The Shock and the Start
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In January 2025, a woman suddenly lost her husband. Grief aside, she was soon faced with the daunting challenge of claiming her late husband’s mutual fund investments—worth approximately ₹50 lakhs. What followed was a journey filled with administrative hurdles, emotional fatigue, and systemic inefficiencies.
One of my clients initiated their PPF account with a public sector bank approximately 14 years ago. Recently, when they approached the bank for guidance on the next steps, they were informed that the only option was to withdraw the amount and initiate a new PPF account with the same bank.
Increasing your investment periodically can expedite goal achievement. Various methods exist to accelerate investment progress, such as opting for riskier ventures. However, this approach may not be suitable for everyone due to discomfort with higher risks. This article proposes an alternative method: incrementally increasing your Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), reducing the time needed to reach your goal by two years or more.
Money has different meaning for different people. Investopedia says money is a medium of exchange. While money is universally recognized as a medium of exchange, its significance and interpretation vary greatly among individuals. For some, money represents security and stability, providing a means to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare. Others view money as a symbol of success and status, equating financial wealth with personal achievement and societal recognition. Additionally, money holds emotional value for many, influencing feelings of self-worth, confidence, and fulfillment.
Health insurance is crucial for financial protection against rising healthcare costs. It ensures access to quality healthcare, safeguarding individuals and their families during medical emergencies. With health insurance, one can avail cashless hospitalization and receive timely medical treatment without the burden of upfront payments. Additionally, it provides coverage for critical illnesses and offers tax benefits, promoting preventive care and overall well-being. There are many more benefits of health insurance which you will find it below here.
Health insurance forms an important part of your goal planning and it covers a major risk where financial resources could get depleted. With health insurance, you cover / transfer the risk. Health insurance is not an easy product to buy off the shelf and one requires a good understanding of its features and benefits before purchasing the right product including the amount of cover. Each individual is different and therefore one needs to understand the finer features of the product. Lower the premium and therefore the product doesn’t make sense.
It has been 2 years of personal finance, since I first began in October 2020. I completed my MBA finance which I talked about in my last year post. Studying for more than a year was quite exhausting and I quite happy and pleased about my result.
It has been a roller-coaster ride for sure. I had kept several goals for myself and have been able to achieve handful of them. I am glad that many of you have found my blogs useful and educational . The aim was to help individuals understand the complex maze of financial planning and therefore pick the right kind of mutual funds . I have been able to help investors choose the right mutual funds and they have a broad grin when they look at the returns.
Your future is created by what you do today
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In 2014, I was keen to plan for my retirement. I was not sure how to go about. As you are aware, our current jobs do not provide any pension and thanks to the medical advances , people ending up living much longer than our predecessors. Therefore a significant portion of our life, we would be living and not earning. I am sure you have heard the story of The Ant and the Grasshopper. Similarly, for many of us, we need to save to reach that retirement. The earlier we start, the quicker we reach our goal!
One of the common questions that investors ask me - where should I invest my money ? Fixed Deposit is giving a paltry return of 5 % . Is there any other investment avenue where I could get better return than this ? If you are facing a similar dilemma in this time and age, you are not alone. The answer is simple and it requires a process to be followed.
I have been recently reading this book called Power of Habit which gives great insights on human psyche. Habits have a profound say in our day-to-day lives :
SSY Benefits
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1. Account opening
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The account may be opened by the natural or legal guardian in the name of a girl child from the birth of the girl child till she attains the age of ten years .
Monitoring helps you determine exactly when a goal is on track. It provides you a feedback which incorporated allows you to make rectifications and therefore achieve your goals which you have laid out earlier. Feedback is important as it could tell you whether the path that you have chosen to achieve your goals is correct. It is a vindication of some sort. A reality check. It gives you an opportunity to correct your deviations and take you towards your goal.
A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects their decisions and judgements.
Before I bought my house in 2010, I was grappling with this thought whether to buy or rent ? . I was living in a rented house and was paying Rs 8000/- as rent. My parents insisted on buying a house and the EMI was Rs 14,000/- per month. I argued that the rent amount was much lesser and insisted that we live in a rented house as the EMI is much higher than the rent. As with any middle class family, my parents had their way and we eventually bought the house.
November 2002 - I boarded the train from Mumbai to Pune to take up my first job. Net income was Rs 15,000/- We were working in one of the top IT service companies and quite excited. I used to meticulously write my expenses on daily basis. Very soon, I had made some good friends. I was eating out regularly. There was one late night movie every week, parties during the week. I stopped writing my expenses. Every Friday there was a Sumo ready to take us back to Mumbai and every dreadful Monday, there was one to take us back to office. By the time I left my first job and moved to the second one, I had Rs 4000/- in my bank account (2 years of saving).
I was living in a rented house since 2005 when I moved from my parent’s house. Buying a house was quite expensive and I was unsure that I would work so long. Tenure for loans were 15-25 years. EMI’s were more expensive than the rent. I was not sure of many things while buying a house :
I was so excited! My first job. This actually would mean independence. This would also mean that I would have a bank account and there would be a number bigger than 0 in my account. However, with the uncontrolled expenses, my bank account quickly got depleted as soon as my salary came in. Thankfully maturity came and as years passed by, I started gaining different types of assets including a house, a car, few more savings account, a fixed deposit, mutual fund , stocks etc…
From childhood, we have been raised in a certain way, which shapes our opinion and attitude towards money. Some are conservative with money , some are willing to take risks . It is important to know where you stand and therefore invest your money in instruments which reflect your risk profile.
Mutual Funds began in 1963 in India. Private mutual funds came into being in 1993. AMFI was established in 1995. Since then, there have been so many varieties of mutual funds. Based on your individual goals and risk profile, you would purchase a mutual fund. The question therefore begs to be asked is - is equity savings fund right for you ?
Inflation is a measure of rise in the general price level of all goods and services in the country. Inflation is often viewed as the reduction in purchasing power of money. How does it affect you ?
