Prajna Capital - An Investment Guide

This article is on the basic difference between mediclaim and health cover MAX New York life recently launched ‘lifeline series’ — health cover plans for individuals. While typically it is the general insurance companies, which have been active in the mediclaim space, thanks to IRDA , now there are alternatives from life insurers such as ICICI Prulife and Bajaj Allianz. Protection and savings Mediclaim is usually a cashless policy, in which you can undergo treatment at any of the hospitals listed with the insurer without paying cash at the time of treatment. On submitting hospital bills, the designated third party administrators ( TPAs ) pay off the dues directly to the hospital. Newly-launched health products of life insurers extend the same cashless facility. But the structuring is different. The latter, for instance, have a health cover along with the savings option. In other words, the premium you pay for health cover also has an investment element to it. The idea is to meet the ...

How you can fight back Review your emergency fund requirement . Keep six months' expenses as emergency funds, mostly in short-term debt funds such as inflation- and tax-efficient FMPs. Examine your health and life cover . With costs going up, you need to bump up your life and health covers. Go for low-cost, high-cover term plans and floating health covers to bridge the gap. avoid large idle savings and bank balances. Invest in short-term debt funds like FMPs. Defer large loan-based purchases. Avoid large EMIs that will stretch your finances more. Go for your first home if you can afford the down payment and EMI. Prepay high-cost loans. Start with your floating rate home loan. Remember, no investment option will provide guaranteed returns that equal the higher interest payout. Seek capital gains and dividend instead of interest. Interest income gets taxed at your income tax rate. Long-term capital gains and dividends from equity and equity MFs are tax-free, but taxed at 10 per ce...