Prajna Capital - An Investment Guide

The insurance market is flooded with many policies and schemes. While each has its own benefit, not all are needed. Insurance is possibly the best financial tool to protect yourself as well as your valuables from unforeseen circumstances. In fact, you owe it to your family to get the best cover you can afford. However, while it pays to be smart about insuring your family and your valuables, it is even wiser to make out which policies are truly worthwhile, and which ones are redundant. You need to know that while each cover has its own benefits, not all of them are needed in normal circumstances. Also, there are lots of insurance policies that use scare tactics to lure you in, and have premiums that are overpriced. And paying too much for protection can be a financial strain in itself. Therefore, you need to be selective in choice. Insurance is the best known form of financial protection to guard against major uncertainties or vagaries of nature. As a thumb rule, a person needs to have ...

It is advisable to start investing early in life towards a retirement plan. Here are some tips: Retirement planning should be an essential element of everyone's financial planning. Individuals should start planning for their retirement funds as early as possible in their life. If we look at the way our society is shaping (increase in average lifespan, nuclear families etc), it becomes even more important to plan carefully so that you are totally independent in your golden years. Planning for retirement is a comprehensive process for determining how much money you will need at the time of retirement. Some people feel that retirement planning is important when you cross 40 years of age. It then becomes difficult to build a good corpus within the next few years and eventually these people end up investing in risky investment instruments. They invest their hard-earned money in risky stocks, where the returns are generally not certain. There are many insurance instruments available in...

Indians find life insurance the most suitable retirement planning tool, followed by bank deposits. As much as 75% of the working population and 55% of retired respondents in the country cited life insurance as their primary retirement plan tool. Indians are pretty clear that they do not want to take risks as far as their retirement planning is goes. Therefore, life insurance and bank deposits, which virtually do not have any financial risks, are the most popular. However, two Indians out of 10 find high-risk, high-return products more appealing. This annual study was launched in 2004. This year’s research compares findings in 26 countries that were surveyed. The research has India as a first-time participant. Respondents from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune included both working and retired population in equal proportion. As many as 839 persons were interviewed in India, about 400 retired and another 400 working. This is an extract of the study...

What's special about March? Lots of things, actually. But from a tax point of view, it will be that time of the year when a lot of you will actually start figuring what your tax saving avenues should be. Little wonder that mutual funds report the highest inflows into equity linked savings schemes ( ELSS ) and life insurance companies record their highest sales in the first three months of the calendar year. Guilty as charged? Well, here's some help. Here's the first part of our special section dedicated to tax saving. We start right now with the absolute basics. You would have noticed that the tax department is more partial to women and specially, senior citizens. But those rates are the maximum you would have to pay if you did absolutely no tax planning. The very first step that you have to follow is to figure out what Section 80C (of the I ncome Tax Act ) is and how you can use it for your benefit. Any individual, irrespective of how much s/he earns, can reduce his taxab...

We are at the end of this financial year. Some tips in case your tax planning isn’t complete The financial year 2007-08 is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks. This is the last chance for investors who have not planned their tax savings this year to invest and save taxes. There are certain investments and expenses that are exempt from income tax under the Income Tax Act. Investors can review their tax planning and see if they missed out on something good. This can lead to a 33 percent savings on the amount invested through the reduction in their tax liability. Here are some ways for an individual to reduce tax: Tax rebate under Section 80C Section 80C of the Indian Income Tax Act allows income tax exemptions to individuals on certain investments and expenditures. The maximum exemption allowed under this section is Rs 1 lakh. Investors can invest Rs 1 lakh in one or more of these instruments to avail tax rebates under Section 80C: Provident fund or public provident fund ( PPF ...

Why Do I Need Life Insurance? You need Life Insurance because typically the need for income continues for those who are financially dependent on you, but there is no guarantee of your ability to earn consistently and for the rest of your life. Life insurance can help you safeguard the financial needs of your family. This need has become even more important due to steady disintegration of the prevalent joint family system, and emergence of nuclear families. The need to protect your family's ever growing needs is why you need Life Insurance. Life insurance is designed to protect you and your family against financial uncertainties that may result due to unfortunate demise or illness. You can also view it as a comprehensive financial instrument – as a part of your financial planning offering you savings & investment facilities along with cover against financial loss. By choosing the right policy as per your needs i.e. customized solutions, you will be able to plan for a secure futu...

Life Stages Your insurance need will change as your life does, from starting to work to enjoying your golden years and all the stages in between. Each one of these stages may pose a different insurance need/cover for you. In this section, we have drawn up the basic life stages and help you analyze various insurance needs accordingly. STAGE 1 : Young and Single An important stage where one lays down the foundation of a successful life ahead. Take advantage of the time and power of compounding to ensure that you build up your dreams. Start saving early. Your needs: Save for a home and wedding Tax Planning Save for Golden years STAGE 2 : Just Married Marriage brings about a significant change. New dreams and new opportunities also bring in additional responsibilities. While both of you look forward to a happy and secure life, it is equally important to ensure that eventualities don’t come in the way of shaping your dreams. Your needs: Planning for home / securing your home loan liability...