Category: General

2nd Batch of Investor’s Boot Camp starts on 25th Nov 2013

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Let us remind you again that – Personal finance is not about knowing things, it is about getting things done in your financial life. In other words, It’s all about taking required actions and steps to be in control of your financial life. Now, we know that life throws several responsibilities at you and TIME is the BIGGEST constraint/problem/challenge to complete personal finance pending actions.

To make things doable, we experimented something called Investor’s bootcamp some weeks ago and 33 investors joined our first batch. The boot camp really took all of us with a surprise, we integrated personal finance with social media (yes it happens on your favorite place facebook).

While you hangout on facebook, you will be able to gain key personal finance insights and you will be equipped to complete important personal finance actions in your financial life. Some of the participants had the best personal finance actions days, while they were in the Investors boot camp. It is amazing experience learning from other’s financial life while you are in boot camp. We (Nandish and Manish) will be there throughout the journey guiding you to take actions in each week.

6 weeks investors bootcamp by Jagoinvestor

2nd Batch of Investors Bootcamp from Nov 25, 2013

Today, we are launching 2nd batch of our investor boot camp and we invite those who wants to GIFT a NEW financial future to one self, to those who think it’s high time they get in ACTION, to those who want to expand their actions domain along with knowledge domain when it comes to personal finance.

What is Investors Bootcamp ?

Jagoinvestor Bootcamps is a life changing experience for investors. For 6 weeks, investors who are waiting for doing something concrete in their financial life come together and work on their financial life with help of Jagoinvestor Team on facebook group. Each Week – one area of their financial life is taken and whole group work for the whole week investors work on that area of their financial life. A group structure helps them to learn from each other’s financial life, get accountable to their promises made on bootcamp group. The interactions are rich in nature and deeply meaningful for everyone. If you have been waiting for long time to improve your financial life, its a great way to work on your financial life. Its much powerful than a financial plan because of group structure.

Listen to the audio below to understand what is Bootcamp.

[button link=”#register” color=”#38CFCF” size=”3″ style=”1″ dark=”1″ square=”1″] Register for Bootcamp[/button]

What happens inside Investors Bootcamp ? Here are some Snapshots!

Inside Bootcamp

What Bootcamp Graduate’s Have to Say

“Its going to be a million dollar worth asset for You”

I heard all the 10 audios .Really am speechless when i want to thank you guys for those wonderful audios.If i say your audios are excellent,amazing,marvellous then those words would be the least meant for admiring your words in those audios.I dont think simply you guys are doing your work since we paid.Your words are something beyond that.It shows the real meaning of humanity.It makes me to realise your bond towards the society.

As u said in your audios,you are SERVING us by making ourselves to realise the importance of SLOWNNESS,to be OUTCOME centric,to focus on NETWORTH,to concentrate on what MATTERS,how to CREATE,necessity of COMMITMENT,the vision of BIG game,mindset of playing to WIN,the need of ZERO tolerance I don know how many times am going to hear your audios again and again.I wont stop till i get the complete fruit out of it.Surely i could say these audios are going to be a game changer in my life.I like to thank Nandish and Manish for the quality of their work which helps for the persons like me to grow in their lives.

Friends ,those who got access to these audios ,please dont miss it.Its going to be a million dollar worth asset for u. Thank you.

Sriram Chennaswami

“Not only improve financial life, but also the whole way of your life”

Today I heard all 10 audios! Speachless…. Its not because that all these are superb, yes – it is! , but inspite of all these, these words not only improve financial life but also the whole way of your life. ZINDGI JEENE KA NAZRIYA HI BADAL DETE HAI. I want to start a business after 1 year. For that I wanted use this year to gain more and more knowledge information. Today I learned my first chapter from your audios – ‘PLAY TO WIN ‘ .

Yss – I’ll try my best to follow this principle . ‘Amazing things to realise’ – Thanx to Nandish & Manish..

Dr Minakshi

“It made me look deep into the earnings from the seven years of work life”

Hi Everyone,

First of all, a remembrance to the father of our nation Mr. M. K. Gandhi and to our second prime minister Mr. L. B. Shastri. Whatever their lives and times were, what stands out is that they put the nation in front of their own self. May the message of unity spread by them continue to remind the masses that true happiness lies is helping others grow with us with no boundaries of race, caste, creed, religion, nation or species.

Now to the Week 7 task, Experience till now:

First, I did like to give a look back on how I landed in this forum and then proceed towards the experience of being a member of it. My first encounter with JI was through an email sent by a friend, an article written by Manish on the JI website. One article led to another and before I knew it, I had gained a lot of financial know how on topics I always shyed away from, more like Darsheel Safary in Taree Zameen Par. It truly felt like Aamir Khan teaching the kid in the movie. The simplicity of the language used and the non financial analogies to the concepts made it fun to read and understand. Before long, I had subscribed for email updates on their website and was also following them on the Facebook page. Articles kept coming, I kept reading them and I was beginning to look at Personal Finance in a whole different way. But I must confess, I did not always act upon these articles and most of the time, bookmarked them for later read. By now, I had also hit upon the books written by Manish and Nandish, flipping page after page of immense experience being shared, working through the exercises and relating them to the position I was in and wanted to be at. So, when the mail for registration to this unique Facebook based Bootcamp came up, I knew, this was surely going to help. I did not obviously know the content or the methodology, but I had the confidence. So, I signed up. What followed is explained below.

Wee k0 was thought provoking to say the least. It made me look deep into the earnings from the seven years of work life and arrive at the pros and cons of every financial choice done during those years. If I was a movie producer, I would never accept the script. However, like most things in life, I took the full responsibility to the situation I was in and made a commitment to rework and improve my situation.

Week1 was an eye opener. Thinking is good, especially with past experiences being factual. But if you haven’t written it down, you haven’t done anything. So, if I did not know where my money was flowing, I wouldn’t know which control valve to adjust. So, with all numbers on the excel, I could see why the script of Week0 was so flawed. I knew I had to cut corners, but more importantly I had to make some important lifestyle changes. So, another commitment to look at financial life as an important part of physical life and not as an offshoot.

Week2 was like faith restored. When we start with something new, before even the first step is taken, we are hit by the single most dangerous question of all ‘What if I fail?’. So, security or fall back or whatever we term it can be the only answer. The importance of Life Insurance was well established. But is the investment cost per lakh of insurance justified? Term Insurance was the answer. I went back to correct the traditional policies in-force and then invest in the term policies. Though life was the key asset in focus, importance of personal health insurance policies, over and above the coverage provided through companies we work at and the importance of emergency funds were very well explained. I have since worked on these two aspects as well. Biggest learning which I have never seen highlighted in any other forum was that having insurance is not a license to play with your life. Health is still the biggest wealth. Another commitment, this time to work on health and fitness.

Week3 was Dream Big Week. Dreams, dreams and more dreams, but at a price. So, we had to set targets and work on investing regularly towards these targets. The pit falls of saving up without investing was an eye opener. And the idea of one investment per dream made so much sense. This is when, I felt that current earnings is not enough and I was no where close to making the money work for me. Like any sport, when in doubt, ask the coach and the coach did restore faith. ‘Start small and stay at it’ and ‘You can only try, win or lose is always a chance’. It was also assuring to see that most of us had similar thoughts and were assuring each other with positive feedback. Commitment this time, work on investments as a habit and not when forced to.

Week4 gave another threat. Reminded me of Yuvraj Singh’s ad ( http://www.campaignindia.in/… ), and to quote: ‘Jab tak balla chal raha hai, tab tak thath hai. Jis din balla nahi chalega, us din….’. Although his come back to the game is inspirational, his struggle through cancer is a big warning. Anyways, the point being, money does not grow in trees and most definitely, does not pour with the rain. You got to earn it, and what when you can no longer earn it, among other reasons, for you no longer are capable of competitive work? Retirement Planning should definitely be the most important aspect of anybody’s financial life. But yeah, I could see more investments coming, but could also see that less money is available to invest. What do to? Stick to commitment made in Week2, trying to ensure longer work life while investing whatever was feasible towards this goal. Also, a new commitment to never take a job for granted. Stay competitive in whatever you do, lest everything breaks loose.

Week5 was frankly a breather. With some good habits inculcated at home (like being organised with things under your possession), most documents were in order, neatly filed and stored in an easily accessible, but important place. But wait, like other things, storage has also evolved. So, why not use the Internet to make it ‘access-anywhere’ and also, confide the details in a confidant so that, god forbid, if you cannot access it, somebody else can. Like common sense, simple things, but highly uncommon. No new commitment, but to continually review and update this section.

Week6, I could sense this coming. It had to be something to simplify things further. Technology to the rescue again. Automating the banking tasks was never this easy and in this era where businesses run out of a single laptop or even a tablet/mobile, we had to get smarter too. So, some tasks to work on and I was able to automate most aspects of the financial plan.

Week7, did I see a ‘break’ in the title? But wait, how is it a break if we still have to play competitive and win a book? Feels like school holidays!! No school, but you still have home work

That’s the experience so far and looking back, it’s been a wonderful six weeks. It would be injustice to end this note without thanking our wonderful coaches Manish Chauhan and Nandish Desai! Thank you sirs! None of this would have been possible without your efforts!

Anyways, it is the ‘Joy of Giving Week’ and I hope that along with the tasks in our financial program, we also take some time off and do our bit for the under-privileged and the not-so-privileged.

Nanaiah Bayavanda

“This Bootcamp has made me acutely aware of the pitfalls that I had”

I too started with a lot of apprehensions on this bootcamp. My major question was this – I have already taken personal Financial Coaching/Advice from Nandish and Manish just last year and have gotten significant benefits from that. How will this be better? How will this be any different than what they have done earlier? etc. Eventually, I entered this game for one purpose only and that was to improve the RIGOUR and DISCIPLINE into my Financial life.
I also felt that I can take back the learning that I get here into other areas of my life.

So far, this Bootcamp has made me acutely aware of the pitfalls that I had. The single biggest issue that I have struggled with is to have a proper budget in place, and keeping track of my expenses. All this time, my excuse was “anyway I have a lot of disposable income, so, why should I track where I’m spending”?

This whole thing dramatically shifted after I bought an apartment in Dec 2012, and I had to start paying an EMI of 88k per month! Suddenly, all the values of budgeting came up and hit me pretty hard as I was struggling to meet my expenses for the past 8 months. So, since the past 2 months, I have been tracking expenses on a daily basis. I also convinced my wife to manage the Household expenses, and keep track of all the stuff that we spend. To my horror and shock, I see huge gaping holes that I did not even know existed, and this is something that I’m realizing how TOTALLY BLIND I was!

Another takeaway for me has been the whole experience of Automating… Will share more about this in another post soon.

Venkatesh Kumar

 

Get FREE BONUS Worth Rs 4,000 with Bootcamp

Bonus #1 – 100 moneyactions Program

100 money actions Program is our flagship program for taking lots of actions in financial life. We given this Rs 1,999 worth of program complementary to all bootcampers!. Listen to the Welcome Message for 100 moneyactions Program below

Bonus #2 – 10 part Audio Program

We also give a 10 part audio program worth Rs 1,999 with this bootcamp which is a life time experience for investors. In these audio’s you will learn how RICH people think and what makes poor investors always poor. Listen to one sample Audio here

Missed 2nd Episode of Plan F – Watch it here !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Did you miss 2nd and 1st episode of the show Plan F – Your Financial Fitness Plan. We have been working from last few months with DSP Blackrock team, to create this personal finance show. Each week one of Jagoinvestor reader features in the show, where Cyrus Broacha talks to them about their financial life to add some fun element and then 2 IFA’s from industry give their expert comments on the case study and finally at the end someone from Jagoinvestor Team (Either Me or Nandish) give 3 insights which others can learn from the case study financial life.

It is the first time some known figure like Cyrus has been introduced to the world of personal finance and it has created quite a stir in the world of mutual funds on what Cyrus is doing in these kind of shows. Personal finance is generally perceived as Boring thing and introducing Cyrus would bring in some fun element to the show. He talks to the participants of the show in his own style and also digs out more about their financial life in his own style.

Shooing for the show in Mumbai

All the IFA’s, Jagoinvestor Team and the case studies travel to Mumbai and we are enjoying a lot together. We have fun talking and it is one of its kind to see how these kind of shows become a reality. We are also happy to meet our readers and have their contributions in making this show a reality.

Two episodes are already aired and we have got some praises and appreciations from readers and other viewers . If you were not able to watch them on CNBC TV 18 due to some issue, not a problem , here are those episodes on youtube. Watch them below

Episode 2 – Case study of Shreekumari Dholakia from Mumbai

You should watch the full episode and look at the views of Shreekumari on how “expenses” are so much part of life from birth to death and her passion towards financial freedom.


Watch on Youtube directly

Episode 1 – Case study of Mr. Ramesh Jalan from Kolkata

If you missed the 1st episode too .. you can watch it here below


Watch on Youtube directly

Watch 3rd Episode 9th Nov (Sat 7 pm)

You should watch the 3rd episode coming on next Sat 7 pm (repeat telecast Sun 8 pm). The 3rd episode is going to feature Mr. Ramkumar who is from Mumbai , a self employed personal. You can watch the promo of 3rd episode below

Download Some Bonus Material

We have created a mutual fund guide which is given as downloadable PDF to everyone, along with 12 financial literacy content in form of PDF’s (created by Jagoinvestor). You can download them by registering at below links

Download Mutual Fund Guide – Click Here
Download 12 investment lessons – Click Here

Register at these links and you can get the PDF’s . Let us know what you think about the show overall.

Plan F – Personal finance TV show on CNBC TV 18 powered by Jagoinvestor

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

This Diwali is going to be special for us, for our readers and for all investors. It is special because for the next few weeks we will get a chance to step into investor’s living room (with their kind permission of course). From the last couple of months we have been working on a personal finance television show which is all set to roll out from this weekend (Saturday 7 pm and repeat Sunday 8 pm).

We are totally thrilled and excited to share about this new initiative, which we are sure, will light-up lives of many investors. The name of the show is “Plan F” which is an initiative by DSP Blackrock Mutual fund.

Why this show is SPECIAL? (Some highlights)

Here are some of the points we want to highlight.

1. Jagoinvestor Reader gets a chance to make a difference

All the people who are going to feature on the show are going to be readers of jagoinvestor.com. Some weeks back you send a mail to all the jagoinvestor readers (who are on our email list) to apply for appearing on show and fill up a form. We picked some readers who were truly leaders and they wanted to do some real sharing on the show and also met the criteria and profiles required for the show. We are extremely happy with the commitment and enthusiasm of all those who are going to feature.

The case studies are 100% real and from each episode you will find something that you will be able to relate to your financial life. If invite you to little bit rewind or fast forward your financial life so that you can relate to each episode and can draw some key learning’s.

2. This TV Show is powered by Jagoinvestor

We have been involved in the overall design of the show since its inception and the program has a wonderful structure;  It has fun element, powerful advice (from best 20 industry experts) and some jagoinvestor guidelines/insights at the end of each show. You will see either of us (Nandish or Manish) at the end of each show giving some powerful learnings from the episode.

Also the show viewers will get a chance to download some useful material at the end of each show. Here is the 1st Episode Promo to watch out on this Saturday 7:00 PM (26th Oct, 2013). Mr. Ramesh Jalan, a reader of jagoinvestor, who will be appearing on the 1st episode.

If you are not able to see videos on email, please Click here to visit the article on web

3. Personal Finance turns COOL from BORING

A lot of people think personal finance is boring and they tend to avoid watching or reading about personal finance show. This show is going to be a game changer. It has a strong fun element in it. This show has a segment of Cyrus Broacha, who is a TV anchor, theater personality, political satirist, columnist and author. He is best known for his show “MTV Bakra”, he is going to add a whole new dimension to “Plan F” show. After meeting Cyrus, we realized that personal finance can be the coolest thing on this planet. Cyrus is one of the most humorous person to watch and he is going to have ice-breaking conversation with all the show participants. Below is the promo for the show with him

DSP Blackrock Team truly ROCKS

The program “Plan F” is part of visionary Asset Management Company DSP Blackrock Mutual Fund. It has been more than a year we are in touch with this Mutual Fund House and they really want to make real difference in investor’s financial life. We have many friends in DSP Blackrock, who have put in a lot of hard work to make this show a reality. We thank the top management (Someone who is an inspiration) and the entire team of DSP Blackrock for making us part of this initiative. We also thank the creative team of CNBC TV 18 for all their creative inputs and effort. Below is a short promo done by Jagoinvestor Team (Manish & Nandish). Do watch it below

We NEED your support to make this show a grand success?

This show is made with a lot of honesty and effort and we really want it to reach more and more investors. Like a small budget good performance oriented movie, this show also needs your support and love so that more and more people watch the show. You can do your bit by sharing about this show and it’s timing with your close friends and family members with the help of social media, sms or email, whom you think will benefit from this show.

For Continuous Updates about “Plan F”:

We will keep sharing about the show updates with you from time to time but for regular updates you can click here and can be a part of our Jagoinvestor facebook Page. Here we will share some behind the scene pictures and we can also hear your key take-away from each episode.

For more information on Plan F show – Visit www.dspblackrock.com/PlanF.aspx

Lastly, we thank all those who have been directly or indirectly part of this initiative. They say that at Disney even the babies who take birth during the making of any Disney movie are acknowledged at the end of the movie. We want to acknowledge all our readers and their love for making this show a reality and for sharing about the show with more and more people. You can share in the comments section how you intend to help us reach the show to more and more people, also you can be in touch with us on facebook group for regular updates.

Beware of Fake Email Scams asking for password & Critical information – Its a trap !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Some days back one of our readers forwarded an email to me, which he got in the name of SBI Bank and it was about some new scheme or feature launched. All he had to do was login to his account by clicking on the LINK given inside the email. He asked me over the email if this mail was genuine or fake ? You can see the snapshot of the email below.

Fake Email on SBI bank

I looked at the email and instantly sensed that this was some kind of fraud email, just to get hold of the login details of the mail receiver. In this article I want to cover few points which will teach you more about these kind of fake emails and some important points, so that you are not duped in future and are alert.

3 common things you will notice in Fake Emails

There are few common traits of most of the fake fruad emails you will recieve, you should notive these 3 points in those emails.

1. The email id used looks authentic, but it’s NOT

One of the most common trick used in fake emails, is that the email id used by them looks very authentic, but if you enquire a bit about it, you will find out that they are fake and just gives an impression of being authentic. For example , if you get an email from SBI Bank and the email id is “[email protected]”, at first you might get fooled that the email is really form SBI bank, but if you go to google and and search for SBI Bank website, you will come to know that its sbi.co.in or onlinesbi.com, but the email has come from a different place. You should check the website of the fake email id (in this case – sbi-bank.com) and you will come to know that either it does not exist or looking at the website, you will figure out that its Fake.

I can share a real life example of this. My brother faced this fake email some months back. He was searching for a job and he got an email from Larson & Toubro company, that his resume was shortlisted and he has to attend an interview, but he had to give a security deposit of some amount (around Rs 8,000) which he will be refunded back after the interview.

The moment I heard this, I knew this is some fake email, because no company asks anything like that. I asked him to search for larson & toubro website and  it we landed on www.larsentoubro.com/‎ . However the email came from profile@larsentoubroltd.com/‎ (extra ltd word in email), when we went to that website (the fake one) it did’nt exist. When we searched on internet about it, we got so many threads about about it and how they lost money.

Given our country has so much of unemployment, and so many people are looking for jobs, its easy to dupe them and run this kind of rackets. Infact people make millions through these kind of fake emails. Below is the email which my brother got for interview, you can notice how unprofessional the email sounds.

Fake email for Job Offer india

Note – Many times, you will also receive emails coming from the original sites and web-address, but even there is a trick for that, if you use 3rd party email sending software’s, you can fake your email id. You will notive in your email that the mail came “via” another server.

2. The target website link inside the email does not look authentic

A lot of times, inside the fake email you have a link to click, it takes you to some target website and you have to fill some personal details. In reality, the website is a fake one, which looks real visually, but on the backend its a fake one. This is called as PHISHING Trick, which steals your important login details and misuse later. So always make sure that you have all the important links written down or saved as bookmarks in your browsers.

3. The mail asks for PASSWORD or some critical information

If you see all the fake emails, one common thing you will notice is that these emails scare on some point and create some kind of emergency. It can be regarding some new change, new scheme, last date for something, It might say that the server was compromised and they are just asking for proof and things like those.

Always remember that banks or institutions do not ask for these kind of things over email. Passwords are never asked by anyone over email for sure. At times fake emails use name of RBI and Income Tax department so that people take it seriously because there is some kind of fear attached with it (ohh …. its email from Tax department, better I take it seriously). Checkout the Video below which explains about the RBI Email Scam !

Common Traits of the Fake Emails and the Websites

If you look at the fake emails and their websites (the link inside the email). You will notice that they have very bad grammar, no professional look and they ask for some stupid thing to be done which does not look natural. Like some of your friend in Hawaii, who is robbed and now needs $400 to come back to India and will give back your money later, such kind of emails come from hacked emails of some of your friends.

Also check – FAKE Calls on name of IRDA

When do Fake Emails Arrive ?

These fake emails can come anytime to you, but note that the frequency of mails increases, when some important event is nearby like income tax season, or income tax filing season or when some major law has changed, so that people can relate to fake emails.

What’s your thought on this matter and have you ever got an email asking you to click on a link and provide some critical information? And what did you do in that case ? Can you share ?

5 major changes in life insurance policies from Jan 1, 2014 – How it affects you ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Some major changes are going to happen in life insurance industry from Jan 1, 2014, especially in traditional policies like Endowment Plans, money-back plans and even ULIP’s. You will surely have a LIC policy or any other private sector traditional plans or might buy them in coming times. Here are 5 major changes which you should be aware about and they will come  into effect from Jan 1, 2014.

1. Service Tax introduced in LIC Policy Premium

Till now LIC was not charging the service tax of 3% from the customers and paying it to govt from the pool of money collected itself, but now the service tax will have to be charged separately from policy holders. Which means that if your LIC premium was Rs 50,000 per annum, now it will be 3.09% higher in first year, which is Rs 51,500  and after 1st year, it will be 1.545% as per moneylife article.

While customers see it as additional burden, note that its not the case exactly, Earlier – LIC was paying the service tax from the pool of money collected from investors only, which reduced the bonus amount given back to them. But now because it will not be taken out from the funds, that means the bonus declared each year will go up by that much margin and will come back to investors only. Note that Pvt companies were charging the service tax already, so nothing changes on their side. Only LIC was not charging it separately, which they will have to do from Jan 1, 2014 deadline.

2. Increase in Surrender Value

One of the major changes which has happened, is the change in surrender value for policy holders. The rules of surrender value depends on the premium paying term of the policy. If the premium paying term for policy is less than 10 yrs. Then the policy will acquire the surrender value after paying premium for 2 yrs (earliar it was 3 yrs), however if the premium paying tenure is more than 10 yrs , then the surrender value will be acquired only after paying 3 yrs premium.

In both the cases, the minimum surrender value would be 30% of the premiums paid without excluding the first year premium. Note that earlier, if you used to surrender after paying 3 premiums, you got 30% of premiums paid MINUS first year premium, but now as per new rules, the first year premium will not be deducted. Learn everything about LIC policies working before Oct 1

Another good change is that, from 4th-7th year, the minimum surrender value would be 50% of the premiums paid, and has to reach 90% of premiums paid in last 2 yrs of policy paying tenure.

3. Possible Decrease in Premium on LIC Policies

There is a great possibility that the premiums on LIC policies will come down by some margin, because the mortality rates will now be revised by LIC in calculating the premiums.

Mortality rates are the rates at which the insurance company deducts the fees for insuring you based on your age. LIC had been using old mortality rates till now, but now they will have to use new mortality rates . Just to give you an idea on reduction of premium, when I check the mortality rate for a 40 yrs old person in old table, its 0.001803 . But in new rates its 0.002053 . Which is approx 10% better. Lets not go into detailed calculation at the moment, but your risk premium part should go down by 10% (not the full premium, because only some part of whole premium in traditional policies are risk premium and rest is investment part) .

4. Higher Death Benefit

If the policy holder is above 45 yrs of age, then the Sum Assured has to be more than 10 times the annual premium, and for those who are less than 45 yrs old, it can be minimum 7 times the premiums. Note that for claiming the tax exemptions, your sum assured has to be 10 times the base yearly premium. So when you buy the policy in-case, you need to keep it in mind. BasuNivesh has done a great point by point notes on each aspect of regulation, in-case you want to go into details.

5. Agents’ incentives have now been linked to the premium paying term

Now agents commissions is linked to the premium paying tenure. Earlier a lot of agents used to sell the policies which had higher maturity tenure, but limited premium paying tenure (like 30 yrs policy with 10 yrs premium payment) . Here is the new commission structure taken from Moneylife article 

In case of regular premium insurance policies, a policy with a premium paying term (PPT) of five years will not pay more than 15% in the first year. Products with PPT of 12 years or more will have first year commissions up to 35% in case the company has completed 10 years of existence and 40% for the company in business for less than 10 years.

The funny aspect is that a lot of LIC agents tried to mislead many new investors by projecting date Jan 1, as the deadline when a lot of LIC products will stop giving good features using the official notification. LiveMint has even captured it in this image.

misleading ads by LIC agents

What should you do ?

The insurers have to refile all their products to IRDA and already lots of products have been approved and many are still waiting for approvals. So if you have a insurance policy, then you will get the communication from your insurer about any changes if any. Right now, for sure the traditional plans have got better, compared to their past avatars.

If you are adamant on buying endowment plan, better wait for some time and let things get more clear. Let me know about your thoughts on this change ?

Merchants can’t charge 2% extra on Debit Card Payments – Says RBI

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Have you ever faced this situation, when you were making payment through your debit card or credit card?

“Sir How are you making payment ?

Debit Card or Cash ?”

“Card”

“Sir, There will be 2% extra charges if you pay by Debit Card ? ”

“Why extra charges ? I use it at every place and no one charges any thing extra ? ”

“Sorry Sir, this is our Policy. You can take out the CASH from the nearby ATM if you want to save that extra charges”

“Huh ! .. &^#$^&*J#^&&#%$&*N”

You often face the above situation, when you buy things like jewelry, Laptops, Mobile phones etc. I faced this 2-3 times myself, but could argue well with the shopkeeper, because I knew this is just a tactic used by shopkeepers to save on the charges they need to pay from their own pocket. Hence I never paid that extra 2% or just left the shop.

Merchants Cant charge extra on debit card payments

Merchants cant charge any extra charges on Debit Card Payment – say RBI

Now yesterday, RBI has openly cracked down on this unfair trade practice and issued a notification saying that Shop Merchants can not charge any extra charges from customers, if payment is done through Debit Card. Below is the exact wordings from RBI Notification

4. Levying fees on debit card transactions by merchants – There are instances where merchant establishments levy fee as a percentage of the transaction value as charges on customers who are making payments for purchase of goods and services through debit cards. Such fee are not justifiable and are not permissible as per the bilateral agreement between the acquiring bank and the merchants and therefore calls for termination of the relationship of the bank with such establishments.

Why Shopkeepers Charge extra 2% on Debit Card payments ?

When you swipe your debit/credit card  for purchasing some item, the merchant has to pay some fees (1%-2%) to the Bank or the rental fees for the swipe machine. The charges goes out of their own pocket, as the cost of running the business and convenience of taking the payments (more customers will come, if card payment is there). If its a small payment like Rs 500 or Rs 1000, then its a charge of Rs 10 or Rs 20, which is fine. But when it becomes a payment of lets say Rs 30,000 (imagine buying laptop or iPad), then its around Rs 300-600 and to save that big charges, they discourage debit/credit card payment.

They often ask customers to pay by CASH and point them to nearby ATM. Almost always, customers could not refuse, because they have already made the buying decision, and dont want to argue for the small charge, and a lot of times, they finally believe that may be its not illegal, and finally give the CASH even if they do not want, or just allow the merchants to charge additional 2% charges.

But, as per RBI, its not a fair practice, because merchants already have agreed in the agreement with the card swiping machine bank that they will not charge anything extra from the customers. Here is one example of asking for 2% extra fees by some Geeta Ramani on rediff website

My worst experience was when I intended to purchase a Tata Sky card worth Rs 1000. The shopkeeper said 2.5% = 25 rupees extra. I told him — you give 10, I will give 15 rupees. He spoke quite roughly — hum kyon den? I told him it was because he was supposed to pay the bank, not I, and that I was doing him a favour and not the other way round. He said he did not earn anything from the transaction. Anyway, I did not give in. I didn’t purchase from him and purchased the same from Indiaplaza instead online without any transaction fee

What you should do, if Shopkeeper does not agree ?

RBI has clearly asked all the banks to break their relationship with those merchants who are practicing this. So, when any merchant asks you for extra 2% charges and even after the debate they do not agree, you can complain to the RBI about this and also complain to the bank. Each Bank has a “Merchant Services” section on their website and when you mail them or complain in personal to their branch, mention that you want to complain about Merchant Services. Example for ICICI bank is here and Axis Bank is here. But

When you take this step, at-least some merchants might fear the consequences and oblige!, but now the problem is how many people will go to this extra mile . It would require some time and effort from your end.

So next time you are asked to pay extra 2% on debit card payment, you can clearly tell them about this RBI notification. If required better take the print out of the notification and keep it with you in your wallet or as an image in your smartphone.

Have you ever faced a situation where you were asked to pay extra 2% charges on debit card payments and were pointed to a near by ATM, and what did you do in that situation, please share !

How Identity Theft can leave your financial life paralyzed !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

I do not want to sound like a scaremonger, but it is possible that there is a personal loan or a credit card taken under your name by someone else and you are completely unaware about it. I know you must be thinking that I wrote that just to pique your interest in this article and give a good start to this post, but trust me – I am not kidding, I ACTUALLY mean that it might be the case. There is a huge possibility that someone has taken a loan by using your documents and KYC Documents and you will come to know about it only years from now.

This is called – Identity Theft

identity theft documents cibil

4 Measures to Avoid Identity Theft

  • Do not handover your documents to anyone without strong reason. There are many cases where someone trustworthy has used the documents for wrong usage.
  • Always Write the purpose on the Documents itself. If you are giving your document for Home loan purpose , write down “ID PROOF – FOR HOME LOAN at HDFC BANK – Should not be used for some other purpose” .
  • if you have given your documents to some one for some reason and they are not used, take them back.
  • Whenever you are getting xerox or giving your originals to someone, dont just be very casual and better be a little careful about whats going on

Two real life incidents on Identity Theft

Praveen shares how his cousin got a credit card using his documents

There is a credit card on my name which was taken on my name without my knowledge by one of my cousin who used to work with Barclays Credit Card Company at that time& was also a freelancer for some other banks. So at that time (2008) I signed few personal loan forms with him & which I took it for my personal purpose, but I was not aware that I also signed a form which was for Barclays Credit card and which was used by my cousin.

All this matter came to lime light recently only when I re applied for credit card & home loan, both got rejected because of poor credit score (573), we had a big fight in our family, finally he agreed to return the actual amount of the credit card which was Rs.23000 at that time, but now in my cibil report it showing as Rs.44000 amount due. Now it’s my headache to clear my cibil report, so I’m ready to pay remaining amount due from my pocket

Akash shares how his CA misused his identity and broke his trust

I follow CIBIL v diligently and regular take out my CIRs and score. My last score (1st August 2013) was 806 with 1 settled secured loan a/c. i have one PL running for last 8 months with only bounce (which was paid up within 15 days). I had applied to the same bank for a top up. Now the bank has come reported about the existence of a 2nd Pan Card with a score of some 400+ and also default on 1 PL and CC. The bank also informed that there were other PLs but all closed. I had received a PAN Card from my CA (who is my 1st cousin) who asked my to kindly apply me to close it was a duplicate wrong card which i duly did some 6 months back with NSDL.

On getting this report from the bank i figured out the the no was same as the cancelled card. Morever my cousin admitted to having used my PAN card and payslips to get the wrong card made and take PLs and CCs. As he was my CA he had all relevant papers like payslips and bank statements with him. However he has now committed to close all O/S within this month. My queries is how do i get the CIBIL report in the wrong PAN closed and all reporting transfered to my existing and authentic PAN card ? Any other solution

Conclusion

Always remember that prevention is better than cure. You can take the matter of identity theft casually, believing it will never happen to you. But once it does, it can severely affect your financial (and personal) life and you might find yourself stuck in a situation, which you want to get out of as soon as possible.

The Scam called “Sample Flat” – Learn how builders trap property buyers

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

One of the biggest traps for real estate buyers are “Sample Flats”. When you visit properties sites to inquire about any under construction properties or ready for possession flats, the builder or the sales person there shows you a “Sample Flat”. The moment you look at a sample flat, something happens to you. The sample flat is so beautiful and mesmerizing that, you feel like you are in love again, some kind of beautiful music starts playing in your head and for a moment, you visualize the future with your family living within that same sample flat and how you and your loved one’s are enjoying the ambiance and premiumness the sample flat offers.

You are delighted !

But – This is trap, set by Builder

Sample Flat Example

Why you get trapped ? 

Because you are human, you have emotions and you have lots of dreams for your family and yourself. Because in this competitive society, you have to grab your share of status and show to the world, that your time has come finally! .

Builders know how to exploit the human psyche and how to manipulate your aspirations. Every person wants to give himself and his family the best housing and the most spacious and premium living conditions – a fact, well known to the builder. When they create sample flat, all these things are kept in mind and the sample flat is constructed in a manner that makes you fall in love with it at the first sight. The builder’s goal is to ensure that your emotional mind is activated and prevents your rational mind from questioning things or think hard. You should be hypnotized! . Check out this guy sharing how his builder did not fulfill his promise

Lets look at 2 important points you know should be aware about the so called sample flats, which can save you from potential disappointment some time in future when you hunt for your dream home.

Trick #1 – Sample Flats are created to look more “Spacious”

Everyone wants a big house at a lower cost. Given there are 4-6 people in family on an average and lots of belongings in home, a bigger house is always preferred than a smaller one. You should have space for all the things you have at home, without making your home look cluttered. So few tricks are used to make sure that the sample flat looks more spacious artificially! . Here are they

  • There are no doors in toilets and bathrooms, and some of the walls are merely glass partitions, which creates a visual illusion of more space.
  • There are no doors between rooms in a sample flat, which makes the flat appear more spacious than it really is.
  • The ceiling is much higher than the real flat and is just increases the volume of sample flat, thus giving a feel of space.
  • The lighting using in sample flat is suggested by interior designers, who are experts in creating optical illusions.
  • The furniture used in sample flat is kept smaller, so that in comparison the rooms and kitchen looks bigger.
  • Even the other things like bed, almira’s and dining table in kitchen are placed in such a way and are of smaller size, to give a feeling of more space.
  • The walls are much thinner in sample flat, compared to the real flat, which again gives more spacing. They are known to use gypsum boards and not the real cemented wall.

What you should do ?

Once you visit a sample flat, the first thing you should do is slow down and stop yourself from getting biased by the spacious feel of it. For a moment, consciously tell yourself that you know its not reality and a kind of trap (remember 3 idiots – “All is well, All is well”) . Visualize the furniture, bed, kitchen belongings, all the almira’s you own at home. Your Sofa, your TV, your Waching machine and Refridgerator and every thing you own and ask where will you keep it ? Also consider those new things you might buy before moving to new property ?

If you are seriously considering buying a house, then actually mark places where you will keep what and check the space it will take (mentally atleast) . Seek help from ladies at home, because they have a better understanding of minor details and can tell you, if the flat will be able to accommodate everything with higher accuracy (and in most of the cases, women are anyways more bothered for those things compared to men).

Note that rather than blaming builder on using these tactics and fooling you, I would suggest being self-reliant, as there is nothing illegal in what the builder has done. Yes, its kind of unethical and the tricks employed here, are just a way of exploiting human psychology and aspirations. But then, there is no law on all these points and anyways, the agreement will mention that the sample flat was just for demonstration purposes and the look and feel of the actual flat may be a little different. I want you to be prepared for this, rather than complaining about things.

Here is one real life experience I found on the net, which talks about the same thing we are discussing here

At the time of booking Builder shown a central park as well as a very huge green area (80% of the project), the same is also shown/mentioned in the Brochure given to me during the time of booking. He also showed a sample flat and did a sale agreement with me.

Now builder is constructing three new towers on the park area and also cutting down the green area as he is coming up with another project on the same green land – Source here

Trick #2 – Sample Flats gives the feeling of PREMIUM

Who does not want a premium and beautiful home? Everyone does!

We want our house to be better than others, we want to make sure we get the best. We aspire to live in premium homes (majority of them, if you dont). Builders do their homework properly and put all their efforts in making sure that the sample flat looks the way most of the people cant actually afford!.

I mean to say that every bit of work, furniture, finishing and material used are expensive and of very high quality and high standards. In many cases, the cost incurred in making the sample flat look premium is more than the cost of the flat itself (Imagine 50 lacs flat having 50 lacs of premium things inside it, just to make it look premium).

  • The fixtures and furnishing used are of world class quality and brand and is so premium that instantly a prospective buyer imagines him selves owning it.
  • The floor tiles used are of high quality and more beautiful than what you get in reality.
  • The view you get from Balcony and Windows is really great (lake view, greenery, beautiful mountains), but in reality your flat might be on the other side of the project, which has all the old buildings and has a crowded road (may be after some years) and you will not get the same view which you saw in sample flat. This is because the sample flat is created first and the location chosen for it is well planned and for the purpose 🙂
  • The furniture used in the sample flat is very expensive and promises high lifestyle. Imagine 5-6 lacs worth of Sofa set, whereas you will buy only 50k worth of sofa in your case.
  • The walls will have beautiful paintings which most of people want, but cant afford .

Tip – This startup called ArtSquare sells ART and Paintings at affordable price to common man. Boy! , they also have the feature which shows you, how it looks on the wall. check out this example.

Difference between Sample flat and real flat

What to do ?

Incase of under-construction property, you cant do much, you can only rely on the builder words and do some research on how truthful they are by talking to their old project buyers (actually go there, and talk to some flat owners about their experience). Before booking the flat, you need to get all information from builder on the materials going to be used, which brand they will be, what kind of wall paint , which fittings ? which wires ? what kind of tiles ? everything in detail ! .

Note that, you are going to get unfurnished flat, and then you have to put everything from fan, AC, bed, sofa and everything else you have at home. So its important to check out the unfurnished flat apart from sample flat, but its possible only when you are buying a ready to move in property. Check out this debate on Under construction property VS Ready for Possession Property if you are considering which is better than other.

Conclusion

As buying home is one time decision, its always better to be more present (physically and mentally) to reality and not take the decision in hurry. Sample flats are not reality and you have to get that. You also should control yourself and your family members emotions (a lot of real estate buyers complain that ladies fall for the beautiful looking flats and get excited by beautiful wall colors, premium kitchen and the wall texture giving wow-experience and then do not comeback to reality from the unreal world they reached after looking at sample flat. Slow down and take the right decision.

I want to hear your views now ! . Have you seen sample flats in past or recently ?

Now you can Buy all 3 Jagoinvestor Books in Ebook Format

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Me and Nandish were deligted yesterday when we got an email from our publisher CNBC18, that all our 3 books published with them is now available in ebook format at flipkart. So all those who wanted to buy our books in digital format and read it on their smartphones, tablets and even PC , its now possible. Note that very soon the ebook version might also come on Amazon (kindle), Infibeam and other platforms, but it will take time and is only expected (no guarantee)

All our books are doing well good and readers are appreciating them a lot. You can read the reviews for all books on flipkart.

How to Buy the Book in Ebook Format ?

Step 1 – Buy the Book on Flipkart

Go to book page on flipkart and make the payment for the book. You will have to be Logged in while buying the book because the ebook gets stored in your account in “My Library” section. Below are the links for all the 3 books (Book 1 , Book 2, Book 3)

Here do our book readers say (Titles from the reviews from our 3 books) !

  • Must read for beginners to personal finance
  • A Brilliant Book To Kick-Start Your Financial Planning
  • Excellent if you want to know how to take care of your finance
  • Great Insights for achieving Financial Freedom
  • A book written in a very simple language but its results will be humongous
  • Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime!!
  • Book that not only makes you think, but also provokes you to take action instantly!!!
  • A Must have book for anyone who earns and wants to accumulate wealth
  • Awesome, must read action book on personal finance!
  • Transforming Your Relationship With Money & Achieving Financial Independence

Step 2 – Download the Flipkart eBooks App on your Phone/Tablet

Step 3 – Login to your flipkart account on your app and download the ebook

You can then log in to your flipkart account and go to “My Library” section, where you will see all your ebooks purchased and then you can download the book on your phone and start reading (Note – you can also download the ebook on some other phone where the app is installed)

Read more FAQ here

Read the Sample of the Book

You can also read the sample of all the ebooks on your app. It will give you access to some starting pages of the book which you can read and get the feel.

Why to buy the Ebook instead of Hard Copy ?

Reading a book in hard copy format has a very different experience than reading it in ebook format, both have their own pros and cons. Here are few reasons why some one might want to buy our books in ebook format.

Reason 1 – Because it stays with you all the time on the go , you can open your tab/phone and start reading it from the point where you left it last time.

Reason 2 – If you are an NRI, staying outside India, it was really a tough job to get the book in hard copy. Now with ebook version available, you can just order it and start reading it on the fly!

Reason 3 – No waiting time or delivery charges . Books less than Rs 500 worth have delivery charges of Rs 50 on flipkart. you dont have to pay that.

Let us know if you have already read our books and learned lot of things please write the review on flipkart also. Also we would like to hear from you ! . Also let us know if any questions !

How my 5 answers to this lady was like Financial Planning for her !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

One of our readers Sonadhi wanted to hire a financial planner, but first wanted to get clarity about her financial situation and some solutions on her financial life problem at our questions and answers forum. She posted her query and I answered her in detail. I gave her a detailed answer which you cant call “Financial Planning” , but I can say that my reply must be sufficient for her to move ahead and get a lot of clarity. Just wanted to give show you her question and my answer, because I am sure a lot of people will get some idea of what needs to be done in some situations.

financial planning example

Sonadhi question –

My baby girl is about to complete her three years.My target is min.25 alcs at her age of maturity i.e.at the age of 20 years. I am not sure on how to invest for her.Confused to go for Rd/FD or PPF.Also interested in Mutual funds,but no knowledge.Think for LIC plans for children but they have very high premiums with less benefits.Confused between what is difference between ELSS & SIP. Not able to have the financial planner at this stage.Also paying heavy EMIs. Who can guide me.

My answer to her

Lets quickly do your financial planning in few points. Based on your information till now here is what you need to do

Step 1 –  First step is to restructure your finances, Restructuring is required because cash flow is important to be planned,. Unless your cash-flow is planned properly , things will be tough . So first ask why you are paying that 5,000 per month in LIC , how old it is ? What benefits are you getting out of it . The way I see is , You are taking lot of pressure each month for a bad outcome at the end, its not going to give you returns of more than 5-6% at the end, so better make the policy paid up . This way you will release 5,000 per month .

Step  2 – Your RD of 5,000 is fine , let it go so that at one side , some money is secured. The 5,000 which is release out of LIC should be redirected to 2 good mutual funds through SIP . You said you do not understand Mutual funds, and hence not able to act . Trust me , Mutual funds are mainly for those who do not understand stocks and markets that well , there is nothing to understand there much , More than knowledge you need “discipline” here . All you need to do is start a SIP of Rs 2,500 per month in 2 funds . like HDFC prudence , DSPBR top 100 , HDFC Equity etc . Any of two will do .

Step 3 –  Better take a Term plan first for a good amount , like 50 lacs or 1 crore . Premiums will be a lot smaller compared to what you pay in LIC right now and it will be a yearly commitment which you can do .

Step 4 –  I think over next 6 months , you should also create your emergency fund, because right now your EMI is 21,000 , but because of movement in interest rates, it might go up and down , so you should factor in for that !

Step 5 –  Wealth will get created over a long term , short term focus should not be too much on what is performing in which manner , more than returns , right now just focus on your discipline and how you can increase your investments overtime .

I hope you got some good answers and value out of this thread .

Let us know if you feel more relaxed and did it serve you ?

Manish

I am sure the question and the answer must have given some hints and insights on what needs to be done in a particular situation. Can you improve on some of my suggestion ?