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.

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.

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.

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!

At the workplace my project has been selected for CMMi Audit. I was never so busy in my career doing the most boring tasks I ever did. I don’t despise process, but I am strongly of the opinion that any software development process should help the development team to improve their work. And I can’t think of better people than the members of the team to decide how they want things to be done.

But not so in large bureaucratic organizations, they need to have a well defined process for things that does not mean anything to the business of software development. Most of the process are organized around Trust or rather the lack of it. What if somebody puts in malicious code ? What if the code moved into the development server is not the one the developer has given for review. Make the people enter forms in triplicate, have checklists for each and every action at each and every stage of the lifecycle.

Another thing that comes to my mind is the ego associated with the higher management when it comes to audit. Any gaps found in the process is taken very seriously only because its causes the department head some embarrassment.

A process should be followed only if its helps the development team in delivering a good quality product and not because someone said so or its defined in the CMMi practices. Only then the development team would be following those processes.

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

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.

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.

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 ?

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.