Saturday, June 27, 2015

Let the better sense prevail

By religious beliefs am aware that Hari and Haran could give birth. But scientifically, after discussions and some reading I understand it is not unnatural to be homosexual, in fact some animals are homosexual as well. So I logically accept the homosexuals.

But I hope people who are heterosexual don't get misguided and force themselves into homosexuality just to join a trending hashtag. Let the better sense prevail

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Yoga condolences

My deep condolences to people today especially those working with Indian government, It's a pathetic day for you and Yoga both!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Atal Pension Yojana review

What is Atal Pension Yojana?
Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a pension scheme for citizens of India focused on the
unorganised sector workers. Under the APY, guaranteed minimum pension of Rs.
1,000/-, 2,000/-, 3,000/-, 4,000 and 5,000/- per month will be given at the age of 60
years depending on the contributions by the subscribers.

Who can subscribe to APY?
Any Citizen of India can join APY scheme. The following are the eligibility criteria,
i The age of the subscriber should be between 18 - 40 years.
ii He / She should have a savings bank account/ open a savings bank account.
iii The prospective applicant should be in possession of mobile number and its
details are to be furnished to the bank during registration.

A. On attaining the age of 60 years:
The exit from APY is permitted at the age with 100% annuitisation of pension wealth. On exit, pension would be available to the subscriber.

B. In case of death of the Subscriber due to any cause:
In case of death of subscriber pension would be available to the spouse and on the death of both of them (subscriber and spouse), the pension corpus would be returned to his nominee.

My Review of the Scheme:
I looked at the indicative returns, For eg., if your age is 30 and if you are looking for a pension of 5000 after reaching 60, govt asks you to pay rs 577 every month from age 30 till your 60. On 60, you start getting pension of 5k. When you and your spouse expire, total indicative corpus of 8.5L is returned to your nominee by govt.
If you calculate the RD of the money 577 you deposit for an annual  interest of 8%, you get 8.5L after 30 years and an 8% annual interest on this 8.5L will get you approx returns of 60k which is what is divided for 12 months and  given to you by govt.as pension

So the overall returns on your money is 8%, which is decent compared to any annuity scheme available. But dont forget that PPF has annual interest rate 8.75%, thought that would vary every year, it still could be higher than 8%.

To also note, APY does not fall under 80C deductions yet to my knowledge.

http://financialservices.gov.in/APY.asp

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Beware of UV exposure

These days my smartphone alerts me on high UV index. I checked and found that this index helps you be aware and UV effects and protect yourself with sunscreen and avoiding sun exposure time ...etc
if your smartphone doesnt show, you can directly check it on accuweather.com for your city, and i see Indian cities easily above 5, chennai at 8!
"The UV Index scale used in the United States conforms with international guidelines for UVI reporting established by the World Health Organization"
A UV Index reading of 0 to 2 means low danger from the sun's UV rays for the average person.
3 to 5 means moderate risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure.
6 to 7 means high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Protection against skin and eye damage is needed.
8 to 10 means very high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Take extra precautions because unprotected skin and eyes will be damaged and can burn quickly.
11 or more means extreme risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Take all precautions because unprotected skin and eyes can burn in minutes.
Precautions when high UV:
Minimize sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
If outdoors, seek shade and wear protective clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, and UV-blocking sunglasses.
Generously apply broad spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen every 2 hours, even on cloudy days, and after swimming or sweating.
Watch out for bright surfaces, like sand, water and snow, which reflect UV and increase exposure.

More: http://www2.epa.gov/sunwise/uv-index-scale

Sunday, June 7, 2015

1st birthday craze

1st birthday craze

Now this is the hottest business everywhere. People spend in lakhs, cost includes hall, food, gift, return gift (for those kids who come with gifts)...especially this has become a necessity in apartments/housing societies....
Some people, as I hear, are even celebrating monthly birthdays, as in every month after birth the same day till first bday!
Though I myself appreciate celebrations as a means to gather people to transact in many ways, socialize, fun, entertain.....etc....not sure if it really is worth the spending when the celebration is actually for 2 to 3 hrs max.
Is this really necessary? Dont we do this only to show off our financial status? Arent we or the kids all get nothing effectively from it? Is there an alternate form of celebration? I mean some worthy celebration other than charities/NGOs, with relatives and friends?

By any chance does it have any positive effect at all that I fail to see?

When i raised this issue on FB, the reasons that come out are, primarily social pressure to show off, to declare my capability, also when kids grow they start demanding themselves and the other kids in the apartment could also put pressure. Some cases there is a need when you move to a new apartment and have to create a neighborhood network.

And there are also people who limit the expenses to actual need of the celebration with whom i dont have any arguments.

When we already junked so many meaningful celebrations, especially marriage, for the sake of show-off, should we add more?

As a friend put it, this flashy show-off attitude doesn't stop at just first birthday, it continues with the parents in admitting their kids to international schools just because someone else they knew did it and burden their kids, buy costly consumer electronics, furniture for home, ...etc., it slowly spoils the real purpose of a family and home

My argument is, if you want to celebrate with society and you are well enough to spend, why instead group plan a trip to a zoo or a historic temple...or something similar that has a value.

Are we showing our kids that we are slaves to the society that we live? Shouldn't we inspire our kids instead to stand and deliver beyond all social obstacles?

Thanks to Prashanth, Lakshmikanth, John, Daffy for joining the discussion on FB

Friday, June 5, 2015

A discussion on Term Insurance

This post is a consolidation of a discussion i had with friends online and offline about why term insurance and which one is best.

Why life insurance ?
Am going to be blunt here, if you die suddenly, insurance company would pay an assured sum to help your family recover financially

Why term insurance?
There are endowment, money back, pension and term plans. Endowment plans(others are similar) provide a lump sum but that is 10 times lesser compared to a term insurance for the same payment of premium. But that is at a cost here, term insurance pays your family only if you die, so if you survive the policy term then all the money you paid is gone and you get back nothing. What you get is an assurance of money, a 'big' money, at the cost of loosing it all after the policy term. How much could you loose if you survive? For eg (all approx numbers)., it could be 375000 for a regular yearly payment policy of 25 years for a cover of 1cr and 2 lakhs if you choose the single payment. But when you compare the potential assurance that you get, premium that you could lose is still logical. Term insurance is the real insurance. 

To understand better, let me give you a comparison, I already have an endowment plan (like LIC Jeevan Anand) for a sum assurance of 5L, after 26 years i would get approx 10L inclusive of bonus for which i pay 20k every year, but this 10L after 26 years or any time even before that might not be enough for my family to survive for more than a year or 2.
Had I instead taken a term insurance for the same 5L, my premium would have been Rs 1850(approx) only, the rest 18150 could have been placed under recurring deposit of 8% which would mature to 15L after 25 yrs. So 15L + insurance of 5L at the same 20K, you tell me now, which is right?

As my friend Suresh put it, "Endowment plan = term plan + fixed deposit..... Small portion from your annual fee goes to term plan and the rest are invested in debt which will return 8℅". Effective total returns on your premium could be 6%.


Better, as another friend Saravanan put it, the potentially best financial security is to have "Term Insurance + PPF", since neither interest nor maturity of PPF comes under taxable income unlike deposits. Endowment plans make no sense if you have this option.

Go for Term Insurance, but avoid going for single payment, as a friend reasons, lets say you die in 2 years and had you paid yearly you would have spent less than 30K for a 1 crore sum assurance instead of 2L 

There are attractive endowment life insurances: (If you still wanna go for)
A friend has an endowment insurance for a death cover of 40L for 40 years paying 4L in 2 years. Same on maturity after 40 Years can get him 10L sum assured + bonus that could be some 10-15L, totaling to 25L. Just pause for a min and think, who effectively will use that money that comes after 40 yrs (>70)? But instead, on his own analysis, had he taken a term insurance paying 15k yearly, he could easily get a cover of 1 crore and the rest 3.85L would fetch better deposit interest returns in 40 years(>1c). So if you take endowment, makes good sense to take it for lesser years like 20 instead of 40 so you would get the money in hand at a time you could effectively use instead of after 40 years. A term insurance should be for as max number of years as possible

What about housing? Aren't they an alternative financial assurances?
One friend asked, if you can buy a home/flat and create wealth, what is the need for term insurance at all?
While I puzzled myself at the question, another friend answered, with term insurance you just spend 2 lakhs (hdfc single premium plan) for a cover of 1 crore for 30 years compared to a Flat of 40L, add to that the loan interest.

What about Mutual Fund SIP? SIP or any investment option, never is comparable to insurance. Insurance is a completely different category. Investments sure create wealth but you comparatively invest multiple times the money that you would do on a term insurance for a similar financial assurance. 

When is the right time to buy term insurance?
The time is Now. I suggest you take term insurance ASAP, especially before 30, because every year that you delay, around Rs 1000 increases in the yearly premium
People delay term insurance because in the end of the policy term, you get nothing. There could already be 1 or 2 endowment life insurance plans and some investments, that is the same reason i have delayed it as well and now i regret after all analysis and discussions, it is more than itching when I think what happens if i suddenly die

What is the best term insurance plan?
On my research and recommendations from friends, looks like HDFC click 2 protect plus is best in this category....they offer term up to 40 yrs and more, they provide more flexibility and additions compared to others.

I looked at LIC's e-term (online) which is costliest compared to ICICI or HDFC but has best claim settlement ratio. So key is the 'Claim Settlement Ratio' which simply means, higher the value of CSR, lesser the difficulty for your family in getting the settlement on your demise.

Also looked at ICICI icare brochure which gives instant online term insurance without even medicals but the moneylife article below details you more on the caveats, suggests you to avoid it if you are a healthy non-smoker and make sure to choose a term plan with medical check up, 

IMPORTANCE of MEDICAL CHECK UP:
From the below moneylife article:"a medical check-up is a good idea from the customers’ perspective. A check-up can’t catch all the medical problems and claims can still be rejected on non-disclosure grounds, but there is some proof with the customer in case the claim goes into litigation in case of claims rejection. Whether the product will have higher claim rejections due to lack of a medical test cannot be predicted at this time, but a customer aware of insurance intricacies would rather buy an insurance cover with a medical check-up rather than having the convenience of buying ‘instant’ life insurance."

http://www.moneylife.in/article/icici-pru-icare-delivers-instant-online-term-insurance-but-watch-out-for-some-caveats/20593.html

Thanks to my friends Ravi, Jitendra, Nandini, Antony, Suresh, John and Saravanan for involving in the discussion and providing valuable inputs

Who is your best friend?

Who advices and pressures you to pick a term insurance and PPF ASAP. By the way for you, it is me the best friend if you have read it till here! ;-)

Disclaimer:
All details provided in this blog post are done in good faith to help everyone. Please do your research before concluding any decision. i accept no liability for the content of this blog post, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided here in this blog post. 
-Ragavendran

Thursday, June 4, 2015

How useful is a second home loan in terms of tax benefit?


In my understanding, question itself is wrong. Investing and spending are different. So any investment irrespective of tax benefits, is advantageous for you as you grow your wealth. Tax benefits that you receive should be considered as a bonus, which you probably get for 5 years assuming you close the loan after that.