simple investment works

MoneyControl.com has a new section called Wealth. It contains a wealth of personal finance information, some of it is specific to the Indian context, but the basic premise of personal finance remains the same – across the world; any day.

Here is one good article that says that investing is not complicated. Check out the link below.

retire rich with Rs.40 a day

That would be $1 a day; if you forget the variances in the currency fluctuations.

Filed under: personal finance

personal finance from the marketing guru

Seth Godin and his blog need no introduction. Here is some great piece of personal finance advise from him, in his own usual concise form of writing.

Urgent Personal finance advice

Please check it out.

Filed under: personal finance , credit cards, debt, personal finance, saving

Long time no post

Its ages since I posted on my blog. Sorry for that.

Its not because I ran out of idea for my post, its just some family health issues, coupled with overwhelming work and professional life kept me away from posting.

Most probably I shall get finished on my pending work and can get back to my routine schedule from tomorrow onwards.

Filed under: personal finance

To have or not to have ?

The eternal controversial debate – To have or not to have a credit card ?

Here’s my take

• Cards are bad – they make it easier for you to spend above your income.
• They charge you abnormal interest rate and a slew of other charges, they are only waiting for you to make a mistake (like missing a payment).
• Sometimes you get charged for transaction you did not do – by mistake and have to go through a lot of effort to get it reversed.
• It takes inhuman effort to resist the temptation to buy everyday in your life. There is an entire marketing world out there to get your money. Someday you are going to yield to that temptation to buy something you don’t need and will buy it. Credit cards help to make that purchase easier.

So the eternal question – is it worth it ? Let me know in your comments!

Filed under: personal finance , credit card, money, overspending, personal finance, saving, temptation

Good morning

I welcome you to a great new day. Today is special to me, I am starting with my money makeover journey stating with the debt elimination program today. I hope its going to be an interesting journey with lots of ups and downs. I want it that way, as someone said

Its the journey that matters and not the destination

So, the first step today – Budgeting

Filed under: personal finance , debt, finance, money

Hurray!!! The bonus and a salary hike

I have been waiting for this day for a long time ( two months). Today I got my bonus and a decent salary hike. As planned before in my recent post this is what I am going to do now

• Save 1/3 of my bonus as an emergency fund.
• Try to budget within my previous salary.
• Use the salary increment to clear off my credit card debt.

This would ensure that I get out of my credit card debt in 7 months. Then I am going to come up with a plan for clearing off my personal loan debt.

Filed under: personal finance , bonus, credit card, debt, hike, loan, salary

List of don’ts

Don’t

• put all your money in one asset class, either debt or equities.
• blindly believe what financial advisers say, do your own research.
• use credit cards as emergency fund.
• listen to hot stock tips.
• get greedy.

Filed under: personal finance , finance, greed, money, stock

How long…

since you have purchased anything ? (groceries and fuel excluded)

Is it a day , a week, or a month, or a quarter, or a year ?

Why did you buy it ?

Is it a need or a want ?

Filed under: personal finance

Life’s Surprises

Life has the habit of throwing surprises at you, when you least expect it.

Today morning I have been to my kids school to collect his report card for this year. His summer vacation started yesterday. And came to know that his school fees has been increased by 85% for the next academic year.

Though I have the liberty of paying the fees in three parts spread out over the next year, this has put a strain on my planning. The reason being I had planned for a fee hike of 25%(there has been a talk of increasing it by 25%) not 85%.

The solution to all such surprises – Have an emergency fund!!

If I had an emergency fund I would not be as much worried as I am now.

Lesson learnt the hard way, and yes, as mentioned in my yesterdays post I am going ahead with Plan I.

Filed under: personal finance , personal finance, saving

Putting the bonus to good use

I have a plan, infact, I have two plans to spend my bonus. I would be getting it at the end of next week along with my increased salary. I have been waiting for it since two months and also been thinking on how to spend it for the past two months. The amount I will receive is somewhere near to Rs.150,000 ($3750).

And I am confused. Here’s why

• I have Rs.110,000 ($2750) debt on a total of three cards.
• I have personal loans amounting to Rs.300,000 ($7500)
• I have a car loan of Rs.600,000 ($15000)
• I have a mortgage of Rs.1,725,000 ($43125)

That’s a lot of debt to clear off. I accumulated it due to lack of financial know-how, bad planning and carelessness. Definitely not due to lack of intelligence.

Now I have the necessary financial knowledge, thanks to the blogs of J.D at Get Rich Slowly, Ramit Sethi at I Will Teach You To Be Rich and Trent at The Simple Dollar. I intend to apply some of the debt elimination principles to the bonus amount.

Here is the Plan 1

1. Save Rs.100,000 ($2500) as emergency fund ( as I am currently living paycheck to paycheck).
2. Prepare a budget for the month and keep aside the required amount.
3. Start debt snowball on the credit card having the least balance.

My wife disagrees with plan 1 and suggested Plan 2

1. Save Rs.50000 ($1250) as an emergency fund.
2. Prepare a budget for the month and keep aside the required amount.
3. Clear off entire amount on 1 credit card.
4. Start debt snowball on the credit card having the least balance with the left money.

My concern with Plan 2 is that the emergency fund is 50% of the Plan 1. My wife is of the opinion that we don’t need such a big emergency fund and can fall back to using credit card if and when required. I don’t like that idea, here’s an article from Get Rich Slowly on why a credit card is not a emergency fund.

What do you suggest ? Let me know your view in the comments and help me reach a decision!!

Filed under: personal finance , bonus, debt, personal finance, saving