You need money, on and off, to bridge cashflow gaps for your business needs. A loan may not be suitable for such a requirement. Why? Firstly, you do not need money all the time. You need it infrequently. In that case, it may not make sense to bear the loan interest rate for 2 years… Continue Reading
What would you prefer? One big loan or multiple small loans? I don’t know about you, but I would prefer one big loan, everything else being the same. Why? Too many loans are difficult to manage. You need to keep track of various payment dates. You must ensure that there is sufficient bank balance to… Continue Reading
The Reserve Bank of India recently cut Repo rate by 0.25% from 6.25% p.a. to 6.0% p.a. You have heard that the rate cut by the Reserve Bank will lead to lower EMI. However, despite this rate cut, let’s say, your loan EMI has not gone down. What could be the reasons and what can… Continue Reading
A friend was planning to take a home loan of Rs 75 lacs. With an EMI of Rs 66,278 for 20 years. Over the 20 years, the total of all payments will be Rs 1.59 crores. So far, so good. Now an interesting twist. He calculated the cost of this home loan as 3.83% p.a.… Continue Reading
Recently, I came across a viral content on social media where the author referred to home loans as a scam. Why? The author took a loan of Rs 48 lacs. EMI of Rs 42K. After paying 15 EMIs, the author had repaid only Rs 75,000 in principal and Rs 4.8 lacs in interest. And it… Continue Reading
You’re looking to buy a car using a bank loan. You already have an existing home loan with your bank that you have been aggressively prepaying over the years. Your bank app tempts you with a customized top-up loan offer with instant approval and 24-hour disbursal. Should you use it to finance your car purchase?… 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
I will give you Rs 1 lacs. You have to pay me 5% interest. Sounds like a good deal? I will add a few caveats. You must pay 5% interest upfront. Pay off the loan in 3 equal monthly installments of Rs 33,333 each. Is this a joke? No, it is not. This is the… Continue Reading
You take a personal loan of Rs 2 lacs from a bank. Interest rate is 10% p.a. What is the cost of the loan? 10% p.a., right? Isn’t interest rate the cost of loan? Yes, but only if the bank levies no other charges. If the bank does levy additional charges, then the cost of… Continue Reading
What is an EMI? Equated Monthly Installment. We usually associate this term with loan repayment. Every month, the same amount (and hence the word “Equated”) gets debited from your bank account and is used for loan repayment. A portion of the EMI goes towards interest payment and the rest towards the principal repayment. We have… Continue Reading