Month: June 2014

What happens when Bank locker keys are lost?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Have you ever pondered the consequences of losing the bank locker keys? In this article, I will share what to do when you lose your locker keys? What are the rules and charges involved in setting things right again?

what happens if you lose your bank locker key? How much fine you will have to pay to get your new locker keys?

What happens when you go to open the Bank Locker?

When you open a Bank locker, you are billed in advance for breaking charges and 3 years of rent (the former is to cover emergencies when the locker might have to be broken). RBI guidelines state that banks can charge this extra fee if they wish, but some banks might charge it later, only if the situation arises.

You get 1 single locker key only

When you open a bank locker, there are a total 2 keys to the locker; out of these, one key is given to you and the other is with the bank. The absence of duplicate keys means that it is very important to keep your keys carefully and not lose them. However, it is very natural that some people lose their keys or misplace them.

What happens when your locker keys are Lost?

When you lose your locker keys, the first thing you need to do is write to the branch manager informing them about the loss. They can then ensure that the locker cannot be accessed by anyone (for example, by someone who stole your keys).

Once you intimate the bank about the lost keys, your locker has to be replaced by a new one (and keys) OR the duplicate keys have to be created and given to you. In either case, they will be contacting the company that supplied the locker to them (mostly Godrej).

A trained technician will travel to the bank office and cut open the locker in the presence of a bank official and the person who rented the locker. This is to avoid any dispute over the loss of items from the locker. If the person renting the locker is not available, the bank will go ahead and break the locker and move the locker contents to a sealed box, which can be passed to the customer later.

Do I need to pay high penalty If I lose my locker key? Here is a reason below

Bankers do provide a replacement of duplicate key of lockers in case the same is misplaced or lost. There is no duplicate key of a bank locker as such. The bank has to call the supplier of the locker (i.e. the company that has supplied the lockers to the banker) and the supplier provides the duplicate key.

This may entail a cost of about Rs.3000 per key. This heavy cost is due to travelling cost and other administrative costs that are involved.

Any expenses incurred will have to be borne by the person owning the locker – a sum that can run into the thousands. Just because it is  “loss of keys”, one should not treat it as a trivial matter and assume that duplicate keys will be provided for free.

Penalty charges may vary from the size of the locker?

Note that expenses can vary as per the size of the locker. For small lockers, the replacement charges will be less and will increase to large amounts for bigger lockers. I think the high expenses act as a deterrent to ensure that locker owners do not treat the safeguarding of their keys as a trivial matter.

For complete clarity, I have set out below excerpts from bank T&C’s regarding this issue.

From ICICI bank website

The Hirer(s) is/ are permitted to operate the locker with the key provided by the Bank and no operation of the locker shall be permitted with a key other than the key provided by the Bank at the time of executing the Agreement.

If the key of the locker, supplied by the Bank be lost by the hirer(s), the Branch should be noticed without delay. All charges for opening the locker, replacing the lost key and of changing the lock, shall be payable by the Hirer.

From SBI Bank website

In case of loss of key of the lockers, a service charge of Rs.509/- has to be recovered from hirer in addition to the actual expenditure incurred in breaking open the locker and changing of key by manufacturer of lockers.**

From City Union Bank website

In the case of locker keys reported lost by the hirer, a written declaration shall be obtained from him/her. The bank shall obtain from the manufacturing company a fresh set of lock and key. It shall be delivered by the company in a sealed box through its technical representative.

The technical representative shall open the box in the presence of the Branch Manager and the Hirer and then in their presence the locker shall be broken open.

The contents shall be removed safely and a new lock shall be fitted thereon. Then the NEW key shall be handed over to the hirer after collecting the charges for fitting the new lock and key.

Why do we need to keep the Bank locker keys Safe?

We may face 2 major consequences if we lose bank locker keys. They are as follows –

  1. If the keys get into the wrong hands, then you fear to lose your locker contents. After all, you must be well aware how lousy bank officials are in checking the authenticity of the person opening the locker – all they do, is fill an entry in their register and that’s the end of it.
  2. Another issue is you will have to pay hefty fines if the locker keys are lost. The amount of hassle and financial loss you need to absorb to rectify matters is huge compared to the size of mistake. It is therefore suggested to be careful from the onset.

Let me know your views on this article. Were you aware of these rules or not?

Design your financial life 2.0 Registration Opens  – Mumbai , Bangalore, Pune

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Day before yesterday we released video of our Design your financial life 2.0 and we had influx of mails from all over asking for more details about the program. We are so touched by the excitement level that some of you hold in your heart. Below is the video which explains what this program is all about

Why we conduct Design your financial life Program?

We did our first Design your financial life 1.0 workshop in Pune. It took a lot of effort for us to design the overall design of the program as we were doing it for the first time. I wanted my wife to participate and so I asked her to participate in the program and Manish did the same at his end. I still remember the first reaction I got from my wife, she said, “What will I do in your boring personal finance program?”.

I told my wife I promise the program will be fun and I extended my heartfelt invitation to her. Finally my wife said yes to me. I told her be a good participant and asked her to really work on her financial life. On the other end, Manish was struggling to enroll his wife into the program and somehow he also managed to convince his wife. This was MOMENT of joy for us, we still feel it is the best thing we ever did.

Finally we got both of them into the program and they enjoyed each and every part of the event. They were happy to see how much our readers love us and how fun personal finance can be. I can never forget my wife taking notes during her participation and after we returned back she got a lot more committed with her money. Same was with Manish, his wife made a commitment to start her own venture and her vision is still alive and she is working on it.

We really want investor to dedicate some committed time for their financial life so that they can work on their financial life. We want individuals and couples to get on same page when it comes to money management, we really want to make personal finance interesting and fun and there are very few who give dedicated time to their financial life.

Why this transition from Design your financial life 1.0 to 2.0

We started with one day workshop but now after working with a few hundred investors we realized that the one day event needs something more to it. Our intention is not to get fee from investors, we want their full commitment and we want them to produce some amazing results in their financial life. To produce tangible results we are moving from 1.0 to 2.0. It is no more a workshop, it is now a 12 weeks program that will help all kind of investors in designing their financial life.

Some Special Criteria to join this program

(Put your hand on your heart and get honest with yourself)

  • If you find personal finance boring (like my wife)
  • If you convince others and yourself that personal finance is not your cup of tea
  • You hate numbers and are a big time avoider when it comes to money management
  • You are PhD when it comes to procrastination
  • You want to get into action but you don’t know from where to start
  • You are confused with what to do and what not to do because of the overall bombardment of information on you on the name of investor education
  • You really want to move beyond planning and want to learn how to design your financial life.
  • You want to make 2014 your BEST FINANCIAL YEAR

If you fit into above criteria we would love to have you in our new avatar of design your financial life program. The program is happening in 3 cities, which are

  • Mumbai
  • Bangalore
  • Pune

Invitation to Join Design your financial life 2.0

From the bottom of our heart we would love to invite you to be a part of this program. Your financial life is right now going in some direction; it will take some shape after 5, 10 or 15 years from now. Now, you can allow your reasons/circumstances to lead your financial life or you can design your financial future. This program is a wonderful structure for action takers. Looking at our schedule we will only be able to do such event once in a year and so make sure you don’t miss it. Also, it is always fun to get away from the computer screen and meeting offline at deeper level.

If you have any questions or queries feel free to either ask in comments section or mail us.

How I bought 23 things out of excitement and never used them – Lets celebrate SELL week on Jagoinvestor

Posted on by Nandish Desai

This article is one long letter, that I have written to myself and to all the spenders out in the world. We have not got any money to promote OLX, we are using the name of the company because most people can relate to the content that way.

I have a confession to make, I am an OLX consumer and I am not proud of it. Today’s article is not about financial products, it is about products that you bought out of excitement and now it is lying in some corner of your house or apartment. Today’s article may not be about personal finance, but it is about your hard earned money, that gets blocked in different expensive goods and products that you buy.

Whenever the advertisement “O Womania” of olx.in comes on TV, my family members will start looking at me. This is because they know, I am a spender and they feel I spend a lot. They want me to sell a few things, so that we can have some free space in our house.

There is nothing wrong in buying NEW things, but before any purchase make a commitment to gain value from all that you purchase.

My OLX list of 23 unused items

Yesterday morning – I made my “OLX list” which contains goods and products, that I bought out of excitement and I no longer use them. My list has total 23 items. This exercise helped me to gain some interesting insights, which I would like to share with you in today’s article and we will also be posting pictures of some items we bought and are not using them now.

Unused Item #1 : Sports Equipment

I bought a table tennis table 2 years back, thinking that I will invite my friends to play on weekends. Honestly speaking I have not played more than 20 games with my friends till date. Slowly the table tennis table started shifting places in my house and eventually it is now lying in our servant quarter. Before I bought table tennis table I was so excited and I had big plans, but I can see that I did not make the most out of it. My family members have warned me not to buy any such sports equipment in future.

Unused Item #2 : Fitness Equipment

A lot of people invest money in fitness equipment’s but they don’t utilize it fully. Some people choose to buy treadmill over joining gym. My in laws bought treadmill, which is now lying in one of their balcony and no one has time to use treadmill.

I am not saying don’t buy fitness equipment’s, the point is – If you buy one, see that you make proper and consistent use of it. Block some time on your calendar for your fitness equipment before you invest your money into it. Even Manish bought one expensive sports cycle a few months back to regularly bike on it, but when I asked him yesterday – if he is fully making use of it, his answer was “No, but I am soon going to start my cycling regime” . This article is a wake-up call for both Me and Manish personally 🙂

Unused Item #3 : Electronic Goods

There are so many people who invest very heavily in electronic goods. While I was making my OLX list, I found in my house there are total 5 television sets out of which 3 we do not use at all, one spare refrigerator which we do not use, some speakers and music gadgets which I no longer use. So, I have decided to donate 3 unused television sets to one of my relative’s hospital. There are so many people who have more gadgets in their life than financial products.

Counting Challenge – How many things you own ?

I have an open counting challenge for all individuals. I bet, if you start counting everything that you own, you won’t be able to count all the items in one life time. The truth is that you already own so much in life and still you feel you need something more. When your income increases, your purchasing power also increases and you start making random purchases (at least I fall in that category). My invitation is – If something is really required and it will add value to your life buy it or else look for some alternative.

Spenders need one trigger

Spenders like me, needs one good reason for buying any new product or goods. Spenders get triggered very easily for making fresh purchases. Companies like OLX and QUIKR are making millions today, only because most of us are busy making random purchase decisions. I am not against these companies and also I am not endorsing them.

Choose to slow down (listen to awesome audio on this topic) before you make any new purchase decision, ask yourself and your family members whether you will make the most out of that purchase or not. There is no fun in being a master consumer.

Conclusion

We are not saying consumerism is bad or one should not spend on different goods and services. All we are saying is spend wisely, because at the end, it is your hard earned money, focus on the value that you are going to create out of each purchase.  If you own something which is not of use to you, gift it to someone who can benefit from it.

Let’s celebrate this week as SELL week, you are free to share in the comments section what you are going to do with your unused or underutilized goods and products.

Build your “unused item list” – (Share it in comments section)

  1. Make (your olx/quikr list) list of all unused/underutilized products and goods which you can either sell or you can gift to someone.
  2. Make fresh promises if you are willing to make use of underutilized items that you own
  3. What kind of actions you will take in next 7 days to either sell or gift the same to someone in need.

This Article is contributed by Nandish Desai

5 reasons why Financial Life begins at 30 – A wake-up call for all YOUNG investors

Posted on by Nandish Desai

This article is to be seen as Financial life –  wake-up call. (Read it and share it with those whom you think needs a wake-up call)

When you are in your 20’s the areas that rules your mind are getting a good placement, partying, buying gadgets, finding right life partner or it can be setting-up your own business. There is very little space for money management (This is true for majority of people, there are always some exceptions).

I can say this because in my early 20’s, personal finance was an alien to me. In a way I was not ready to play role of an investor. I was totally casual and irresponsible with the money I had.

Financial life - wake-up call

Now, when you step into your 30’s the entire scene changes. Some kind of short circuit happens in your head and you suddenly become serious about your hard earned MONEY. You start to gather personal finance knowledge from different sources, look for information, advice on internet and you start to read about personal finance (even if you struggle to understand it)

The Student in YOU is STILL alive

When you were a student I am sure you never started studying on the very first day of your college. Like majority of students you would have waited for the exam dates to get announced and when the exams get extremely close you would have purchased or opened your books (got notes photo copied) and started to prepare for your exams.

The last 7-10 days were the most crucial days for you. In such situation passing or scoring good marks turns into a mission.

Now, this is exactly what most people are still doing in their financial life; they are waiting for the last moment to arrive. They are waiting for the right amount of pressure to get build.

In your 20’s the pressure is least, in your 30’s it starts to build and in your 40’s or 50’s it turns into a do or die situation. Most of you don’t start your investments with the first salary you receive and so I made the statement that the student in you is still alive (If you are an exception I congratulate you)

Top 5 Moments of Transformation that makes you serious about your hard earned money

1. When you experience Ants in Your Pants

In your 30’s when you get face to0 face with your net worth the question that hits your mind is, where did it all go?

You realize that you have been slogging 13 hours a day from last 7-10 years and your net worth is not satisfactory at all. This moment is extremely confronting and it makes you feel uncomfortable but at the same time this is the moment of transformation.

In such moment you become serious about your financial resources and your financial life. Some people start to write budget, some hire a financial planner and some write their situation to bloggers like Nandish and Manish. (Every day we get one such mail from some or the other investor and we start our rescue operation)

Hello Manish,

To start with I am one among very few people who practically is broke I must say.  I took things for granted as most of us do and realized what deep shit I have got into. I am 31 years and believe me I don’t have savings worth my age as well.

Your blog woke me up from that undisturbed sleep that made me feel everything is okay.  Swear to God it is not. Considering the things I have been to in the past. Lived the American way like there is no Tomorrow. Paid the biggest price ever Sir.

Not anymore, after reading you first book on personal finance I made a promise to myself that enough is enough. Not anymore and made couple of promises to myself that I am sure will keep.

Also would like to use your paid services sir, I never found a number that I can call on on the blog sir. Please provide with a number or advice how to start with considering I am in deep mess, I guess I need to recover all those years I’ve spent without savings.

Lost those early years sir and planning to recover them somehow.

Regards,

Stuck investor

Get this clear, it is not about this investor/person because many of you are sailing in the same boat in the area of personal finance

2. When Goals starts to Appear Scary

Most of the investors become serious about their finances when they do some calculations around their goals. Goals like buying house, children education, children marriage and retirement are considered to be the scariest amongst all other financial goals.

getting serious about money

If you want you can test it, do some calculations and then look at your current savings and bank balance. The thought that will strike your mind will be “It’s high time I start doing something about my finances”. This particular moment is again moment of transformation.

In this very moment you start to become serious about wealth creation and you start taking actions in your financial life. By the way in reality no financial goal is scary, if you mismanage money the goals starts to appear scary. (You are one who makes them scary)

3. When you Experience Personal Earth Quake

Imagine a strange situation in which you experience personal earth quake right under your chair (Others are fine only your chair is shaking). We can say this from our experience of working and interacting with investors that such situations make’s a person serious about their financial future.

In your world you think you have made all the right investment choices but on one fine day you land on a blog like jagoinvestor and you discover that you have made all wrong choices and you are a victim of mis selling.

This personal earth quake moment shakes you, wakes you and in a way shatters your financial world. In this very moment you start doing required home work in your financial life, before putting blind signatures you will take out time to read the brochures of different financial products. From this very day you stop trusting all the uncles and relatives who supplied you free dose of advice.

4. Real life experiences causes transformation

Reality is the best teacher you will ever encounter in your life. We have come across numerous cases which brought drastic change into people’s overall attitude towards money management. One of our clients lost his elder brother at a very young age and this event made him very serious about life protection and how important it is to keep things organized.

A lot of people after one of their family member gets hospitalized they become serious about health cover. My invitation is do not wait to take actions in your financial life. You don’t have to wait for some accident to take place before you start wearing helmet.

Look around you and learn from some real life experiences as they are of the biggest source of transformation you will ever find.

5. Breakdown in Career

It is said that “Man proposes and god disposes”. In my book “11 principles to achieve financial freedom” we have a chapter called “Your plan vs. God’s plan for you”. It is a fun and insightful chapter that helps you to think beyond making plans in your mind.

We have coached many investors who had some kind of career breakdown and we could see how it made them extremely serious about their finances. Somewhere you start to value money most in your bad times.

Most of people in their 30’s take major career decisions, they are clear that their idea is going to get them all the success that they are looking for. I am not saying doing business is risky or one should not experiment. All I am saying is such situation leads to personal transformation into an investor’s financial journey.

Some final wake-up words to engage with

Do not wait for a kick on your ass or for some unpleasant situation to occur before you get serious about money management. We wrote this article because majority of our clients for financial planning and financial coaching are in their 30’s. Something happens when you step into your 30’s and you need to acknowledge the moment or event that got you serious as an investor.

Whatever is your age right now just start taking actions in your financial life. Also, in the comments section share the moment that made you serious as an investor and what would you say to those who are yet not serious when it comes to money management?

This article is contributed by Nandish Desai. Let us know your thoughts about this article.