Are you blindly following everyone around you?

"Go with the crowd" mentality is so typical in any corporate work environment. It is also not uncommon to notice this in our personal lives. You will see people just following what people around them have been doing for many years, sometimes, not even knowing the rationale behind what they are doing and why.

There was a real experiment (scientific study) done involving 5 monkeys (10 altogether, including replacements), a cage, a banana, a ladder and an ice cold water hose. Some of you may have heard about this experiment before, but the fact that this was a real experiment amazes me every time i read this story and relate the same to the real world.

All about Top-Up Premiums

What is Insurance?
Insurance is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment.

Who is an Insurer & Insured?
An insurer, or insurance carrier, is a company selling the insurance; the insured, or policyholder, is the person or entity buying the insurance policy.

Can i change the world?

Can i make any difference to the world? Can i make any difference to my country? At least, can i make a difference to the people and society around me? On numerous occasions, we get ideas and plans to bring about a change around us.... for the better. But in most such occasions, what stops us are some questions like these or some very simple but logical doubts in our mind.

What if no one else is ready to change? 

What difference does it make if only i change?

The Power of Simplicity

"Simple" has immense power.

Doesn't the above quote look too simple? Yes, it is. But why do we need to complicate it if it conveys the message that we want to convey. Most of us, in life, either ignore or undermine the power that simple things can bring. We either believe that such simple things cannot bring success, else everyone would have achieved it or we get satisfaction out of complicating things for ourselves.

Your TIME is your most valuable ASSET

Rohit and Sapna have been happily married for the last 10 years. They have an adorable 5 year old daughter who has just started going to school. Both of them work for top notch multinational companies. Money is not a real problem for them. They earn well, and spend well. 

5 Year Tax Saving Fixed Deposit (FD) under Section 80C

We studied in detail about Bank Fixed Deposits (Bank FDs) and the tax implications arising out of the interest earned through Fixed Deposits in a few of our earlier posts:

1. Ladder your Fixed Deposits

2. Know more about Company Fixed Deposits

3. Are you paying TAX on your FD interest

There is one very interesting aspect of Fixed Deposits which is worth mentioning as a separate post. So, i thought i would share that with all of you.

As per the Section 80C of the Income Tax Laws of India, we can do investments of up to Rs. 1.5 Lacs (Rs. 150,000 only) which would help us save taxes on an equal proportion of our salary. While there are various commonly known options to invest and save taxes under Section 80C, one of the option which is not very commonly known for Section 80C investments is 5 year Fixed Deposits.

Be careful of what you feed your mind

"As you sow, so shall you reap". 
My younger daughter was reading this idiom in her 3rd standard English workbook and i was trying to explain its meaning trying to cite various examples.

What is Reverse Mortgage Loan

What is Mortgage?

We understood the fundamentals on mortgage in one of earlier posts titled : "Understanding Mortgage" . I would suggest you to go through the details of Mortgage before getting in to understand about Reverse Mortgage.

In layman's definition, a mortgage is a loan to finance the purchase of one's home. This is clearly the biggest debt that you would ever get into in your life.

Literally, The word mortgage is a French Law term meaning "death contract", meaning that the pledge ends (dies) when either the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure.

What is Reverse Mortgage Loan (RML) ?

Reverse mortgage is a loan that enables home owners above 60 years of age to convert a part of their self-owned home equity into income without having to sell it.

Lets create our own inspiring story

GOD made you and me with the same dedication, commitment, focus and HOPE as HE did for someone like Sir Edmund Hillary. This is also true for each and everyone around us. When HE created us, he did not create any difference, in terms of giving us the "freedom" to mold our own lives, live the life that we want to live, define our own path and to go and achieve our own goals and dreams.

We do trust GOD on this impartial commitment. Isn't it? Then, why is it that some of us are able to carve our names in the history books while some keep struggling for most part of their lives.

What is in a Gift - Know about Gift Tax in India

Most of us consider giving and taking gifts as a normal tradition in India and may not have ever bothered to even look at the fact that this could also have some serious tax implications. The last thing that you want to think of while receiving a gift from your loved one is about its tax implications.

Get your Life Vitals right - Mission, Goals and Strategy

We have been talking about the need and importance of a mission, goal and strategy to achieve anything meaningful in many of our earlier posts. I call these 3 elements as vitals of our life. Having understood the purpose of these vitals, let us now focus on how to go about creating these vitals for our own life.