This may sound strange, but this may indeed be true for many taxpayers. Why? Because the Union Budget 2023 has incentivized the New Tax regime in a big way by reducing the tax rates in the various income slabs. And the New Tax regime does NOT give you any tax benefits for tax-saving investments. No… Continue Reading
It is common for Non-resident Indians (NRIs) to borrow in their country of residence to invest in India. They borrow to pay off loans in India, purchase real estate or even invest in stocks or mutual funds. Why do it? The borrowing rates may be lower in their country of residence. Say, you can borrow… Continue Reading
CRED, a fintech player that simplifies credit card bill payments, has launched a product CRED Mint, where CRED members can earn up to 9% per annum. This is how it works. You invest your money in Cred Mint. The product is powered by LiquiLoans, a P2P-NBFC player regulated by the Reserve bank of India. Your… Continue Reading
You got your annual bonus. You have a home loan too. What should you do? Use the bonus (lumpsum) amount to repay the loan OR Invest the amount in the hope that you will earn a higher post-tax return than the post-tax cost of home loan There is no black and white answer. My stance… Continue Reading
The tax-saving season is round the corner. Are you still running around to finalize tax-saving investments? Well, there are so many ways to save tax. There is PPF, EPF, NPS, ELSS, LIC policies, ULIPs, 5-year FDs, life and health insurance plans, pension plans and many more. In this post, I do not intend to discuss… Continue Reading
Question 1: Interest rates have gone down. I want to buy a house. While I can fund the purchase with own funds, I think taking a home loan is a good idea since the interest rates are low. I can earn a higher return than the loan interest rate on my investments. Plus, I will… Continue Reading
You invest Rs 50,000 in stock market. Your investment doubles in 6 months. A 100% gain in 6 months is a reason to rejoice but something pinches you. Even though you made a 100% gain, it is not a big amount in absolute terms. Wish you had invested a bigger amount. You would have earned… Continue Reading
My current credit card expired recently and I was issued a fresh card by the bank. An interesting thing about the new card was the it permitted contactless transactions. Call me paranoid but I was not very comfortable with the contactless feature. I asked the bank to switch off the feature but the bank declined.… Continue Reading
Online frauds are on the rise. Almost on a weekly basis, I hear new ways of customers being duped of their hard-earned money. Of late, the UPI frauds have been on the rise, where the fraudsters call/text you on one pretext or the other. You eventually end up installing malicious software on your phone or… Continue Reading
In July 2019, the National Housing Bank (NHB) directed the Housing Finance Companies to refrain from lending under Interest Subvention Schemes to developers. Under an interest subvention scheme (80:20 scheme or any other nomenclature), you pay 20% of the purchase value upfront and the bank disburses the remaining 80% cost to the builder upfront. The… Continue Reading