Got a home loan? 5 steps to plan EMIs better

Buying a home and moving into it is a dream of many individuals and home loan is a viable option to make this dream come true. However, buying a house by means of home loans means payment of a hefty amount as down payment, as well as monthly outflow in the form of Equated Monthly Installments or EMIs.

Even if you can actually manage to pay the down payment by collecting from various sources, the monthly EMI is a new strain on your finances.

Feel-good, cheap consumer loans: Who is govt trying to fool

Exhibit A is the government’s decision to recapitalise banks which lend at lower rates to certain consumer sectors such as two-wheelers and durables. Business Standard reports (4 October) that this decision was taken "in principle" at a meeting between Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Banks to pay for credit card frauds, RBI says

The Reserve Bank of India has refused to extend the deadline for upgrading security on credit card swipe machines and has ordered banks to compensate cardholders in seven days if any fraud occurs on non-compliant terminals.

If the bank fails to refund the disputed amount in seven days, it has to compensate the cardholder with a penalty of Rs 100 per day until the date of payment. At present, dispute resolution is a cumbersome process and takes several weeks in case of credit card frauds.

5 parameters of selecting best mutual fund scheme

Manikaran Singal discusses five parameters of selecting the best mutual funds scheme. 

Manikaran Singal Certified financial planner At the onset let me clarify that best mutual fund scheme does not mean the best in returns, but the one best suited to your risk profile and goals and the one that is good in its peer group. The biggest mistake that mutual fund investors make is selecting mutual funds only on the basis of performance and that too just the recent performance. There are some investors who consider only the star ratings given by various research agencies. These star ratings can be one of the factors to look at, but there are many other parameters that one should look into before finalising a mutual fund portfolio. 

The aim of this article is to apprise you with some of those parameters. 

Jemstep Review: A New Portfolio Manager for Your Retirement Assets

Most people are concerned as to whether or not they will have enough money in retirement – even if they are saving money along the way, they aren’t certain whether it will last as long or allow them to live as comfortably as they’d like. Many find it complex and intimidating or are unsure how to go about it. Often, they’re afraid they’ll make the wrong decisions and end up losing money.

What is Jemstep?

How Jemstep Helps Consumers Avoid Fees

How Jemstep’s Portfolio Manager Works

Jemstep’s Pricing

Jemstep vs. Personal Capital vs. Wealthfront vs. Betterment

The End Game: A More Integrated Money Management Solution

How to get debt-free soon!

We all prefer to live life in a comfortable manner. We don’t only want our basic needs to be fulfilled but we also wish to see our dreams come true. In order to live these visions many people land up taking loans or increasing their credit card dues. Although loans are an easy and quick way to get access to a huge sum of money, it might prove to be detrimental for your financial health, especially if you find yourself unable to make the monthly repayments. Having a large debt or having a high debt-to-income ratio could have an adverse impact on your borrowing capacity as well as your financial health. You see, most banks would prefer giving loans to borrowers who have less debt in their personal balance sheets. Loans and financial obligations must always be taken seriously and repaid in due time as any default on the payments can harm your credit rating and ability to seek loans in the future.

Things to check while opting for co-tenancy

Whether you are a tenant or a landlord, here’s the documentation you need to have in place before you consider the benefits of a shared, rented accommodation

Amit Shanbaug ,TOI

    In 2007, when Mumbai-based Priya Venkatramani saw an advertisement on a social networking site, she thought it was the answer to her prayers. “I was looking to share a flat since I could not afford one in central Mumbai due to the high rentals,” says the 26-year-old. “So the ad for a female roommate in the same area seemed like a timely break for me,” she adds. All Venkatramani had to do was pay around 15,000 as her share of deposit money to the roommate, and 6,000 as her share of rent. 

Weathering the financial storm

Uma Shashikant lists six points that can help safeguard your wealth against the ongoing volatility

    Legendary money manager Howard Marks often recounts a story. When he returned home after the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Centre in New York, his son asked him if the world was less safe than before. Marks replied that perhaps it was less safe than everyone had thought it was. Marks’ words of wisdom are worth pondering over today. The yo-yo years of the recent past have modified several assumptions. 

    Global investors are reassessing emerging markets and taking the view that China, India, Brazil and Russia hold risks that were unaccounted for earlier. Indian investors find that equity does not deliver in 2-3 years, but in 7-10 years, or more. Market cycles are swinging from one extreme to another, but the unravelling is always filled with surprises—pleasant ones at the top, and nasty ones at the bottom. Let me offer six quality checks to ensure that your ship is in order while you wait for the storm to pass. 

Insulate your portfolio from the rupee slide Here are the options you can invest in to lend stability to your investments

    The unprecedented slide in the rupee has not only played havoc with the common man’s budget, but also whittled his investment portfolio. Neither equity nor debt markets have been spared. So, while stocks across the board have taken a beating and equity mutual funds are feeling the heat, debt funds have also taken a hit. Their yields have soared after the RBI’s attempt to stem the rupee’s fall by squeezing liquidity. While it isn’t easy to predict the extent to which the rupee will fall or whether it will bounce back, the consensus is that the uncertainty will last for some time. Hence, your investments will continue to be exposed to the currency’s vagaries. To insulate your portfolio from the rupee’s impact, make sure you hold some investments that benefit from its fall. Though it may be a little late to invest in such avenues, here are some options that bank not only on the rupee’s weakness but on their inherent strengths. 

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Millionaire?

Having a million bucks these days isn’t as rare as you might think. In fact, according to Phoenix Marketing International, a firm that tracks the affluent market, more than 5% of U.S. households have investable assets of $1 million or more. 

That's only one way to measure if someone's a millionaire, of course. A net worth of $1 million also qualifies; subtract liabilities, including mortgages and car loans, from assets, including home equity and retirement savings, to determine your net worth. Either way, hitting the million-dollar mark is no small feat. 

Do you have what it takes to be a millionaire – and will you know how to live the good life when you become one? Take our quiz to find out the (often surprising) answers. 

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