Financial Awareness

Fundamentals of Budgeting

Getting rich is in your hands, nobody else's . So get started with working hard or smart (depends on you again), adding to your finance knowledge and generally taking responsibility for yourself. Get Rich Or Die Trying. Just kidding! But read on for some serious stuff.

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Economy

Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2009-10

The RBI announced its Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for the Year 2009-10 today and as expected, has left the key rates unchanged. Though the RBI kept key rates unchanged, it hiked Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), the deposits that commercial banks are to park in government securities, by one percentage points to 25 per cent.

While this should have brought some cheer to the markets, they plunged deeper into the red not only because the RBI looks set to raise interest rates going forward, but also because the central bank has upwardly revised its target inflation by March 2010 end to 6.5% from 5% earlier.

The upward bias in interest rates was apparent from the RBI's move to hike the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) to 25% from 24%. Having said that, whether interest rates in the future rise or not will depend on whether the inflation continues to rise the way it is doing now, and the economic momentum continues to pick up pace.

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Editor's Choice

Do you want to appear rich, or do you want to be rich?

You probably can’t be both. 

Many, many people choose to appear rich. This usually means buying a house you can’t really afford, cars you can’t really afford, and all sorts of electronic devices and jewelry and other items that you can’t really afford. Outwardly, you appear to have lots of money, but you’re actually sinking in a giant pile of debt, barely able to keep your head above water.

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Personal Finance Online Resources for Indian Users
Home Loan Repayment Options
Written by Gopal Gidwani   
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Tarun is a young professional working in a MNC. Tarun recently got married and he has bought a new flat. He has taken a home loan of Rs 30 Lakhs for 20 years and is paying an Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) of Rs 26,992.

Consequences of Interest Rate Hike

Tarun is a worried man nowadays. He has heard of all the talks of a rate hike doing the rounds in the market. If that happens his EMI on the home loan will go up.

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Personal Finance Tools and Calculators
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It is said that if you want to manage something, you must be able to measure it. In other words, if you can't measure it, you really can't manage it well.

Your personal finances also falls within the above concept. How do you know whether you are doing well with your personal finances or not?

So there are tools and calculators available which can help you with a self analysis and provide a road map for your finance decisions.

We bring to you the following spreadsheets which we have done on Zoho ,  which has a suite of online web applications offering easy collaboration.

The advantage of these sheets is that while you can toggle with your own case figures in the sheet online and they will return with the figures for your case in a jiffy. And you can also download them for free if you really like them! We'll be happier if you spread the word to your friends.


 

 
Aegon Religare iTerm Plan – Cheapest Term Plan – Review
Written by Gopal Gidwani   
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After launching the cheapest ULIP plan in the industry, Aegon Religare has done it again. This time the company claims to have launched the cheapest term insurance plan in the industry. The company says that it latest term insurance plan – iTerm Plan – launched by it is cheaper by 50-60% than other similar term insurance plans available in the market. Let us have a detailed look at the plan.

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HDFC Young Star Super – Product Review
Written by Gopal Gidwani   
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Every parent aspires to give the best of everything to their children; be it primary education, a good quality lifestyle, secondary education, lavish wedding etc. Child plans of most insurance companies play on this emotional aspect to push their products. Every parent’s top priority is to fulfil his child’s future dreams and aspirations.

HDFC Standard Life recently launched a new child plan – HDFC YougStar Super. Let us explore the features of this product. As per the company brochure the following are the details:

Minimum Age at Entry

18 Years

Maximum Age at Entry

65 Years

Minimum Term of the Policy

10 Years

Maximum Age at Maturity

75 Years

Minimum Premium Amount

Rs 15000

The policy is complaint with the ‘cap on charges’ guidelines for ULIP products issued by IRDA.

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ICICI Advantage Deposit – Product Review
Written by Gopal Gidwani   
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Ramesh is a risk averse investor. Over the last many years he has been investing in traditional investment products like Bank Fixed Deposits and Government sponsored schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and various Postal Office Schemes etc. He was happy with the returns on fixed income securities. So he never gave a serious thought on investing in equity markets. Previously investments in fixed income securities like PPF and NSC used to earn him a return of 12%. But over the last few years the Government has brought down the interest rates on these products from 12% to 8%. Ramesh is not happy with the interest rates coming down from 12% to 8%. But at the same time in the lure to earn high returns Ramesh is sceptical about investing in equity markets as he is not willing to take risk as he has seen some of his friends lose even a portion of their capital because of investments in stock markets. So what is the solution for people like Ramesh who don’t want to risk their capital and at the same time have some exposure to capital markets so that they can earn superior returns as compared to returns given by fixed income securities.

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