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5 Logical Tips about Credit Cards

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Credit cards are becoming increasingly common in India, and while they come with a lot of convenience, the high interest rates and other charges mean that you have to be careful about how you use them.

In this post, we look at 5 tips on wise credit card usage, and how following them, can save you a whole lot of financial heartache. These 5 tips are pretty logical & self-evident; we have to understand that the free credit we get from a credit card is not really free. It’s actually a business for Credit card companies and hence somewhere in the whole process, they have to have a way to make money .

1. Pay your balance in full: This one is so basic, I was not going to point it out at all, but on second thought – I realized that this should really be the first point. Of all the loans you take, credit cards come with the highest interest rates. If you run a credit card balance every month, then the interest charges add up really quickly. If you have a balance on your credit card, pay it off in full before the next due date. This ensures that you don’t pay interest on your balance, which really is extra money you can keep to invest and build savings for yourself.

Curiously enough, I know of people who don’t pay off their credit card balance in full, but at the same time, put their money in low yield investments. This is really bad math. If you have a credit card balance that is charged at about 30% per annum and an investment that gives you just an 8% return – you are much better off paying the entire credit card balance before you even think of investing your money. The extra interest you pay on your outstanding balance offsets any interest income you receive from your investment. If you run a balance, realize, it normally is a strong indication that you are spending beyond your means.  This is a bad financial habit that you should get rid of as soon as possible.

2. Avoid credit cards with annual fee: Unless you have a specific benefit in mind, from the credit card, don’t get a card that has an annual fee. It is always good, to get a credit card with no annual fee, because then the only expense you have on it, is the interest payment; and if you pay off your balance in full every month – you don’t pay any interest and your credit card will, in effect, be free! Add to that, the fact, that even most free credit cards have some sort of a reward program, you can benefit from. Why pay for something when you can get it free?

The other thing to keep in mind, while evaluating the fee, is how likely you are to benefit on it, based on your usage. I reviewed the HDFC Value Plus Cash Back credit card a few months ago, which had an annual fee of Rs. 700 and up to 5% cash back. At a cursory glance, it seemed to me that Rs.700 may not be very high due to the cash back, but a deeper look at the terms and conditions told me, that the cash back will only be credited to your account if the monthly balance is over Rs.10,000. I realized the card was not meant for people like me, who aren’t likely to run up such a balance on their credit card every month.

Bottom-line: If you are going for a credit card that has an annual fee – make sure you go through the fine print and are certain it will be worth the cost to you.

Credit

3. Get a credit card that is easy to pay off: I used to have an ICICI credit card and a SBI credit card. Both of them had similar features, but the ICICI card was really easy for me to pay off, as I had an existing ICICI Bank account, and the credit card was linked to it online. All I had to do, was go online, and pay off the credit card balance, through my ICICI login. As a result, I ended up using the ICICI credit card a lot more than the SBI one. Ease of payment, means that I can pay off the balance very often, very easily, and rarely run the risk of late fees or interest charges. While thinking of which credit card to apply for – consider just how easy it is, to make a payment on it.

This might sound like a trivial thing now, but you’d kick yourself later, if you had to pay late fees just because you lost your cheque book, or were too busy with your work to go to the bank and deposit the cheque. In fact, I’d go on to suggest that you add payment reminders on your email, phone or even a little post it on your refrigerator. Life gets busy sometimes, and a little help can go a long way in saving you late fee and interest payments.


4. Keep a track of your statement: A few years ago I went through my credit card statement online and saw that there were some charges from an unknown merchant. I was pretty sure, I had not bought anything from them, and I called up customer care to know what the charges were all about. I was put on hold for a long time, and couldn’t get through. However, the next day, I noticed that the merchant had reversed the transaction, and I even had a small credit from them.

While I was lucky in this case, there is no guarantee that credit cards won’t get abused. Always keep track of your monthly statement. If you can go online and check your transactions – that is even better, because you don’t have to wait until the end of the billing period. I go online every week or so and check up on my credit card statement to make sure no unauthorized use is happening.

5. Don’t use your credit card as an ATM: By this, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t use your credit card at the ATM, (although you should really, really avoid it as far as possible). What I mean is, there’s a tendency to withdraw cash from your credit card (since it’s so convenient) and that’s pretty addictive. Treating your credit card as an easy, reliable, access to cash will not help you in the long run. For one, the interest rates on cash withdrawals are generally much higher, and if you get into this habit, – you will run up high outstanding balances pretty quickly.

The cash advance limit, is also generally, a lot less, than the overall credit limit, so it won’t get you very far, anyway. The interest will keep adding up and grow very quickly. Withdrawing cash from your credit card should really be the last option. Usually, cash withdrawals come with some sort of cash advance charges, and more than that if you regularly withdraw cash from your credit card – again, it indicates a tendency to overspend and go beyond your means. This really means, that your personal finances are going down-hill.

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Read a Customer review on Mouthshut

I have saved all my friends by sharing my horrible experiences with ICICI Credit Cards.The customer care people are polite only till the greetings other wise they behave and speak like a criminal and very sarcastically. I have been using it for 2 years. But the customer care behavior problem is consistent. Normally I have been paying them always on time and the bill is normally above RS 5000. But once (3 months back) I had to go outstation suddenly and missed the pay date for first time for a day or two. The amount this time was also very low (maybe 1500 or 1800) as compared to other months bills. I suddenly started getting calls from a HORRIBLY SPEAKING customer care lady. When I mentioned I am travelling and will not be able to pay for another 2 days as my journey is a 3 day journey she started abusing and threatening me. She even mentioned that by tomorrow morning if I will not arrange for the payment she will send some one to my home for payment, when I said this is rubbish and she should not speak like this she started shouting and said “I will send someone and can do anything if not payed by tomorrow and reminded me that if I will not pick this call after seeing her number further she will be worse”. Is this is the way a bank should treat a long time and good customer? I have stopped using the card from that day. [LINK]

Credit Card Mistakes [Video]

Conclusion

The overarching theme of these tips is, “Get the convenience of credit cards for free.” That’s what it really boils down to.

To me, credit cards make shopping convenient and that is a big benefit, but at the same time, they also tempt me to go beyond my means, and then pay extra by way of interest. The key is to get the benefit of convenience but not have to pay anything for it. The above tips will help you do both, or at the very least – strike a balance between the two. What do you think? Have I missed out any obvious tips or is there something you’d like to add, based on your experiences?

POLL

What is your Spouse’s level of Understanding and Interest in Personal Finance ?online surveys

Comments please ? Leave your comment to provide another tip 🙂 and let us know what you think about Credit cards .


This is a guest post written by Manshu from OneMint. If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to his site.

Review of LIC’s Wealth Plus

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

If you were to hear about an investment plan with 17% p.a. returns i.e. if you invest Rs. 1lac today, it would become Rs. 3.5  lacs  in next 8 years time, wouldn’t you get greedy?And what if it is told to you that such Highest  NAV Guaranteed ULIPs are guaranteed by one of the biggest financial institution LIC of India, it would be Icing on the Cake and a “Never Miss Opportunity”. But everything sounds so good, if looked deeply may reveal something else. Someone rightly said “the big print give it and the fine print take it away”. Such is the case with LIC’s new insurance plan- Wealth Plus.

Game Started in 2007

Every year during the last quarter of Financial Year, insurance agents find new ways to misguide people and make them invest in policies based on false assumptions and promises. Let us take example of year 2007 when LIC launched one of its most famous policy “Money Plus”.

During the launch, pamphlets were distributed in all the nook and corner of the country showing high returns. Eg. Invest Rs. 1 lac for next three years and get Rs.3.38 crores after 20 years at a return of 25% p.a. Based on such exuberant returns printed on a pamphlet and false promises made by agents, thousands and lakhs of investors across India invested their money. Not only did people invested their savings but there were many instances where smaller households sold their jewelry and other personal belongings believing what they were told by the agents that LIC is guaranteeing such high returns.

What LIC have to say

Later when the news of misguided selling of this policy was brought to the notice of LIC management. LIC states that such assumptions are unrealistic and totally false. Investors should not be misguided in the name of LIC. On a letter dated February 12, 2007 to all the Zonal Manager and Sr. Divisional Managers,  Managing Director of the LIC Mr. Mathur himself writes that “The unethical practice of circulating such pamphlets to misguide the public and get business is betraying the trust we built-in the last 50 years.” See the Letter Below (Click to read in bigger Size , recommended)

LIC Zonal officer letter for misselling in LIC Wealth Plus ULIP Policy

Though efforts were made to stop agents to use such pamphlets to increase their business but since the agent community is so big and scattered not much could be done. It was quite amazing that all over India similar pamphlets were distributed and hence it is clear that without the help of Development Officer of LIC such work was not possible. D.O. of LIC also gets commissions or incentives when his agents gives more business to LIC. See the pamphlets Below:

Pamphlets showing returns with Term 3 yrs and investment 25,000

LIC Wealth Plus Misselling Pamphlets

Pamphlets showing returns with Term 1 yr and investment 1,00,000

LIC Wealth Plus ULIP policy misselling pamphlets

Another template with LIC Logo

LIC Wealth Plus Guaranteed NAV ULIP Misselling

What other Govt bodies have to say

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution through “Jago Grahak Jago” also acknowledged that such misleading things are taking place and hence warned investors to refrain themselves from such high return promises.

D Swaroop (PFRDA Chairman) committee on investor awareness & protection states that “The chief cause of mis-selling is the incentive structure that induces agents to look after their own interest rather than that of the customer. If that were not true, the average sum assured of the insured Indian would be higher than the current Rs 90,000.”

 

Now when a income earner of an average Indian family dies untimely, do you think his family will survive for the rest of their life with less than Rs. 90,000? Insurance is meant to cover risk of untimely death first and investment and tax savings are secondary criteria. But we Indians, have been taught Insurance as an investment first, tax savings second and then somewhere in the last we talk of insurance as well. Now again such practice of miss-selling has emerged and agents are targeting with LIC’s new product Wealth Plus.

What is LIC Wealth Plus Product

This product of LIC which was launched on February 9, 2010 (Table 801) states that LIC will guarantee the highest NAV to the investor in the first 7 years and product will mature after 8 years. It nowhere guarantees the return. In it’s official web-site, LIC states that the minimum guarantee will be of Rs. 10 NAV as Rs. 10 will be the starting point. Actually that means that they are not even guaranteeing that you will get your entire money back as there will be certain charges in the policy itself. They have nowhere written that they will guarantee any amount of return to the investor. Nor they have mentioned that your money will be invested 100% into equity.

Now what Agents are telling

  • LIC is giving guarantee on HIGHEST RETURN. (LIC is saying Highest NAV)
  • Now what is highest return? Based on past performance of LIC’s ULIP policy (Bima Plus), you will get 17%-18% return on investment.
  • Lumpsum Rs. 1 lac invested today will become Rs.3,45,693/- or give Rs 25000 for 3 years & get Rs.2,14,690/- after 8 years.
  • You should switch all your  earlier product (on which agents have already made huge commission) into this product as this is something which is as good as KOHINOOR DIAMOND.

To generate such high returns, the money has to remain in equity but LIC nowhere states that. In almost all ULIPs it is clear how much money will go in equities and how much money will go in debt but this policy is silent on the allocation percentage and hence you may land up getting return that of endowment or money back (nearly 6%-7%).

Bima Plus of LIC was a ULIP where it was mandatory for the fund manager to remain invested in Equities in a pre-decided proportion. It was launched in 2001 when the markets were trading at 3000 sensex levels and later sensex touched even 21000. Is it a right approach to compare such high returns which were made during Bull Market and making investor believe that such returns will be now guaranteed by LIC. Now if you go to a small shopkeeper, a carpenter or a young executive and show them that you will get such high return, why he/she will not invest and that too if they are told that guarantee is done by the India’s biggest financial institution, LIC.

We feel sorry to say but such agents who are misleading people do not even think twice before selling such policies in a wrong approach. The fact of the matter is that the money is just not invested in policies but gets invested in someone’s kids higher education, someone’s retirement, some dreams which common man look to achieve.  We believe that

Insurance agents have sold to Indian everything other than Insurance.

Comment from a Reader who is an LIC Agent

Thanks Manish for bringing up this burning issues today. As a agent I can confirm you that these pamphlet actually circulated by LIC office. If you have any doubts go to any LIC branch ask any sales manager or BM they will tell you same. Actually agents sell the product because they are misguided by Senior LIC officials but unfortunately when debate arise agents are vindicated and punished. The projection shown in the phamphlet, circulated to us at the time product launch meeting. For a wealth plus policy LIC given extra incentive to us. But yes you are absolutely true we should think about our client not LIC/BM/DO. It is not true that agents always think about their pocket,they bound to sell product sometime otherwise they face a painful situation. Ask any Insurance company/agent how many term insurance they sell, they wont tell you the truth. IRDA also not interested about selling pure term insurance product otherwise they also issue circular to increase the term insurance sales growth. If this is the situation what will a agent do? Either he has to terminate his agency or keep continuing same practice as Big agents/Insurance Company/IRDA like to do. ( Original Comment )

What is IRDA guidelines says

As per IRDA, agents and Insurance companies are mandated to show return either at 6% or 10%. But the pamphlet distributed have no regards for Regulatory guidelines. Let’s Compare return according to pamphlet & IRDA Guidelines:

Regular Premium Single premium
Premium 25000 100000
Paying Term 3 years 1 Year
Pamphlet 214690 345639
As per IRDA guidelines
6% 87549 118442
10% 114306 161697
  • Figures are approx

Innocent Investors ?

We believe even investor is at fault and not all the blame should be transferred to the Agents alone. It is always “Buyers Beware”. We take well thought decision before we buy even a fridge in our house. We do research which fridge is best for us and look at least 4-5 shops before we finalize. But when it comes to financial products, we don’t really do our home work and at times decision is taken not even going through the pros and cons of the policy.

Now what investors should do?

If you have already taken the policy

  • Cancel the policy if bought under false promises and high projection. The policy can be returned within 15 days of the receipt of the document without any charges under ‘free-look’ option.
  • If 15 days are over, nothing much can be done.

If Not Taken

  • Take your well thought decision before jumping on to this product.
  • Tell your friends about the same.

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Comments ? would love to here your views on Wealth Plus from LIC . Please share what do you feel about it ?

This is a guest article by Hemant Beniwal & Ashish Modani. They both are CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERCM & writes at The Financial Literates

Regular Premium

Single premium

Premium

25000

100000

Paying Term

3 years

1 Year

Pamphlet

214690

345639

As per IRDA guidelines

6%

87549

118442

10%

114306

161697

Floating Rate Mutual Funds – How, When and Why?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Let us say you have 1 Lac rupees and you want to invest for the term of 1 to 1.5 years that can earn a decent interest rate. You thought of investing in fixed deposit in a bank for 1.5 year @ 6% per annum. Just after one month, bank increased it’s FD interest rate by 0.5% and again after 6 months interest rate is increased by 1%. But you cannot avail this benefit since your FD carries fixed interest till 1.5 years. Is there any investment instrument that could work to handle this situation? Of course YES, Mutual fund industry does offer floating rate debt mutual funds to invest in.

Basic Definitions you should know

  • Coupon rate: The stated interest rate on a bond or other debt security when it’s issued.
  • Benchmark rate: A rate used as a yardstick for measuring or setting other interest rates.
  • Expense ratio: A measure of what it costs an investment company to operate a mutual fund.

What are Floating Rate Mutual funds?

These are the Debt mutual funds which invests about 75% to 100% in securities which pay a floating rate interest (bank loans, bonds and other debt securities) while the rest is in fixed income securities. See List of best Debt Oriented Mutual funds

There are two kinds of floating rate funds– long term and short term. The portfolio of the short-term fund plan is normally skewed towards short-term maturities with higher liquidity and the portfolio of the long-term plan is skewed towards longer-term maturities. However, even the longer-term funds are positioned more on the lines of short-term funds and are not very aggressive in nature.

Floating Rate securities vs Traditional bonds

As you may know, that most bonds have fixed interest rates which are set when they are first issued, either by a government or a corporation. That rate of interest doesn’t change for the life of the bond. A floating rate security on the other hand, has a variable interest rate. That means it’s interest rate will go up and down, or “float” to reflect changes in current market rates.
Depending on the particular floating rate security, the interest rate may change daily, monthly, quarterly, annually, or at another specified interval. The rate is generally changed to keep it in line with a particular interest rate benchmark, which is often called the “Reference Rate.” Among the benchmarks used to set the interest rate on floating rate securities are the MIBOR (Mumbai Interbank Offered Rate). Hence, each time the benchmark rate fluctuates; the coupon rate is adjusted accordingly.

Note

The MIBOR rate is the weighted average of call money business transactions done by 29 institutions, including banks, primary dealers and financial institutions. This rate is calculated and disclosed by FIMMDA-NSE.  [ Ignore If you dont understand ]

Credit Quality and Risk/Return spectrum

Credit quality is the measurement of a bond issuer’s ability to repay the debt it undertakes. Investment into AAA and equivalent rated instruments, call money market and government securities are the safest and most liquid instruments, while below AAA and equivalent rated instruments reflect downgraded quality and lower liquidity. However, their lower quality results in better returns, albeit at a higher risk.

All about floating rate mutual funds in india

Example analysis

Let us compare the floating rate, fixed rate debt fund and liquid funds over the years to understand the performance.

 

HDFC Floating rate Income fund long term plan (G) HDFC Floating rate Income fund Short term (G) HDFC High interest (G) HDFC Liquid fund (G)
Category Debt: Floating Rate Long-term Debt: Floating rate short term Debt: Medium-term Debt: Ultra Short-term
1 month 0.35 0.35 -0.65 0.3
3 month 1.20 1.06 -0.4 0.95
1 year 7.68 5.0 5.53 4.68
3 year 8.58 — 8.2 7.17
5 year 7.48 — 5.98 6.77
Expense ratio 0.25 0.75 2.25 0.5
Exit load 3% within 18 months Nil 0.5% within 6 months Nil

 

 

Why, When & How

Why to opt for floating rate funds

  • The primary advantage of these funds is that, they are less volatile than other types of debt funds. In case of fixed rate bonds, when interest rates in the economy change, the price of the bond adjusts to make up for the fixed coupon of the bond.
  • Looking at the performance table over different time frames, floating rate funds have delivered outstanding performance over the years and more importantly, with considerable consistency.
  • A look at the performance table also reveals a better consistency in delivering higher returns when compared to other type of funds.
  • Credit quality of floating rate funds’ category is more or less similar to liquid funds and ultra short-term funds. Average maturity does not play a very important role in case of floating rate funds as they invest in instruments, that have a variable coupon rate.

When to opt for floating rate funds

  • Floating rate funds make better choice when interest rates are set to rise.
  • Floating rate fund can be considered to establish emergency fund. In the above case of HDFC Floating rate Income Long term plan (G), one can slowly build up emergency fund and once 18 months are over, you can redeem any time.
  • If investment period is 1 to 2 years and liquidity is a concern, then one can look at floating rate funds over fixed rate debt funds. Now banks are coming up with recurring deposits with quarterly revision of floating rates. Always look for alternatives as per your investment period, returns, risk and liquidity.

How to select floating rate funds

  • Long term floating rate funds are better than short term considering performance, less expense ratio.
  • Select a fund which has proved its performance over a period. (This shows the effectiveness of the fund house in mobilizing the assets under management).
  • Select the fund which invests significant % of asset in companies/securities with highest credit rating.
  • Select the fund with low expense ratio.

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Floating rate funds in India

The primary reason for their lack luster presence in the mutual fund industry has been investor ignorance of the nature of floating rate funds. There is a shortage of sufficient long-term floating rate instruments. Due to this, fund managers divert certain portion towards fixed interest securities. In the present situation of Indian economy money market and higher inflation situation, interest rates are set to rise in near future. Always consider floating rate funds over liquid/ultra short term/debt funds.

List of Top Floating Rate Mutual Fund

Long Term

Short Term


Comments! Do you think you can add these to your Portfolio for some short term goals?

This is a guest post from Srinivas Girigowda who is one of the best contributors on this blog :), Kudos to him. Check out his finance blog Here

Real Story about an Investor who Fought for 9 months with ICICI Bank

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Can you fight back ? Really ? If you were taken for granted as a customer by some Bank or any institution and you were forcibly sold some product by officials at some Organisation assuming you are a weak customer who will not raise his voice and fall in trap , What would you do ? Will you have the guts and energy for fighting back and getting what you deserve ? Here is a real life Story directly from the customer who faced lot of problems from his Bank when He wanted to shift his Home loan from One city to another . Lets see in this article in his own words and find out how Officials in these big banks take advantage of customers situation to make money for them selves . See other Force Selling Examples

How it all started

I have two home loans, one in Delhi and other one in Pune and I wanted to go for a home loan ROI switch (conversion of higher rate of interest to an existing rate of interest). My prevailing ROI was very high for both the home loans so wanted to reduce the ROI, of both, by paying the processing fees. ICICI bank has a process where-in one can go for ROI switch by paying the processing fee. First, I went to the Pune office, as I am in Pune, in March 2009 and then visited the Delhi ICICI branch in May 2009 for the loan switch.

  • March, 2009 : ICICI Bank, Shivaji Nagar, Pune – The  officials asked me to buy a ULIP of 40K for the conversion. They changed my loan account number and took all the documents again as if I am applying for a fresh loan. They also took 1 month to process my loan switch.
  • May, 2009 : ICICI Delhi – The customer care executive asked me fill an agreement on a 50 rupee stamp paper, took the switch fee and all the formalities were done in record 80 minutes. He did not ask me for any other paper and my loan ROI was switched in 2 working days.

Read the process in detail here.

The ugly truth

ICICI Pune branch has forced me to buy a ULIP and took 1 month for the switch procedure where as Delhi has taken 80 minutes. ICICI home finance Pune in collaboration with ICICI Pru is duping customers. ICICI Pru people are simply forcing their policies on ignorant home loan customers. This is how ICICI Pru executives are achieving their monthly targets.

Just imagine if I would have only one housing loan and that too in Pune, I would have been blissfully unaware of this racket. They must have done it with many home loan customers in Pune.c

The Confrontation

I sent my first complaint letter to  ICICI Pune, heard nothing for weeks. Sent many letters to all the 3 level of escalation as described on ICICI website, still no response. Finally, I complained the banking ombudsman (See How to complain to Banking Ombudsman) View the full complaint timeline Below .

The Result

Due to the Ombudsman intervention I got my 40K ULIP premium back, but ICICI evaded the answers of my other questions and no action was taken against the two officers involved. I realized that ICICI is capable of dragging this to eternity so I created this blog and uploaded all the conversation which I had/ was having with ICICI. My blog created a lot of noise and after 9+ months few senior folks from ICICI finally decided to extend the support.  Finally my queries were answered and Interest loss was credited back in my savings account. I was happy to find the answers but also sad as it took 9+ months for ICICI to respond. I have sent a letter of appreciation to ICICI in the same regard.

The Lesson Learned

  • Never trust any bank official as they have hidden agendas behind their suggestions and make it a point to read all the documents carefully.
  • Never do something which is being pushed upon, always take your time. Remember if they are rushing you and want everything today, take your sweet time and do a research.

How to avoid such scenarios

If you have been asked to buy a ULIP for any loan related process, use any of the method below to get back your money.

Option 1 :

Resolution Duration : 9+ months
Pain, mental trauma, stress and harassment : High

  1. Send ICICI a complaint mail with all the relevant docs photocopy (I maintained the correspondence on a blog which served dual purpose)
  2. Send a mail to all the three level of escalations mentioned at ICICI website – this is just a formality as u need to give a proof of ur complaint before sending a mail to Banking Ombudsman. dont expect anything from ICICI as it is a sheer waste of time but you have to do it.
  3. Now send a mail to ICICI ombudsman with all complaint letter attached. Make sure you provide the complaint in the desired format.
  4. Send a mail to ICICI Pru Bombay, thru post and online, the ICICI Pru is very fast in resolving any dispute.
  5. Keep sending stinker mails to ICICI, well they not budge but you will feel good and light

Summary : Online blog will help u maintain the flow of sequence and the best part is that u will learn how to blog :-). Keep on following and one day someone will respond, in my case it took them 9+ months…..

Option 2:

Resolution Duration : 15 days to 1 month max
Pain, mental trauma, stress and harassment : NIL

  1. Go to the bank and agree to buy the ULIP in return of you loan related process.
  2. Give them ULIP premium cheque, get a photocopy of the ULIP docs/forms and the check.
  3. Take the visiting card of all the people who were involved in ur case (this is very important, if no visiting card atleast take their name, designation and mobile no.)
  4. Ater u have agreed to their demand of ULIP now make sure you get ur work done ASAP. Don’t give them any time get ur work done at the earlier. Be firm and be rude.
  5. Wait for the ULIP welcome kit
  6. Once you receive ur ULIP welcome kit, write a strong complaint letter to ICICI Pru telling them about the forced ULIP, the names of the people involved and your request of cancelling the ULIP. In all the insurance firms there is a freelook period of 15 days to 1 month during which u can refund the policy without providing any reason (but you must cite your reason in this case).
  7. Make sure your complaint mail is very strong. ICICI don’t respond to polite mails, they simply ignore them.
  8. Your ULIP money will be refunded.

Summary : This is a very simple way of getting ur work done smartly by complying to all the stupid rules set by ICICI or any other bank for that matters. Just agree to their demands and cancel the ULIP during the free look period.

Good luck and have a safe banking .

How Much Home Loan can you afford (please vote , Data will be used for future Article)

Comments , What do you think can be done to avoid these situations ? Are you aware of any thing like this in your real life ? Lets share our views on what are the different preventive and corrective measures which can be taken to avoid these kind of situation . Dont forget to praise the efforts made by this Guest 🙂

Note : Though utmost care has been taken while taking the information , Jagoinvestor do not take any responsibility about the information provided above.

New income tax slabs and its Impact on Common Man’s financial life

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday announced revised tax slabs for individual tax payers and also said that the New tax rates would offer relief to 60 per cent of taxpayers.

But looking at the below comparison between the tax payable last year and the proposed one it seems that the so called “Aam Aadmi”, the middle class would not be gaining so much tax benefits as there are absolutely no tax savings for the person earning up to Rs. 3 lakh p.a. and those who are earning up to Rs. 4 lakh would end up saving only Rs. 10,000.

income tax slab

New tax slabs would benefit greatly to the higher middle class as compared to the Aam Aadmi, though the additional investment of Rs. 20,000/- in the infrastructure bonds would provide some relief especially to those who are interested in traditional savings tools.

Introducing Saral-2 form back is a good initiative and would make it more Saral for the tax payers to file their IT returns without hassle as the current ITR are not easy for the taxpayers to prepare & file on their own.

In order to make tax compliance process more efficient two more CPCs (Centralized Processing Centre) are proposed to be set up apart from extending “Sevottam” a pilot project at Pune, Kochi and Chandigarh to four more cities in the year. Sevottam provides a single window system for registration of all applications including those for redressal of grievances as well as paper returns.

Long awaited increase in the limits for turnover over which accounts need to be audited is also enhanced to Rs. 60 lakhs for businesses and to Rs. 15 lakhs for professionals as compared to the existing limits of Rs.40 lakh and 10 lakh respectively.

Tax Slabs for 2010-2011

The basic threshold limit for income tax exemption will remain at Rs.1.60 lakh. Under the new proposal, 10 per cent tax will be levied between Rs.1,60,001 and Rs.5,00,000, 20 per cent on incomes between Rs.5,00,001 and Rs.8,00,000 and 30 per cent above Rs.8,00,000.

Apart from this you also get Rs 20,000 additional Tax benefit if you invest in long term Infrastructure Bonds.

Tax Slabs
OLD NEW TAX RATE
Upto Rs.1.6 lakh Upto Rs.1.6 lakh NIL
Rs.1.6 – 3 lakh Rs.1.6 to 5 lakh 10%
Rs.3 – 5 lakh Rs.5 to 8 lakh 20%
ABOVE Rs.5 lakh ABOVE Rs.8 lakh 30%
Tax Slabs
OLD NEW TAX RATE
Upto Rs.1.6 lakh Upto Rs.1.6 lakh NIL
Rs.1.6-3 lakh Rs.1.6 to 5 lakh 10%
Rs.3-5 lakh Rs.5 to 8 lakh 20%
ABOVE Rs.5 lakh ABOVE Rs.8 lakh 30%
  • Exemption Limit for Women : 1.9 Lacs
  • Exemption Limit for Senior Citizen : 2.4 Lacs

How Much do you Save because of New Tax Slab?

Income

Old Slab

New Slab

Your Savings
60,000 0 0 0
3,00,000 14,000 14,000 0
4,00,000 35,020
 24,720
 10,300
5,00,000 55,620
 35,020 20,600
6,00,000
 86,520 55,620 30,900
7,00,000
 117,420
 76,220
 41,200
8,00,000
 148,320 96,820
 51,500
9,00,000 179,220 127,720
 51,500
10,00,000
 210,120 158,620
 51,500

What are your comments on New Tax Slab ? How is it going to Impact you?

This is a guest article written by Mr. Rishabh Parakh who is a Chartered Accountant and Director at MoneyPlant Consulting he had been contributing to leading newspapers like DNA & NavBharat (Money Plant Consulting is a premier outsourcing & a financial services provider which aims to offer solutions for all your financial needs and queries.)

How many Mutual Funds you should have ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Investment in how many mutual funds is enough? Though it depends on individual needs and situation, we can always arrive at a number or a range which should be optimal for a large chunk of mutual funds  investors. Many a times Investors invest in a large number of mutual funds which does not add any additional value to their portfolio most. They have to understand that investing in every new mutual fund coming into the market will not help them in any ways because after a point they have their investment in most of the companies in stock market. In this article lets see how many mutual funds a common man should invest in general.

Reason we buy mutual funds

Before moving forward, let’s understand why do we buy Mutual funds at the first place? We sometimes neglect the basic reason to invest in mutual funds, the reason is very simple:

We invest in Mutual Fund because we have money to invest but we dont have the expertise to invest in Stock Market. We do not want to spend time to manage the investments directly in different stocks and we want to make sure that we diversify our investment across a number of different companies.

Statistics on Number of Mutual funds in a portfolio

I conducted a Poll on this topic and we have some interesting results .

Facts

  • 63% people invested in less than 6 Mutual funds
  • 84% people invested in less than 10 mutual funds
  • 50% people invested in 1-6 mutual funds
  • The maximum number of investors were in the optimal range of 4-6 .
  • Total Vote : 225
  • Average number of Mutual funds : 5.57

If you look closely the graph results mimic binomial distribtution (Ignore this if you don’t understand), which shows that law of numbers apply even to this phenomenon and somewhere the average number of mutual fund converges to the most logical number by default .

Why it does not add much value when you invest in more mutual funds?

Each mutual fund on an average invest in at least 50-60 companies. If you buy 3-4 mutual funds then you are anyways going to invest in close to 100 companies overall (considering there will be some overlaps). So If you buy any equity diversified mutual funds, your money is going to be invested in some of the best companies probably 50-100 of them. Now when you buy another Equity diversified mutual fund there are high chances that the money is going to be invested in almost same set of companies in some proportion, so you are going to invest in same set of companies again. Buying 2nd mutual fund of same category will obviously increase your reach to some companies which were not part of the 1st mutual fund. But now as and when you add 3rd, 4th or 5th mutual fund, you will actually be invested indirectly to same set of companies. The price movement of these companies share prices will be same for all the mutual funds (most probably).

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So what you have to understand is that after a certain point, adding more mutual funds of the same category is of no much value for the portfolio. Adding more number of mutual funds leads to another problem which is tracking problem if you are a kind of investor who buys a mutual funds and just looks at the NAV to find out if you are in profit or loss then you are not doing right thing. Mutual funds investing is very much close to Share investing where you track the instrument, see how it’s performing, what’s going inside the fund, how is fund manager doing, how are they churning the portfolio etc etc. So if you have too many mutual funds in your portfolio, it will be too tough to track them and your portfolio will be very cluttered.

You have to understand that investment of 1 lac in 20 mutual fund will roughly behave in the same way as investment in 5 mutual funds because finally the investment has happened in shares of top companies (roughly the same number of shares), so the investment value is result of the underlying share prices movement and not the number of mutual funds in the portfolio.

Thumb rules:

You can ask two basic questions to yourself to find out if your portfolio size is too big for yourself:

  1. Can you name all the mutual funds in your portfolio and a 2-3 line explanation about what the fund does?
  2. Can you guess roughly how does the movement in stock market affect your corpus in general? If stock market is going to drop or increase by X%, so you have a rough idea of what will happen to your portfolio at a high level?

Example of a Portfolio of Mutual funds

Let’s create a sample portfolio of mutual funds. We will consider ETF’s as a mutual funds for this example:

  • 2-3 Equity diversified Mutual Fund (Tax + Non-Tax saving): See the List
  • 1-2 Debt Fund: See the List
  • 1-2 ETF’s or Index Funds

Note that 2-3 Equity Diversified Mutual funds will cover almost all the big companies in your portfolio. Some ETF or index fund will give index level exposure and make sure you invest in top companies. Debt funds will add exposure to Debt part and no-correlation with Equity.

Most of the people do not invest in the same old fund they have bought, they feel that buying every other mutual funds in market will some way help them earn extra returns which is far from truth. Consistency in investment and faith in one of the good funds you have chosen is the right way to invest in mutual fund.

How having more than one Mutual fund in portfolio reduces the risk?

You have to understand the concept of standard deviation, it’s nothing but risk and return potential from mutual funds point of view. So a single mutual fund has the highest standard deviation and the risk and return can be very high. Adding more funds will help in reducing the standard deviation of the portfolio. As per Morning Star Research (Many thanks to Hemant Beniwal for sharing this)

After 4 funds, the effect of adding another fund diminished. It’s still noticeable, but not so dramatic. After 7 funds, things have mostly leveled out and after 10 funds, a portfolio’s standard deviation stays nearly the same regardless of how many funds you add. Thus, once you own between 7 and 10 funds, there may be no need for more. In fact, the more funds you own, the more likely you are to own at least a couple that do practically the same thing. That could be a drag on your returns because if you have multiple funds doing the same thing, one is likely to be better than the others. Focus on the superior fund and you’ll get better returns .

How do you Buy Mutual Funds? [POLL]

Comments, Please comment on what do you think is the optimal number of mutual funds?

Force Selling combined with other financial products

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Can some one force you to buy ULIPs when you take a loan from the bank? I am seeing very unethical things going on in financial world these days in India. Lot’s of people are complaining that many companies are selling junk things like Endowment plans or ULIPs (which make big commissions) along with big loans or something big where a small ULIP might look like “Ok, let’s take this small thing for that big thing”. But this is not right! This is breaking the faith and such practices are against the principal of  utmost good faith!             Let’s see some real life cases:

Force Selling along with Loan Approval

I had to take this policy without knowing any details about this, as the Barclays finance company said this is mandatory for approving any loan , not sure how far it is correct. But as I was running out of time, i opted for it.

Force Selling along with Locker Facility

I requested for a locker in ICICI Bank in Hydderabad, VIdyanagar Branch, and they said there is lot of people in queue for lockers so they cant give me. But if I invbest in ULIP or make a FD of 5-10 Lakhs he said they will consider my Locker request on priority. This is forced selling and I told them straightaway that making investments for a locker is ridiculous reason and stayed away. I wish I could complain this to somebody but there is no written proof of they asking for investing in ULIP as it was verbal conversation.

Force Selling along with Home Loan

I thought banks like SBI would be straight in their clauses. I had a difficult experience recently with my loan.

 

Pre-Processing Blues:

The loan agent who works in my office, did not have any clue on the terms and conditions on loan. He was a retired officer from SBI and used his position to leverage the file movement. One fine day, he asked for payment against the services rendered (It was a shock to me). I guess, he would be getting some service fee on my loan from Bank already. I gave some required papers for gaurantor to him which was not in my file. I think he lost them. I reduced my loan amount during processing, for which I had submitted the request letter. Upon my loan approval, I noticed that there is a 1.9 Lakh additional loan sanctioned for me and added to the loan amount. I had declined the insurnace cover for the loan as I had planned to cover it on yoy basis. I discussed this with the manager and he agreed to waive it.

Next, the gauranor must be present when you go to sign the papers. I managed to get the gaurantor to accompany me during early morning hours.

Forcibly Selling SBI-Insurance with the Loan

I saw that Insurance cover has not been removed and the SBI person would not agree to waive it even when i told that i would buy SBI insurance policy. I was told that I need to go to branch where I applied for loan and get the approval from bank manager and then it will again go for approval in the loan processing center. After a lot of persuation with the sanctioning office and Chief manager, I managed to convince for a year on year insurance cover which I had to buy for this year on the spot.

Further, I was told that my this year loan is fixed for 8% ( I was happy that I was wise in choosing SBI) then I was updated that my loan is fixed at 9.75% for next 4 years. No one had told us this clause until we went for signing. We had asked this question from clerk to Manager level. No one had a clarity on it but the clause was there in the documents and I had no option but to sign it. In the recessionary situations, I understand that the rates will look further south but I will be stuck at 9.75 for next 4 years.

Otherwise, I am kind of satisfied with the pace and professionalism of officers but I feel that more transparency in the terms and condition is must.

Moral of the story: Read all the clauses before you go to sign and do not be satisfied if you do not get an answer. Private or Public banks – every one has clauses in fine prints that suits the bank and there is no one to tell you about them.

Link to original comment

Force selling along with Opening NRE Account

About a year ago, a 70-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI) woman went to one of the largest private sector banks in the country to open a non-resident external (NRE) account. While opening the account, an executive from the bank lured the lady into buying a co-branded insurance product under the pretext of ‘mandatory’ rules. He also told her that she will have to pay the amount of Rs10 lakh only once. With no option left for opening the account, the lady obliged and left for her overseas home.

“When that lady returned after 12 months, she was asked to pay one more premium for the insurance plan. Since the bank would not return the money which she had paid for the first premium, she was again forced to pay the second instalment for the insurance policy that was forced upon her,” revealed an independent financial advisor (IFA). Read full article

Another Case of force selling along with transfer of loan

I also also seen a case where one guy wanted to transfer his Home loan (ICICI Bank)  from Pune to Delhi and just for this , he was being forced to buy an ULIP from the officials who would be helping him in the paper work , other wise his work was stuck . At last when he approched Delhi branch , his work was done smoothly . So in this case the officials were forcing the unsuitable product.

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How to Complain for the Force Selling

To tackle such increasing fraudulent cases, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced a banking ombudsman scheme under Section 35 (A) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The Act is in effect from 1995. A customer can register a complaint with an ombudsman if no reply is received from the bank within one month or if the bank rejects the complaint, or if the customer is not satisfied with the reply given by the bank. If a complaint is not settled within one month, the banking ombudsman may pass an award up to Rs10 lakh or to the extent of the losses suffered by the customer up to Rs10 lakh, whichever amount is lower. Between the years 2002-06, the banking ombudsman has settled around 36,000 complaints.

Conclusion

This is nothing but a form of corruption happening in Financial world these days. Sellers are thinking that loans are critical things for everyone and in order to let them happen smooth they can force people by miss-selling them, they feel like people in India are anyways frustrated with other things, what will they do? They will enquire a bit and then finally they will lose the patience and just buy the products and that happens. But please don’t let this happen. Raise your voice, ask explanation, demand proof and evidence, threaten them to complain and take matter higher to banking ombusdsman and consumer court etc. I am sure they will budge after some time.

Even on this blog which discussing PPF account opening at SBI we came to know that SBI bank officials sometimes force PPF account openers to start a Saving Bank account at SBI, which is a form of force selling.

Comments, please share some live examples you know of? Has this happened to you? What can be done to solve? Come unite and share ideas, you can leave a mark!!

Prevention is better than Cure even in Personal Finance

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” I see that most of the people these days have bought wrong products like ULIPs, ULPPs, Endowment Policies and unsuitable Mutual funds (which they are not aware of most of the times) and then when they do come to know about it, they don’t have much choice left.

They either have to live with it or they have to lose a lot of money to correct the situation.

In this article we will see some thoughts on why we should focus more on “Prevention” and not “Solutions” for a bad situation from Financial planning perspective.

personal finance

A Small Story

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.

Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally! The day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all.

He told his father about it and the father suggested to the boy that he should now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence and said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.

It won’t matter how many times you say “I’m sorry”, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.

They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.”

The Story is encouraging and gives an important message. We all make decisions in life. Some of these decisions can prove very unhealthy. We make mistakes and then when we come to know about it, we try to figure out ways to fix the problem.

Making mistakes is not a wrong thing, we all do it at some point in life and taking measures to cure it is another great thing. But it will some times have drastic impact on you and your money.

Some of the mistakes we make are

Watch this video of 4 biggest financial mistakes related to personal finance that every investor should avoid :

ULIPS

A lot of readers of this blog were sold ULIPs (they didn’t bought it, it was sold to them) without telling them the costs involved and sometimes promised with wrong returns (it was just an illustration and dependent on market condition, agents just said it was guaranteed).

Now when they come to know about it, they stop the premium payment and get out of it at right time, this getting cure for the problem but the damage has happened. You might not realise it, but the damage is big, some people have lost close to 80,000 – 1,00,000 in premiums or in costs.

One of the person I know has paid 4-5 lacs in premium and 60% was the cost in first year. Now he stopped the policy, that’s a loss of 2.5 lacs. If that same money is invested in some good Mutual funds for next 20 yrs and if we expect a return of 12%, it’s 24 lacs at the end.

This is opportunity cost. RS.2.5 lacs might look like a small or “chalta hai” kind of amount, think again, it’s opportunity you have lost. The amount can differ for different people but the lesson remains same.

Insurance

Another case can be of Insurance, most of us are still under-insured, even now!! Even after we know that Term Insurance is what we should take, still we are underinsured, that’s the risk. Once the disaster happens, it will be too late, you will never get the chance to cure it.

In fact you will not be there in this world to cure it and the outcome will be very horrible which you might not want to imagine.

Endowment Plans

Same with Endowment Policies, Investors who have taken Endowment Policies and are paying 50,000 per year for next 25 yrs. They do not realise what they are missing. You get 5-6% returns, that’s all! forget what agents promised or what was told to you. Endowment and money back plans are world-famous for “not able to beat the inflation” kind of returns.

So you are missing long-term equity returns of 12% at the least. So you are loosing 6% worth of returns. That’s loss of 45 lacs for the example I just gave you in long-term, what is the reason you lost that much, just simple laziness of not taking the action of “change” and restricting your mentality of “Equity is Risky”, that’s incorrect at least for long-term.

Late Investing

No matter what you always have some money to invest when you start. If you don’t want to invest, there will always be enough reasons to not have savings. Almost 99% of the people can live with their 90% of salary, whether they believe or not. Earning less is not a crime, it’s part of life, save what ever you can save, even Rs 100 is ok, but do something.

Some people can save more than 30-40% of their salary, but they are not doing anything about this! Don’t underestimate the power of early investing, Early investing is so powerful that it can compensate for big mistakes in investing later in life. If you are a 25 yr old person who needs 2 crores at retirement at age 60.

Assuming 12% return, you just need to invest  Rs.6,000 per month to reach your retirement target. Imagine what happens if you feel that you can do a little late, how does it matter and all and actually start 5 yrs late, with the same saving of 6,000 per month, you will have just half of your retirement target, that’s 2 crores.

Imagine the cost of saving late by 5 yrs, You have to but down each of your retirement thing by 50%. That can be a big hit!!

What is the Solution

Taking measures to fix your messy situation is worth appreciation and we all should do it if we get into it. But on the first hand why to get in a messy situation. You don’t need to do fancy things to be in healthy financial condition.

A simple 5 things can save you from disaster

Just practice these 5 Mantra’s and almost all of mistakes you make will go away.

Comments, what do you think about this? Please share your views.

How to look beyond short term returns in Mutual Funds

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Want to buy a mutual funds which has given 105% return in 2009? Go ahead… How do most of the people choose a mutual fund? Let us try it once! Go to Valueresearchonline.com and find Top 10 funds across all the equity funds with 1 yrs performance. Below is the example of the page I got. So all these funds have given more than 100% return over the last 1 yr. Now it’s pretty simple to choose them, right? Just pick any of them and you have done your “Investment Planning”!!…… Far from the truth! Most of the mutual funds starts advertising their mutual funds “great” performance just after a strong market. They will claim that their fund has 1st rank in some blah blah category and they have the unique way of investing and what not. Let us see in this article, how we should look at short-term performing mutual funds and evaluate them on different parameters.

How Mutual Funds are marketed

Let’s take a case of “JM Emerging Leaders” Mutual Fund. Try to look at the points which a Mutual funds company can use to attract customers and What is the reason for each of them.

Its one of the 10 funds on the return parameter out of thousands of Mutual funds in this planet. Its 1 yr return is 144%.

 

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True! But what are the reason for this? The fund is extremely risky, risky to the extent you can’t imagine! The fund portfolio looks like this:

Mid Cap: 56.18%

Small Cap: 43.82%

(as of Feb 7, 2010)

Now what else do you expect from a fund which has all 100% of its money in Either Mid cap or Small Cap companies which moves like crazy after a big bear market? If the fund is so great in 1 yr parameter, what is the reason its overall return since it came in existence is -5% (negative return in last 5 yrs)? The answer is simple, the fund is exposes to too much Risk. In order to get extremely high returns, it’s exposing itself largely to risk that the returns over long-term will be unstable and probably low.

The fund beats it’s benchmark and category average returns by huge margin

This happens for the same reasons we talked above. Benchmark is an Index and it’s returns are not based on some one’s judgement or decisions, but mutual fund returns are!! Fund manager decides how aggressively they want to invest, so if today the fund has beaten it’s benchmark or Category in positive side, tomorrow when there will be disaster, it will beat it’s benchmark by huge margin on the negative side and the performance will be much lower than the benchmark, it’s called Beta

Mutual funds high returns myth

NAV more than doubled in 1 year

Again an idiotic comment, it’s all about return, the fund has made 105% return in 2009, but what is NAV value? Ans: 7. something % . It’s 5 yrs in existence now, started from NAV of 10 and still its at 7.something. At one time in 2009 the NAV went down to Rs 2.9, this 144% year in last 1 yr has helped it come back to 7.something levels now and still the returns are the marketing factors. I am wondering how it manages to get so much of investment (Fund has 262 crores of Net Asset Value as of 31/01/2010). Who is putting all the money in this?

What are the Two important factors you can look at and make a quick opinion

Lets talk about two main things

  • Mean
  • Standard Deviation or Volatility

Mean: Mean is nothing but the average of returns over a particular time. It tells us how much can we expect over a period from the mutual fund. It’s important to look at Mean (average) of Mutual funds return so that we have an average expectation. For some period we can get 20% return, for some period we can get 10% and for some we can get -15% also. But we have to concentrate on the average. Look at average return from Equity in Long run from Indian Markets

Standard Deviation : Now this is some thing we never see, what is this? Looks like a scary term from our school maths, but dont worry, it’s very easy thing to understand. Its nothing, but how much deviation you can expect from the average. To clear the point, understand that (10,12) and (1,21), both have average of 11 but standard deviation of (1,21) is high because both the values are at much distance from their average of 11. In that same way if we have two mutual funds say Mutual fund A, which has given returns of 20% and 30% in 2 yrs and we have mutual fund B, which has given return of -10% and 60% in 2 yrs,  both of them have average of 25% (simple average), but the second mutual funds B has higher standard deviation compared to A. What it means is that its more risky, the return range of B is higher. This is directly related to risk/reward. It’s very risky and very rewarding compared to mutual fund A. So it does not suit general investors who need high and consistent returns.

Look at List of Best Equity mutual funds and Debt mutual Funds

What to look at in mutual funds

So over a long term, we have to choose funds which are higher in Return and Lesser in Risk . That mean is there are two Funds X and Y, we have to look which has higher Mean and lower Standard deviation in returns. This is not true for investors who have extremely high risk appetite and want to take extra risk, in that case this will not be very much recommended.

Make sure you dont calculate these things on just 2-3 data points, make sure you have enough (at least 10-12 numbers) so that its more accurate. In the Table Below I have taken two funds which I consider BAD  and 2 Funds which are GOOD and their quarterly returns from Q1 2006 – Q4 2009 (16 quarters) and finally calculated the Standard Deviation and Mean.

 

Fund Names BAD FUNDS Average of BAD FUNDS Average of GOOD FUNDS GOOD FUNDS
JM Emerging Leaders-G Magnum IT HDFC Top 200-G DSPBR Top 100 Eqt Reg-G
Quarters Return in % for 1 quarter

 

Return in % for 1 quarterQ1 200616.196.9911.5921.6720.3522.98Q2 2006-13.69-7.53-10.61-10.09-10.83-9.34Q3 2006-0.6618.438.8916.9317.516.35Q4 20061.1529.0215.0911.01913.01Q1 2007-8.981.63-3.68-4.27-4.93-3.61Q2 200722.266.4114.3416.5915.1518.03Q3 200723.4-10.046.6815.8716.7514.99Q4 200741.659.325.4823.4620.8626.06Q1 2008-40.36-26.34-33.35-23.78-22.53-25.03Q2 2008-13.84-2.24-8.04-11.04-12.25-9.83Q3 2008-25.45-20.02-22.740.892.89-1.12Q4 2008-48.73-37.83-43.28-20.2-21.86-18.53Q1 2009-16.26-10.24-13.250.52-0.271.31Q2 200981.5858.2769.9347.4155.3339.49Q3 200924.837.6131.2119.3819.4819.27Q4 20098.3915.7712.085.085.065.09Standard Deviation

32.2424.3827.0718.3919.5717.47Mean3.224.323.776.846.866.82

 

Interpretation of the numbers

So you can see the Standard deviation and mean of returns for 2 Bad Funds and 2 Good funds and their mean return and mean standard deviation in a single quarter. So you can see that Bad funds have given return of around 3.77% per quarter on average (simple average , not compounded one) and the standard deviation is 27.07%, which means that it can deviate up to 27.07% on the upside or downside with 68% chances. (forget the maths, you have to go into probability and normal distribution and all those things, interested people can look for this link to get more insight on this. Similarly the good funds would return on an average 6.84% every quarter with deviation of 18.39% on upside or downside with 68% probability.

Conclusion

So, the conclusion of this whole mind boggling exercise is that we should understand that short-term performance of mutual funds is not where we should aim! We should properly evaluate the fund performance with different parameters. We should also concentrate on volatility and risk exposed by the mutual fund.

POLL (please vote, It will help me write a new post)

Comments please. Please share your views on how do you feel about Mutual funds with short-term performance ?

How to Open a PPF account at SBI Bank

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Most of us want to open a PPF account, but keep postponing it just because we don’t know the requirement of doing so? It seen that majority people open their PPF account with State Bank of India. Let us see 3 easy steps of opening a PPF account in SBI branch.  The whole process does not take more than 30-45 minutes if you prepared in advance and go with all the documents that are required and there are no road blocks in between. The biggest advantage of opening the PPF account with SBI is the online transaction facility you can use to deposit in your PPF account online and dont have to rush to the branch every now and then. Read why you should open a PPF account in SBI even if you dont need it right now.

3 Steps of Opening a PPF Account in SBI Bank

PPF account in SBI

1) Choose a SBI branch which is authorized to go government business.

Usually any ‘large’ branch with lots of customers should be able to this! Usually newer and smaller branches may not have this clearance facility. One doesn’t need to have a Saving Bank  account in that branch. Locate your nearest SBI Branch using this

2) Procure and submit PPF account opening form and Identity/address Proofs

It would only 3 minutes to fill. Choose a nominee and get a witness signature. Now you have to submit anyone of following Proofs.

  • Passport
  • Pan card
  • Driving license
  • Voter id
  • Ration card
  • Two Passport Size Photographs

Any government issued identity card or address proof should work. Keep originals for proof in hand to simplify the verification if needed. That’s it. The bank should now be able to open the account. Usually it may take about 20 minutes or so.

3) Get PPF Passbook

A pay-in slip needs to be filled and the initial subscription needs to be credited into your account. A passbook similar to a Saving Book passbook will be issued with your photo affixed and the nominee’s name stated.  PPF rules can be found on the back. This is all, your PPF account in SBI is opened now.

How to Link your Online SBI Account to SBI PPF account for Online Transaction

If you have an online SBI account, you can add the PPF account as a third party account for transferring money directly. As mentioned above the PPF account can be in any SBI branch. There are no processing charges for doing this transfer. When you do this online for the first time, go to the bank and update your PPF passbook and check if the transaction has occurred correctly. This has to be done since you cannot look at the amount in the PPF account as yet in SBI. This is a major drawback of SBI-PPF (and post office) accounts.

A standing instruction maybe issued from your online account for auto-credit to PPF. However there are two disadvantages

  • Rarely there maybe system failures and the standing instruction may not get honoured. So you need to check if it has occurred.
  • You cannot subscribe a lower amount if you need the cash for emergency use (this situation wont arise if you had an emergency fund )
  • You need to go to the bank to cancel the standing instruction .

There are only 12 credit transaction allowed per year. So take care of this before issuing a standing instruction.

How to Transfer your PPF account from One Bank to Another

  • Go to the branch where you want to transfer your PPF account and deposit an application with your PPF passbook
  • takes 10-15 minutes

How to Submit Proof for Tax

Take xerox of the PPF passbook updated with all transactions and get it attested in the branch. (not sure if the attestation is really required) [ Update 5th Feb, thanks for Mithilesh ]

Other points to Consider

Subscriptions must be made before the 5th of every month for the amount to taken into account for interest calculation for that month. If you want to open a PPF accoun in the name of a minor in addition to yours, the total PPF investment limit is Rs. 1,00,000. The total tax benefit is also the same. This is a new rule and is not yet printed in the PPF passbooks! See Here, Here and Here for more detail

Comments please. Are you going to Open a PPF accoun this year? Do you feel one should open a PPF account at Post Office?