SPEND TOO MUCH DURING DIWALI ? HERE'S HOW YOU CAN LIMIT EXPENSES

The festive season has begun and it’s time to celebrate Diwali with sweets, gifts, purchases, crackers and lots of happiness. This festival brings families together and people not only enjoy to their heart’s content but also spend in the same manner! We have no control over our expenses and it is only once Diwali is over do we realise the pinch in our pockets.

We list some simple tips which will help you curb expenses during this season without taking away its excitement and grandeur:

1. Prepare a detailed list:
This should be your foremost step before you start shopping for Diwali. Majority of individuals hesitate to do it but making a realistic list is the best way to get a rough picture about the amount of money which will be needed. Invest 30 minutes of your time and note down names of people who would be given Diwali gifts, shopping expenditure, any renovation to be done in the house, vacations, domestic salaries including bakshish and the corresponding amount required. Adhere to this list sincerely.

2. Use your credit/debit cards wisely:
These modes of payments are an individual’s best friend during Diwali shopping! We shop and swipe without even realizing the huge bills these cards will generate. The best way to restrict expenses is to leave your cards at home and carry cash. In case you are out of money, you can always withdraw some from the nearby ATM. For those who can’t do without plastic money should take cards which have lower credit limit or less balance.

3.Do smart shopping:
Whether online or offline, many brands offer tremendous discounts/offers during the festive season. You can save a lot of money by availing these offers. However, you should always compare the prices quoted by different retailers so that you can save maximum money. Banks too come up with attractive schemes for their credit/debit card customers. Keep a watch on promotional e-mails, text messages which we normally ignore and turn into a smart shopper.

4. Keep the larger picture in mind:
Diwali is no doubt a festival where you desire to shop for your favourite merchandise. Nonetheless, you should not purchase goods which you are not going to use or don’t require. For example, you may not require a new washing machine for the next 1 year at least but it’s being offered at jaw-dropping prices so you buy it. The same money can be used to purchase other important things such as sweets or lights.

These guidelines are simple to follow and will surely help in controlling unnecessary expenditure during the festive season. Moreover, Diwali is not just about splurging, it is more important to experience memorable times with your family and friends.

Source : Axis Mutual Fund

TWO LIES THAT KEEP YOUR JAIL DOOR LOCKED

TWO LIES KEEP YOUR JAIL DOOR LOCKED -

 

The jail door has two locks. And both locks are lies.
The first lie is that we're powerless to live our lives fully.
The second lie is that "living for others" justifies our resignation.

Both lies protect us from confronting our fear. Both lies rob us of the opportunity for choosing courage and exercising our creativity.

"I can't leave my abusive husband  because I have no work skills." (I'm powerless.)
 "I should stay with him for his sake, for the sake of the children, in order to set a good example for others, and for the sacrament of marriage." (I'm doing it for others.)
 "I can't move out of my parents' home because I must obey them." (I'm powerless.)
 "I should stay with my parents because I don't want to upset them." (I'm doing it for others.)

 "I can't get the job I love because it's not out there." (I'm powerless.)
 "I should just accept my situation and not expect to have it  better than others." (I'm doing it for others.)

"I can't find the partner I want  because all the good ones are already taken." (I'm powerless.)
 "It would be unfair to go after just any person I want."  (I'm doing it for others.)
 "I don't have enough free time to enjoy my life because I have too many things to do." (I'm powerless.)
 "I can't just cancel out or change my commitments.That would be unfair to others." (I'm doing it for others.)

 In what area of your life do you feel stopped or tied up?

 Can you identify the two locks that keep you in this jail?
 What opportunities for courage and creativity,  if taken, might open these locks and set you free?

Courtsey - Sanjeev Agarwal - Brainbow (AMI)

Expert Take - `Illogic' of Profit-booking in MF Play

May 04 2015 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)

Dhirendra Kumar CEO, Value Research

Booking profits is an equity traders' concept that mutual fund investors must leave behind

Is it time for profit-booking? It's a typical question most investors often ask. If you are a mutual fund investor and you are asking this question, you could be making a big mistake.To be fair, this question is an obvious one in a time like the current one. The stock market has slackened in 2015 after a strong surge in the previous year. This idea of profit-booking (or profit-taking) is an integral part of equity investing culture the world over. Investopedia defines it as “The act of selling a security in order to lock in gains after it has risen appreciably.“ You buy a stock, and when you feel it has risen as much as it is going to over whatever the time period you are interested in, you sell it. That `locks in' the gains.

It is a common saying among equity investors that no one ever lost money by booking a profit. That statement sounds like a clincher, and makes profit-booking a no brainer. The problem is that investors in equity mutual funds have also adopted this idea. Here's a typical query among the ones that I've been receiving from equity fund investors, “I've been investing in XYZ fund for a long time. Now that the market has stopped rising, I have redeemed all my units in order to book profits.Where should I invest the proceeds now?“ What do you think is the correct answer to this question? Here's mine. If the investor has something to spend the money on, he should do so. Otherwise, he should invest it in an equity fund. And since XYZ fund has given him good gains, that's probably a good choice.Sounds like I'm making a joke, but that's probably because in equity funds, profit-booking just for the heck of it is a no brainer, but in a different sense of the phrase.

Booking profits means that you think that an investment has reached a point when it has nothing further to offer in your time-frame, and you would need to move the money to some other stock. It doesn't mean that just because a certain amount of profit has been made, you must `book' it. If you immediately move the money to another investment, then you've un-booked the profit. This makes sense only if, for some reason, it's important for you to count the profitability of each stock separately. If you are thinking of your investments as a portfolio whose gains matter as a whole, then it doesn't make much sense.

In any case, in equity funds, there is already someone -the fund manager -who's mov ing in and out of stocks that are there in the portfolio of the fund, as needed. Selling funds just because the market went up and has now had a bit of a pause makes no sense as an investment strategy.

Apart from a slavish adherence to a misapplied principle, I think the roots of this profitbooking in funds lie in simple nervousness.There is a special breed of investor who gets nervous at every uptick in the nervous at every uptick in the market. Every paisa gained brings to them heightened nervousness about whether it's about to be taken away. And when the markets pause even a bit, they scuttle away like a surprised mouse.

I guess every investor is a slave to his or her own psychology, but the nervous types' behaviour is especially self-destructive. It's likely that most of these people will pull out their money now. At every fluctuation in the market, they'll feel happy that they've saved their profits. However, eventu ally, when the market is much higher, they'll invest again. At that point, they might well be at a higher risk.

At the end of the day, this profit-booking is a way of trying to time the markets -something that rarely works out for investors.

Aadhaar Holders Don't Need to Submit ITR-V After E-filing

New forms also seek more detailed declaration on bank accounts held by taxpayers here and abroad
 

In a change that will impact millions of Indians, the new tax forms released on Thursday have exempted taxpayers with Aadhaar cards from submit payers with Aadhaar cards from ting their ITR-V by post after filing their returns online.This will make the online filing procedure truly paperless even for those who don't have digital signatures. The income tax (I-T) department intends to link the electronic verification code (EVC) system-endorsed Aadhaar card to the ITR (income tax return) form submitted by a taxpayer and the authentication of the return will take place electronically. Till now, online filing was paperless only if the person had a digital signature. Taxpayers who did not have it had to post a physical copy of the ITR-V to the Central Processing Centre in Bengaluru within 120 days of filing tax returns online. This physical submission of the ITR-V acknowledgement slip prevented e-filing from becoming a completely online process. The new forms have removed this anachronism and made e-filing easier.

“A large number of e-filers skipped this very important process, assuming the job was done once their return was e-filed, whereas the I-T department doesn't consider a return filed unless the ITR-V re filed unless the ITR-V reaches them on time,“ said Archit Gupta, CEO and co-founder, ClearTax.in, a Delhi-based online tax filing portal. Moreover, ITR-V had to be signed and printed properly so that the bar code was clearly visible. ITR-Vs that did not conform these specifications got rejected. There have been complaints of postal delays and losses in transit as well.

“It was unfair, to say the least, to expect every single tax payer to have access to a printing facility and then make the time to go to the post office to send the speed post. We're glad the process is being done away with for those who have an Aadhaar card and with this the e-filing process will become fully electronic,“ said Gupta. The refund process should get faster and smoother. “One of the possible mechanisms for EVC could be through an OTP sent on the mobile number of the taxpayer,“ Gupta said.

The new forms also seek a more detailed declaration from taxpayers. It's now mandatory to list bank accounts held at any time during the year in ITR-1, includ ing those that have been closed during the period. Tax payers will also have to provide ac count numbers, name of the bank, IFSC code and list any joint holders along with the closing balance on March 31 of the assessment year.

ITR-2 now seeks particulars of foreign bank accounts and assets held, details of overseas travel and expenses on the trip. travel and expenses on the trip.It also seeks utilisation details of amounts deposited in capital gains account schemes for the year. Unutilized amounts from such schemes are taxed as short-term capital gains when not invested within the specified period. “With this disclosure, the department has eased its process of collecting tax by putting the onus of disclosure on the tax payer,“ Gupta said.

Source : The Economic Times -  April 2015

Retirement - An Unavoidable Event in our Life