Endowment Effect affects your financial decisions

Do you know that you are holding some of the bad financial products in your portfolio? Also you are not clearing some of this mess because of a very well-known behavioural concept called “Endowment Effect”. Did you know that this same behavioural concept is used by the sellers to make more sales! I will talk about that also.

Endowmment Effect Behavioural finance

Endowment Effect

Endowment Effect theory is a well-known concept in the world of Behavioural Finance. Endowment Effect says that we tend to value thing more just because we own it. However we don’t value things more in pricing terms if we don’t own it. Endowment Effect also says that we tend to love what we have already and if someday we need to change it, it’s not easy for us. We resist it a lot. So final one line conclusion is “If I own it, it’s good and it’s valuable and if I don’t own it, I am not sure, maybe it’s not worth!” . You can see this in all aspects of your life. Check with any couple, who has the cutest child in the world? Check with any employee who loves his organisation; ask him which is the best company to work for ? Ask any murderer’s parents, if they really think their son/daughter is involved in crime and you can hear, “No it’s not possible, their son/daughter is innocent”. So the point endowment effect puts is, what is ours is clean, good and worth something. This is what happens with most of the people , if not all .

To explain it other simple words; How much money do you expect for your mobile phone, if you wanted to sell it? And then think how much money would you like to pay to someone if you wanted to buy it? In most of the cases, one wants a higher price when he wants to sell and wants to get the same thing for lower price. There is nothing wrong in this as we all are human and we will think from money point of view. But take the underlying learning from here. If a person has something, he treats it very special and does not think rationally at times and it affects him a lot in his financial life. A lot of people don’t want to admit that what they have is ordinary and just like others. Let me take each area of financial life and show you how it’s applicable there.

Example of Endowment Effect with Stocks

You might be able to relate to this. The stocks you own are always worth and they have potential to go up, that’s what you think. If market goes up, you feel that your stock has potential to go further up and if markets go down, you say – “huh!, this is temporary, they don’t understand how strong fundamentals are for this stock, I will wait”.

In 99% cases its nothing but endowment effect, just because you have it, you start feeling special about it, but the other guy from some distance can clearly see what an idiot you have been so far! And incase you didn’t hold that stock, it might happen that you would have not recommended it to someone else, you could see things clearly only if you don’t own it. (read my experience) Even in mutual funds, if some of your friend asks you which funds he should go for, most of the people will recommend mutual funds which they already hold. For them just because they have bought some XYZ mutual fund, it’s one of the best (that’s why they bought).

We get comfortable & repulsive to change

Another big thing which happens to us is that once we buy something or own something, we start being very comfortable with it and find all the reasons of why it’s good for us and why it’s not worth changing it. Look at your job portfolio, its same!. (read another beautiful concept called Mental Accounting).

How Trial & Money back guarantees make use of Endowment Effect

So now you will relate to Trial & Money back guarantees. Once we bring something on Trail or buy product on money back guarantee; almost never one’s returns back as they have tasted it, felt it, owned it and now they believe that they need it. I have never seen anyone returning some product which was on money guarantee! The sellers understand the power of endowment effect and hence use it to their advantage. In his book called “Stocks to Riches”, Parag Parikh talks about an incident relating to this.

Raju : Mom, See what I have got !, The latest Stereo system . It will fit perfectly in our drawing-room. Wait till I play it , you will love the sound.

Mom : Raju, where did you get the money to pay for such an expensive item ?

Raju : Its on a 15 day trial basis , The shop round the corner allows you to use the goods before you buy it . Since college is closed for 2 weeks , I thought I will listen to music for some days .

Mom : Are you sure they will take it without any fuss ?

Raju : Off course Mom , dont worry , see here is the card . It says that they will take it back , No questions Asked !, if refunded with 15 days trial period.

Mom : Thats great , Handle it carefully . They may not take it back if it’s misused.

Raju : Dont worry , I will be careful .

After 14 days…

Mom : Raju , dont forget that trial period ends tomorrow, We will really miss this stereo , we had so fun listening to music .

Raj : Did you notice how exactly this fits our decor and space . I really love its sound . We wanted it from so long , Lets keep it only , and make the payment , anyways we needed it .

Mom : Yea ,  I think we should keep it , the price is also justifiable and within our budget and we really needed on for long and the best part is we got to use it without paying :

Did you see how Raju and his Mom got comfortable with the stereo? A seller knew that out of 10 times, 5-6 times people will get starting loving what they start using and accept it as part of their life. Not a big price to pay for 15 day trial! 

Conclusion

One should think about his financial products from other’s eye also and should be open to accept that it’s time to find alternatives and change it. Don’t just concentrate on those points which makes you believe that what you own is best, also see the bad side. Let me know if you realise that you have seen this endowment effect in your life ?

How to file your income tax returns online in 6 easy steps

What is the best way to File your income tax returns online ? Tax filing season is on and most of us will still wake up after few days.

I will talk about efiling your tax returns with govt website and also private websites like taxspanner, taxsmile and investmentyogi which are autorised by income tax department. You can also win some free coupons for income tax filing through some online p0rtals .

Income Tax efiling using govt website

I just want to tell you that incase you are just salaried and have no income from other sources, then the whole process of e-filing is just as simple as filling up details in tax return form at govt website, creating a .xml file and preparing an acknowledgement form using the tools provided by income tax website and then you need to speed post it to Bangalore Income Tax Office.

Read do & dont;s of tax filing

File Income tax return online

Steps for Online Income tax filing

Step 1: Login to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and download the appropriate software from the website as per your case. This software is nothing but a nice detailed excel sheet (enable the macro’s)

Step 2: Once you have the excel sheet on your computer, fill up all the details (if you don’t have form 16, you can still fill all the details manually). After that verify it once again and then export it to XML (the export button is there in the software itself)

Step 3: Once you have the xml file with you, you need to login to the website (you will have to register for it once). You will see the option called “Upload Return” on left side after login. Click on it.

Step 4: There will be two options called “Digital Signature” and “No Digital Signature”. As most of the people would not have digital signature, just choose the option. Upload your XML file and just create your acknowledgement form called ITR-V , You need to download it . Once you have the acknowledge form, just verify it once again.

Step 5: Just send this acknowledgement form using a regular or speed post (no courier allowed) to “Income Tax Department – CPC, Post Box No.1, Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore – 560100, Karnataka”

Step 6: You will get the receipt of your ITR-V receipt by email in some weeks (takes time) , you can track its status of your ITR.

A lot of people who work in big companies might already have filed their taxes as they get lot of tax filing agents coming in their offices, but for people who still want to do it by themselves, they can take this pain. I personally prefer to to through an agent 🙂

E-filing your tax returns through private websites with Taxspanner or TaxSmile

There are various online websites authorized by income tax department who can file your tax returns . The major reason why you might want to explore these online options are because they are really convenient . One more reason for you to start e-filing your taxes is because in coming years e-filing is set to become mandatory (just like for corporate’s) .

Watch the video given below to now how to file ITR online:

So may be you want to be comfortable with that before it becomes mandatory . There are multiple benefits of filing e-return especially through private websites authorized by income tax department. The additional benefits over govt website include convenience, accuracy, tax planning cum saving, professional support after filing ITR and

1. Processing on real time: 

E-filing ensures income taxes are uploaded in the tax system instantly which helps in tax computations processing on a real-time.  If PAN details are matching the income tax department and income tax return filed, the taxpayers gets an acknowledgement on e-mail called ITR V.

In case PAN card information is incorrect, the electronic returns get rejected and the taxpayer is intimated for failure i.e. the ITR V copy is not delivered.  This ensures the return has been submitted in time.

2. Jurisdiction free:

In case the return is being filed manually and an employee gets transferred to other city than he/she need to transfer his income tax return to the city where he is working presently. Whereas, e-filing is jurisdiction free.

This means your PAN address will be the jurisdiction and same can be continued even if you move out of city or country.

3. Faster refund:

As per the Controller and General Auditor of India, there are 40 lakh pending cases of refund with the income tax department as on 31.12.2010. Refunds are generally received in 10 months in the case of physical tax returns ran.

Whereas, the refunds are getting cleared within 1-2 months in the case of return filed electronically. “We want tax-payers to file electronically as that helps in faster processing of refunds,” Sudhir Chandra, chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes.

4. Revise return online:

In case the return is filed online before the due date, and taxpayer has missed out on declaring any income or investment. He/she can revise the return online without visiting ITO.  If the original returns have been filed physically then, the revised returns cannot be filed online.

If there is refund in the revised return then, you will get the benefit of faster processing and refund.

5. Rectify the mistake online: 

In case of physical returns, if there is an error at the time of filing, the mistake cannot be rectified online which means it will be more time consuming and costly too. The process of online rectification is faster and simplified.

However, online rectification is allowed only for the returns filed electronically

300 readers win free tax filing discount coupons

Whats the use of this blog if I cant get some freebies 🙂 . TaxSpanner & TaxYogi has agreed to give 100 & 200 promotional codes (taxspanner – 100 and taxyogi – 200) to jagoinvestor readers which can be used for free tax filing from their website.

I will pick 300 best comments on this article & other articles and all of them get to file free tax return using the promotional code. Note that it will be totally free and there are no charges for you . Apart from taxspanner.com & taxyogi.com, even taxmunshi.com has offered 5 promotional codes to jagoinvestor readers .

Note that these can be used to file only ITR1 & ITR2. Some other websites which can be used to file tax returns are taxsmile.com & taxshax.com.

E-Filing means faster tax refund

Did you know that if you have some refund to get back, then e-filing would ensure that you get it back faster than manual process.

With online filing it saves a lot of time which is taken in other process like generating acknowledgement form, feeding your details from the form and various other things, that itself takes few months. So e-filing ensures that you get your refunds faster. On of the very active members of our forum , Ashal Jauhari confirms this

Dear Rakesh, I’m already e-filing ITRs from the last year i.e. FY 2009-2010. Till date I have not face any problem for me & my friends (mainly office friends). Last year I e-filed some 40+ ITRs & this year the figure is already over 125.

Error has been reduced tp a great extent after e-filing on our parts.

Me or my friends who were calculated refund refunds, got the same last year within 40-50 days of ITR-V reaching Banglore & that too through ECS. Cool isn’t it?

Thanks

Ashal

No need to file return if, you have only salary income and earnings are less than 5 lakhs per annum

If your only income is from salary and its less than 5 lacs in 2010-2011, then you are not required to file the tax returns. Note that this is true only if you don’t have any other source of income. If you have some income from mutual funds, shares or bank interest etc, then you need to file tax return.

So which website is the best one to file your income tax returns online ? Which one did you use ?

How Chit Funds Works

What are Chit funds and how do Chit funds work ? There are lots of chit funds in india like shriram chit funds , margadarsi chit funds and I would like to show you how chit funds exactly work and what are pros and cons in Chit funds. Over the past many years there has been large scale frauds and scams done by large chit fund companies. However, a lot of people do not understand the working and wonder how chit fund works.

Chit Funds in India

What are Chit Funds & How they work !

Let’s say there are 20 people who come together and form a group. Each one will contribute Rs 1,000 per month and this will continue for next 20 months (equal to number of people in the group). In this group there will be one organiser, who will take the pain of fixing the meetings, collecting money from each other and then doing other procedures.

So each month all these 20 people will meet on a particular day and deposit Rs 1,000 each. That will make a total of Rs 20,000 every month. Now there will be a bid on who will take this money. Naturally there will be few people who are in need of big amount because of some reason like some big expenses, liquidity crunch, business problem, Beti ki Shaadi etc etc … Out of all the people who are in need of money, someone will bid the lowest amount, depending on how desperate he is for this money. The person who bids for lowest amount wins. Suppose out of total 3 people who bid for 18,000, 17,000 and Rs 16,000, the one who bids the lowest will win. In this case it’s the person who has bid Rs 16,000.

There will also be “organiser charges” which are around 5% (standard) of the total amount, so in this case its 5% of Rs 20,000 , which is Rs 1,000. So out of the total 16,000 which this winner was going to get, Rs 1,000 will be deducted and the winner will get only Rs 15,000, Rs 1,000 will be organiser charges and Rs 4,000 is the profit, which will be shared by each and every member (all 20 people), it comes out to be Rs 200 per person, and it will be given back to all 20 members. So here you can see that the main winner took a big loss because of his desperate need of getting the money and others benefitted by it. So each person actually paid just 800, not 1,000 in this case (they got 200 back). Note that when a person takes the money after bidding, he can’t bid from next time, only 19 people will be eligible for bidding.

Now next month the same thing happens and suppose the best bid was Rs 18,000 , then winner will get 17,000 (after deducting the organiser fees) and the rest 2,000 will be divided back to people (Rs 100 each) . So each person is paying effectively Rs 900. This way each month all the people contribute the money, someone takes the money by bidding lowest, organiser gets his charges and the rest money is divided back to members. You will realise that the person who takes the money at the end will get all the money except organiser fee, as there is no one else to bid now. So the person will get around Rs 19,000 in the end, if you try to find out the returns which he got out of the whole deal, it will depend on two things, how much lower bids were each month and the fees paid to organiser, if bids and charges are very low, then a person will make more money at the cost of other situations.

So this is pretty much how a chit fund works, there are various versions of chit funds and how they work , but the idea was to communicate the basic model and how it works.

Trusted and untrusted Chit Funds & Some experience

A big question which is in every one mind is “Should I invest in Chit funds?“. Chit funds are not some investment products in which someone invests! By design you can see that it’s only a support structure for needy people who are unsure of their cash flows or some big expenses coming on the way. It’s only for those who can’t get loans from banks or some lender. In which case chit funds provide that structure where one can take the benefit of it. But beware!  Whenever someone says “Chit funds”, the only thing which comes to the remind is “Fraud”, “Scam” and “Something Fishy” and its true to great extent as there many chit fund companies which come in market and run with the money. The only condition where I feel one can go for it is if all the participants of the chit fund are known to each other properly and there is high level of trust between them. For example, you can do it with your colleagues at office whom you trust and are friends with for long. But if you dont have liquidity issue and can get loan from a bank, then I dont see any need of doing this.

Good experience

In smaller cities, you can see your father, grandfather and even many housewives form these groups with friends with whom they are from last many years. A lot of people on this blog might have experienced how their father used these networks to get huge cash at the time of need. One of the readers Jagadees shared his experience with me on mail

The great advantage for the village people would be availability of immediate funds in the times urgent need. My father would say that he met all his life obligations like his sister’s marriage, his marriage expenses, my grandpa’s medical emergencies, our education expenses were met solely through this type of monthly chit fund investment.

Bad experience

Greed has no limit. What was created for help to each other under a trusted network is now converted as a business and many people have started opening Chit fund shops where they become the main organiser and pocket the organiser fee. Investors have started looking at these chit fund companies from investments point of view and in greed of high returns, they invest their hard earned money with these chit fund companies and at times there are frauds and scams. Chit fund companies are regulated in most of the states by Central Chit Funds act,1982 and they come under the purview of state governements. RBI has no role in regulating them. But still you know how easy it is to do frauds and scams in India (don’t forget commonwealth & 2G and 3G and 4G scams, wah !  I am futuristic). Let me share with you a horrible experience how an old man lost his 40 yrs of earning in chit fund

My father-in-law when he retired, without telling any of us he put all his money in a chit fund. nobody knows how much & in which chit fund he deposited. That was the time when a series of chit funds went bust in chennai. Pity the chit fund in which he deposited also went bust. he had a mild heart attack. The pain he underwent other than the heart attack was terrible. He was in an ordinary job & after 40 years of hard work he had earned that money.

More than the loss of the money, it’s the shame, foolishness and the iyalaamai to take any action by us, the government kills.we supported him, but he wanted to be independent even after retirement. that objective was defeated by his shear foolishness. none of us ever asked him anything about it. but every day he must have been repenting for that . (via)

Easy & MicroFinance Tool

Can you believe that as high as 5-10% families are associated with chit funds in South India ? For example – The share of households participating in Chit Funds increased by 9% in Andhra Pradesh, 89% in Delhi, 15% in Tamil Nadu and 4% in Kerala between 2003 and 2006. You can see below graph that shows Kerala having 9%+ penetration in Chit funds which means 1 out of every 10 family is in some chit fund.

Chit Funds in India

Source : IFMR research

As per a report from IFMR on Chit Funds , most of the people in smaller places are attracted to chit funds, because of easy availability of easy credit and simplicity of chit funds. In small places banks are not much interested in lending to poor people and poor people see chit funds as perfect way of getting a loan, though at a high cost. So you can also look at them as microfinance tools. All of south India and Delhi is deeply flooded with chit fund companies (thousands of them) and its reach is much above what you are thinking right now.

Should you invest ?

Overall, chit funds are not recommended unless it’s a person group formed by friends and relatives whom you trust a lot. I don’t think one should put money with chit funds which are not among their social circle. It might make sense for people in smaller cities to look up to them. As the last note, these chit funds are not investment vehicles where you park your hard earned money, So please avoid them unless you want to exactly take that kind of risk.

Please share your personal experiences about chit funds , I am sure all the readers who are from smaller places , they have seen it and for sure there father or grandfather had used chit funds at some point of time to fund a financial goal 🙂 .

What is Expense ratio in Mutual Funds

Do you know how expense ratio can impact the returns on your mutual funds returns ? We often hear that expense ratio of a fund is 2% or 1.8%, but we never put lot of thought to understand its impact on our mutual funds returns and our own wealth! Lets touch this topic today in detail. For simplicity, I will talk about Mutual funds in this article, but expense ratio as a concept is applicable in almost all the management financial products like Mutual funds, UlIP’s , NPS etc

Expense Ratio Mutual Funds

What is expense ratio in Mutual Funds?

Let me first clear out what is expense ratio? As an investor we just buy and sell mutual funds, but in the background there are many expenses which a mutual fund (and even ULIP’s) has to incur. Some of which are; fund management fees, agent commissions, registrar fees, and selling and promoting expenses. As per SEBI regulations, the maximum expense ratio of an equity fund can be 2.5% and for a debt fund, it should not cross 2.25%.

Now who will pay for this? Obviously you have to pay for it and that’s where expense ratio comes into picture. Expense ratio is cut from your investments on daily basis from mutual funds and only after that NAV is published and that’s how you pay expense ratio. For Example, If you have invested Rs 1,00,000 in a mutual fund whose expense ratio is at 2% and suppose your mutual fund saw a growth of 0.5% in a day, which turns out to be Rs 500. You NAV won’t be 1,00,500. Before that you will have to pay 2%/365 (that’s 365th part of 2% as charges, as it’s for 1 day, remember 365 days in a year) and that would be, Rs 5.48. Hence, final value of your investment would be 1,00,000 + 500 – 5.48 = 1,00,494.50 that’s 0.4945% increase and not 0.5% .

So, the next question which will come in your mind is “So, does this small deduction really make a lot of difference?” The answer is Yes & No. If you are looking at 6 months or 1-2 yrs, it’s not much of a concern, you can probably just avoid it and answer is Yes, if you are looking from long-term point of view like 5-10-20 yrs. In that case it’s mostly something which you can put your eye on once.

Expense Ratio – With & Without

Let me first give you a very clear idea about the distinction between two scenarios where there was expense ratio and there was no expense ratio in a mutual fund. Let’s take this example at least to understand the concept.

Suppose there was a mutual fund called “Jagoinvestor-Ninja Fund” (attractive name haan!) which generates a 12% return before expense ratio. Now let’s see how this fund final returns will turn out to be in different expense ratio scenarios like 2% , 1.5% , 1% ,0.5% and 0% (imaginary) . Expense Ratio Mutual Funds

Did you see that? How same funds performance can lead to huge a huge difference depending on expense ratio. In a longer term, you can see how the corpus value reached 29.9 lacs without any expense ratio, but if the expense ratio was 2%, then despite the same performance, the corpus would be reduced to only 16.3 lacs. That’s huge deficit of 45% compared to original corpus. While it’s a little unrealistic to consider 0% expense ratio, because it’s not possible in real life. Let’s see the different between 1% and 2% expense ratio. You can see that with 1% expense ratio the corpus was 22 lacs and with 2%, it was 16 lacs, that’s again huge 20% difference.

Also if you see the chart above, you can see a greed part showcasing how low expense ratio cases achieved the same corpus few years early than the high expense ratio scenario. You can see that with 0.5% expense ratio, 16 lacs was the corpus in 26th year itself which took 30 yrs in case of 2% expense ratio. In the chart below you can see how much the difference in different scenario’s final corpus percentage wise was.

Expense Ratio Mutual Funds

Remember that when you compare returns of mutual funds in long run (video), the calculations are shown after-expenses; hence it might happen that a better fund today is better in returns because its expense ratio was lower than the other one. It might happen that two funds differ in returns to some extent, but don’t vary too much when it comes to their ability to generate returns before the expenses. Naturally the mutual funds which have lower expenses would have better return at the end.

Case Study – HDFC Tax Saver vs Canara Robeco Equity Tax Saver

If you look at Valueresearch website, it has given Canara Robeco Equity Taxsaver fund a 5 star rating, but HDFC Tax saver gets just a 4 star. If you look at both these funds history, both the funds are 15 yrs old funds and if you look at short-term performance of both the funds, you will see how Canara Robeco is doing equally good or better than HDFC Tax Saver. But if you look at long-term performance of both the funds, you will notice a big difference.

While HDFC Taxsaver stands with tall chest giving 31% annual return, Canara Robeco seems to stare the earth with just 20% annual return. Now there can be a lot of reasons for this, but if you look at expense ratio, Canara Robeco has as high as 2.49% expense ratio, where as HDFC tax saver has just 1.91% expense ratio. So it might happen that Canara Robeco these days has to perform better than HDFC Tax saver before expense ratio and only then it’s able to sustain the performance.

As per a small study by moneylife, this phenomenon is true across the category , here are the excerpts : –

Consider the performance of 43 equity diversified funds which have been in existence before 2000. We chose 2000 because we wanted to gauge decadal performance of the funds. Of these 43, we selected the 15 most expensive funds and 15 cheapest. Among the expensive lot, we have only seven outperformers and eight underperformers. Whilst among the cheap funds, we have 12 outperformers and only three underperformers. It is not that the expensive funds have not earned good returns, but a part of their returns has been washed away by their high expense ratio.

For instance, Birla Sun Life Advantage Fund, which is one of the costliest and was launched in February 1995, has given a return of 19% beating its benchmark, BSE Sensex, by a margin of 8%. Reliance Growth, launched in October 1995 (seven months later), has given a return of 28% beating its benchmark, BSE 100, by a huge 16%. Was it the pure stock-picking skill of Reliance? Maybe. But the fact is the Birla Fund has an expense ratio of 2.31% and Reliance Growth Fund has an expense ratio of just 1.79%.

Conclusion

High expense ratio will hurt you in long run, so incase you are choosing two similar looking and similar performing financial products, you should look at their cost structure.

Can you share what you took from this article and how you will apply in your financial life?

Difference between Gold Saving Funds and Gold ETF ?

Today we will see what is the difference between Gold Saving Funds and Gold ETF’s .

The biggest marketing pitch for selling the Gold saving fund is that one can invest in gold funds without a demat account and can set a SIP for the same, which is true.

However, the alternate option of Gold ETF’s doesn’t not allow investments and/or SIPs without a demat account. But most of the agents hide these details of costs and do not educate their clients on how things work!

how to invest in gold

Source : Kotak Website

As of today, Reliance, Kotak and Quantum have launched their Gold Saving Funds of Funds. All of these Gold saving funds are almost same. Lets take an example of Reliance Gold Saving Fund, which is nothing but a fund of funds which invest in their respective Gold ETF’s 🙂 Did you know that?

Difference between Gold Saving Funds and Gold ETF’s ?

Gold ETF’s :

Let’s understand this for a moment. In simple terms, these are financial products which invests in physical gold and tracks its pricing on day to day basis. These ETFs have their own expense ratio which is considered very high if compared to US market, but that’s the price we pay to invest in gold electronically.

You need a demat account to invest in Gold ETF and you can trade these ETFs through stock exchange.

Gold Saving funds

Gold savings funds are nothing but mutual funds which invests majority of its corpus (90%-100%) in Gold ETFs (of the same sister company), a small portion might also be in money market instruments or some short term debt products.

For example –  Quantum Gold Saving Funds of Funds as per its mandate can invest anywhere from 95%-100% in the units of Quantum Gold ETF’s, and rest in money market instruments and other short term debt products.

But the important point you should note here is that the underlying investment is still gold, but not directly! It’s indirectly through gold ETF’s, and now as there are two layers in between, you pay charges two times!

So you pay charges for Gold saving funds and also for gold ETF’s, this part is generally not revealed by the agent who sells you these Gold saving funds. Also for the gold saving funds there are high exit load’s 🙂

Gold Saving Funds

So which one is better and which one you should choose?

We can’t make a general statement that one is good and the other is bad, because it’s not like that. If someone does not have a demat account and wants to automatically invest in gold each month through SIP, gold saving funds are the best option.

But for someone who is conscious about the expenses and can invest through his demat amount each month, Gold ETF’s are a good option.

But high charges will surely hurt in long run! One important point is that do not confuse gold saving funds with “gold mutual funds” which are mutual funds investing in gold mining companies, they are totally different.

Gold Saving Funds

Conclusion

A lot of investors are lured into these gold saving funds without giving any information on the charges, which is not right. Gold saving funds over a long-term can really eat away your returns because the high charges will cut a big pie out of the returns earned.

Secret of Extraordinary Financial Life – Taking Actions

If asked, “Do you have a lot of knowledge about personal finance?” You would say “Yes, of course!” Now, on the next question, “Is your financial life great?” For most of you it would be “No”. We all know term plans are required, we need to start the SIPs to meet financial goals, we need to cut down on our expenses, etc etc. But, how many of us actually go ahead and implement what we all claim to know! A very small percentage!

In this article, me and Nandish will talk on how taking actions is the real thing to be done in your financial life and just by accumulating knowledge about personal finance (what most of the readers on this blog do!) does not add up much in our financial lives! . In the video above, we are sharing – how two of our clients have given a new direction to their financial lives. Watch the video above to hear some action-provoking conversations between me and Nandish. There are two domains each person has called ‘Knowledge domain’ and ‘Actions domain’ .

Knowledge and Actions domain in financial life

Knowledge Domain

This domain is filled with the knowledge aspects in your life. When you read a blog, magazine, watch a show.. etc…etc, you are increasing your knowledge domain. You knowledge expands and you know more and more things. Your clarity on various subjects increases. This part is very important because it gives you confidence and understanding along with reasoning ability. If you are following a blog from long, your knowledge domain might be very high. But guess what! Your knowledge domain has very less impact on your financial life

Action Domain

Action domain is very simple to understand. All it means is how much action you take after increasing your knowledge domain. The more proactive you are in implementing what you know; it will have direct relation with the quality of your financial life. Increasing your knowledge domain will be of little or no use if you don’t expand your action domain.

In our financial coaching program, we concentrate heavily on taking actions and moving things in our clients’s financial life. We see people have good knowledge, but the one place where they are stuck is “Actions”. Somehow they don’t move forward by implementing what they know. Take yourself, many of you know that you need to take a term plan , you need to start your SIP, you need to start exercising (that includes me as well), but we don’t Act! and that’s where our big knowledge domain is of no use! Start taking actions!

I see so many readers on this blog who keep sharing their actions and how they started their SIP’s after reading an article . How they took the term plan after reading my article on online term plan , how a lot of readers got in action and started exploring options for their health Insurance, after reading one of my recent articles on Health Insurance

Financial Life as a project

One of the biggest reasons why most of the people fail to take actions in their financial life is that they dont look at their financial life at a project which needs a completion in all areas dont take a lot of actions in their financial life .

If you are stuck in your financial life and feel that you need an extra support which helps you be in action, you can register for our paid Financial Coaching program

Conclusion

Which of the two, knowledge and action domain is important? I personally feel that action domain is much more important than knowledge domain, because once you choose to act, you are bound to learn things and find out ways of completing somethings.

Please share what actions you have taken in your financial life? Which domain is bigger in your financial life ? Also let me know how was the video and if you liked the conversation ?

Also wanted to know your opinion on “Financial Action Day”, when we celebrate a week or a month as “Action Month”, when we as a group take massive actions in our financial lives and complete the long pending tasks ! . What do you say ?

Which Banks have highest Fixed Deposits interest rates ?

Do you know which bank in india has the highest fixed deposits interest rates ? But before that, let me ask you – Do you know what is the interest rate of your Fixed Deposit ? If it was opened a few years back, all you would have got is around 6-8% depending on the bank and tenure. But today its a different scene! . Fixed deposits interest rates are high these days and you can observe one of the other bank announcing fixed deposits interest rates revised each month and in range of 9-10% . I will show you a snapshot of various banks Fixed deposit interest rates with varying tenures.

For simplicity purpose, I have not included tenures of less than 6 months . See the graph below . Green color represents interest rates higher than or equal to 9.25% . Pink represents exact 9% . The banks mentioned in the table below are Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Yes Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, IDBI Bank, United Bank of India, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Karnataka Bank, State Bank of Travancore, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, City Union Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Indian Bank, Central Bank of India, Federal Bank, State Bank of Mysore, Punjab National Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, ICICI Bank, Dena Bank, Indusind Bank, Canara Bank, State Bank of Patiala, Syndicate Bank, Barclays, Axis Bank, J & K Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank, South Indian Bank, DBS Bank, HDFC Bank, Andhra Bank, UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Development Credit Bank, Bank of India, HSBC, Citibank , tandard Chartered Bank , RBS Bank and Deutsche Bank . Look at the table below for the indicative interest rates for different tenures.

Fixed Deposit Interest rates in India

Note that a lot of banks offer high interest rates for special tenures like 500 days, or 555 days or 1000 days, but they have some restrictions which people dont know – some of them are

  • Some banks have provision, if rates increased in future, you can not apply for extention at higher rate of interest, instead you have to close that account and apply for new one.
  • Automatic renew not possible.
  • Upon maturity, you will not be able to get overdue interest.
  • Sometimes, you cannot premature close the deposit. however, these conditions vary from bank-to-bank.

Thanks to Lokesh for this information

High level Observations

There are some patterns we can see in area of fixed deposits . here they are

  • Fixed deposits with high interest rates for almost all the tenures are not the heavyweight banks, but the new generation banks, they are Tamil Nad Mercantile Bank, Karur Vyasa Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank and others
  • Most of the banks provide 0.5% higher interest rates for senior citizens if the tenure is more than 1 yr . But if tenure if lower than 1 yr, the interest rates are same for senior citizens also . This is widely true , but some banks like Axis bank , SBI bank , ICICI Bank and HDFC Banks gives 1% higher interest to senior citizens.
  • Most of the foreign banks like Citibank, RBS , Standard Chartered has low-interest rates in range 6-7.5% . This is unattractive during these times when other banks are giving higher rates .

Low and Medium risk appetite investors can cheer

For investors how find themselves not too comfortable with equity and for those who want to park their money for few years without taking any risk and earning some good return in range of 9-10% , Fixed deposits are very good options.

The only point is if you are in high tax bracket, most of the returns will go in tax, but for investors who are in lower tax bracket of 10% or below the permissible limits , they can look for these options without much thought . These fixed deposits were for the year 2011 , but for most part of 2012 also these bank fixed deposits interest rates will be applicable .

Form 15G and 15H – A Detailed Guide

Many people whose income doesn’t fall under the tax slab have mostly invested in products such as FD through which they can earn interest. But can we do anything to make sure that the bank does not deduct TDS on interest earned if our total income is not taxable?

If you all don’t know then let me highlight to you that it is mandatory for banks to deduct TDS on our interest income. If our income is not taxable and we also earn interest from other financial products etc..then we will have to provide Form 15G and 15H to the bank so that bank doesn’t deduct TDS since our income is not taxable.

In this article, I will be discussing all aspects related to Form 15 and 15H.

What is form 15G and 15H?

What are Forms 15G and 15H?

Forms 15G/15H are forms that an individual can submit to ensure that the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) is not deducted on the interest income if she/he meets the applicable conditions. Always remember, that if an individual wants to claim tax deduction through Form 15G/15H, then the individual must have a Permanent Account Number (PAN).

Form 15G is to be filled by individuals aged below 60 yrs and Form 15H is to be filled by senior citizens aged 60 yrs and above. You can click on this link if you want to download the form directly from the website. If you want to have a look at the form, click on the link below,

Eligibility Criteria to fill these Forms –

a) For Form 15G –

  • An Individual or HUF or trust or any other assessee
  • Only Indian Resident can apply
  • Age should be less than 60 years old
  • Tax calculated on their Total Income should be nil
  • The total interest income for the year should be less than the basic exemption limit of that year

b) For Form 15H –

  • A Resident Indian Individual
  • Age should be 60 yrs or more (senior citizen) during the year for which you are submitting the form
  • Tax calculated on their Total Income should be nil

Who all are not eligible to fill these forms?

The following are not eligible for submission of Form 15G/15H –

  • Company (Private and Public)
  • Partnership Firm
  • Non-Resident Indian (NRI)
  • An Individual whose estimated total income or the aggregate total income exceeds the basic exemption limit.

Can these forms be filled online or just offline?

a) Form 15G (online and offline) –

An individual can choose to submit Form 15G offline or online, depending on the facilities provided by their bank or financier. Firstly they need to check if their bank allows submission of Form 15G online. If this facility is available in their bank, they can simply log on to their internet banking account and fill up the form online. Once you have filled up the form, recheck the details, and hit submit. For your future reference, you can download the submitted form.

The other option is to fill a physical form and submit it to the bank. The forms are available in the Income Tax Portal. You can download the form and get printouts of the same. You can then submit these duly signed documents to the bank or financier where you have the savings accounts. You can also submit it at the post office or the company you work for depending on your requirement.

Currently, there are 2 banks that provide online filling of the forms. If you have an account in the below 2 banks then you log in through internet banking and fill these forms –

b) Form 15H (online and offline) –

You can submit Form 15H online or offline mode. To submit it offline, you need to download the form from the Income Tax portal as discussed above. Once you have completed filling the form, you can submit these forms at your bank or post office or your employer (in the case of Provident fund).

If your bank or financier allows submission of Form 15H online, you can log on to your internet banking and fill up the form. You can submit the form directly using internet banking. For your future reference, you can download the submitted form.

Currently, there are 2 banks that provide online filling of the forms. If you have an account in the below 2 banks then you log in through internet banking and fill these forms –

A detailed guide on how to fill the form through SBI Internet Banking –

Different other scenarios where these forms can be utilized –

a) TDS on EPF withdrawal –

TDS is deducted on EPF balance if it is withdrawn before 5 years of continuous service. If an individual had less than 5 years of service and plans to withdraw their EPF balance of more than Rs.50,000, then they can submit Form 15G or Form15H. However, to fill this form the tax on an individual’s total income including EPF balance withdrawn should be nil.

b) TDS on income from Corporate Bonds –

If an individual holds corporate bonds, then TDS is deducted on them if their income from these bonds exceeds Rs 5,000. They can submit Form 15G or Form 15H to the issuer requesting the non-deduction of TDS.

c) TDS on post office deposits –

Post offices that are digitized also deduct TDS and accept Form 15G or Form 15H, if an individual meets the conditions applicable for submitting them.

d) TDS on Rent –

TDS is deducted on rent exceeding Rs 2.4 lakh annually. If the tax on an individual’s total income is nil, then they can submit Form 15G or Form 15H to request the tenant to not deduct TDS.

e) TDS on Insurance Commission –

TDS is deducted on insurance commission if it exceeds Rs 15000 per financial year. However, insurance agents can submit Form 15G/Form 15H for non-deduction of TDS if the tax on their total income is nil.

FAQs –

i) What will happen if I forget to submit the form on time to the bank?

If you forget to submit these forms on time then the bank will deduct the TDS. However, one can claim the deducted TDS by filing an ITR.

ii) What is the difference between Form 15G and Form 15H?

Both are self-declaration forms that an individual will have to submit to the bank once they open a fixed deposit. While Form 15G is for those who are below 60 years and come under Hindu Undivided Families (HUF), Form 15H is for everyone who is 60 years and above.

iii) Is the form provided by banks one and the same? Or is it different?

The forms which banks provide are a little different from the actual form which is available on the income tax website. However, both type of forms serves the same purpose. You can have a look at the form in the above section.

iv) Can HUF, NRIs submit Form 15G/Form15H?

HUF can submit Form 15G if it meets the conditions but Form 15H is only for individuals. NRIs cannot submit Form 15G or Form 15H. These can only be submitted by resident Indians.

v) Do I need to submit Form 15G/ Form 15H at all the branches of the bank?

Yes, you must submit one at each branch of the bank from which you receive interest income though TDS is deducted only when total interest earned from all branches exceeds Rs 10,000.

vi) Does filing Form 15G/Form15H mean my interest income is not taxable?

Form 15G/Form 15H is only a declaration that no TDS should be deducted on your interest income since the tax on your total income is nil. Interest income from fixed deposits, recurring deposits, and corporate bonds is always taxable.

vii) Will my interest income become tax-free if I submit Form 15G/Form15H?

Interest income from fixed deposits and recurring deposits is taxable. For senior citizens deduction of Rs.50,000 is available under section 80TTB for the interest income from fixed deposits/post office deposits/deposits held in a co-operative society. You should submit this form only if the tax on your total income is zero along with other conditions.

viii) I have submitted Form 15G and Form 15H but I also have taxable income, What should I do?

You must inform your bank that the tax on your total income is not zero. The bank will make changes and deduct TDS accordingly. You should report the entire interest income in your tax return and pay tax on it as applicable.

ix) Do I have to submit this form to the income tax department?

You don’t need to submit these forms directly to the income tax department. Just submit them to the deductor, and they will prepare and submit these forms to the income tax department. At times these forms can also be filled and submitted in the bank.

x) Is there any time limit for submitting these forms?

There is no time limit or due date for submitting Form 15G/15H to the bank. However, it is advisable to submit it at the beginning of the financial year (i.e. Apr 01) or as and when the new deposit is created.

xi) What is the time limit during which these forms are valid?

Forms 15G/15H are valid for one financial year ending on Mar 31 of every year. So, you will have to submit these forms every year if you are eligible. Submitting them as soon as the financial year starts will ensure that no deduction is done on any interest income earned.

xii) Is there any other way NRIs can refrain from TDS deduction as they are not eligible for Form 15G and 15H? 

For any NRI, whose TDS is more than his/her tax liability, such excess tax can be claimed as a refund from the Indian Tax Department (ITD) by filing the Return of Income in the particular Financial Year. Such excess TDS results in loss to NRI due to the time interval between the tax deducted and refund of such excess tax, which may take generally 1 to 2 years.

In order to address the above situation, a procedure has been prescribed under the Act, whereby NRI recipient of income can apply online to ITD (in a prescribed format) along with the relevant supporting documents to issue a Tax Exemption Certificate (TEC) authorizing the payer of income (who deducts tax) to deduct tax at a lower rate or Nil rate, as the case may be.

In the case of NRIs, whose actual tax liability is lower than the rate of tax prescribed under the Act, it is beneficial to obtain a TEC. An NRI should apply for TEC under few situations listed below –

NRI tax

Procedure – The Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (from the International taxation ward of the ITD) of an NRI generally issues a TEC between 2 to 4 weeks from the date of application.

Validity – TEC is normally valid for the period for which such TEC is obtained (i.e. a Financial Year) and for the specific income as stated in the TEC.

Filing Return of Income – NRI who has obtained the TEC has to compulsorily file his Return of Income in India for that Financial Year.

xiii) How can an individual make use of these forms?

These forms can be used only if the tax calculated on the individual’s total income is nil for the financial year. Both forms – Form 15G and Form 15H – have a validity of one financial year. That is why either of them is required to be submitted at least once every financial year. Forms 15G and 15H are basically submitted to save TDS on interest income.

For example, Banks deduct TDS on FDs when interest income is more than Rs 10,000 in a financial year. But if the total income is below the taxable limit, then Form 15G and Form 15H have to be submitted to the bank requesting them not to deduct any TDS on the interest.

Points to Remember –

  • An individual can only submit Form 15G/15H to a bank with a valid PAN, if an individual doesn’t have a valid PAN then, the tax will be deducted at 20%.
  • It is advisable to submit a copy of the PAN card with the cover letter.
  • The individual should make sure he/she receives an acknowledgement while submitting Form 15G/15H. This acknowledgement can be kept for future reference.
  • Acknowledgement of submission of PAN details is useful if a dispute with the bank arises.
  • The individual will need to submit the details of the Form 15G/15H submitted by him/her to other banks as well as the interest income amount mentioned in these forms.
  • As the individual has submitted his/her PAN, the respective assessing officer will have access to all the information submitted by the individual to other banks and will cross check if there is any incorrect information submitted by the individual or not.
  • There is a provision for imprisonment for a minimum of three months if an individual is found to have provided incorrect information in the declaration forms.

A short video on How to Fill these Forms –

a) Form 15G –

b) Form 15H –

Conclusion –

So this was all that I wanted to share in this article. If you have any queries then you can post them in the comments section.

What is your Money Personality ?

Do you know what your money personality is? Now you must be thinking what is the meaning of “Money Personality”? Let me give you a hint! . Ajay earns a lot of money, but his financial life is not that great, the main reason is that he is too conservative with his investments and all his money lies in Fixed Deposits and Cash in the Bank, that’s all. This happens due to his internal design of being a “Saver”. His life is all about saving and only saving and there comes his money personality. Let’s explore more on this.

Money personality

Money Personality

We have identified that each one of us have a money personality which we develop during our life and all our actions are driven by our money personality, even our financial life is driven by it and the product we choose, the way we look at each and every aspect is result of what money personality we have. Over the last few years, when we interacted with dozens of clients and thousands of readers like you, we identified that each one of us can be categorised in following money personalities which we will discuss today.

  1. Spenders
  2. Savers
  3. Avoiders
  4. Saints

Watch the following video which Me and Nandish has recoreded for you all .

1. Spenders

The first money personality is “Spenders”. People who fall in this category have an attitude that “Life happens now”. They will spend their money all over which makes them feel that they are “living” the life. They will buy expensive gadgets, eat out at expensive places and will make sure that they are not at all compromising on enjoyment. The behaviour also affects their financial life; their savings are not as much as it can be because most of the leftover money at the end of the month is saved. The simple rule of Savings = Income – Expenses is applicable for these people. Most of these people dont have much left in their bank account by the end of the month and they wonder “Where does it all go? ” .

2. Savers

The next personality is that of the “Savers”. These people believe that life is all about saving and for being prepared for the future. They are not exactly misers, but they appear like misers to others. Whatever can save money for them looks attractive to them. This behaviour also enters their financial life and they invest in anything which claims to save money to them. You can also attach the word “Safety” with these people. They invest in Fixed Deposits , Reccuring deposits , bonds , debentures and other investments which are safe avenues. These people like to buy stuff if it claims to save money to them .

3. Avoiders

The third and an interesting category are of “Avoiders”. These people are great avoiders, when it comes to taking actions, they will not spend or save, and instead they will just avoid the situation and find all the reasons in life for delaying things and avoiding it. They read, talk and learn about everything, but don’t apply it to their life in any way. I personally think that a lot of us are like that. There are even many readers here who are learning things from months/years, but still they have not done anything with their learnings, they just read and feel happy that they know something good, but where is the action?

4. Saints

The last category is really a different one and often forgotten, that is of “Saints”. A person who belongs to this category feels that money is an unimportant thing in life. His beliefs would be “Money is not important thing in life”, “More money is more trouble”, “Life is all about being Happy and content” and “You just need bare minimum and satisfaction to lead a happy life”. While that all is fine, these people over react and don’t give much importance to money in life. Most of the people who talk like this are those who really can’t make a lot of money and deep down they themselves are worrying for money, but they make sure they show themselves as not-interested-in-money kind of individuals.

Conclusion

So which money personality is better than the other and how to make change in your personality? First thing is that there is nothing bad or good about having one of these money personalities. These personalities get into us because of various reasons in life and it’s not that easy to change them. What’s important is that you need to be aware about your personality and how it’s affecting your financial life. Try to find out how your money personality can help in having a financial life which you desire.

What do you think about these personalities and which one are you ?

Review of moneysights.com – Invest online in Mutual funds

What is the equity and debt exposure of your portfolio? How many different companies have you invested in through mutual funds? And do you know of any tool with great UI and simple features that can help you analyse your mutual funds and stocks in detail? If you wondered that there is no such website which can do such analysis and that too for FREE, I am happy to introduce you to moneysights.com. It does it all that for you and much more…

moneysights review

From a few months, I am in touch with moneysight’s team. At that time they were still building their product and were trying to solve some key issues which investors face today and I knew from beginning that users will like their product when it goes live. Just a month or so back when their product was in beta mode, all the Jagoinvestor readers on email (see sidebar for subscription link) received the beta invitation from moneysights and they got a chance to use their tool exclusively and in advance than others.

The reason why I want to know about moneysights is because they aim to solve 3 key problems that is faced by common investors in India. These problems have played a crucial role in ensuring that Mutual Funds & Direct Equity investments remain under-penetrated as fas as mass market retail investors are concerned. I have described these problems below from Mutual Funds point of view –

Problem 1 : Choice & Suitability

There are 4,000+ of Mutual Fund schemes in the India today. If one includes the variations & scheme options like Growth, Dividend, etc. These schemes are broadly classified in 10+ types like Equity, Debt, Balanced, MIPs, ELSS etc. Most of the average retail investors don’t understand or demand so much of choice and option. A large number of schemes not only adds confusion to the decision-making process but also often results in postponing our investment decisions (i.e. taking actions).

If the quantity of schemes in the market is the first problem, then knowing the suitability of the scheme to an individual is another problem to be cleared? Not every scheme is suitable to every type of investor. An ICICI Prudential Discovery or IDFC Premier Equity may have given great returns & hence they command a 5-STAR return rating but how many of us know that both of them primarily invest in stocks which most often may not be Large-cap stable businesses. And hence they may not be suitable for someone who is risk-averse or someone who is just beginning to invest. Wouldn’t investing purely on return ratings may bring-in a surprise to the investor when the markets go into a downward trend?

Problem 2 : Construction of Mutual funds portfolio

Reading my previous posts on how to create a Mutual Fund Portfolio or How many funds are ideal to have in a Portfolio, you would have realized that diversification in the Portfolio is very important. But then, why how does one construct a diversified portfolio of 4-5 different Mutual Fund schemes. There is so much information needed to construct a diversified portfolio that it’s definitely a cumbersome task to construct one manually.

For example having a HDFC Top 200 & a Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity isn’t diversification but duplication. They are 2 similar funds & having both of them doesn’t make sense in a diversified portfolio. Look at this jagoinvestor forum question of mutual funds portfolio review and moneysights helping him.

Problem 3 : Tracking of Mutual funds portfolio

After someone invests in a set of Mutual Funds, is there a way to track, monitor & manage the Portfolio in a seamless manner? Most websites do offer tracking services. But then, again people like Venshu had asked about  how to get annualized returns so as to compare portfolio performance, sector allocation, etc. so that one can get actionable insights to manage the Portfolio on an ongoing basis that minimizes portfolio risks & optimizes returns. I have used their tracking tool myself and it looks simple and good to me.

Some more good features

Some of you who would have registered on moneysights.com may be able to relate to what i’m talking here. However, if you have not tried it yet, let me summarize quickly on what stood out for me –

1. Fund’s Performance Report Card

moneysights review

Moneysights allows you to get more information about a specific mutual fund scheme in a quick & simple way. Just go to the Find Mutual Funds section where you can search or browse for specific Mutual Fund schemes. Opening the detail page of a Mutual Fund scheme like HDFC Equity Fund would allow you to see –

  1. A unique way of portraying Fund’s Performance through Fund’s Performance Report Card – also notice the no-use of financial jargon
  2. Performance Comparison with fund’s benchmark, SENSEX or NIFTY – notice the lack of importance to NAV & prominence to performance chart w.r.t. various benchmarks
  3. Return Comparison with SENSEX, NIFTY, Category Average, etc. in tabular format during different time periods
  4. How much your money would have grown had you chosen to invest in this scheme – notice the actual amount of dividend you would have earned
  5. Mutual Fund Category Performance comparison within different time-frames
  6. Portfolio composition of the scheme in terms of asset class, market capitalization, sector exposure & underlying stocks

So, all the information you require for knowing how good or bad a Mutual Fund scheme is available within a single-page interface.

2. Portfolio Health

Now this is another valuable feature. Many a times, readers have posted questions on forum about specific funds that they have invested in. Questions like shall I stay invested in (say) a Reliance Vision Fund or Sundaram SMILE Fund which probably used to be good performers at some point in time but are not the best ones today. Does it make sense to redeem & divert the investment in some other fund in similar category? Portfolio Health answers this.

Moneysights review

The way I understand moneysights is doing is they find a scheme which belongs to same category as you have & check if there is a scheme which has performed better – i.e. taken lesser risk but has offered more returns. If they are able to find a better option, they show these options. Let me know what you feel about this in comments section.

3. Get a Portfolio

This is going to be useful for readers who want to start their investments from a scratch all over again or re-align their portfolio to their risk appetite. All you have to do is select a risk profile you can identify with & moneysights displays a portfolio of Mutual Funds which is appropriate to the risk profile selected along with how much exposure you should take in a specific scheme. I personally spoke to moneysight’s team & they mentioned that they give more importance to downside protection capability while choosing the funds & portfolio is constructed following best practices of portfolio management that control portfolio concentration risks. They also recommend funds which have proven history of performance & have a minimum AUM under their belt.

Moneysights review
If you play around with this engine you would notice that higher your risk score more is the allocation to Equity. You would also notice that the resulting portfolio is always diversified across schemes, fund houses, sectors & stocks. They also show portfolio’s break-up & its past performance against SENSEX & NIFTY that help you understand why the portfolio is being recommended to you & how it’s good.

Other Small but Significant Features that you may like –

While the above 3 stood out for me, you may also like the many things they do differently like –

  • Letting you enter the amount of Investment & SIP day for accurately tracking your SIP investments.
  • Annualized returns of the schemes you invest in as well as the Portfolio when your investments are more than 1 year old – a very handy feature for readers who have been looking for XIRR returns.
  • Dividends that you may have received for your investments.
  • Updating missed SIP details – You can also update if you missed investing in a specific month for one of your SIPs. Doesn’t it happen sometimes intentionally or unintentionally with us?
  • By allowing you to redeem Mutual Funds partially or fully, they also let you build history of your booked past profits/losses.

Wishlists for moneysights

There are some of the things which I would personally like to see in future releases . They are

  1. An advanced comparision tool which can show the past performance of the current portfolio
  2. Comparision of two or more mutual funds/indexes in much more detail.
  3. I wish if a user can create his own strategies and run it over the portfolio and see how the strategy would preform over long term.
  4. I also wish if there was a download your Portfolio report in xls and PDF format which I can download and keep it for my record from time to time or just offline viewing . That report can give the overall Report in nice format which is just awesome to look at and worth showoff .

Area’s of Improvement

  1. For most of the return analysis and comparision , it can be done only for the last 5 yrs , I hope if it can be maximum possible .
  2. Their UI is great and neat , but I still feel there are much more things on UI than required and some of them can be displayed on demand (on a click) . What do others think ?

Conclusion

To conclude, if you have feel that you can relate to even 1 of the above problems that I mentioned at the beginning of the post, you would agree after using moneysights that it’s an answer to those problems. I would love to know your opinion on this. Please share it in comments section.