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Ans: Hello;

Opting out of EPF is not possible.

Ensure that entire 12% of employer contribution goes towards EPF since EPS is out of coverage now.

Also ensure proper nomination.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Request you to please rephrase your question and submit again.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

3000 shares as on today considering 2017 stock split in the ratio 1:10.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

You will need a corpus of 2 Cr which if you invest in a conservative hybrid debt fund and do a SWP at 3.5% you may expect a post tax monthly income of 50 K+ .

The average inflation is assumed at 6% and fund return on average at 8%. It may provide you inflation adjusted returns upto life expectancy of 90.

Keep around 20 L for emergencies.

Also ensure adequate healthcare insurance for yourself and your family.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

The "exchange rate volatility" from Indian perspective is relatively sharp downfall of the Rupee against the USD in short span of time. There are moments of temporary bounce back but overall direction is downwards.

India imports more then 87% of its crude oil requirement which is priced in USD so our cost of oil imports rise leading to rise in petrol(even if crude oil price is stable, if it rises too then it's a double whammy for us), diesel and gas price hikes.

This fires up inflation for every product and service due to cascading price hikes.

Therefore being frugal in your discretionary expenses becomes important.

Given below are some of the investment options to deal with such events:
1. Exposure to International equity
2. Use of currency derivatives to hedge forex volatility risk.(Mainly used by corporates who have dollar denominated liabilities)
3. Investment in stocks(Indian) that benefit from Rupee downfall. (eg. IT Cos.)
4. Investment in Gold (ETFs/MFs)
5. Use of multi currency account to retain your USD holdings

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

If you have an active UAN then you can easily link your previous pf accounts to your UAN by following simple process given on EPFO portal.

You need to access the EPFO portal, navigate to "One Member - One EPF Account (Transfer Request)," verify your details, and initiate the transfer request, ensuring you have your old and current employer's details available.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Contact your employer at that time. They may have records of past employees.

Else visit the EPFO office where your PF account was held and seek support for getting your pf account details.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Chit funds often turn out to be cheat funds so a strict NO.

A RD with a PSU bank is a good way to begin your investment journey.

I recommend you to look at SIPs in mutual funds after your RD matures, you have 6 month of expense coverage as emergency fund and you have bought term life insurance.

Also don't forget to open and invest in NPS for retirement planning.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Your current expenses add upto 22 K per month.

After 34 years this amount will be 1.6 L per month considering 6% inflation.

This would need a corpus of 5-6 Cr.

Your current investment would fetch you around 1.2 Cr which is quite low.

You need to invest minimum 25 K per month in NPS to expect 5 Cr+ corpus build after 34 years. (A modest 8% return considered from NPS)

Also you may shift from Auto choice to Active choice so as to ensure 75% allocation to equity upto 50 age.(In Auto choice after 35 age equity allocation is tapered down).

You are allowed to have different fund managers for different asset classes based on their performance in respective category.

Current fund manager looks okay however you need to review performance every year.

For generating retirement corpus it is better to have 2-3 investment avenues rather then a single one.

A mix of EPF/PPF, NPS and MFs should be more appropriate.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

You can get many budgeting methods online however the key is the strict fiscal discipline, optimal asset allocation and frugal shopping.

Few measures to improve monthly budget:

1. Mind your credit card spends and ensure timely payment.
2. Avoid impulse purchases.
3. Limit discretionary spending.
4. Avoid FOMO shopping.
5. Prefer E-Com/Q-Com to get price benefits but only from reputed portals.
6. Keep 6-8 month worth regular expenses coverage corpus as emergency fund.
7. Be adequately insured for life as well as health.

Given below two budgeting methods:

1. 50/30/20 method
Traditionally in this method it advocates that 50% of your income should go towards essential needs, 30% for discretionary needs and balance 20% for investment, however I prefer to flip it in this way:
50% Investments
30%: Essential needs
20%: Discretionary needs

2. Pay yourself first budget
The pay yourself first budget is another simple budgeting method focusing basically on savings and debt repayment. With this method, you set aside a specific amount from each monthly income for savings and debt repayments, spending the rest as you feel appropriate.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

I disagree with the suggestion given to you.

You must primarily focus on faster repayment of the overdue loan. While doing so you may initiate investments towards other goals.

Although investment maybe less now but making a beginning will help inculcate sense of fiscal discipline.

As the loan becomes zero, entire EMI+ should move towards investments.

Don't get into that calculation since returns from markets are not guaranteed especially in short to medium term when they are expected to remain choppy due to geo political reasons. However your loan obligation has to be fulfilled every month irrespective of any other developments.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Retirement is the one of the most important financial goal and the key is you won't get loan to meet that requirement.

Typically people neglect it in early part of their career and then get a rude shock when hardly 10-15 years are left for retirement and they can't meet target corpus amount despite heavy investments.

NPS is a great retirement product for every Indian.

In fact since it's costs are so low that you won't find people promoting it or advertising about it.

NPS is similar to workplace pension but is available for businessmen and self employed people too.

Except for a minimum 1000 per year in Tier 1 account there is no compulsion to invest and also their is no upper limit to investment. However you may automate your investment in NPS using D-remit feature.

Limited withdrawals are allowed subject to terms and limits.

You can change your fund manager if you are not satisfied with its performance and also you can have different fund managers for different asset classes.

EPS is a add-on to other sources of retirement income and can't be the the only source since the maximum pension amount is limited to Rs. 7500 per month.

Unit linked pension plans are like private pensions but are a poor and inefficient copy of NPS.

In India only Govt employees are eligible for state pension.

PPF/EPF are also avenues for building retirement corpus but interest on EPF contribution above Rs. 2.5 L in a financial year invokes tax and PPF has lower interest rate.

Best strategy to make financially secure retirement is to begin with a small amount from your first salary and later stepping up with increased income.

Most retirement products are eligible for tax benefits.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

These seem like stocks of defunct companies hence no more traded on the exchanges.

Check with a broker before you decide to write these off.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Interest on employee contribution to provident fund(EPF+VPF) in a financial year above 2.5 L is taxable after Budget 2021.

Hence it is recommended that you may divert your monthly investments into NPS tier-1 account.

You may select active choice and allocate maximum possible to equity and the rest between Govt securities and corporate bonds.

Note that withdrawals from NPS are highly restricted, before 60 age, being a pure retirement product.

The corpus accumulated in PF may be retained since it will continue to compound at the Interest rate.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Please specify your current age so as to advise suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

I do not know what exactly was the understanding between you and your broker.

However you may raise a grievance online with sebi scores portal.

Be prepared to provide your concern in a short and crisp format and upload documentary evidences of all requisite papers, in soft copy version.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

In 2005 JVSL merged with JSW and the merger ratio was 1:16 i.e. for every 1 share of JVSL you are entitled to 16 shares of JSW, therefore 1600 shares.

Later JSW split FV of its share from 10 to 1 therefore 1600x10=16000 shares of JSW as on today.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Is it continuous span of 14 years without any break?

Please clarify.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

Suggest you to file a Police complaint immediately.

Later on you may complain to sebi or rbi.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Suggest you to file a Police complaint immediately.

Later on you may complain to sebi or rbi.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Isn't it possible for you to rent out the second house and use the rental income to boost your investment?

If the rentals are not good enough then it makes sense to sell the second house and utilise funds to close home loans and invest for higher education of kids and retirement.

Getting out of real estate investment is not easy. It may take long time some times.

Try listing on nobroker, magicbricks, 99acres apart from agent channel to get a buyer.

Keep an emergency fund aside worth 6 to 8 month of expense coverage, always.

How about EPF and NPS? You may have some through your employer.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

She may opt for any of these investment avenues:

1. Post office time deposit scheme(FDs offered by post office for 1,2,3 & 5 year tenure); Joint holding allowed; Premature withdrawal allowed after 6M. (Current ROI 6.9-7.5%)

2. NSC with a fixed tenure of 5 years; No premature withdrawal allowed. Can be held jointly(Current ROI 7.7%)

3. KVP: Although tenure is 9 yrs and 5 months, you may do premature encashment after 2.5 years; joint holding allowed;(Current ROI 7.5%)

You may approach a reliable postal agent to process these investments to avoid hassle of frequent post visits and associated hardships.

These are backed by GOI so no risk of default.

Hope this meets your requirements.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

What is your age right now?

Please clarify.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

How much is the EMI amount and balance tenure of the home loan?

Also please confirm that monthly expense mentioned above includes EMI.

This will help us to guide you suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

6 L worth investment in 18 different funds is spreading it too thin.

You have a time horizon of 10 years but how much corpus you want to accumulate after 10 years kindly clarify?

Also if you can specify the goal for which this investment is aimed at then it will help us to suggest suitably.

I will recommend you strategy to rationalize you MF holdings once you revert on the above points.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

Self owned property should definitely be top on your priority.

Also 15-20% allocation to Gold is desirable but preferably through ETFs/gold funds.

You may also invest in funds/ETFs which are Shariah compliant for eg Tata Ethical fund or Nippon India ETF Shariah BeES.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Suppose you sell your house and clear your loans and other liabilities but where will you & your family stay?

How much rental per month would be required to get an adequate house on rent?

Please clarify. Based on your input we can advise you suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

Just would like to know your thought process behind making investment in this fund before sharing my views on the same.

Also the size of sip and percentage of your portfolio allocation in this fund.

This will help us to guide you suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

Begin with creating an emergency fund worth 6 month of expenses.

Get a pure term insurance cover of adequate value with accident benefit and critical illness riders.

Open an NPS account for retirement planning.

Invest in mutual funds for all other financial goals based on your risk appetite, financial profile and time horizon.

Avoid direct exposure to stocks since it can be quite volatile in the short to medium term.

You may seek help from an MFD, if required.

Best wishes;
X: @mars_invest

Ans: Hello;

What is the financial goal for which this investment is planned?

Also please update us about your risk appetite, financial profile (loan, insurance, self occupied property) and time horizon.

This will help us to guide you suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

Begin with creating an emergency fund worth 6 month of expenses.

Get a pure term insurance cover of adequate value with accident benefit and critical illness riders.

Open an NPS account for retirement planning.

Invest in mutual funds for all other financial goals based on your risk appetite, financial profile and time horizon.

You may seek help from an MFD, if required.

Best wishes;
X: @mars_invest

Ans: Hello;

How much corpus you want/expect to build in 15 years for higher education needs of your child.

Please clarify.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

The respose to your queries is as follows:

1. Yes you can hold active pf account for 3 years after retirement.

2. Yes it will continue to earn interest, without any contribution, for next 3 years.

3. EPF interest during non-contributory phase is taxable.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

What is the financial goal for which this investment is proposed?

Also please confirm time horizon and your risk appetite?

You certainly don't need 9 funds for 20 K sip

Please clarify on the above queries so as to guide you suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

You have a right to seek explanation from your lender regarding principal repayment and interest payment through EMIs across the loan tenure.

Irrespective of the repo rate movement, it is financially prudent to repay the outstanding home loan in totality as you are relatively closer to retirement (10 yrs).

This will give you freedom to save more towards retirement and other goals.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

EPS is NOT deducted from VPF contribution.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Please furnish precise details about his work history, EPF, EPS contribution, active UAN and what claim is being raised now.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

You may retain the PF as it is, till the age of 58. It will continue to draw tax free interest.

Else you may withdraw it and reinvest in NPS but note that withdrawals from NPS before 60 age, are highly restricted.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Answers to your queries are as given below:

1. EPF partial withdrawal will have No impact on EPS.
The estimated monthly EPS pension seems okay.

2. Your assumption about net EPF corpus available to you after 58 is correct, in principal.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

I don't recollect having written any article on SWP however maybe you are referring to the replies given to investor queries.

First and foremost every source of retirement income has its pro's and con's.

If you re read my recommendation about SWP for retirement income, I have always advocated hybrid funds with lowest equity allocation such as conservative hybrid debt funds or equity savings type mutual funds.

Further I have always advocated for an SWP rate between 3-4%.

This is to ensure that you don't eat into your corpus during periods of negative or sub par returns but this risk exists and one needs to be aware of it.

Suppose a person has a 5 year FD for a sum of 10 L. After 1 year he has an emergency requirement of 3 L however he will to break entire 10 L FD for 3 L funds and bear penalty charges for the same.

Even if we keep the liquidity aspect of FDs aside and check the post-tax returns of FDs vis-a-vis the inflation, FDs provide a flat to negative return.

If you chase higher returns on your FD, the default risk increases.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Recently GOI announced 100% FDI in the insurance sector.

Allianz had non-controlling stake in Bajaj Finserv owned insurance companies.

It may have plans to re-enter Indian Insurance sector either on its own or through tie-up with some other partner but retaining controlling stake.

However these developments do not have any impact on the policy holders of Bajaj group insurance companies.

The companies are well capitalized and earning profit so you shouldn't worry about these aspects.

Previously Exide Life was taken over by HDFC Life and honoured all policies of Exide without any issue.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

No that is not correct however people should avoid making retirement corpus estimate based on some thumb rules floating on social media which can be dangerous to your financial well-being and health.

If you have "adequate resources" of inflation indexed income, such as:

1. SWP from a hybrid mutual fund
2. Rental income from residential or commercial property
3. Inflation indexed annuity income

In addition to interest income, dividend income, pension, if any, self occupied house plus separate provisions for kids higher education and some emergency fund for health issues apart from adequate healthcare insurance for the family.

This can work for many people.

The key thing is people who are in late 30s/early 40s have a burnout feeling due to toxic work culture in most Indian establishments and also having created some corpus are eager to exit the rat race without proper due diligence.

Such people may try to pursue alternate vocation or profession to remain engaged, keep earning and also get out of the rat race after careful consideration and planning.

Best wishes;
X: @mars_invest

Ans: Hello;

Based on the given information, my view is your decision to purchase new flat is not correct from fiscal prudence standpoint.

It is preferable that you close all outstanding loans before getting into retirement.

Based on given information, you may have a corpus of around 1 Cr+, 8 years from now plus two flats.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

In any insurance adequate disclosure is essential to get a thorough underwriting check and risk acceptance.

Once insurance company agrees to insure with the disclosures then chances of claim rejection are remote.

You may escalate the matter with Compliance Officer of the insurance company, insurance ombudsman or IRDAI for an amicable settlement, if possible.

You may also check with organisations such as "beshak.org" for any possible help in the matter.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

In 2005 during merger of JVS and JSW, conversion ratio was 1:16, i.e. 16 shares of JSW for every 1 share of JVS, therefore 200x16=3200 shares.

In 2017 JSW split its share in the ratio of 1:10 so no. of shares held: 10x3200= 32000 shares of JSW as on today.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

Request you to kindly be specific about the type of claim and type of discrepancy.

This will help us to respond suitably.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

My suggestion would be to begin with a RD and a NPS account.

If these are not suitable then she may opt for mutual funds(balanced advantage funds to beginwith).

Price should never be a criteria to buy a stock. It's valuation, growth prospects and governance record should be the key criteria.

If she is insistent on stock sip then she may consider Tata power, L&T and ITC.

The entry levels and stop losses should be ascertained from a sebi registered research analyst.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

You may compare policies as offered by different insurers as per your requirement, online, on web aggregator platforms like policybazaar, insurancedekho, policyx, turtlemint etc.

Or else you may visit individual insurer's website to study their product features but this can be cumbersome.

Another option is to seek help from an insurance advisor.

Almost all big companies offer term plans that can meet your requirements. For eg SBI Life e-shield next, HDFC life click to protect super, ICICI Pru life iprotect super, LIC new jeevan amar term plan etc.

Best wishes;

Ans: Hello;

What is your current age and risk profile type?

Please clarify.

Thanks;

Ans: Hello;

Please elaborate your job history after September 2008 with EPF/EPS contribution/membership status.

Thanks;