JAGOINVESTOR

How I arranged my financial life in 4 steps – The Inside Story of my real life

Posted on March 20, 2014August 6, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

Today I am sharing my real life story of how I arranged my financial life. Our financial lives over time gets messed up because we are lost in our jobs and family and everyday some new information or financial document enter our life and gets piled up. We keep stuffing documents here and there in our almira thinking – “I will keep it properly next Sunday” .

Which never comes !

In my personal case, I consciously try to keep things arranged as far as possible, but just like everyone, my financial documents and various information become unorganised like every other person. So finally one day, I decided to have my own “Personal Finance Management Week” , where I decided to finally come out of my “comfort zone” and cross all my mental limits, defeat my laziness and arrange all my documents and fix various other “issues” and finally make things neat and clean in my financial life. And thats exactly what 150+ participants of our last bootcamps did in their financial life too.

But why Did I decide to arrange my financial life ?

For Myself – Everytime I have to find out some document or information, I really had to struggle remembering where exactly I had kept it, The piles of xerox papers, insurance papers, bank documents, property papers etc etc had got mixed with each other and it takes more than 10-15 mins, lots of frustration and that little guilt inside for creating this mess and not keeping it clean . I wanted to have a clean space of things, where if you ask me about document X or information Y – I can give it you in less than 60 second.

For my Family – Because I know, my family will really get confused and frustrated when they will have to deal with my financial mess. They are not as much financially aware as I am, they dont understand this “personal finance” area so much and it will scare them like anything in future when they need to deal with it. So I need to create an environment, where my family members can find out various things related to my financial life, as easily as possible. If you want a proof that family members can suffer if you dont take care of this area, then I want to share a real life case which was shared on our blog itself where, a wife was never able to claim life insurance after her husband’s death, because she had no idea where are documents and which company was it .. here is the sharing by Nisha
and Finally, because its once a year task – Truly speaking, this whole thing does not take a lot of time, all it takes is huge commitment and a small START. There is a great chance that even you have not completed this, just out of lethargy and nothing else, It takes few hours of dedicated work and huge commitment and nothing else. Once you arrange all the things, then from next year, it will be just 1 hour of additional work to update things.

4 things I did for arranging my financial life like a SuperMan

So, here is how I started. The first thing I did was to buy 3 BIG folders and 2 small plastic pockets which can contain few documents and then I did following 4 tasks

Action #1 – Created 5 folders to hold documents and categorise them

The first big thing I did was to buy 5 folders where I arranged 5 kind of documents in each, so that if I need a particular kind of document or information, I have a separate folder for that. Those 5 folders were

a) Protection Related Folder – This folder contains all my documents which protect my financial life like – Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Car Insurance related papers, which includes Policy documents, Health Cards, Premium Receipts, A paper containing all the customer care numbers. I still need to add a document which explains them what to do to claim each of them. Imagine you meet an accident and are not accessible, this folder will help them like GOD , Won’t it ?

b) Property related Folder – This folder contains all my property related documents, like Loan Agreement Paper, Home Loan related document, Property Tax receipts and any other small or big document which is property related

c) Banking Related Folder – Banking is a big aspect of everyone’s financial life and I thought why not have a dedicated folder for this. So in this folder I have all my cheque books, Bank related document, Locker papers, FD receipts (if any) , any bank statements which I want to keep etc etc. If you have more than 2-3 bank accounts, it really becomes very cumbersome to manage them, so this dedicated folder comes very handy.

d) All the Bills/Receipts/Warranty Cards Folder – This is not exactly related to personal finance, but over the years, you collect so many important bills, warranty cards, receipts which you want to keep because they are needed later in future and if you cant find them, you really regret mismanaging them and not keep them properly. So in this folder I am now keeping all the bills and important warranty cards. You can also store all your old ITR acknowledgement copies in this folder.

e) Education Related and Important Documents – And finally I have dedicated a folder for all my and spouse education related document like 10th , 12th , graduation and post graduation certificates , marksheets , passing certificates etc etc. Plus , I have also chosen this same document to keep our important documents like Passport, Aadhar card, Driving License xerox, Voter Id Card etc etc, Cable related, Electricity bills etc etc.

After making these 5 folders , now if you ask me you want X , I open my almira, know which folder has it, open it and can find out the required document 80% faster compared to old situation. Now my family, knows that things are not randomly lying here and there, but somewhere neatly arranged .

How 150+ investors organised their financial documents in Bootcamp

We have just completed our Facebook Bootcamp with 150+ investors and we dedicate one full week for arrangement and cleaning up of your overall financial life. Almost all the 150+ participants had taken huge actions and with lots of commitment, they all cleaned up their financial lives. They all arranged their documents and you should see what kind of conversations happens on our facebook bootcamp. See the snapshot below

Action #2 – Created Scanned Version of all important Documents

The next important thing I did was to scan each of my very important document and keep the scanned version online accessible to me and my family. Some people might think its going extra mile and not required, but then its your choice and mindset. God Forbid, if you loose your physical documents somewhere, due to fire, robbery or any damn reason, it gets really tough sometime, especially in case of education related certificates.

There is no harm in scanning documents and keeping it with you online, especially if it takes 2-3 hours of work. All you need to do is take out time and pick which documents you want to scan and then finally scan then. Make a folder, compress it in ZIP format and mail it to yourself on your email id and someone else in your family. Keep it saved in a CD format also and keep at home or locker. It does not hurt at all, other than it takes fews hours of yours, but so what, its for your own good, Its a once and for all kind of activity.

I would still make sure I will take care of my physical documents , but god forbid if something happens to them (for any damn reason), atleast I have a scanned version of it, Its a better situation then to have nothing in your hand. In my case, I have scanner at my home so it was handy for me.

Here are those documents which I scanned

Health Insurance Policy First Page (which mentions Sum Assured and Premium)
Life Insurance Policy first Page
Health Insurance Cards
10th , 12th and other educational certificates marksheets

Action #3 – Created Emergency Black box Kit for my Family

The next thing I did was to create a emergency black box kit, which any one from my family can open and they will get every possible information about everything at one place. It will have all the basic + critical directions for them to follow, whom to contact in which case, where to go in which situation, how to claim for various things etc etc. Here is a snapshot of what all it can contain

All Important Contact Numbers like CA, Tax Consultant etc etc
Toll Free Phone numbers of Health Insurance, Car Insurance, Life Insurance
Customer Care numbers of all the banks where we have account
Email id of all the Insurance and Investment companies
All Documents numbers like – PAN number, Driving Licence Number, Passport Number
Process to claim life insurance, health insurance etc
Process to close bank accounts and claim back the money
Process to claim back all the mutual funds and other investments

Here is a rough idea on how it can look like

It can be roughly 6-8 pages long. You can keep the online version on your computer, email and dropbox and also take a printout and keep it at home and label it respectively like – “Open in case of emergency” . So incase something bad happens and you are not accessible or can’t help your family, your family members can look at it and their life will be more easier !

Store some important Contacts on Phone also

I extended this task and also stored some very important things on phone , which can be very handy and save you a lot of time in the times of crisis. I have my health insurance card scanned version on my phone, so that I can use it whenever required. Also I stored all the customer care numbers properly one by one with this format – “COMPANY-NAME CUST CARE” , so that in future if me or my family members have to call some customer care, we just can look at the phone search for “CUST CARE” and then choose the number.

I have seen people who try to find out the important phone numbers on the last minute, and that eats out some important time of theirs. Also in case of crisis or emergency – you really need it handy on your finger tips, This particular action might look very trivial , but in times of need, you will really feel very relaxed and happy to have it with you. More than yourself, its for your loved one’s who don’t have to struggle for this.

Action #4 – Created a Run-Away File

I dont know if this is my invention – but this came into my mind some weeks back . Every time I had to go for some important work which requires my Identity card xerox or address proof, I had to everytime arrange for it because I didnt had the xerox ready with me, so I had to carry original and then on the way, I have to xerox it. This takes up time …

Then at times, I had to return back home because I was not having my cheque book, because it was not asked to me . Then at one time, my trip to a property tax department was a waste because I didn’t bring my Index2 (house ownership proof) .. So then I thought why not create a RUN-AWAY file , which has all the things you can imagine which might be required ! for some work . So if you have to take a new phone connection, just pick the run-away file and go

If you have to go to book a new property – Phew .. Just pick the run-away file and thats all .. It will have all the things ..

So it will have

Atleast 2 Xerox copies of PAN CARD
Atleast 2 xerox copies of your address proof (electricity/phone bill)
Passport xerox, aadhar xerox, driving licence
4-5 passport size photos of yours, spouse ete (if needed somewhere)
1 cheque leaf of your bank accounts (unsigned)
1 pen

You place all these things in a plastic packet and that’s all, you take it where ever you go , You don’t have to arrange for things every time. From the day I have created it, my life has become very easy, all I need to do is just open my almira and pick up that folder and I move on ..

Define your own style of arrangement

What you just saw above was my personal way of arranging things. This is just a idea of what all you can do, next – you need to define what all you want to arrange, in what manner, to which level and which are more important things for you and what is not. It might happen that you might feel, that what I did was little over-doing of things, but thats fine – its your choice. You can choose to go for a lower version, but I would just say that a lot of things are just one time task and then a small pinch of yearly review, Give the benefit you will get out of it, compared to the time you put, its worth going a little deeper.

Arranging Things is 1st Step , Communicating with Family is 2nd

We feel we should communicate all the things about our financial life to our spouse, children , parents etc and they should be aware about what all is there, but imagine if you do that without arranging things . If things are messed up in your financial life, the communication from do will not be effective.

However, if you arrange things neatly like this, and then when you show these things to your family members – they will be able to consume it in a better way, they will understand things more clearly, because they are able to “see” things before their eyes. They know what to find, where to find, and how to find. If things are clean and neatly arranged like this, they will also become more serious about overall finances and they will really feel that you are responsible and think about their care in future.

You will feel amazing

Once you arrange your financial life and fix lot of other things which were pending from long time, you will really feel amazing. I want to share one of our bootcamp member experience of working on his financial life and how our bootcamp has changed his financial life overall.

This looks so small thing, but the difference it makes in your day to day life is really great ! – So are you still waiting for “next Sunday” ?

What exactly is Financial Planning – 8 things we learnt after working with 300+ clients

Posted on March 11, 2014August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

“Financial planning” is the NEW buzz word these days all over the internet, TV channels and newspapers. These days even bank employees are selling a lot of financial products on the name of “Financial Planning” .

Investors are literally bombarded with the word – Financial Planning from various sources like blogs, articles, advisors and every mutual fund and insurance agent, and the flow of information has created some kind of mental image in investor’s mind about – “what is financial planning?”.

what is financial planning

In a typical financial planning exercise, a financial planner goes through your financial data and then draws a written financial plan, which touches upon various area’s of your financial life like life insurance, health insurance, asset allocation, retirement, children goals etc etc.

But in this article we want to add more dimensions to what is financial planning, and want to add a whole new perspective to what is financial planning. The article’s motive is to help you to see financial planning process with new and empowering perspective.

Our view of “Financial Planning”

We feel that at Jagoinvestor – even our own view about the term called “Financial Planning” has changed over a period of time and we would like to share the same with you all today.

We have worked with close to 300+ clients till date and today we want to share our learning and insights which we have drawn from our experience in so many years. With every passing day we are evolving inside our profession and we also want our readers to grow with us.

What Investors and Financial Advisors think about “Financial Planning”

We want to know what do investors and various financial advisors connected to us on social media think about “Financial Planning” , We wanted to know from them what is their view about “What is Financial Planning?”.

So we asked them on facebook here and here. We got lots of answers and we are sharing some of them with you below. There is no wrong or right definition here, so we just collected few answers from investors and financial planners and we want to show you what they think about it.

financial planning meaning

8 insights about Financial Planning

Now We will share with you 8 insights about how to perceive financial planning in a new way. We feel a big number of investors and financial advisors have a very narrow view about “financial planning” and its potential.

We simply want you to see Financial Planning tool with fresh pair of eyes. May be it’s time to question our perception about what financial planning is all about. Here are those 8 insights below.

1. It is not about securing future, it is designing your present

A lot of investors and advisors think that financial planning is about future, in our view it is not about future. Financial Planning is an exercise that helps you to design your present as an investor. Future is an illusion and it just does not exist in reality.

You have to use financial plan as a tool to make each day/week/month and year your best financial year. A lot of investors think with the help of financial plan I am going to secure my future, but in reality it is about learning to play fully in this very moment.

Let me share an example with you – All the investors who drop a financial planning inquiry on our services page – we usually ask them why they want to go for financial planning and what financial planning means to them ? And the most common answer we here is, “I want to do financial planning, so that I can secure my long term financial goals like children goals, retirement etc.”

They think financial planning can help them to be more secured. We ask them to stop over focusing about future and look at what best they can do right now with their financial resources.

2. Financial Plan is not about “Financial Goals”, it is about Financial commitment

A lot of people think financial planning is only and only about financial goals. May be financial goal is one small part of the whole financial planning exercise, but surely its not only about financial goals.

In our view it is about strongly announcing your financial commitment and what you are going to do now on-wards in your financial life and then sticking to your commitment. We encourage all our clients to announce their monthly financial commitments. Setting financial goals is extremely easy, but sticking to your monthly financial commitments is where the rubber meets the road.

Let me share with you something about our clients, what we do with our clients – When we get on call with any investor clients of ours, they bring all their WANTS on table (difference between Needs vs Wants here) . Wants like second home, A lot of clients want to even plan for the kid who is not yet born.

Now, the moment we start the commitment conversation the goal list starts to shrink. Commitment is doing what is required to get what you want and not allowing anything to get in your way.

3. Financial planning is NOT about bringing Certainty

As human beings we are always attracted to Certainty. Most investors want to know whether they will be able to achieve their financial goals or not ? This is the core reason why they hire a financial planner! . In our view the best thing about life is that it is mysterious and uncertain.

If we pull uncertainty out of future then it is no longer the future; It is present – which is projected forward and nothing else.

We want investors to hire a financial planner not only with core focus of bringing certainty, but to building financial muscle, to face every kind of situation that life throws at you, to bring more completeness in various areas of financial life, to get an external opinion about your financial life.

We have seen this happening with many investors – No matter how much they plan, life turns out the way it turns out. Now this does not mean you should not plan, but you should develop your mind that is constantly planning in face of what happens.

Watch this video of Financial Coaching by Jagoinvestor:

4. It is NOT about financial plan, it is about the Journey

We find so many investors and financial planners – who are totally attached to the document called “Financial Plan”. They pick small small things from the PDF document given to them and over focus on them, it might be some number , some fund name or some assumption taken.

In our view the real results are not inside of a financial plan, they are located outside of a financial plan. We ask our clients to draw key learning’s from the financial plan and then throw away the plan. Every investor is on some journey and it is important to enjoy the journey. If you are not enjoying the wealth creation journey, you will never enjoy the so called destination.

We have seen people who after reaching the age of 55 or 60 years of age, tell us that it is the financial journey that matters at the end and nothing else. When we work with investors we just do one thing, we simply ask them to enjoy the process of wealth creation. This eliminates all the worries from your head and helps you to take proactive actions in your financial life.

5. It is NOT about picking perfect financial products

In our view financial planning is not an exercise to pick right or perfect financial products. A lot of investors spend maximum time in “Which Mutual Fund is Best?” or “Which Health Insurance policy premium is lowest?” and similar points. While that’s important to some level, but finally wealth creation is all about testing and exploring.

A lot of investors fail to create wealth because they stop testing and exploring. A good financial planner will always encourage their clients when it comes to testing and exploring new things. He/she will educate you in a way, such that you are motivated to test new things in your financial journey.

A good planner will always say “Don’t’ worry I won’t let you fail but I want you to test new things as an investor”

When we work with our clients – we ask them to test new and unknown territories. We once asked one of our client to think about creating an alternate income even though he was working in a software company. We asked him to cross his mental barriers and keep looking at opportunities.

Few months later, In one of the offices, there was a food counter in cafeteria space, which he setup and hired a worker and it was doing well , The question is not what happened later, but the main thing is that he explored some new ways of earning money.

Then there are so many investors who never ever invested in mutual funds thinking it is a risk proposition. We ask them to test this new route and we become their guide. We helped them clear their myths about equity products and once they become comfortable, they started exploring it.

6. Financial plan is not about products, calculations and returns, it is about YOU

The number one expectation an investor holds in his mind is to find a financial advisor who helps him/her to get more returns. “A Financial Plan is not about products, returns and calculations, it is about YOU” – This line is from my book “11 principles to achieve financial freedom”.

This entire book has no numbers and calculations in it, it teaches an investor to develop right kind of mindset in the area of money. Financial planning is an opportunity to be 100% honest in the area of money so that you can work on your discipline level and can make corrections as an investor.

Let me share an small experience here. I was working with a client who told me – “I have no idea why my financial life is not good”.

I simply asked him to get the truth on table, I asked him to search inside him to get real answer. He finally agreed and owned all his mistakes and took entire responsibility of his financial situation. It was painful for our client, but things started to shift when the truth got on table.

This realization and acceptance gave him a lot of power to change things. It was all about HIM and not about situations and circumstances.

7. Financial planning is NOT about advice, it is about ACTION

The old definition says that financial planning is process where two people connect, number crunching takes place and advice is imparted on what needs to done.

Giving or taking advice is just 20% of the job done, because the rest 80% is all about taking actions. More and more investors will make the most of financial planning tool when they will take actions, because at the end only action produces results and nothing else. As an investor check, how action oriented your advisor is or how action oriented you are as an investor?

A lot of readers write to us and say – “Can you advice me on so and so issue ?” . We say – “NO , We will help you to gain insights along with giving advice so that you are empowered to take actions”

We ask our existing clients to report their weekly personal finance actions to us. This is how things start to shift in their financial world. In our facebook bootcamps, we focus on taking actions for 6 weeks and we have helped more than 250+ investors to make their financial lives awesome till now.

Look at one of the recent bootcamp sharing where, one of our participant “Sachin Gopalkar” is sharing what all actions he did while he was in bootcamp

Jagoinvestor bootcamp sharing

8. Financial plan has to be a LONG document

Who the hell says financial plan has to be a long and lengthy document. You won’t believe, but there are many software’s which financial planners use and all these software’s are in the race of 30-50-100 page financial plans.

Even a lot of financial planners believe that longer the document they give to client, they can showcase the work done by them and all the “analysis” they did. They feel that can justify their “work-hours” put in the financial planning exercise and help them to charge more fees.

But, almost all the investors we have talked to till date are not looking for a lengthy plan; All they want to learn is how to get in control of their financial life. Lengthy documents just confuse the clients. After looking at number of pie charts and heavy graphs and complex calculation tables in the financial plan, investors get more frustrated.

Why not give a financial plan that the investor can own and implement, why not give a one page plan or may be something which is short and sweet. A short plan, which only has something which really matters to clients and makes it easy for them to understand their own financial lives.

We once gave an option to one of our clients – “Do you want a 15 page financial plan or a 1 page plan?”. He said, “I will be thankful if you can give me a 1 page plan”. And we gave him a one page plan, which was sufficient for him to take important actions in his financial life.

Conclusion

Now, you have a whole new perspective on how to look at financial planning and you also know how not to look at financial planning. Share what is it that stops you from getting a financial plan, what stopped you till date? Is it about your lack of understanding, lack of belief in financial planning or something else?

Do share your views on today’s article, I have not been very active on writing articles but from now on I will see that I share my views from time to time.

– This article is written by Nandish Desai

Penalty Charges on failed transactions due to insufficient balance at other banks ATM

Posted on January 30, 2014August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

Imagine this situation. You are in urgent need of cash and looking around for your bank ATM, but you are not able to locate one, but you can see other banks ATM and then finally you give up and want to withdraw the cash from other banks ATM knowing that its FREE to withdraw the money from other banks ATM (at least 3 times a month)

have you ever been charged penalty on failed transactions due to insufficient balance at other banks ATM?

Then, You go to other bank ATM and withdraw Rs 5,000, but you see the message on screen “Insufficient Balance, transaction Failed” only to realize that in a hurry, you have punched in an extra ZERO and have tried to withdraw Rs 50,000. You then ignore this minor mistake thinking that it means nothing and then finally you withdraw Rs 5,000 and leave the ATM happily!.

However, By the end of the month – when you are looking at your bank statement, you are in horror to see that there is some Rs 28 debited from your account as ATM decline charges and you are like – “What the hell is that”? You talk to customer care and come to know that there are some “ATM decline Charges due to insufficient balance”, you are not happy as you were not aware of it and customer care just has one answer – “It’s as per RBI guidelines”!

Penalty charges due to Insufficient Funds

Almost all the banks charge you a penalty charge if your transaction at other banks ATM is declined due to insufficient fund. So if you have an ICICI bank account and you are withdrawing money from HDFC or SBI ATM and if the transaction fails due to insufficient balance or fewer banknotes inside the ATM, the transaction will fail and you will be charged!

Here is a real life incident which happened with my Father, when back home, he tried to take out some money from SBI bank ATM (the account is with ICICI bank) and he was not that sure of the exact balance and he tried to take out the money 3 times in a row. We only realized about this charge when I was looking at the bank statement at the end of the month.

2	07/02/2011	ATM DECLINE CHG/08-JAN-11/2713	DR	INR 28.00
3	07/02/2011	ATM DECLINE CHG/08-JAN-11/2713	DR	INR 28.00
4	07/02/2011	ATM DECLINE CHG/08-JAN-11/2713	DR	INR 28.00

How ATM decline charges are calculated?

Decline charges are the base charges + service tax! Each bank is free to define the penalty charge. So in the case of ICICI Bank (and other several banks), the penalty charges are Rs 25 per failed transaction. So when you add service tax, the final figure is Rs 28 (approx). Here are some of the bank penalty charges I found out on their websites.

ATM decline charges for insufficient balance

Is it for real that people pay penalty when there is insufficient cash in the ATM?

If it’s customer mistake, one can still understand the penalty charges, but what do you say about charges, when your transaction is declined because of the bank mistake ! , like if notes in the ATM are not sufficient? What if you are trying to withdraw Rs 5,000 but there are just Rs 100 notes in the ATM (Rs 500 are over) and the transaction failed (maximum 40 notes at a time is allowed) and you are charged for the failed transaction in other bank ATM ?

Here is one incident !

Dear Sir, I the undersigned wish to inform you that i am having saving account no. ******84712 with State Bank of India, Vadgaon Branch, Pune. When I was having balance of Rs.5106.19 (9th January 2014) in my account I went to SBI ATM at laxmi road, Pune but due to technical reason it was not in working position. So I went to opposite Bank of India, Laxmi Road ATM. When I tried to withdraw Rs.3300/- from that ATM it declined saying insufficient balance when I checked with security guard there he informed me that there are only 500 rs. notes available so you withdraw in multiples of 500 only.

So I withdrew Rs.3500/- (ATM 40091 BOI LAXMI ROAD II PUNE MHIN). When i checked today my account it is showing TO TRANSFER INSUF BAL ATM DECLINE CHARGE – ****** Transfer to ******14906 Rs.17/-. Will you please explain me the reason behind this charges.

Here is one more experience you should read where the bank had charged a customer for no mistake!

My friend once had a bad experience with SBI credit card. During some emergency, using his SBI Credit card he wanted to withdraw Rs.10000 from an SBI ATM. He entered Rs.10000 but the ATM refused to dispense that amount and gave a message that it could dispense only 40 notes at a time. Unfortunately only Rs.100 were present in the ATM (This point was not mentioned any where). So, he had to use his card thrice to get the required amount (Rs. 4000 X 2 times and Rs.2000 X 1). After he got his credit card statement, we were surprised to see that he was charged, cash withdrawal charges – 3 times (Rs.250 X 3 = Rs.750). Had the ATM been filled with Rs.1000 notes, the transaction would have been only one and my friend could have saved Rs.500. Is this ethical to charge the customers for such things? (Source)

Have you been charged for Failed ATM transaction due to insufficient balance at some other bank ATM ? Do you feel its justified?

5 awesome ideas which can transform your financial life

Posted on January 13, 2014August 6, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

2014 has already started and you must be feeling reinvigorated – just as you were when 2013 started :). How then do you expect 2014 to be different from 2013? Let me explain a bit. When we get on call with some of our clients, we ask them –

“Do you want your next 5 yrs of financial life, like your past 5 yrs ?”.

Naturally, We get an emphatic “NO” and horrified looks (though we cant see them). Now ask yourself the same question and I am confident, for most people the answer would be the same. If your financial life is all messed up, I am sure you must have thought to correct it in this New Year. Let me help you a bit and give you 5 suggestions that you can implement and improve your financial life by leaps and bounds. It will start small, but things will improve steadily.

Here are those 5 ideas, which you should look at. Trust me, these are proven to succeed for most people we work with and even ourselves.

improve financial life

Idea #1 – Help others in their financial life

I can proudly say today, that all my knowledge and understanding of personal finance has come from (and only from) solving other people’s queries on this blog and our Q&A forum. Of course, some part of my knowledge has also evolved by writing these articles. I write the articles and they elicit variety of questions in comments section. I then reply back to those who commented and try to solve their problem. It really takes a lot of time and effort from my side to do this, but in the process, I learn a lot. If I do not know the answer, I ensure I find it out by researching it on the Internet, or come up with an answer through disciplined thought and introspection.

This helps me learn new things and also it feels nice to be able to help someone – after all, I love bonding with people and I hunger to be able to “give” back to our community! Conversations in the comments section between me, and the person asking the question, allow both of us to come out with better knowledge of the topic. What’s more, it really feels amazing to realize that one’s help has contributed to someone’s decision-making process.

I occasionally get into face-to-face conversations with people who seek my help regarding personal finance, and I do my best in helping them. Over time, this has created a wealth of information and knowledge inside me. Heck – I wrote two books too on money just by helping others !

So if you want to learn about personal finance, I can tell you with 100% confidence, that there is no better way than helping someone else on personal finance and answering their queries. You might feel – “but I do not know much myself”. The truth is, even if you do not know the full answer, making an attempt to help someone and contributing a bit extra helps you realize that personal finance is more about common sense and less about expertise.

You can anytime go to our Jagoinvestor Q&A forum, where dozens of personal finance questions are asked each day and hundreds of investors just like you are helping out with all the knowledge they possess. So just pick a question and reply with an answer. You must have surely learnt a lot from this blog and other resources and I know you are 100% capable of giving suggestions to others. I know you might be scared at times, thinking how it would look if you do not give the right answers or best answers to someone. But do not try to give the “perfect answer” – just give an answer with a full commitment to help someone. You will find that not only is your effort genuinely appreciated, but you will also feel amazing yourself and will make a friend and learn in the process. Alternatively, you can also reply to the comments that are posted on the articles from time to time.

I strongly recommend reading this book this book called “Go-Giver”, which will truly transform your way of looking at life and help you in your professional life.

Idea #2 – Write all your financial details at one place

When someone wants to work with us on his/her financial life, One of the first things they have to do is, fill up a detailed datasheet we give to them to capture all their financial details. This is what most of the financial planners will do as initial steps. Now most people react by thinking – “Oh no, I am not filling up a lengthy excel spreadsheet” and some people ask us – “Do I really need to fill this up?”

We tell them very calmly – “Yes, in 2 days, and ONLY then do we move ahead”

4-5 days PASS and we remind them once again about it.

It is only then that we finally get a mail saying that the datasheet is filled and we also get from them something like this –

“Hi Manish & Nandish

Please find attached the datasheet in this mail. My Apologies for sending it late. But let me share with you something about filling up the datasheet. I never knew about my own financial life before I filled this datasheet (here is ZIP version). I mean, I always thought I know everything and all the things are inside my head, I know the details. But in reality, I was so much cut off from my financial life.

I had to find out so many things while filling up this datasheet. For the first time, I seriously looked at my policies, where are my mutual funds, what is their worth exactly. I have discovered how much is my EPF worth and had to discuss a lot with my spouse and few things from other family members. I discussed about my expenses with my spouse and we released so many tiny things we can change and improve. We never realize these things in daily life, because we are just not in touch with whats going on with our expenses. Money just comes in my account and goes off here and there.

We also for the first time, really talked about our long term goals, had to think about the numbers and discussed a bit about which one are more important the others. I felt a bit worried on how will I fill all this , but once I started it, me and wife got involved in it and really liked it. For the first time I feel I know where do I stand in my financial life and have some sense of what all we want from our financial life. This datasheet filling exercise was a short but amazing journey in itself. Thanks a lot Manish and Nandish”

Nandish and I often talk about this and we have now realized that just putting all your financial data in one place is a wonderful way to improve your financial life because you really get in touch with your finances and start thinking about them seriously. For almost 90% of people who do this, it’s their first time taking some time off to focus on their financial life. What was previously a fuzzy area for them suddenly becomes clear and obvious. Just noting down your financial data in one place solves so many queries you had earlier.

So next Sunday (or whenever you can take out some time), allocate 3-4 hours for your financial life and just open a blank excel sheet and put down all your income/expenses, policies details, mutual fund data, Fixed/recurring deposits data, loans details, long and short term goals and everything else you can imagine, and see the magic. You will thank us. Let me make your job easy and share with you this ready made excel datasheet (here is ZIP version) , you can download it and you can fill it up. This is the same datasheet we send to our clients.

Idea #3 – Slow down and make some strategy

Most investors are just moving with the flow of life. They get up, go to work, they earn, they spend and if something is left, they spend it again. If after all this, if still some money remains, it stays in their saving bank account, and is usually consumed for some useless reason – which looks reasonable and important at that point of time, but makes no sense in long term.

Nandish had recorded this wonderful audio on “slowing down” which talks about why you should step back for a moment and not be hasty with your personal finances It explains why you should “Slow down” and lower your pace in financial life and ask yourself where you are headed.

Listen to the “Slow Down” Audio below

Most people do not even know which direction they are going in their financial life and where they want to be in the next 5 years. In our Investors’ boot camp (next batch starts 20th Jan), we do an awesome exercise for one week, just to make you think what you want in your financial life and to get you in touch with your financial life.

So your current task is to apply some brakes on your momentum and investigate your own financial life. Ponder over few things and find out what is important for you. It is all about getting clarity and coming out from a state of confusion!

Idea #4 – Write down your past 5 yrs history on Paper

Investors keep on doing random things in their financial life for years, sometime with a rational mind and sometimes without much thinking. It would be a good idea to capture for the last 5 years – the major decisions you took in your financial life and the reasoning behind it. For example, you may have bought some policy after meeting an agent, or bought a property, or broken a Fixed deposit, or added major expenses in your life etc. Make a list of all those decisions over the last 5 years, and write down in detail, the reasoning behind those decisions. What made you do take the steps you did?

Do you still feel you did it for the correct reason? Do you feel you were right? Looking back at it, was it the right decision?

When you do this, you will be clearer about your own thinking and how you feel about a lot of things. Maybe you realize that you did something just to look good in front of someone. Maybe you find out that you focus too much on the short term and do not look at things from a long-term perspective. Maybe you will find out that you compromise on your long-term wealth creation just to fund some short-term happiness.

To give you a flavor of how people feel after writing down their history and all they have done in their financial life in past, here is an experience of one of the members of our Investors bootcamp

“I felt many emotions while filling out these questions – pride, great joy, regret & sadness. I saw how I had grown from a child to an adult as an investor and kept coming back to document what I missed. As the picture emerged, it was so interesting to see the patterns emerge and to find blind spots that would probably be immediately evident to someone else. It took me a long time to answer the second question. I was worried, but to document exactly what was worrying me took time. Now that I have it on paper, it feels a lot less worrying! I’m excited to see what the boot camp holds and am looking forward for the next week.”

So start this exercise the moment you complete this article.

Idea #5 – Get accountable to someone in your financial life

In his book – “11 principles to achieve financial freedom” , Nandish talks about Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 promises.

Level 1 promises are “professional promises”, which you fulfill and complete at any cost and ensure they are never left pending. You bring work home, stay up late, but complete those tasks. You are fully committed to your level 1 promise.

Level 2 promises are ones that are made to our families and we keep them sometimes and do not keep them sometimes. We are somewhat committed to those level 2 promises, but not fully.

Level 3 promises are those promises, which we make to ourselves.

We excel at not completing these Level 3 promises! We surpass others in forgetting those promises and on no occasion do we display the level of commitment we do with Level 1 and Level 2 promises. Waking up early to exercise falls in this level 3 promise. Starting a “SIP” also falls under level 3 promises. And, most importantly, all Personal Finance actions fall into Level 3.

Level One	Professional promises	You keep them always
Level Two	Promises made to family members	You keep them at times
Level Three	Promises made with self	You break them all the time

Ask yourself, how long has it been since you promised yourself to start that recurring deposit, write your budget, start your SIP or write a will? You will realize you are worse than you imagine :). This happens because you are not accountable to anyone. No one will complain, if you don’t do things and leave them incomplete. You can always rationalize your behavior and you will surely not “Punish” yourself – and that’s the weak point.

Your life goes on, and you give a clean-chit to yourself every time you break a promise made to yourself, citing reasons beyond your control. But this errant behavior is costing you your future. This small thing can jeopardize the happiness of your family some day, can make your retired life a nightmare and can mean your kids get a mediocre education because you were not able to accumulate enough wealth to pay their fees in the future.

This is more serious than you think, but you will realize it only later.

Be Accountable to Someone

The only way to improve it is to be accountable to someone about your promises and actions. Hire a professional Mentor who keeps track of your financial life and your promises, and to whom you report your actions.

A lot of people look at a financial planner as someone who will give “advice”, but not as someone who will help them track where they are headed, who will ask them – “Tell me, what did you achieve this month?” and someone who says things like – “Can you tell me, the reason you failed to change your bank account nomination which you promised to complete by this month? Didn’t you get 2 hours out of your schedule?”

The mentor can also be your family member or spouse if you want. Declare your actions and deadlines to your family. Do whatever it takes, but ensure you are answerable to someone, if only to some extent.

Importance of “Accountability” in your financial life

Let me also share with you, the “Accountability” feature of our Online Investors bootcamp. At the bootcamp, each week you declare your weekly action and what you are going to complete in coming 4-5 days and then you go back and do those things. You have to report things back on Friday and share with us your progress. If you do not complete it, you are asked questions and reasons for not doing your tasks.

Now someone will not shoot you or put you behind bars for not doing what you promised, but when you see others declaring proudly how they completed their tasks and see them feeling euphoric about it, you feel bad for not keeping your words and feel ‘left out’. These group dynamics work for participants and they complete things most of the times. We have seen it working in Batch 1 and Batch 2 of our bootcamp. A little work each week improves your financial life, and at the end of 6 weeks, you move to the next level and realize – “Wow! I have finally done so many things which I was only thinking about all this time”

Now it need not be only at the investors bootcamp – you can report to your spouse, your friend, your Facebook friends (if you are okay declaring your actions) or else, you can pay a professional financial planner and take his help. Anything that helps you is a “great” option. There are no rules.

So bring some accountability structure in your financial life and you will surely see the results.

Conclusion

You really need to design your financial life based on these 5 ideas . Do not just read them, but really practice them and see the effect.

List of awesome projects lined up in 2014 on Jagoinvestor

Posted on January 2, 2014August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

Hi All readers, Wishing you and your family a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! We take this opportunity to thank you for being an integral part of our community. Year 2013 was a great year for us and we will continue to serve investors community in the similar fashion. We take this opportunity to share some of the highlights of the year 2013 and also wanted to share what you can expect from us in the New Year.

Year 2013 Flashback

Book “How to be your own Financial Planner in 10 steps” Launched and it has simplified financial planning profession to a great extent. With the help of this book you can actually be your own financial planner – Written by Manish Chauhan (Buy)

Book “11 Principles to achieve financial freedom launched”, this book is a gem. It is written in story format, it talks about financial coaching and principles of financial freedom – written by Nandish Desai (Buy)

We Redesigned our Q&A forum page (it has more than 6000+ members and 7000+ questions – ask your questions now. It is like a one BIG magic box which contains all kinds of personal finance questions and solutions.

We also had an opportunity to work with a few investors one-on-one. We work with limited number of investors in a month and In this year we have completed close to 250+ financial planning clients. We now have clients in more than 30+ countries. (look at our services page)

In this year we launched our most innovative project till date called 100moneyactions.com, which has helped more than 300+ investors and the number is growing every month. This program is magical, if you complete all the 100 actions it will surely help you to take your financial life to the next level. (check out)

We Published close to 600+ articles till date. It is always fun sharing personal finance knowledge with committed investor’s community. We are happy to make a difference in so many people’s financial lives. (here is the list)

We started something very interesting on facebook. Yes, we have designed a magical 6 week program that takes place on facebook closed group. And in 2013 from 2 boot camps 80+ investors graduated from our Investors Bootcamp. We really want every reader of jagoinvestor to go through boot camp participation where you get a chance to learn from other investors.

We could only do one workshop in 2013. 55+ members attended our Mumbai Workshop for Investors. In our workshops we generate high level of commitment in investors and it helps people to design their financial life.

Helped Asset Management Company, DSP Blackrock with Plan F show on personal finance from start to end (watch all 10 episodes). In this show all the case studies were from jagoinvestor community and we also got an opportunity to learn a lot of things.

A book called “How to Grow Your Business as a Financial Advisor” by Nandish Desai launched for financial advisor. This is India’s book on practice building for financial advisors. Many of you may not be knowing that we have a blog called jagoadvisor.com where we share our business experiences with advisors community – (Buy the book)

Conducted several Online and Offline training programs for Financial Advisors & Planners in Mumbai. The workshop for financial advisors was high on value and we got great feedback from those who participated.

Our Major Projects and Offerings in 2014

A irresistible “Oh My God” Offer for all Investors on 7th Jan – Check your mail box on 7^th of Jan at 10 am. We have designed a very special offer for all our readers who have been with us from a long time. This offer is a difference making offer as it will provide you with some powerful tools by which you can start your 2014 with a BANG. Most people have fitness on their new year resolution list but this year we want our readers to place personal finance on top most priority. See that you do not miss this opportunity as it will only be available once in a year. I think this will be the best way to start your 2014 journey as an investor.

Investors Workshops in Different Cities – Every once in a while we get mails from different people asking for our investor workshop. We plan to tour 4-5 cities in India and want to conduct our flagship workshop for investors. We might also conduct some workshops outside of India as Indian investors are spread all across. We will need your encouragement and support to spread a word about these events – more details will come soon this year. If you are interested for this workshop , please register here

Something special for women investors – In the year 2013 we created one video course and some audio for women investors and it is our dream to do something special for women investors. This may be in form of some workshop or some online program but we will see that it truly helps women investors. We will need a lot of support from each one of you to make our dream a reality. Let’s get together and help more and more women in managing their money effectively.

A new website Advisor Hub – This is a project we have been working from last 1 year and it is now in its final stage of completion. This website will encourage quality advice and will help both advisor and investors community. All we can say right now is it will be a game changer in the world of personal finance.

Jagoinvestor PRO to be launched – In the year 2014 we plan to bring some new features and awesome things on Jagoinvestor which will help you more and more in your financial life. We are working on a whole new kind of model that will help investors to take their financial life to the next level.

Some New Books on personal finance – Looking at the great response of our books written with CNBC TV18 our publisher wants more from us. I and Nandish will be writing a few more books on personal finance in this year (some more awesome topics that will help investors to live a great financial life)

Business Workshop in different metros – We plan to train more and more financial advisors in India through our training programs and we would love our workshop conversation to reach more and more people. In the year 2014 we are also going to conduct leadership workshop for one Religious organization. Imagine I and Nandish leading 2 day program for 60+ Swamiji’s. This is one assignment that we are truly excited about.

Our 2014 is going to be all about service. We will stick to our commitment of serving investors and advisors community. We will continue to innovate, we will continue to make personal finance fun for people and every action that we will take will make a positive difference in society. Thank you once again for being our strength for all your love and constant encouragement. Don’t forget to benefit from OMG offer on 7th of Jan.

Review of iWish Recurring Deposit from ICICI Bank

Posted on December 26, 2013August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

Around December last year, ICICI Bank launched a flexible Recurring Deposit scheme called “iWish”. Customers with an ICICI savings account and who have access to Internet banking can use the iWish facility. Here’s how

Login to the iWish section in your ICICI saving bank account
Define a goal (like buying a laptop, vacation, down-payment on a house, etc.)
Define the amount and tenure
Make the starting contribution and the iWish goal starts

After this point, you are free to deposit additional money in your iWish account anytime you have surplus funds. Also, you can clearly see how much of goal is completed in % terms at any stage of the process. Interest rates on the iWish scheme range between 7.75% and 8.5%. Rates depend on the tenure of your goal – which can be between 6 months and 10 yrs.

Source PageWhere iWish really innovates, is by bringing a social networking aspect into the picture. Users have the ability to share their goals (and the money required to achieve them) on their Facebook account and friends and family can then contribute money to the goal if they wish. By getting users to make a public declaration of their goal, the scheme hopes to prompt greater accountability in individual financial decisions.

To learn more about ICICI iWish Scheme, please watch the video below.

How its different from normal Recurring Deposit ?

Compared to a standard Recurring Deposit, the iWish scheme does not make it compulsory for users to make payments on a fixed date and also gives them the power to categorize savings into goals – which is a more human way to visualize and save your money.

Personally, I see iWish as a mechanism to define goals and save for them through Recurring Deposits. While standard Recurring Deposits just help save money for an unlabeled goal, iWish helps you define and prioritize your goals – helping you decide which goal to save for first. It also helps build a focused saving approach as once someone defines a goal, they are more likely to be serious about achieving it.

The scheme is clearly going to benefit the young generation, who are new to investing. For a generation who rely a lot on visual stimuli, the ability to see defined goals and a visual image of progress towards that goal (e.g. 34% of your ‘new car’ goal has been achieved) is a huge plus.

Fine Prints and things to know

While, on the whole, the iWish Scheme is good, there are few things one should be aware of to avoid a mismatch with expectations.

One can create maximum of 10 goals (wishes) and the maximum goal amount can be Rs 10 lacs
The minimum installment amount per month has to be Rs 500
If you want to withdraw the money on maturity or even before maturity, you need to open a request online for that.
There is no compulsion of making payments each month, so you can skip the installments if you want

Disadvantage of iWish from ICICI

By now, you must be wondering what the downsides of the iWish scheme are? Simply put, it is the problem of “manual intervention”.

I am convinced that it takes a great degree of resolve and discipline to properly manage one’s personal finance and investments. Unless the saving process is automated, people are tempted to be a little relaxed about saving in every period. While iWish touts its ‘flexibility’ as an innovative feature, in real life it might not help, as people are more likely to stop ‘voluntarily’ paying into their goals after 2-3 contributions.

With a traditional recurring deposit, the process of investing is compulsory and forced on you and in essence, you are compelled to make payments on a fixed date. Furthermore, the knowledge that there is an auto-debit leads you to ensure the monies are there in the account on the designated date. All this means that over 1-2 years, the Recurring Deposit really works and creates the money pool you need. While iWish is a fancy product, I do not see it as an improvement over the traditional Recurring Deposit.

Only in selected conditions and situations, iWish seems to work better than normal Recurring Deposit. An example would be when the investor’s income is not stable (one does not know if the bank account will really have the required balance on a certain date). For all other cases, I would prefer using traditional Recurring Deposits. Choose a goal, fix the amount, divide it by number of months and just start the RD for that amount. That should get the job done without needing my involvement every month.

What’s your verdict about iWish Feature and its utility? Do you think it’s any better than traditional Recurring Deposits?

UPDATE : Just realised later and came to know that you can have funds debited from your account automatically just like traditional RD, but it was kind of hidden and I never realised it . So mainly iWish has both, traditional RD features and innovative flexible way to accumulate your money and hence is better than what I have projected above.

Review of book – “Easy Money – Evolution of Money from Robinson Crusoe to the First World War”

Posted on December 19, 2013August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

Do you want to learn how money evolved in this world ? How did the concept of money took birth ? Today it might look very easy and intuitive to see and manage money, but it has long history and a very interesting one! . I always used to wonder about these topics, but got to read anything in detail untill some months back when Vivek Kaul sent me his book – “Easy Money – Evolution of Money from Robinson Crusoe to the First world war” (buy the book)

In this book, Vivek has shared how this world was first on the barter system and then slowly and steadily the concept of money was born. He mentions various events in history and examples which will how you how money was not just invented in a day, but it slowly took its shape because it was the need of the hour.

Click Here to Buy the Book

Kaul starts with the history of money from time immemorial and traces the development of money and the financial system till around the time of the end of the First World War. He tells us about the various commodities that have been used as money at various points of time. Other than gold and silver, a whole lot of other metals like copper, iron, platinum, lead, nickel, and tin, have been used as money by various civilizations at various points of time.

Other than metals, agricultural commodities like almonds, cacao beans, rice, wheat, and tobacco have also been used as money. In fact, tobacco was used as money in the United States longer than gold and silver were. Salt has been used as money in large parts of Sahara which are dry.

Here is one example sharing from the book

In the prisoner of war camps during the Second World War cigarettes were used as money. Dog teeth and dolphin teeth have been used as money. And in the island of Yap in the Pacific Ocean even large thick stone wheels called fei have also been used as money.

Gold is valueable because its “Useless”

One of the best things I learned from the book is that Gold is valuable in this world, because its Useless. Yes – you heard it right. From the start of my life, I used to wonder that why people love gold and why its so expensive when it cant be used for anything useful, and in the book I learnt that – its the exact reason why its so valuable . The book shares the reason for this and Here is an excerpt from the book

What also helped gold survive as money is its uselessness. “Despite the fact that it is highly malleable (can be beaten into sheets easily), ductile (can be easily drawn into wires), and the best conductor of electricity, gold does not have many industrial uses like other metals have. This is primarily because there is very little of it go¬ing around. Also, what does not help is the fact that gold is as soft as putty. This softness makes it practically useless for all purposes that need metal,” writes Kaul. “When commodities are used as money they are taken away from their primary use.

So, if rice or wheat is used as money for daily transactions and to preserve wealth, it means a lesser amount of rice and wheat in the market for people to buy and eat. This, in turn, would mean higher prices of grains, which are staple food in large parts of the world. Gold does not have many practical uses. So if people hoard gold, it does not hurt anyone,” he adds. Hence, gold survived as money largely till the start of the First World War. Then paper money took over as various European governments had to print money in order to finance the First World War.

Rise of Paper Money and Banking System

One of the most interesting points of Easy Money is the part where Kaul explains the close link between the rise of paper money and the banking system as it has evolved to this day. In fact, the paper money system was at the heart of the profitability of banks. As Kaul writes “The moral of the story is that the lesser the capital the bank had, the greater money it made, but greater was its chance of going bust as well. As Walter Bagehot, the great editor of The Economist once put it, “the main source of profitableness of established banking is the smallness of requisite capital.”

This is a very fundamental point on how the banks as well as other financial institutions have evolved over the years and is at the heart of things as they are currently. Banks as well as financial institutions over the years have figured out that the lesser the amount of capital they have on their books, the more money they make. But this increases the riskiness of the overall financial system as well.”

Note that the book also talks about some of the heavy topics like financial crisis, financial innovations like securitization, collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps, how banks evolved etc

The last chapter of the book tries to link the history to way things are happening currently. This chapter could have been little longer and ends a bit too quickly. Another thing that the author could have done is have had takeaways at the end of each chapter, linking them to the current financial crisis.

My personal take on the book

While I enjoyed the book, and its an an excellent read for anyone looking to understand the current financial crisis from a historical view point in simple jargon free English. Be clear that its not a regular personal finance book teaching you about concepts. Also be ready to read few things which you might not be able to digest in a single read. You should read the book only if you love the topic of money evolution and the whole idea which the book wants to present.

Buy the Book by Clicking Here

About Vivek Kaul

Vivek Kaul has worked at senior positions with the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) and The Economic Times. His writings have appeared across various other publications in India. These include The Times of India, The Times of India (Crest edition), The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, The Pioneer, Indian Management, Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, Forbes India, and Wealth Insight. He has also written regularly for www.rediff.com. Currently, he is a regular columnist for www.firstpost.com and a regular contributor to DNA.

Share with us how Jagoinvestor has helped you succeed in your financial life – Click Here

The Shocking story of – How LIC policy was surrendered using Forged Signature

Posted on December 16, 2013September 9, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

Can someone else surrender your LIC policy and take the money ? I know you have never ever thought this can happen, because this looks so impossible, but I want to share an incident with you all which happened with Muthu (name changed), who is one of our jagoinvestor reader.

insurance fraud surrender

One day, Muthu came to know that 3 of his LIC policies were surrendered by someone else and the money was utilized. He came to know about this only when he got pre-closure letter from LIC for his 3rd policy. Below is the full sharing from Muthu –

Hello All,

I was shocked to know that someone has used my identity (signature) to surrender my LIC policies and utilized that money for their benefits.

Firstly, my policy # 363934899 was forged and surrendered on 29.01.2013, for which LIC has issued cheque # 926895 dtd 29.01.2013 amounted Rs. 49795/- without my knowledge or consent.

Secondly, my policy # 363934900 was forged and surrendered on 29.01.2013, for which LIC has issued cheque # 926894 dtd 29.01.2013 amounted Rs 49795/- without my knowledge or consent.

Thirdly, my policy # 364340197 was forged and surrendered on 07.10.2013, for which LIC has issued cheque 959220 amounted to Rs 35645/- without my knowledge or consent.

I came to know about this when I received pre-closure letter from LIC after surrender of my third policy # 364340197. Immediately I raised written complaint to LIC about policies forgery on October 29, 2013. Further to my complaint, LIC recovered forged amount from the concern person and sent a covering letter along with the 4 cheques to me for the forged valve but not specifying the forged person name on the covering letter.

This incident raises some questions which are –

When the initial cheques was issued in my name, how the money has been utilized by someone else.

Even though requesting, LIC not mentioning forged person name in the covering letter after recovery of the forged amount.

Did LIC filed FIR against forged person? If not why?

Who did this Fraud ?

When I came to know about this incident, the first thing which came to my mind was that it was some “insider” from LIC who did this, because its almost impossible to surrender the policy without producing the original policy document, forging the signatures and then redeeming the cheque in your own account. But the truth is that the fraud was not done by anyone from LIC office. Then Who ?

It was his Mother and Younger Brother !

Shocked ! ?

Let me now share in Muthu’s words how his mother and younger brother did this fraud.

The Fraud was done using “re-cycle” procedure

Here is exactly what Muthu shared about the fraud procedure

Dear Manish,

Since the bond was in my mother custody they surrendered that policy with the forged signature (read more about Identity Theft)

When the cheque was issued in my name, LIC agent by name Yeshoda has given a cunning idea to re-submit the cheque received in my name to LIC and another policy to issue for the same value for different name ( This process is called re-cycle procedure).

Finally once the policy has been issued in their name. They can easily surrender that policy and utilized the policy amount.

This is worst ever experience that money can change “ANY ONE”.

Do you have LIC policy ? Are you sure this same fraud can not happen with you ? How will you prevent it ?

Entering ATM PIN is now compulsory when you use Debit Cards

Posted on December 13, 2013August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

RBI has made it mandatory to punch your PIN number, when you use your debit card on shopping outlets (Big bazaar, Petrol Pumps, Shops) from Dec 1 2013. I realised just few days back that this has already started. I was shopping for household things at a mall nearby and was asked to punch in my Debit card PIN after it was swiped. It was the first time I had to do that in last so may years of my using debit card for shopping. I covered the machine with my hands and entered my PIN and the transaction went through.

mandatory pin on debit card swipe

There are close to 350 million debit card in India right now and you can imagine the quantum of frauds which is possible with so many debit cards in India. Before this rule came into effect, if your debit card was lost – Someone could just take your debit card, go for the shopping and swipe your debit card and would never get caught because the shopkeepers never checked signatures, identity of person etc.

But now with this new rule in place, an additional check of entering PIN number is required and the chances of fraud is lowered to some level

But – there are some Problems due to this

Now from one angle, surely frauds will come down, but then at the same time, this new rule exposes you to some new risks and potential frauds. Like – If you punch your PIN without much thought and others surrounding you are looking at the machine, others can look at the 4 digit PIN number you punched and memorize it.

Forget strangers, but imagine you are with some friend/relative and you punch your PIN, he/she looks at it, memories it and now he can use it later for some online transaction (he still has to find out your Card number and Expiry date, which is clearly mentioned on your card).

Also at some outlets dishonest shopkeepers have skimmers machine which record your data when you swipe the card and they can duplicate your card and use it later to withdraw cash from ATM or do transactions with duplicate cards.

An article from Firstpost also mentions that there is also a possibility of PIN being stored on the Machine after you have punched it.

The next question to ask is can the PIN be stored (knowingly/ unknowingly) on the card reader machine by the retailer? According to this report in the USA, instances have been known where many merchants have incorrectly stored PIN information they should be destroying after customers enter the secret code. While we agree this is a western world report, Indian fraudsters have always been inspired to copy those tricks in the domestic markets. What would stop our fraudsters? And even if your merchant would have stored the PIN inadvertently on his card machine, a hacker can easily access the retailer’s machine to get data about several card holders along with their PINs.

Implementation from Dec 1

The above rule was to be followed by all the terminals from Dec 1, 2013. Anyone not complying is just not following RBI guidelines and breaking the law.

While all the places I have seen has started implementing it, still at some places its not being not followed. Here is one instance which comes from the same first post article comments section, where someone is sharing his experience.

yesterday on 4 Dec, I went to another restaurant and wanted to pay via debit card. While, the merchant was punching into machine, I was waiting for him to hand over the machine. But this is not what happened, I was not asked for the PIN for this restaurant even after the new RBI rule is in effect.

This clearly violates the fact that the new RBI rule is not completely applied for all merchants/banks.

What do you think about this new change ? Are you happy with it, or have some reasons against this change ?

The Journey of 10 part Plan F show (and youtube links)

Posted on December 6, 2013August 21, 2019 by Jagoinvestor

In this post we want to share our great experience till now working with CNBC 18 and DSP BlackRock Mutual Funds team on the show Plan F. We have been involved with the whole process from start. Me and Nandish keep going to CNBC Office every alternate week to shoot for our part which comes at end of each episode.

Shooting of CNBC show plan F

What you can learn from Each Episode ?

All the 10 episodes have been aired and we have got all kind of reviews about them, what was good, what could be improved, which part audience are liking and what they are not liking. I tell all of them that no one episode can fit someone’s expectations, but it surely has deep learnings for everyone. In one way or other one can surely learn from each episode’s. I am not talking about the numbers discussed or their portfolio, but from each episode’s case study financial life journey.

For example – in 5th episode, Mr Subodh Khare shares how he wants to make his daughter financially wise and wants to give them around Rs 50 lacs so that they can shape their life from there in a more powerful way.

In 2nd episode Sreekumari shared how she is operating from Financial Freedom and how she has already taken so many right decisions.

In 3rd episode Ramakumar shares, how all his life, he used 2nd income in family (his spouse income) only and only for saving and now he is almost financially free.

If you look at each episode, write down what is that one learning you can draw from the episode and you can take some actions to improve it. If you listen to IFA’s, they analyse the portfolio and give some 2-3 core insights they can think about. Either Me or Nandish give 3 tips of the week for all investors which you can apply to your financial life.

Episode 1 – Ramesh Jalan

Watch the first episode, where Mr. Ramesh Jalan talks about his investment journey with financial experts Sumeet Vaid (MD, Freedom Wealth Solutions) and Vijay Bhushan (Partner, Bharat Bhushan & Co.)

Episode 2 – Shreekumari Dholakia

Watch the second episode, where Ms. Shreekumari Dholakia talks about her investment journey with financial experts Lovaii Navlakhi (CEO, International Money Matters) and Surya Bhatia (Managing Partner, Assets Managers)

Episode 3 – Ramakumar Poothrikovil

Watch the third episode, where Mr. Ramakumar Poothrikovil talks about his investment journey with financial experts Ramkumar Barchha (Premium Partner, Ramkumar H Barchha) and Ashish Shah (MD, Wealth First Portfolio Managers)

Episode 4 – Himanshu Jain

Watch the fourth episode, where Mr. Himanshu Jain talks about his investment journey with financial experts Suresh Sadagopan (Founder, Ladder 7 Financial Advisories) and Brijesh Dalmia (Director, Dalmia Advisory Services)

Episode 5 – Subodh Khare

Watch the fifth episode, where Dr. Subodh Khare talks about his investment journey with financial experts Ashish Chadha (CEO,Chadha Investment Consultant) and Pallav Bagaria (Proprietor, Brand New Day)

Episode 6 – Sanjeev Singh

Watch the sixth episode, where Mr. Sanjeev Singh talks about his investment journey with financial experts Hari Kamat (Proprietor, Investment Avenue) and Ullas Shah (CEO, Madhuvan Securities)

Episode 7 – Kavita Sharma

Watch the seventh episode, where Ms. Kavita Sharma talks about her investment journey with financial experts Ranjit Dani (Co Founder, Think Consultants) and Krishnakumar Desai (Chief Investment Advisor, Sri Kotyark Investments)

Episode 8 – M Subrahmanyeswara Rao

Watch the eighth episode, where Mr. M Subrahmanyeswara Rao talks about his investment journey with financial experts Gajendra Kothari (MD & CEO, Etica Wealth Management) and N Krishnan (Director, Value Invest Wealth Management)

Episode 9 – Shefali Doshi

Watch the ninth episode, where Ms. Shefali Doshi talks about her investment journey with financial experts Mrin Agarwal (Founder, Mr investment) and Deepak Chhabria (CEO & Director, Axiom Financial Services)

Episode 10 – Cyrus Broacha & Ramesh Damani

In the Plan F finale (10th Episode), watch the key principles of investing that regular investors can implement in their investing strategy, summarized by the renowned market analyst and member of BSE, Ramesh Damani. These principles have been extracted from the many case studies that were featured over the course of the Plan F season. Also, watch the tables turn as Jagoinvestor takes on the role of the inquisitor, interviewing Cyrus Broacha on his personal finance journey.

Share about your views on Plan
Can you share your learnings from various episodes of Plan F ? Which were the points you learned and have started applied in your financial life ?