The Finance Minister presented an action-packed budget today with a number of changes on the personal taxation and capital gains front. Here are the important changes. #1 Increase in Capital Gains Tax (Negative) Long term capital gains (LTCG) tax on sale of stocks/equity funds has been increased from 10% to 12.5%. The exempt LTCG limit… Continue Reading
You plan to take a personal loan. What is the flexibility you would want from your personal loan product? I will share a few thoughts on flexibility expected. Lower charges (beyond the loan interest rate). Processing fee etc. Zero or lower prepayment penalty. No prepayment penalty in a personal loan is asking for too much.… Continue Reading
Paying credit card bills has become a bit cumbersome from July 1, 2024. How? Before we get there, how do you pay your credit card bills? I do not know about you, but I pay my credit card bills using Paytm app. To pay the credit card bill, I simply open the Paytm app, select… Continue Reading
For an expensive online purchase, do you pay in full or take the benefit of an EMI scheme? Depending on the range of credit cards you have and the ongoing offers, you may have the following options during checkout: Full upfront payment. Full upfront payment with discount. Interest-EMI without discount: The EMIs add an interest… Continue Reading
When you sign up for a credit card, you sign up for all the benefits on that credit card. There is no option to customize the benefits based on your spending preferences. In fact, you tend to select cards based on your expenditure patterns. For instance, you apply for ICICI Amazon Pay credit card if… Continue Reading
You must have heard that you can get a loan against your life insurance policy. Are you aware that all life insurance policies are not eligible for a loan facility? Yes, only a certain category of life insurance products are eligible for a loan against policy facility. Types of Life Insurance Products There are broadly… Continue Reading
Here’s another case of identity theft. The victim was a finfluencer and he narrated his ordeal lucidly in a Twitter thread. You can go through the Twitter thread for a detailed account — https://x.com/b50/status/1796784315990491526 Here is the TLDR version: He started getting calls from recovery agents. Checked CIBIL report which showed a digital loan. Had… Continue Reading
Would you need a medical loan if you had a health insurance plan? If you think the answer is NO, think again. There are still two scenarios when you may need a medical loan. When your insurer (or the hospital) denies cashless treatment or rejects the claim outright OR When the hospital bill exceeds the… Continue Reading
Debt is not evil. In fact, if used responsibly, debt can be extremely useful. Yes, taking on debt involves additional cost in the form of interest. Clearly not desirable but that’s just the cost of capital. If you are using your own funds for purchase, consider the possibility that those funds could have been invested… Continue Reading
Have you taken a loan from your employer at a concessional rate of interest? As I understand, such arrangements are quite common for bank employees. The banks offer loans at a concessional rate to their employees. This could result in significant interest savings for the employees, especially for long tenure loans. However, as per the… Continue Reading