Tag: Beginner Level

Here are the 5 most important things to know before you Submit Investment proofs for tax saving

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you know everything regarding investment proofs which you provide to your employer at the time of tax-saving season? If your answer is NO, then this article will help you understand a lot of things which you don’t know or partially know about.

So, I will talk about some of the common things you should take care while giving your investment proofs to your employer for tax saving purpose.

investment proof for tax saving

1. Investment declaration helps employer to deduct appropriate tax

The first and most basic thing, that you as an employee should know is that your employer is supposed to deduct your income tax on monthly basis and deposit it with govt on 7th of the following month.

For this, the employer should calculate your taxable salary and it can only happen if you before hand give him an idea about how you are planning to save tax, and apart from that how much of  HRA, LTA, Medical reimbursements you are entitled for.

For this purpose, your employer asks you to declare your various investments in the start of the year itself, so that they can compute your net taxable salary and then pay your salaries accordingly, after deducting TDS from your salaries.

And then, finally around Dec/Jan, they start asking you to provide them the actual proofs of your investments and receipts so that they can match things with their initial calculations and if there are any difference they have 2-3 months in hand to handle the discrepancies. Below is a small example of it

investment proofs importance

What If you failed to submit investment proofs?

If you failed to submit your investments proofs (you declared them, but didn’t invest in reality), in that case you are liable to pay higher income tax, but employer has not deducted it and hence they get a 2-3 months of extra time to adjust it from your salary.

Following things are required by employer as investment proofs.

  • To claim LTA, you need to provide Travel receipts (flight boarding pass, train tickets)
  • Home loan certificates if you want to claim deductions under principal and interest repayment
  • ELSS investments proofs or any other 80C investments
  • Life insurance and health insurance premium receipts
  • Various donations receipts
  • Rent receipts to claim HRA

2. You can also share your saving bank interest, FD interest with employer

A lot of people do not know this, but you can share your saving bank interest, FD/RD interest earned during year, any capital gains from shares or mutual fund, rental income and other kind of incomes with your employer, so that they get a complete picture of your taxable salary and deduct your income tax which will be more accurate.

If you do not disclose these additional incomes to your employer, in that case – you will have to separately pay additional income tax yourself and then take these things into account while filing your income tax returns.

Note that another advantage of declaring these additional income with employer is that you will not have to pay any penalty which might arise due to not paying advance tax on time.

Also, you won’t have to take the burden of paying the additional tax at the end of the year, the tax will get distributed almost equally throughout the year.

3. Didn’t submit income tax proofs to employer? You can claim things later

A lot of investors have this myth, that if they didn’t do their investment proof submission to employer, they will never be able to claim the deductions and will have to pay higher income tax. This is not true.

Yes, it’s a good practice to give the investments proof to your employer on time, and that will save you a lot of headache later while filing the returns.

But for some reason, if you fail to provide the investment proofs (example, like you don’t have money in the month of Jan and you decided to buy a life insurance policy only in Mar), in that case – your employer will deduct the income tax, but then at the time of filing your tax returns you can claim the tax refund, if you finally managed to invest in tax saving products later.

Here is a chart which will give you a better idea

investment proof work for tax saving

Here is another detailed example of how it happens

  • Ajay has the salary of 12 lacs a year, and he declares to his employer that he will invest Rs 1.5 lacs in 80C products
  • Employer based on Ajay declaration will calculate that Ajay taxable salary is 10.5 lacs and will be based on that suppose the total income tax for the year is 60k (just for example) . So Ajay final salary will be 10.5 lacs – 60k = 9.9 lacs. This 9.9 lacs divided by 12 will be 82500 which he will get on monthly basis and the employer will deposit Rs 5,000 as his tax to govt on monthly basis
  • Now in Jan, when the employer asks Ajay to give them the investment proof, suppose Ajay realizes that he forgot to make the investments and does not have money to invest 1.5 lacs in 80C products. But he will do it in Mar himself. And he fails to provide the income tax proofs to his employer.
  • Now his employer will come to know that Ajay real taxable salary is 12 lacs and not 10.5 lacs as declared by him and lets say on this his income tax is 1 lac, so additional 40k is to be recovered from Ajay, which will be adjusted from Ajay’s salary in Feb/Mar
  • Ajay then invests 1.5 lacs in Mar and finally his taxable income should be just 60k , as per the planning (because his taxable income is 10.5 lacs as declared in the start). However his employer has deducted 1 lac in total from his salary and paid to govt.
  • Now Ajay can declare in his tax returns that he has invested in 80C products and he is liable to get refund of Rs 40,000 which he will get in next few months.

In the example above, you can see that not giving investment proofs on time has resulted in some inconvenience for Ajay, but that does not mean that he will lose out on his tax benefits. One can always invest around the end of the year and then claim back the tax refund later.

However, there is one exemption here

Few exemptions are made only at employer level, like LTA and medical reimbursements. So if you fail to provide LTA and Medical reimbursements proof to your employer on time, then you lose the benefit. You can’t claim it back at the time of filing returns.

4. You DONT need to submit any proofs while filing your tax returns

Another important point you should remember is that while filing income tax returns, you just have to furnish the information about your investments, and not attach any investment proof.

Please do not attach xerox copies at all. It’s not required.

Its required by the employer because they are deducting the TDS and as a third party they need the documents for verification purpose.

But if you are claiming at all the benefits yourself at the end of the year, you just need to declare things. However note that you should keep the receipts and all the required documents with you for some years, because if their is any scrutiny later, you need to be prepared to answer income tax authorities along with documentary evidence.

Which means that you should never lie about your investments which you have not done in reality. Always provide true information.

5. You need to give “proposed investment” proofs for the month of Feb and March

A lot of people are confused on how will they provide the investment proofs for the month of Feb and Mar in Jan itself, when the employer asks for investment proofs. It might happen that your life insurance premium is due in Mar or if you are doing SIP in ELSS funds, you still don’t have the statements showing the investments.

In those cases, you have to provide a declaration that you are going to make the investments for Feb/Mar and based on that declaration, your employer will process the TDS.

All the employers provide you with the declaration form. You just need to write there that you promise to do the investments for tax saving in next 2 months and your exemptions should be given to you based on your declaration.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to share some important information on this topic

Memories of Bangalore Investor workshop conducted in August

Posted on by Nandish Desai

We love Bangalore as a city to do our workshop. We knew that its going to be a full house and we were correct. It was indeed a house full and we had an amazing day with 50 enthusiastic investors (many couples, friends in group, single ladies in the group).

We even had few participants who travelled all the way from Hubli and some other nearby cities as well. We take this opportunity to acknowledge those who travelled, for expressing their commitment and for reaching venue on time, which we know takes a lot of effort. We started our session exactly on time – ie 9 am sharp.

I want to start with few pictures of the workshop. You can see participants, during one of our group activities which is highly useful and full of fun and ends with lots of learnings.

jagoinvestor-bangalore-workshop-2015-4

Jagoinvestor Bangalore Workshop 2015

jagoinvestor-bangalore-workshop-2015-1

jagoinvestor-bangalore-workshop-2015-2

Some One liners from the participants

Before I share more about how was the workshop. I want to share few one liners from some of the workshop participants which was captured on our feedback form.

  • “This is the most simple approach towards mastering personal finance. The approach targets the root cause of our relationship with money” – Karthik Bhat
  • “Please do attend the workshop. I have benefitted from their workshop and learnt many techniques to plan and manage my finances better” – Neelonjon Goon
  • “Attend this session at 25 yrs, and you can create wonders with your wealth. I am attending at 30 yrs and still believe its a great workshop that reaffirms what I should focus on with personal finance” – Vijay Narasimha
  • “I feel its a stepping stone for a person who wants to have a safe and secure future both financially as well as mentally” – Suhas VR
  • “The workshop will give you learnings that you might not be aware of. Gives you confidence to invest your money and to make it work for you to achieve your financial goals . A must attend workshop for those who seek clarity in personal finance” – TK Murugan
  • “It de-jargonised a lot in the world of finance. It has been an excellent place to begin. It resonates with my philosophy and give me the comfort to go down the path” – Veena Krishnan

Some of the Highlights of the event

1. The spot light got on “ACTION”

In a way, “Action” became the theme of our Bangalore event. Every square inch of the room got filled by one word “ACTION”. Some decided to get rid of junk financial products, some decided to work on getting their basics in place and a lot of them started to play for their financial freedom. Participants made list of actions that they are going to complete with clear deadlines attached to it.

2. Everyone got a “Wake-up” call

We do one exercise around retirement, which we call as “Wake-up call exercise”. The exercise was a real wake-up call for many. We are happy that many of the participants in the program got serious about their retirement corpus. We are happy that, we could instill right kind of commitment amongst participants around retirement corpus creation. We are happy the conversation created right kind of impact on participants.

3. More women participants

We were extremely happy to see more women participants coming forward in our Bangalore workshop. They came to the program with a lot of commitment in their heart.We get highest level of satisfaction and fulfillment when women participants share their breakthroughs and program related experiences at the end of each event. This time we had some amazing sharing from some of them.

4. Our workshop is now seen as GIFT

We saw a father gifting our workshop to his daughter, a brother gifting program to his sister. Wow man, this is so very inspiring; we thank those who trusted us and shared about our program with their loved ones. We always say, more than the content of the program, it is about experiencing the program. Many participants could examine their financial life under a microscope and they could discover their own unique process of wealth creation.

5. Beginners got required PUSH

We had many young investors in the program; some had just started their jobs. They wanted to know from where they can start their journey as an investor. We are happy that by the time the program ended, all the begineers had learnt how they should move ahead and start their journey as an investor. These young investors learnt what to do and what not to do in first 10 years of their financial journey.

Thank you from the bottom of our heart

We thank each one of you who participated in the program, we thank some of our clients who participated in the program or came to meet us, and most importantly we thank Bangalore reader’s community for spreading a word about our workshop. It is our dream to do some or the other event to inspire maximum investors in taking required actions in their financial life.

Let us know if you are interested in our workshops ?

If you are interested in our workshops and want to attend it in future, just leave your details in the form below and we will inform you when we plan the workshop in your city. (Click on this direct link if you want to register)

4 early life mistakes which investors should avoid at any cost

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

We see most of the investors having a complex and bad financial life mainly because they have done a lot of mistakes when they started their financial life, which I think should be minimized by learning from other investors mistakes.

So we are listing down 4 common mistakes which most of the new investors make when they start their financial life.

personal finance mistakes of new employee

Mistake #1 – Buying products only for “saving tax”

I have experienced the power of “tax-saving” season in an investor’s financial life. When I was into my first job, the cafeteria and the reception area was filled with my employee’s sitting with some agent or advisor with various kind of forms all over the table.

The tax season was on and all the people were busy “arranging for the investment proof” and not investing their money. Especially the new employee’s who had no idea about anything and they followed the herd to save tax.

Below is the google trend showing you, how most the people starting thinking about the “tax saving” only in the month of Jan/Feb/Mar when they got emails from their employers. The search trend clearly shows that.

tax saving search trend india

Only after many years, people realize that they have not done great justice to their money and invested mainly for instant gratification of saving tax. If you are a new investor, I suggest do not get carried away and only think about saving tax.

I know tax saving is important and one has to do it, but do it meaningfully.

Explore what all options you have and which one them will align well with your long-term goals and then invest in those products.

Mistake #2 – Waiting for the “right time” to invest

When we work with our clients, we observe that one of the biggest regrets, they have is that they didn’t start their investments early in life and lost the valuable time. A person in India spends close to 20 yrs in school/college and most of the students have seen a lot of struggle around money, because of which all their early life, they suppress their desires. They never freely spend money on anything and keep waiting for that D-day when they will have no restrictions around money. The first salary is nothing less than a big jackpot.

right time never comes when one can start investing but to invest right time is created

The first few months when they see a lot of money in their account, is the time of celebration and fulfilling all their wishes they had from years. There is nothing wrong about splurging, spending and enjoying it all. But some people extend it over many years and over-do it. When it comes to investing their money, they say that they dont save enough after their expenses and once their salary increase, they will invest then.

In short, they keep waiting for the “right time” and it never arrives. Because the nature of money is such that, the more you earn, the more you will spend and your lifestyle will keep changing its shape to fit in your salary.

1 out of 3 investors wait for 5 yrs before making first investments

I ran a survey on this topic, which was taken by 208 investors and as much as 37% of investors said that they made their first investments after 5 yrs of their career. Think about this , around 1/3rd investors wait for 5 yrs before they make their first investment. Thats quite high. If you see the same survey results below, almost 8% investors didn’t invest anything for first 10 yrs of their earning life.

investment late tenure

This makes them loose valuable time, and for many years they do not accumulate any wealth and get into the mode of living on paycheck to paycheck. Even if they had started a recurring deposit of Rs 2,000 per month, even that would be a great thing, because they are atleast getting into that habit of saving some money regularly and later its just about increasing it.

So if you have just joined your first job, I would suggest start a recurring deposit RIGHT NOW, not for a big amount, but just Rs 500 atleast.

Mistake #3 – Getting high on debt, early in life

Debt is not a problem in itself, if you handle it carefully and responsibly. I do not come from a class of people, who suggest that one should not take loans or avoid debt 100%, because thats not possible for a majority of people and its not practical in today’s times.

However, rore and more people are embracing the EMI culture and we are turning into an EMI nation. Everything is available on EMI ranging from gym memberships to Mobile Phones, from vacations to jeans to even flight tickets. Because of EMI, one can afford anything and everything.

So most and more people are buying not so important things TODAY, for which they have to pay in FUTURE.

Are you getting my point?

This is a perfect recipe to get into the never ending debt cycle. There are many investors for whom EMI payments is going on for years and years. For many years, they have never consumed 100% of their monthly salary themselves.

Below is a bit old study by Indicus Analytics on how leveraged are urban Indians, and you will be surprised to know that around 61% of residents in Bangalore have some or the other kind of debt. For Mumbai its 50% . Below is a snapshot of their finding’s.

debt trend indian cities

So if you are young, try to see that you control your desires beyond a point else you will get into huge trouble later in life. Use the credit card and personal loans only and only if you really need it and you have no other options of borrowing and even then pay back the money as soon as possible.

Mistake #4 – Over relying on relatives, friends and parents for your financial decisions

Parents, friends and relatives can bring in a lot of experience and life lessons for us. But a lot of youngsters instead of learning about money, prefer to hand over their overall financial life to their parents. Parents have seen more life then their kids, but then times have changed a lot compared to last 1-2 decades and the many rules don’t apply today.

Also their way of thinking about risk, opportunities, returns etc might differ from you. Hence its not always a good idea to over-rely on parents advice. Mr Anand shares his view about this point in one of my old article

The times have changed so we have to change with the times. In most of the families, it is the ego of the parents which is finally ending with the suffering for the children. Parents feel that the children are incapable of handling money or they may get spoilt if the money is in their name. Also in some families it has become a question of pride saying – My children are so obedient that they are handling over their income to us.

The so called elderly, experienced people do not want to learn the new things and change and their beliefs are passed on to their children also. If we look around many Government employees, we can easily make out this. They are afraid to tell the children about the investments.

Relatives and friends role in your financial life

Also a lot of investors are influenced by their relatives and friends advice. A lot of them turn out to be life insurance agents who want to take advantage of the relation to meet their business targets. Out of 100 people I have come across, 95 people surely have an LIC policy sold by their relative, relative friend, friends relative, parents friend, or someone close.

As per our survey, 1 out of every 4 investors financial life is messed up because of their relatives and friends who sold them some financial product or advice on something and they could not deny them.

relatives role personal finance

We recently found that one of our client who recently joined job is paying close to 40% of his yearly salary in 6 life insurance policies. When we enquired more, we found that it were taken by his father for him 3 yrs back, and now as he has started earning, his father has passed the premium paying responsibility to him. The policies were sold by his father’s sister son’ who was behind his yearly targets

I would suggest learning things in the start of your career and not over relying on advice of your friends/ relatives and even parents. You could do many things like read personal finance books, attend workshops on money (we have next workshop in Bangalore on 2nd Aug, 2015) or just surf internet and ready various things.

How should an investor start his financial life at the start of his/her career ?

When a person joins a job, its a special moment in his life and a very crucial point. Taking good care at this point will be helpful for his whole life and many years worth of mistakes will not happen which happens with millions of people. Hence below is a very crisp checklist of what a new investor can start with.

  • See how much term plan you need and take it
  • See that you buy a good health insurance policy
  • See that you have started a recurring deposit or SIP in mutual funds for a minimum amount you are sure will not stop for next 5 yrs
  • Keep 2 months worth of expenses on the side in a saving account which you generally do not touch
  • Make sure you are meaningfully saving your taxes
  • Hire a good CA or Financial advisor if you feel you need handholding

Wish you best of luck for your financial life. Would like to hear your views on this topic

X+Y theory – A simple theory explaining, why its important to invest money for future

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today’s article is going to be very very basic. It’s one of the lessons which we should teach our kids when are growing up. The question is “Why Invest money at all?”

A lot of investors are not very serious when it comes to save enough money and invest it properly so that it grows well. A lot of investors are quite consumed in their life and don’t deal with this conversation fully. Only after years of working they realise that they have done a very bad job when it comes to investing their money.

I thank Mandar Rane to raise this question in Ashal Jauhari facebook group and shared what he faces with his siblings and many connected to him

why should I invest

X+Y years theory – Why you should invest money at all ?

There is a simple conversation which I think everyone should go through once. I call it as X+Y theory. Its very simple.

Every person will be living for X+Y years in total.

X is the number of years when they will go to work and bring back money to pay their bills and acquire all they want to enjoy (movies, clothes, eating out, travel, food, fees). This is mostly ACTIVE income and money will come only when you work.

Y is the number of years, which we will spend without earning. We will still need food, clothes, travel, eating out and various other things, but the problem is we will not be working in those years, either by choice or mostly because we are unable to. Now where will the money come in that phase? The money has to come from somewhere?

Right?

So you mainly invest so that you create enough wealth which can last your Y years. I know I am making retirement planning very jazzy at this moment, But NO, this is just going one level deeper and answering the basic question of “Why should I invest at all?”

reason why to invest money

Note that when we are in X yrs phase, we are not too much concerned about the Y yrs, because the X yrs phase itself has many issues. Kids , House, job, health, parents, relationships and many issues which keeps us occupied enough and only when we approach the Y phase, we are bit scared and tensed, but then it gets too late.

3 basic level reasons you should invest your money?

Below I will talk of primary level issues why one should invest their money to grow in future. And when I say grow your money, I am not talking about saving it in bank account, I mean talking about really letting it grow beyond inflation.

1. Because of Inflation 

The most basic reason to invest your money is to protect it from Inflation. Your money will decrease after many years in its purchasing power. A Rs 100 note will not be able to buy the same thing in future, what it can buy today. So you need to invest money properly so that you are able to at least buy the same quantity tomorrow or preferably a larger quantity.

2. Financial Independence

This is exactly what I was talking above. I am sure everyone want to work, but not becoming money slave’s. If you do not invest your money, you will never be able to create a corpus of money you can rely on, and will never be able to get free from your work. If you want to make sure your reason to go to job should be “because I love my job” and not “I need to pay my bills, I am helpless”, then start building that corpus as soon as possible.

And I am not talking about cutting down your desires and entertainment. Do all that, but also start creating that corpus. Keep a balance.

3. Reach your life goals

If you earn Rs 100 per month, and you need Rs 50 for some purpose suddenly you can surely handle is somehow. But what if you need Rs 5000, but you earn only Rs 100? In that case, you need to make sure you have accumulated that amount before hand, slowly and steadily.

We all know some of our financial responsibilities will be coming up in distant future and they would need a big amount. Things like house downpayment, children college education, marriage and many other things like that. If you do not invest, how will you fund those goals? It’s as simple as that.

You are sum of your experiences in life

A lot of youngsters have seen their parents struggle for money and their mindset is already set in a way that they understand the importance of saving properly and growing their money. However a big number of people have had a bad relationship with money. They live paycheck to paycheck, splurge beyond the limit and are careless enough when it comes to money.

A lot of people might say that they are just stupid to act like that and are highly careless and irresponsible. But I think its just a matter of lack of financial literacy or their way of looking at life is different. Everyone is raised differently in their lives and we all have difference experiences. We become what we experience at some level. If you save enough or do not save enough, at the end its just has an outcome which you need to be aware about. That’s all.

How to teach this lesson to your kids (and some adults)?

The simplest way to teach this lesson to small children is to tell them the Ant and Grasshopper story. It’s one of the most simple and powerful stories.

Here is the story for those who can’t see the video

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”
“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

When the winter came the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing, every day, corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew… It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

Invest early and with discipline

To get the maximum benefit, make sure you start your investments as early as possible. Even if it’s small in the start, that’s ok. At least you will prepare yourself to invest bigger amount in future if you at least invest small amounts in the start. You will build some wealth (even though its small) and build your mindset to invest regularly.

Atal Pension Yojana – Features & Eligibility explained in detail

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Recently the govt has announced the pension scheme called “Atal Pension Yojana”, which is targeted at workers from lower class who work in unorganized sector which constitutes around 88% of the workforce.

An account needs to be opened under this scheme and monthly contributions needs to be made till the time of retirement after which a pension amount ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month would be paid to the account holder and on death of subscriber and spouse, the nominee will get the lump sum accumulated by the end of the period.

Any person below 40 years of age can open an account.

Atal Pension Yojana

The retirement age will be set to 60 years, hence one will get at least 20 years of contribution. Any person below 40 years can open an account. The retirement age will be set to 60 years, hence one will get at least 20 years of contribution.

How to open Atal Pension Yojana Account?

  • Go to the bank where you have your saving bank account like SBI, ICICI, HDFC or any other bank..
  • Fill up the form (download english form or hindi form)
  • Make sure you fill all the fields
  • Mobile number is compulsory, hence that needs to be filled
  • If you have Aadhar card, provide the number in the form (but its not compulsory)
  • You also need to provide spouse details if applicable and nominee details, which is compulsory
  • You will select the pension amount you need in future and based on that the bank official will write the monthly contribution required on the form

Below is a sample form

atal pension yojna sample form

Note that the form itself contains a section which mentions that you are authorizing the bank to deduct the monthly contribution from your account till the age of 60 yrs. So once the Atal Pension Yojana account is opened, your bank account will then get auto debited in future every month.

If one does not have a bank account, then one can give their KYC documents along with account opening form with the Atal pension Yojna account form.

Eligibility Criteria for Opening an account

  • The age of the subscriber should be between 18 – 40 years.
  • One should have a saving bank account or should open a new saving bank account
  • One should be having a mobile number, which needs to be furnished at the time of filling up the form

Governments co-contribution for 5 years

If one joins this scheme between 1st June, 2015 to 31st December, 2015 , the govt will co-contribute 50% of the total contribution or Rs. 1,000/- per annum, whichever is lower for the 5 yrs period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, But this govt contribution will be available only for those who are not covered by any Statutory Social Security Schemes and are not income tax payers.

What that means if that if you are an EPF subscriber, then you will not be eligible for govt co-contribution part.

Below is the indicative monthly contribution required in this scheme at various age limits.

atal pension yojna contribution chart

The subscriber can increase or decrease their contribution amount at some later stage if they want to do it

Will you get statements of transactions?

Yes, you will be getting regular intimations on your account information through SMS and even a physical statements each month. Note that you can move to any part of India without interrupting your contributions because the deductions will happen automatically from your bank account.

Can you exit or partially withdraw from the scheme ?

1. On attaining the age of 60 years – The first option is when you reach 60 yrs of age. At that time you will be able to use 100% of the money, but only in the pension form. You will only get the pension per month and not the lump-sum amount.

2. In case of death of the Subscriber (once they cross 60 yrs) – In case of death of subscriber, pension would be available to the spouse and on the death of both of them (subscriber and spouse), the pension corpus would be returned to his nominee.

3. Exit Before the age of 60 Years – The Exit before age 60 yrs, would be permitted only in exceptional circumstances, i.e., in the event of the death of beneficiary or terminal disease. As per Wikipedia, Terminal illness is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease than for trauma.

What is your want to discontinue the payments or delay in payments ?

Non-maintenance of required balance in the savings bank account for contribution on the specified date will be considered as default. Banks are required to collect additional amount for delayed payments, such amount will vary from minimum Re 1 per month to Rs 10/- per month as shown below

  • i. Re. 1 per month for contribution upto Rs. 100 per month.
  • ii. Re. 2 per month for contribution upto Rs. 101 to 500/- per month.
  • iii. Re 5 per month for contribution between Rs 501/- to 1000/- per month.
  • iv. Rs 10 per month for contribution beyond Rs 1001/- per month.

Discontinuation of payments of contribution amount shall lead to following

  • After 6 months account will be frozen.
  • After 12 months account will be deactivated.
  • After 24 months account will be closed.

Subscriber should ensure that the Bank account to be funded enough for auto debit of contribution amount. The fixed amount of interest/penalty will remain as part of the pension corpus of the subscriber.

Are there any Tax benefits in Atal Pension Yojna scheme ?

No , there are no tax benefits available in this scheme. A lot of people might think that they will get any exemption under 80C or on maturity, but no benefits are available. The pension amount will be considered as the income for the person and will be added in the taxable amount.

What if someone is already a subscriber of Swavalamban Yojana under NPS ?

All the registered subscribers under Swavalamban Yojana aged between 18-40 yrs will be automatically migrated to APY with an option to opt out. However, the benefit of five years of Government Co-contribution under APY would be available only to the extent availed by the Swavalamban subscriber already.

This would imply that if, as a Swavalamban beneficiary, he has received the benefit of government Co-Contribution of 1 year, then the Government co-contribution under APY would be available only for 4 years and so on.

Existing Swavalamban beneficiaries opting out from the proposed APY will be given Government co-contribution till 2016-17, if eligible, and the NPS Swavalamban continued till such people attain the age of exit under that scheme.

Note that, the ultimately the money under this scheme will be managed through NPS only and thats the underlying thing. All the investments decision will happen as per the guidelines of PFRDA.

A good support system for Poor

As I mentioned, this scheme has the maximum pension of Rs 5,000 per month, that too when the person reaches 60 yrs of age, that too will happen only after a minimum of 20 yrs from now (only people below 40 yrs of age can open an account), so Rs 5,000 at that time would be a very miniscule amount.

However note that we are talking about the people in lower section’s who are really poor. At least this Rs 5,000 per month would be a great support in their old age when they won’t be working. A subscriber can open only one APY account.

With this scheme, people will be encouraged to save a small portion each month ranging from Rs 40 to Rs 210 per month. Below is the full chart showing how much money would be required to be deposited each month depending on the time of entry in the scheme and the pension amount chosen.

What is the returns of this scheme and should you invest?

So the question finally is, how good is this scheme and its returns if you consider the returns? I did a XIRR analysis of the scheme considering a 40 yrs old person is investing Rs 1,454 per month for 20 yrs , and then gets a pension of Rs 5,000 all this life (till age of 100 years). The returns I get is 7.74% through the excel sheet.

When I do the same thing for a 25 yrs old person invests Rs 376 per month for next 35 yrs (till age 60) and gets pension till he turns 100 yrs . The overall IIR is 7.9% . This includes the lump sum payment at the end to the nominee

So looking at the numbers, we can conclude that the returns from this scheme is in range of 7.5% to 8%. Considering that, Its a guaranteed return from govt of India, I will leave the judgement of its being good or bad to you only.

You should also read, Debasish Basu critical analysis of this scheme on this link to get more understanding about the issues of this scheme.

I would like to again reiterate the point that this scheme is more for the people of poor background who do not have access to any social security scheme already and will be somewhat beneficial for them, and not high-income earners because Rs 5,000 even after 20 yrs will be very very small amount.

If one wants to still open this account, one should find a good enough reason for themselves.

Are you investing in this scheme?

I would like to know what you think of this scheme and if you will be opening an account for yourself? You can also suggest this scheme to your maid, driver or any person who you think should get a minimum pension by the time they turn 60 .

At the end, I would like to share that we are doing our Bangalore workshop on 2nd Aug, please register asap for the event before its full

Jagoinvestor workshop in Bangalore on 2nd Aug (Sun) – Registration opens !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Our investor workshop “Design your financial life” has been a great learning experience for us and for our past participants.  I and Manish always look forward to our live events because we get a chance to see many investors making fresh new commitments to bring a turnaround in their financial life. Wealth creation happens when an investor expands his or her capacity to take actions. Our workshop will help you to expand your action taking capacity; it will fill your financial life with new and empowering actions. you can skip this article and directly register for the workshop

2nd Aug – Jagoinvestor workshop in Bangalore (Sunday)

If you are from Bangalore we invite you to mark and block 2nd of August on your calendar (just one Sunday). Ask yourself – “Have you ever blocked one full day for your financial future?”

If the answer is NO, register and become part of our Bangalore event.  For creating a wonderful financial life the first thing you have to give your financial life, is your time. Here are some pictures from our Mumbai Workshop recently

mumbai-workshop-2015-4

mumbai workshop 2015

mumbai-workshop-2015-3

mumbai-workshop-2015-1

Why we conduct these workshops ?

We do offline workshops so that we can connect with some of our readers at a deeper level, round the year we write articles, reply to thousands of comments and work with a few hundred investors one on one and in that process we learn, grow and expand as an individual. Workshop gives us an opportunity to share outrageously all the knowledge and experiences that we acquire round the year. The program is an opportunity to get our readers more and more action oriented.

Why you should come for this workshop?

  • You will learn how to improve your financial life with your current set of resources and income.
  • You will learn how to plan for your financial life goals
  • You will interact and learn from other’s people’s financial life
  • You will dedicate one full day to get better with money management
  • You will learn to add new dimensions to your financial life
  • To understand that personal finance can also be fun
  • To give a whole new direction to your financial life

It’s time at add Jagoinvestor workshop to your financial journey

It has been a few years now conducting “Design your financial life” workshop and the experience has been amazing. It is a wonderful space to be in, in which the group learns and starts to fall in love with the process of wealth creation.  We do not teach tricks and tips to build wealth in fact we help you to discover your own personal process of creating wealth.

This time we want more and more couples to participate so that they can get on same page when it comes to personal finance. It is extremely important that husband and wife both take equal interest when it comes to money management. We are offering special discount to those who want to come with their partner. (You can even come with your parents, siblings or friends and can claim the discount)

The workshop we conduct are highly interactive, it has lots of activities and fun exercises which helps you to discover your relationship with money. The sessions are interactive and very easy to grasp for any kind of investor, beginner or advanced. In short there is something for everyone in this workshop.

Listen to workshop Participants who attended in Past

 

 

Register for Bangalore workshop on 2nd Aug, 2015 (SUNDAY)

Single Ticket Rs 4,200 Buy Single Ticket
Couple Ticket
(Discount of Rs 400)		 Rs 8,000 Buy Couple Ticket
Venue and Timing Details8:30 am – 6:00 pm , 2nd Aug (Sunday) , 2015
IRIS HotelIRIS HotelNext to Eva Mall,
70, Brigade Road, Bangalore
Check Map

  • The hotel is walking from Eva Mall on Brigade Road
  • Lunch and Breakfast is included in the program fees

What you get as a workshop participant ?

  • One day workshop with some personal finance tools like budget sheet, Mutual fund tracker etc
  • Invitation to join our inner circle

Invitation to join and participate

From the bottom of our heart we invite you to join and participate in Bangalore workshop. Come alone or with your spouse or parents, siblings or friends but see that you do not miss this opportunity. Do not let time or money to get in your way and book your seat at the earliest because we will be taking only 35 participants this time and registration will close after some days.

This workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. If you have never participated in any personal finance workshop let this be your first experience.  If you have any questions you can write in the comments section or you can mail us.

Care health insurance Review – 12 features explained

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today I am going to review features of “Care“, one of the good health insurance policies in the market. It was launched few years back and it’s really one of the most comprehensive health insurance products available in the market as on date. So what I will do is, share with you, its features one by one, so that you can know what all it covers, along with few disadvantages in the policy

I digged deeper in its policy wordings and I will explain them in detail, so that anyone who is looking forward buy a health insurance policy can take the decision in a better way by reading this Care review. Here you go..

1. High Sum assured up to 60 lacs is allowed

The sum assured offered by the policy ranges from 3 lacs to 60 lacs. Gone are the days when 2-3 lacs of sum assured was sufficient. Now it’s very common to see people buying a cover of 10-20 lacs. Many people even want to go for a cover of 30-40 lacs also and there are very less options right now if someone wants to buy a high enough health cover. Care gives you an option to buy up to 60 lacs of health cover, and the best part is the high cover comes along with added benefits which we will look very soon

2. Single Private Room (no rent limit)

If you choose the sum insured of more than 5 lacs, then you are eligible for a single private room. The wordings in the policy is of “Single private room” and not some percentage of sum assured.

Most of the policies cap the room rent limit, however this policy caps the room type. Here, if the user takes a room higher than the type eligible he still is required to pay the difference of the room rent as well as all other expenses which increase due to choosing of a higher room type

I love this point especially because room rent limit is such a critical factor while calculation of your claim amount, you can read how room rent limit affects your claim process if you choose the room with higher rent

3. Cashless treatment in network Hospitals

Care has a network of around 4,100 hospitals around the country. If your hospitalization is planned after few days, in that case, you don’t have to shell out any money from your pocket. You can choose to take cashless treatment and the bills will be settled by the health insurance company directly to the hospital.

This is not a special feature in Care. It’s present in almost all the health insurance policies these days. But I thoughts it’s a good mention in this article as we are looking at all the features. Also, note that cashless treatment is an additional benefit which helps a customer. You can always choose to not have a cashless treatment and pay the bills yourself and settle the claim later by submitting the bills. In case of emergencies, you anyways can’t choose cashless treatment.

4. FREE Health Check each year

You also get free health checkup’s facility every year for all the adult policy holder’s lifetime!. There are no terms and conditions for this. Just that the facility is there only for sum assured of more than 5 lacs. Also, the number of health checkups depends on the sum assured amount. You get more detailed checks done when your sum assured is high.

I have realized that a lot of people do not spend their own money for regular health checkup’s, so in a way it’s a great feature in the policy, due to which one will form the habit of regular checkup’s and will be informed about their health issues.

Each year you just need to contact the company and express your desire for the health checkup and they will schedule it for you in one of the centers they have tie-up with and which is also near your house. You can choose the timings and place as per your convenience. You can collect your health reports after 24 hours of the checkups. It’s a really great thing offered by any company.

Below is the health checkup list for various kind of sum assured slabs as per their brochure.

Care review - free health checkup

5. Restore of sum insured up to 100% amount

The policy has a feature called restore. In this feature, if there is a large claim in the policy due to which the sum insured is exhausted or reduced substantially, in case of a subsequent unrelated claim, if the sum insured falls short to pay the claim, the policy reinstates/restores to cover to 100%. Let me explain that in detail.

Let me give an example

Suppose you have a 10 lacs sum assured. Now due to some heart-related issue, you were hospitalized and the expenses were Rs 4 lacs. So your remaining sum assured is 6 lacs. You can utilize the 6 lacs sum assured for any purpose.

But if some another hospitalization comes up for an unrelated claim, and the expenses are more than your remaining sum assured, then your sum assured will be restored to the full amount of 10 lacs. Even your other family members can avail for the full sum assured even for the same illness. Note that in case of family floater plan, it’s highly beneficial because even the other family members can take benefit of full sum assured for the same illness.

6. No claim bonus up to 50% of sum assured

No claim bonus is a very simple concept, where you get rewarded if you don’t have any claim in a year. In Care, your sum assured gets increased by 10% of the base sum assured if you do not claim in a year and keeps increasing upto 50%. Which means that if your sum assured is Rs 10 lacs, then if you do not have any claim in a year, then next year it will increase by 10% (10% of 10 lacs) , and your sum assured will become 11 lacs . Again if you do not have any claim in the next year, it will increase to 12 lacs and so on..

So your cover of 10 lacs can go up to 15 lacs maximum if you do not claim for 5 yrs consecutive. A lot of policies (like Oriental Happy Family Floater), they reduce the premium by some percentage as no claim bonus and many people are happy about that, because that means less money going out of their pocket. But truly speaking what you need is the increase in sum assured, not a reduced premium, because every year due to inflation and rising medical costs, you need higher sum assured.

I don’t see a big benefit in saving few thousand or hundreds in premium in the name of no claim bonus.

Super No-Claim Bonus

This policy also gives an additional benefit called Super No-claim Bonus which will cost you extra premium if you wish to take it. In this super no claim bonus facility, your no claim bonus will be 50% extra each year up to the maximum of 100% of sum assured.

What that means is that if you do not have any claims, then within 1 yr, your sum assured will increase to 1.5 times and in 2 yrs, it will double. So if you have a policy of 5 lacs sum assured, then

  • Sum Assured in first year – 5 lacs
  • Sum Assured in 2nd year (assuming no claim made in previous year) – 7.5 lacs
  • Sum Assured in 3nd year (assuming no claim made in previous 2 years) – 10 lacs

And this super no claim bonus is over and above the no claim bonus which you anyways get in the policy. So truly speaking your sum assured can increase anywhere from 60% to 150% in some years if you take super no claim bonus option while purchasing the policy. At the time of applying for the policy itself you need to mention that.

Care review - super no claim bonus

7. Around 170 Daycare Treatments covered

The policy covers around 170 day care treatments (In-patient treatments) , which are mentioned in the policy document. A lot of times you don’t need to get hospitalized for many days or even 24 hours. Some treatments can be done in just few hours. You can get admitted in morning and get things done by the evening or just few hours.

Even these kind of in-patient treatments are covered in the policy. A common myth is that you need 24 hours of hospitalization to claim your health insurance benefits, but it’s not true. Many years back when health insurance was a new thing in India, it was probably true. But not anymore.

Below is a snapshot of the policy terms and conditions pdf and you can see some of the day care treatment names mentioned. There are total of 170 treatment names listed in the document.

Care day care treatments names

Please do not confuse these day care treatments with OPD. OPD treatments are not covered in any health insurance policies

8. Second Opinion and Organ Donor Cover

If there are any expenses which are incurred on the organ donor, then even those expenses (along with hospitalization expenses) will be covered in the policy. The limit for this expense ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lacs depending on the sum assured. A lot of times, in critical cases, if there is any organ which needs to be replaced and you get any donor, then you will not have to incur the expenses from your own pocket due to this feature. While this is an extreme care, still we should appreciate that the policy takes care of this point.

Also the policy has a feature called “Second Opinion”. In this, if any of the policy-holder is diagnosed with a critical illness, then the company will arrange a free discussion with a qualified medical practitioner for you. This is great feature, because a lot of times, you want to consult another doctor before taking a big decision like surgery, operation or any hospitalization. The policy lists down the critical illnesses for which you can take second opinion. Note that the second opinion facility is only for sum assured above Rs 5 lacs.

Below are the critical illness mentioned in the policy

  1. Benign Brain Tumor
  2. Cancer
  3. End Stage Lung Failure
  4. Heart Attack
  5. Open Chest Coronary Artery Bypass Graft
  6. Heart Valve Replacement
  7. Coma
  8. End Stage Renal Failure
  9. Stroke
  10. Major Organ Transplant
  11. Paralysis
  12. Motor Neuron Disease
  13. Multiple Sclerosis
  14. Major Burns
  15. End Stage Liver Disease

Each member of the policy can avail the second opinion facility for each illness every year if required.

9 – Avail Medical Treatment anywhere in world

If you have opted for sum assured of 50+ lacs, in that case, you can avail the medical facilities through the world, where-ever you wish to , but it’s limited to only 5 major illnesses. Also, the benefit is available only on reimbursement basis only. Means you first have to spend the money from your pocket and then claim it back later. So I think this will mainly be helpful for the high net worth individuals and not to the middle class. Anyways a good feature, because some people might look forward to this.

10 – Pre and post hospitalization expenses

The policy also pays for any medical expenses related to the claim before and after getting admitted to the hospital. It covers 30 days of pre-hospitalization expenses and 60 days of post-hospitalization expenses. A lot of times a big amount is spent before and after the hospitalization in medicines, checkup’s and other things. It’s very important that a policy takes care of these facts. However, note that this is a basic feature, and almost all the policies in market gives this benefit.

11 – Domiciliary Expenses Covered

The policy covers the medical expenses incurred on the home treatment. A lot of times a patient is not in the condition to the hospital, in which case the treatment can be done at home. The policy will pay upto 10% of the sum assured in this case. The condition to avail this offer is that

  • The patient is no in condition to be moved to hospital
  • OR, there is non-availability of the room in hospital

Note that there are many illness for which the domiciliary expenses cannot be claimed, please check that list in the brochure of the policy.

12 – Lifetime renewal and no restriction on entry age

Once you buy the Care policy, you can then renew it lifetime. This is one of the most important points one should remember while buying any health insurance policy, because you buy the policy looking at a very long-term and not just for next few years. The policy should be able to help you when you are in your late years, because that’s when you really need it badly.

Also, there is no limit on the maximum age by when you can renew it. On top of it, even the entry is not restricted due to age factor, a person can buy the policy at any age, provided they fulfill the health checkups and the restrictions by the company.

Waiting period of 4 yrs for pre-existing illness

Under this policy, any pre-existing illness will be covered only after 4 yrs of taking the policy. This is a common exclusion in almost all the policies. However if you are a senior citizen, then the coverage for that particular illness might be excluded permanently, because once you cross the age of 60, the chances of you getting hospitalized due to that particular illness is high and it does not make any business sense to cover it.

This is precisely the reason why one should take their parents cover as soon as possible, especially before they cross the age of 60 yrs. Apart from the pre-existing illness, a lot of illness have their own waiting periods from 1-4 yrs, which is a standard thing in any kind of health insurance policies. Also nothing other than accidental hospitalization is covered for the first 30 days of taking the policy. I suggest you read this article which talks about exclusions in mediclaim policies in detail.

Other Points

Below are some other important points one should be aware about

  • If your sum assured is more than 5 lacs, then there is no sub-limit on the ICU charges, Doctors fees and Medical fees.
  • The policy provides ambulance expenses ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 depending on the sum assured
  • There is no age limit of buying a new policy. Anyone can buy the policy at any age, just the minimum age requirement is 91 days for family floater and 5 yrs for an individual policy.
  • Maximum 6 people can be covered in a single family floater plan
  • The policy like every other policies in market does not offer any dental care treatments
  • This plan does not cover maternity expenses, but that’s ok. Don’t over focus on this point, as it’s something you can take after yourself
  • You get 7.5% discount if you renew/buy the policy for 2 years and 10% discount of payment of 3 yrs in one-shot.

Disadvantage of Care Policy

Let me mention some the problem and disadvantages of the policy.

1. Average policy, if sum assured is less than 5 lacs

A lot of features are applicable in the policy only when the sum assured is more than 5 lacs, if you want to take a lower cover like 3 lacs or 4 lacs, in that case, Care is an average policy and not the best.

2. Room type capping

You already know that the policy caps the Room type instead of room rent. This was a good advantage also, but at the same time, this can be a disadvantage also. In this case, suppose the room type which your policy allows is unavailable, then you will have to go for some other type of room and in that case you might have to suffer the reduced claim amount. You are tied-up with a particular room type only.

Suppose there is some other policy, which caps the room rent limit at 1% of sum assured and imagine that your sum assured is 10 lacs, then you are eligible for any room with rent of up to 10,000 per day. In that case, you can choose either a single room without AC, with AC or a premium room. It’s totally your wish as far as the room rent is below 10,000. But in case of Care, if suppose you are eligible for a single private room whose rent is 6,000, and the next category of room costs Rs 9,000, then you can’t go for the Rs 9,000 room . You can surely take it, but then your claim amount will get affected. So make sure you think on this point properly before you buy the policy.

It’s totally your wish as far as the room rent is below 10,000. But in case of Care, if suppose you are eligible for a single private room whose rent is 6,000, and the next category of room costs Rs 9,000, then you can’t go for the Rs 9,000 room . You can surely take it, but then your claim amount will get affected. So make sure you think on this point properly before you buy the policy.

I suggest that you also compare Care policy with some other policies like Max bupa plans or Apollo Munich Optima Restore and then take a final decision.

3. Co-payment of 20%, if policy taken after 60 yrs of age

If at the time of entering the policy, the age of the policyholder is more than 60 yrs, then a 20% co-payment will apply. Which means that the policy holder will have to bear the 20% bill amount and only 80% will be paid by the company. But if you enter the policy before 60 yrs, its not the case.

Hence the policy becomes unattractive to senior citizens who are looking for health insurance. In comparision a policy from L&T insurance is better where 10% co-payment applies after the age of 80 yrs. The policy from Max Bupa called Heartbeat, does not even have the concept of co-payment. So the policy from Care scores low on this point.

Premium Chart for Care

Below I have listed down the premium amount 5 lacs sum assured, for various age range with two cases of a single person insurance, and another one is a family floater policy with 2 adults and 1 kid. You can check how the premiums will rise over the years when the policyholder will move to various age slabs. Note that now there is no claim based loading in the premium. Now as per new guidelines of IRDA, a policy premium increases when the policyholder moves in a different age range.

Care health insurance premium chart

An important point to note in the premium chart about is how the premium is very less in the initial years, when you are below 60 yrs and how it increases when you become a senior citizen :), which is quite natural and explanatory. Also you should not be shocked to see these high premium values in today’s time, because these are all future values, and even though today these premium values might look big to you, but when you turn 60 or 70 yrs, at that time these premium values will look very normal to you.

Snapshot of the Care benefits

Care policy features snapshot

Do you want to buy the Care policy?

If you want to buy the policy or want to enquire about it, then just fill up the form below and you will get a dedicated phone call to help you choose the policy and explain you.

I hope you have got a fair idea about the policy. Note that this Care health insurance review is mainly for educating you on various features of the policy. Please check other policies details and make sure you choose the policy which suits your requirements.

Let us know what are the points you liked best about Care and which point you didn’t like ?

EDIT : This is not a paid review. We have started d0ing review’s of various policies and we will do review other products as well. This is just a point by point explanation of each important point in the policy. Also, we have added the disadvantages of the policies, not just positive’s. Care is definitely not the best in market in all respect, but a very good policy considering most of the profiles. Please see the article more as an attempt to help a person understand what all policy provide’s its customer.

Which is the best critical illness policy in India?

Posted on by Team Jagoinvestor

Do you know that, as per Indian health statistics, every year 3 % of the population go below the poverty line due to the heavy spending on illnesses?

It means, because of large financial outgo for treatments, every year 3% of the population, drop down to one level below their present class i.e. high-class people become middle and middle transforms to lower class. So, Imagine how badly our financial life may get affected if we do not have a proper source of funding at the time of facing non-curable diseases.

The probability of getting affected by life-threatening diseases are getting higher day by day.

As per the growing modern trend in our society, our lifestyle has changed in a bit good way but a lot in a bad way (eating junk/overeating & drinking). There is a rapid rise in obesity in India, which leads to diabetes, stroke and many heart diseases.

As per the statistics on Indian health –

    • Diabetes currently affects more than 62 million Indians, and India is projected to be home to 109 million individuals with diabetes by 2035.
    • About 1.7 million Indian’s deaths caused by heart diseases every year, according to WHO.
    • The incidence of cancer in India was 70-90 per 100000 population in the year 2014 which increased to 106.6 new cancer cases in 2016 per 100,000 people.

Along with bad lifestyle, pollution is also affecting our health. 7% of death in India is due to respiratory diseases. Before any of this life-threatening disease happens to us. We should be prepared financially so that we can utilize our energy fully on the treatment and not on the financial burden of that time. So, to meet those uncertain financial needs, having a critical illness policy cover will be the best resort.

If you are in a hurry so just watch the video below to get a brief idea.

 

What is critical illness cover?

Critical Illness insurance is an insurance product in which the insurer (insurance company) is promising to make a lump sum cash payment if the policyholder is diagnosed with one of the specific life-threatening illnesses on a predetermined list as part of an insurance policy. The policy may also be structured to pay out regular income and the payout may also be on the policyholder undergoing a surgical procedure, for example, having a heart bypass operation, etc.

Every critical illness policy specifies the illnesses covered and not covered. The major illnesses like heart attack, cancer, stroke, and coma are commonly covered by all the critical illness policies. As the probability of occurring these is high and the payment on these illnesses (cancer or coma) are not one time task, it might be the life time operational costs. And the cover for other critical illnesses varies from company to company.

Below given table highlights the commonly covered illnesses with varying and uncovered illnesses.

list of illnesses covered/not covered under critical illness policy

There are some illnesses that are not covered by any critical illness policy, so make sure that you are not buying a critical illness specifically for getting covered from the following illnesses, as these are not going to be covered by any critical illness policy. Before buying any critical illness cover from any insurance company one should carefully read the policy terms and conditions to see which all illnesses are covered under a particular policy.

here are the benefits of critical illness cover

Benefits of Critical Illness Cover –

  1. Financial security for your loved ones– Critical Illness cover not only pays for protecting your life but makes your family feel secure financially.
  2. More than 30 Illnesses are covered -Not all but some companies cover more than 30 illnesses. Before
  3. A second opinion of the doctor – Almost all the companies provide second opinion. Second opinion gives us the chance to get a better review on diagnosed illness from a specialized doctor.
  4. 100% payout -If diagnosed with a critical illness then the company pays the entire sum assured of the policy.
  5. Tax benefit – All the policies of critical illness comes with a tax benefit u/s 80D of Income Tax Act,1961.
  6. Peace of mind – Once you have taken the critical illness policy you can be relieved because your financial state is now taken care off. If you encounter any critical illness disease then you can now focus more on the treatment rather than managing funds from here and there.

Top 5 CRITICAL ILLNESS COVER

For your reference, I have done an analysis of finding the top 5 critical illness cover policies in India. Below given is the list of top 5 critical illness cover policies.

****** The premium details are for a 1-year policy including GST.

comparison table of top critical illness policies in India

6 points to get the best critical illness policy?

As now you know the top 5 critical illness policies, still it is not easy to select the best policy out of many. So, here are some of the points to evaluate the best critical illness policy.

#1 – The Premium amount

Comparing premium amount is as simple as, selecting a critical illness policy of that company which gives the best value for money at the same sum assured and illnesses cover you are looking for.

#2 – Sum Assured

Getting the highest sum assured should not be a criterion for policy buying. The standard cover suggested is of 10 lacs to 20 lacs, so that your financial life should not get affected due to any uncertain illness.

#3 – Waiting Period

A waiting period is a period up til which any of the illnesses specified under the policy are not covered.  For example, if it’s 2 months, then if any of the critical illness happens to you before 2 months, your claim will not be taken. The insurance companies will consider your claim for paying the sum assured only after the period of waiting has ceased after buying a critical illness policy. So, before buying policy make sure that policy is having lesser waiting period. Almost all the companies have a waiting period of 90 days (not including existing illnesses).

***For existing illnesses waiting period is 48 months.

#4 – Survival Period

The survival period is the length of time, for which the insured must survive after being diagnosed with the illness,  in order to get a claim. The insurance cover will be paid only after the survival period has passed. So, if a person’s death happens immediately after a heart attack, even if he has critical illness insurance, his or her family may not receive any payout from the insurer.

The length of survival period varies among different insurers, it can be 14 days or 30 days, etc. So,  for buying a critical illness policy make sure that the policy has the least survival period.

The logic behind the survival period clause is that, critical illness insurance benefits are meant to be used by the insured as a living benefit to recover from illness, not a Death benefit. So, from this it is very clear that you should have a term insurance(life insurance) to provide the cover to your family, even if already having a critical illness cover.

#5 – Diseases covered

On selecting the best critical illness policy do not look for the maximum number of illnesses, it will be very illogical and will also lead you to pay a higher premium. Instead, go for a standard set of illnesses ( i.e. 28-32 illnesses covering major 4 critical illnesses) that might happen due to your life style habits and hereditary.

#6 – Entry Age 

Check the entry age of policy before buying. Mostly the entry age for critical illness policy is of 18-64 years

Why have a Critical Illness Cover if I already have Health Insurance?

One last thing to keep in mind is that health insurance and critical illness are two different products. Critical illness typically covers you from specified illnesses and not regular health-related issues.

Health Insurance provides exhaustive scope of coverage. Such as in-patient hospitalization, pre & post hospitalization, day care treatments, ambulance costs, organ donor expenses, etc. Where as Critical Illness plans provide coverage for a specified list of illnesses mentioned in the policy contract.

Below given table briefly represents the difference between health insurance and critical illness plans,

table showing comparison between health insurance and critical illness insurance plan

So, as you now know why and how to select the best critical illness policy, if you think any critical illness cover is best suitable for you, then go for it. Having one critical illness insurance policy is must in today’s era.

Let us know your views and queries about this article in the comment section.

 

Do something special for your kids along with buying Insurance – Check out How ?

Posted on by Nandish Desai

A lot of you on Jagoinvestor must have bought term plan or other insurance plans, so that in your absence your dependents do not face any kind of financial crunch. It is good to buy life cover, but may be buying life cover is just half job done.

From last few days, I have been carrying a few thoughts in my mind which today, I would like to share with all of you. Whenever I look at the face of my little one, I feel I should do something special for him along with buying life cover for securing his future.

Going beyond life insurance

If something happens to me, my son will get enough financial support from the insurance money, but I will lose out on the opportunity to share my wisdom (my life learning’s) with him. There are a few things, which I would like my son to learn or know from me and my life experiences.

I feel that Life insurance policy is very strong support a parent can give their kids, but it lacks emotions, feelings and love in it. To add my feelings and emotions in it – I have started capturing a few of my experiences in a short journal which I call “Notes from Daddy”.

This little journal, once it gets complete will be kept next to original insurance policy document.

3 things which I captured in my “Notes from Daddy” Journal

1. List of Books that had deep impact on my life

Since my college days, I have been a voracious reader and there have been many life changing books that had deep impact on my life and it has major contribution on my overall learning and development process. I would like to share my reading list with my son when he grows up.

Now, it is possible that he may or may not choose to read books from my reading list but at least I would like to share or communicate my reading experiences and my book list with him. I have started building my reading list which I would like to share with my son. My “Notes from Daddy” journal has a section called “Hidden Treasure- Personal Reading list”.

2. List of Movies that inspired me

There have been many movies and short documentaries which changed my complete outlook towards life. I am sure you also must have encountered and seen such inspiring movies. I have a section called “Movies that will move YOU” in my “Notes from daddy” journal. If you want you can also make list of inspiring movies which you want your son or daughter to watch in their growing years.

3. Teachers who changed my WORLD

It is said that – “when the student is ready, teacher appears”.

I have been fortunate to have right mentors and teachers at different junctions of my life. I am sure my son and your kids will also have many teachers in their life. Sharing from my life my teachers taught me some very important distinctions of life which helped me to look at the world with new pair of eyes.

I am sure you also must have had some “wow learning moments” while you were with your teacher.  Why not capture them at one place so that it gets communicated to your next generation in your absence.

Some final words

Our body is a place to observe the world from, it is a physical representation of you, be clear that your body is not you. Life is beautiful and at the same time highly unpredictable and uncertain. Having life cover is important but I feel it is still half job done. In my absence, I would not just like to pass on insurance amount to my son, I would also like to pass on my wisdom and selective life experiences to him as well.

If you already have life cover and would like to create your little “experience journal” you can start working on it. If you do not have adequate life cover leave your details here and we will guide with the buying process. In the comments section do share some more ideas that you can implement to do something special for kids along with buying insurance.

Lastly, we are all set to announce about our next workshop which will be held in Bangalore. It will be conducted in the month of July and the registrations will open soon.

This article is written by Nandish Desai

5 kind of online frauds, where investors have lost their money

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

A few months back I got a call from an NGO based in Delhi. They were trying to help a small baby, which was a critical medical condition and needed immediate medical help and they were generating the money from all over India. Even there were social media campaigns around it. The girl talking to me told me its an urgent matter and how as a citizen, my help could mean a lot to the poor child.

various types of online fraud where investors have lost there money

I told her, she can mail me the details, so that I can look at what I can do from my side. After 1 hour, when I typed the NGO name and it turned out to be a big fraud campaign, which was widespread and many people reported their complaint.

But this was just one example. There are so many areas where various kind of frauds are going on all over the country and many uneducated people who do not understand the online world fall for it and lose their money. This is worst than mis-selling at times because in mis-selling you get bad returns or your money is stuck, but in these kinds of frauds you lose all the money forever. So I want to share some tricks used by people to do online frauds and their modus operandi. Here they are –

Fraud #1 – Fake Job Offer

Millions of people are unemployed in India and that has given birth to this job offer scam. In this, you get an email offer from a reputed company which invites you for their interview. You see all kind of numbers, venue, last date etc, and then you see a line mentioning that you need to deposit a security deposit or some basic fees, which will be refunded later.

Given so much of unemployment, a lot of people fall for this trick. The emails look very genuine when you read it, as it contains the company logo, or it might be on the letterhead of the company, but when you dive deeper and check the email id from which it was sent or the website link, you can figure out that something is wrong. Below is one such mail.

Fake job offer

Remember that no company in its senses will ever ask you to deposit any kind of money with them for an interview. Below is an example of how people lose such a big amount in these kinds of fraud offers.

Cybercrime police in Bangalore, India have busted a fraudulent on-line job racket offering nurses jobs in the UK and arrested five persons including two Nigerians. The accused had cheated a nurse to the tune of Rs11 lakh by promising her a job at the Ealing Hospital there.

The nurse had responded to the email job offer at the Ealing hospital in UK by sending her CV and educational certificates. The accused subsequently got in touch with the victim on her telephone and asked her to remit money for anti-terrorism and drug trafficking safety certificates, WHO immunization insurance and skilled immigration permit certificates.

The victim remitted Rs 11,03,500 to different bank accounts as suggested provided by the accused before she realized she had been conned by the gang of fraudsters when she stopped getting responses from the accused.

Fraud #2 – Help a child in an Emergency situation

This is what I was talking about at the start of this article.

Just search for the term “relief India trust scam” and you will see how many people got a call from this so-called NGO claiming to raise money for medical treatment of some needy baby. I got a call myself 2-3 times, and every time I kept investigating the issue to understand how they work. When I enquired about their Registration number, they even gave me that, but then it’s not a big deal. You can always start an NRO with bad intention.

They were extremely pushy and didn’t have a lot of supportive information regarding their claim. There are many other scams going on in the name of helping someone. It can be on helping a poor girl education or for the treatment of a kid, who has no one in the family.

They even go to an extent of telling you that the baby is on the ventilator and the surgery is in the next 30 minutes. You often see this in train’s also where a lady comes with a pamphlet asking for help. I am seeing that same thing from last 30 yrs in sleeper class. Even I see the same thing on some buses.

Coming back to the online version of fraud Here is two such experience from this website

relief india trust scam

I don’t want to paint all the NGO’s with the same brush. There are many good NGO’s also, they are doing good work, but many NGO’s have sprouted up, only to take advantage of these kinds of situations and exploit emotions of people to make money.

Fraud #3 – I am calling from IRDA

This is a well-known scam these days. Almost every investor has some or the other kind of insurance policies, especially from LIC. So these fraudsters give a call to you and ask you about your policy and tell you that they are calling from IRDA and you are eligible for some bonus after many years and in order to get your bonus you will have to either send some money or buy some policy again.

A lot of times, they have some more details about you and your policy and they look genuine at times. And many investors fall for these scams. Here is an advertisement which cautions investor’s about it

You can also listen to some sample audio calls which was recorded by some investors. You can listen to them and see the tricks used by them to cheat and fool investors.

Fraud #4 – Verification Call from Bank using OTP

This might be a new thing for many investors. In this fraud, the target is generally uneducated investors who are not that much educated or who are very new to internet banking. The fraudster poses them as a bank verification officer and gets all the information like debit card number, expiry date, CVV number, and even OTP number while doing the online transaction parallelly.

This recently happened with one of my friend’s father who lives in Patna. His father was not that well versed with internet banking and used to do all his transactions in offline mode. So naturally, he was not aware of how the system works. One day he gets a call which goes like this

Fraudster : Hello , Mr PQR.  I am XYZ calling from SBI bank . Your name is on our records who recently got a debit card. We are seeing some suspicious activity in your account recently, so this is a verification call to make sure that the debit card is in the actual account holder name.

Friends Dad : Oh ok .. What needs to be done to secure my account ?

Fraudster : Please verify your debit card number and the expiry date . It would be written on the card.

Friends Dad : (shares the numbers)

Fraudster : If you check on the back of card, there is a 3 digit number, its called CVV number. Please share it with me. Is it printed there ?

Friends Dad : Yes, its there .. Its 645

Fraudster : Ok , I have initiated the verification, I am now sending a 6 digit code to your registered mobile number, share that with me and then delete the sms. Please dont share it with anyone else

Friends Dad : Yea, I got it just now .. its 745523

Fraudster : Ok great , you will get a sms in sometime informing you about the verification success .. I am now disconnecting the call. Thanks for your time

Friends Dad : Thanks ..

( After 30 seconds …. there comes an sms )

"Dear Customer , Your Ac XXXXXXXXX567 is debited with INR 24,500 on 27th Apr .. Your available balance is INR 34,000"

The real story?

What happened in the background, is that the fraudster tried to make an online transaction on some website, which required a debit card number, expiry, and CVV number. After that, an OTP is required, which comes to the registered mobile number. Note that the modus operandi might deviate a bit, but the point is the same.

The fraudster tries to show himself as a bank verification officer and asks for all the details. I know you and I might quickly judge that this is a fraud call, but millions of people who are from a rural background or from past generations cannot.

Because first, they don’t understand the online world and the new way of banking which has come into the picture in the last 10 yrs and they are sometimes quite afraid of making a mistake. When they are told that their account is compromised and their money is at risk, they take wrong decisions in haste. Below is another real-life example of this kind of fraud

banking fraud using otp

Hence, make sure you never share your card with anyone or share its details like CVV number of ATM pin. A lot of people do it in Restaurants and Petrol pumps. 99.9% of times, nothing happens, but we are talking about that 0.1% times when things can get nasty.

Fraud #5 – Please verify your bank details (Phishing)

It’s a very common kind of fraud in the online world. It’s called Phishing, which aims to steal your sensitive data like username, password or card details. You get an email asking you to verify your account or details, failing which your account will be closed.

When you click on the link, it takes you to the website which looks exactly similar to your bank or card company, you enter your details thinking that it’s your bank website only. But in reality, it’s a fraud website which captures your sensitive information, which later is used to do transactions and you lose the money. Below is a youtube video explaining how it works.

Here is an example of an email which I got on the name of SBI bank.

SBI fake mail

So make sure you do not fall for any kind of emails asking for your sensitive details like the password or PIN number. No bank asks for it ever.

Even I have received fraud call from a guy stating to be RBI Officer. He claimed that my bank account will be closed because it is not linked with my Aadhaar number. Fortunately, I recorded the call because I knew that he was trying to fool me so that he can know my card details. To win my trust he made his senior also talk to me.

How to prevent yourself from getting trapped in these situations? 

From the last 10 yrs, this kind of online frauds has increased because the whole world has moved to the web and all kind of transactions are now online. It’s important to be attentive to your actions and with whom are you interacting.

  1. You will never receive a phone from RBI or Other banks for reasons such an Aadhaar not linked etc.. Please be aware that if there is any recent activity such as if you have deposited some cheque then you might receive a call if bank officials want some information regarding the cheques. Otherwise, no calls from banks for any backdated activity.
  2. Never share your card number, CVV number, OTP etc.. to anyone.
  3. Download Truecaller in your phone. So if you receive a call from an unknown number who is asking your bank account details then you can check the number in Truecaller. Truecaller will tell you if this number is spam or not and if it shows to be spam then block the number.

Have you come across any other kind of online frauds other than listed above?