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Why a term insurance policy is the best life cover option?

Life Insurance

Gautam, a 28-year-old IT professional, has got married recently. His parents are financially dependent on him. He saves Rs.15,000 each month. He thinks his insurance requirement would be Rs. 50 lakh. For the term insurance plan that his relationship manager is recommending, his annual premium will be Rs. 10,000, payable over 30 years.

He thinks a term insurance is a bad choice because he will not get any ‘returns’ on it. It seems unprofitable to him, as he is unlikely to get back the amount he pays as premium. Is term insurance really a waste of money? Should Gautam consider an insurance cover which provides a good ‘return’ at the end of the tenure instead?

First, Gautam needs to be educated about the concept of insurance and the purpose of buying it. The only way to do that is for him to imagine how his family would fare, if he were to pass away tomorrow. Wouldn’t it make things difficult for his wife and parents?

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February 13, 2017 Life insurance, , 0 Read more >

Ask what else (ELSS) – for tax savings schemes (80CC)

AskWhatELSS

One can look at “else” or “ELSS”, for various tax saving schemes.

Where ELSS stands for “Equity Linked Savings Scheme”. These are Mutual fund schemes, which qualifies towards 80CC tax saving investment and offers one of the best returns & liquidity in the market, compared to any other schemes available.

Whichever way one wants to look at, i.e. First, “what else” or options one has on tax saving schemes? and Second, “what ELSS”, or how good they are?

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February 8, 2017 Tax, , , , , 0 Read more >

How freelancers can save taxes? or Freelancers’ Guide to save taxes

Tax saving guide freelancer

It’s tax season, and as the salaried hurry to meet the deadlines to submit proof of investments and claim benefits, for freelancers, the scenario is quite different.

Unlike salaried individuals, they don’t have employers to lay down rules and roll out facilities for them.

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February 3, 2017 Tax, , , 0 Read more >

Demonetisation effect

demonetisation-effect

With demonetisation almost nearing its completion & 80% of the old notes back with the banks, most of us are questioning, what next?

Well, to start with, we are moving in the phase where quite a lot of individuals & families have either declared or will start operating with white money now. In short, we have more people having white money in hand going forward, which will soon start demanding white investments.

Real estate & gold, which used to be the main source for black-money, now will (more…)

December 14, 2016 Investments, , , , , , , , 0 Read more >

Child education – How much will college cost in future?

child-education

To send our child to the best of the colleges, is always top of our wish list. A good college education can open door to many opportunities. But college degree doesn’t come cheap and if we don’t start planning it right now, we will have a sorry face, when our child is ready to go. Therefore, the best thing to do is to start saving early.

How much will it cost?

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December 5, 2016 Financial Planning, , , , 0 Read more >

Black or White – what do I do?

black-money-tax-scan

Our dear Prime Minister is known for surprise, and the biggest was on 8th evening, when he announced to demonetize INR 500 & 1000 currency notes. It’s a known fact, that in India we have a parallel economy running on black money, also known as shadow economy. Whatever measures & schemes offered by government, still they were not able to control or stop the flow of black money. Finally, the masterstroke!!!

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November 10, 2016 Investments, , , , 0 Read more >

My Wife’s Treasure Chest

Hidden Treasure

With our PM Modi’s bold move to phase out old INR 500 & 1000 currency notes, we have a new crisis at home today. I am checking my wallet, bags & hidden areas to weed out any notes, suddenly we have bundle of notes, popping out of kitchen cabinets, dressers &areas we wouldn’t even imagine.

And guess, who’s behind this, my dear “Wife” … all these years she’s been keeping or stacking notes in some place or the other, which comes as small change, shagun(gifts) or any other savings. She would not even bother to look back to check, whether it’s there or not, or how much is stacked.

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November 9, 2016 Financial Planning, , , , , , , , 0 Read more >

The Best Gift Ever Received

best-gift-ever

We have heard stories, where kids from their pocket money savings, have purchased an expensive music system or gifted an expensive wrist watch to their parents. If it’s my generation, i.e. 80’s, we were saving this in our piggy banks, whereas today same gets parked in a real bank savings account (kids).

I have not come across any parents till date, who would have started a culture of kids saving same in equity mutual funds. Why?

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November 7, 2016 Investments, , , , , , 0 Read more >

My dream – How to become Rich?

My dream - How to become Rich?

I thought of writing something differently this time. I asked this question, what is one common dream, most of us look forward to. I didn’t have to scratch my head, “how to become rich” is everyone’s dream, but very few live to live this dream.

It’s not about the dreaming, but it’s all about the efforts put to live this dream.

My best analogy is old DD comedy show of “Mungerilal ke haseen sapne”, where Raghubir Yadav used to dream big and while dreaming, will elaborately get into details & hard work, but only in his dream, and towards the end when he wakes-up, he is back with nothing in hand 😉

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September 16, 2016 Financial Planning, , , , , 0 Read more >

Investments – too much clutter in the marketplace!

cluttered marketplace

On one hand, we have Investment product sellers; like banks, brokers & individual consultants, who sell investment products, claiming to offer the best solution with detailed research reports.

On the other hand, we have manufacturers, like mutual funds & insurance companies, offering mouth-watering deals with smart TV & print commercials.

Who do we believe & trust?

As once a product is sold, one gets to know or understand the actual value of the product only after few years or later, that too when one meets a new advisor or spends some time on knowing the product 😉

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September 2, 2016 Investments, , , , 0 Read more >