destination countries are USA, UK, Australia, Singapore and other EU countries. The […]

Financial Life Planning is a branch of Financial Planning which deals with peace and happiness in life. It aims at creating yogic wealth. As per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there are five levels of human needs; Physiological (Food and Water),Safety(Home), Love and belongingness (Family), Self esteem(Professional achievements) and Self actualisation (Passions in life).We need money for fulfilling the  needs for the first two stages i.e physiological and safety but do not need money for the last three stages. We always worry about money and fear for not having enough of it.Fear gives rise to insecurity which again leads to anxiety. […]

The maxim “higher the risk higher the return” is getting replaced by “lower risk and higher return” in financial behavior of many investors.Look at the large amounts mobilized under ponzy schemes like sharada. The business models of some ponzy schemes are simple; Deposit Rs1,00,000/- lumpsum and get 10% every month. After 2/3 months, the office is closed. Many believe they can not be taken for a ride like this. But rarely one has evaluated packaged financial products. Ready-made financial products packaged for a specific need can be disastrous!!! Look at endowment pension plans of Life Insurers! They are  bought for […]