October 2021

Now that there are lenders that have lowered their home loan interest rates to as low as 6.5%, homebuyers are eagerly looking to apply for home loan plans. This comes as no surprise as these rates have reached their lowest level in almost 15 years, which is why buying a house now seems like the right decision to make.

But should borrowers buy houses simply based on the interest rates of their home loans? Of course, there are other factors that are equally important that need to be considered before going for a home loan. Sure, the falling interest rates are a great incentive to apply for home loan.

However, it is also necessary to maintain the following factors:

• Decent credit score

No matter what type of loan you go for or which lender is offering the loan, your credit score is always going to be reviewed before the loan approval. If the credit score is low, there are high chances of either the loan application getting rejected or getting stuck with a high interest rate, which defeats the purpose since you were looking to take advantage of the current low home loan rate.

• Stable flow of income

Even though the home loan interest rate might have reached the lowest level it has in years, it is very important to consider job stability before taking a home loan. Many people have lost their jobs and got their incomes affected due to the pandemic, and you need to make sure that your employment is secure with a stable flow of income before applying for such a loan.

• Ability to cover down payment

If the loan amount is between the ranges of Rs 30-75 lakh, most lenders will cover 90% of the property cost. If the loan amount is more than Rs 75 lakh, lenders will only cover 80% of the property cost. The remaining expenses will have to be covered from your own pocket. It is very important to have sufficient savings so that you can cover the down payment for the house you are planning on buying.

• Awareness of existing debt obligation

One common mistake that many borrowers make is only considering the home loan EMIs as expenses from their monthly income. However, you also need to calculate the rest of the debt obligations too while counting deductions from the monthly income. Once you calculate all the expenses, it will give you a clear idea of whether the home loan is affordable. It is always advisable to use a home loan calculator to understand the exact amount of the monthly instalments. Also, make sure to have enough savings to take care of any medical emergencies to pay for immediate hospitalisation.

Once you have considered the above-mentioned points, feel free to go ahead and take advantage of the low housing loan interest rate of the current market. Apply for a home loan, today.

When moving to a new country, understanding the tax payments and filing is crucial beforehand. For instance, if moving to France, a country with one of the most complicated tax systems, you will need to get some French tax advice to help you on the way forward. You may hire an advisor before you embark on your journey. This will be more beneficial to you as they will prepare you for what to expect regarding your finances. A French-registered financial adviser can guarantee that you are financially prepared for your move, including any investments, savings, and taxes that may be owed on both income and payouts you expect after your transfer.

A tax advisor in France is very beneficial and, as a foreigner, will help you understand the French fiscal system. Listed below are some of the reasons you need French tax advice for expats.

1. Help you understand tax in France

Most people who relocate to France fear they will pay more taxes than in the United Kingdom or any other state; of course, this is dependent on your specific circumstances. Still, a qualified financial planner should be able to offer you a simulation of the taxes you’ll be paying, as well as an explanation of each one, so you’re clear on your responsibilities.

2. They take you through the inheritance planning in France

France’s legal system differs from that of many other states, particularly in terms of inheritance rules. Because of the French succession laws, you may be in for a nasty surprise if you don’t get competent guidance for all of your possessions. Remember that while most of us seek limited assistance from a Notaire while purchasing a home, consider the remaining assets.

3. They guide you through the investments in France

If you are unsure about the French possibilities when you relocate to France, you can leave your investments and money in your home country. Your ISAs and Premium Bonds will be taxed after you become a French resident.  Similarly,  in France, specialized investment vehicles allow you to defer paying taxes on your investments. Moreover, a French-registered financial consultant can compare your expected return on investment to the returns available from tax-efficient financial products. As a result, if you intend to use your property as your primary source of income, the way you purchase it can have various tax implications in France. A regulated adviser has no financial stake in the property you buy, but they frequently have a lot of experience with the path you’re following.

4. They give more information on the pensions in France

Moving abroad will impact your pension, whether you have already retired or are still working. If you live in France, you should carefully consider your options to get the most out of your money once you reach retirement age. This is particularly important since pension rules are different in every country.

 In conclusion, taking financial advice is highly recommended, especially in a foreign country. The guidance required is highly specialized and specific to each individual because it is based on their personal and financial circumstances.

Be it any parent, each one of them want to secure that their child’s future. The only way to ensure that your child is able to excel in their life is by providing them with the right type of education. The only way to ensure that parents have a decent amount of money saved is through proper financial planning for their child’s higher education. The reason financial planning is important is that the education prices are soaring, thanks to inflation. Whatever you have saved right now will lose its value by the time your child is ready for higher studies. This is the reason why parents may have to start investing what they have saved so that in the long run, their investments compound and turn into a commendable corpus to take care of their child’s education expenses.

The current cost of an MBA is around Rs. 20 lakhs and if you want to get into medical, the costs are somewhat similar. If your child is 10 years old right now, by the time he is ready for higher education the cost of such courses is expected to soar and go as high as Rs. 45 lakhs. To accumulate such a hefty amount, one may need an investment horizon of at least 10 years which is why parents must start planning for their child’s future when they are toddlers.

Not everyone has a clear idea of how much money they must save and invest so that they can achieve their long term financial goals like children’s education. Hence, parents depending on their risk appetite can consider investing in a solution oriented mutual fund scheme like Children’s Gift Fund. And to calculate the future value of their mutual fund investments, parents can make use of a mutual fund calculator.

Also referred to as SIP calculator, investors who wish to invest in mutual funds via SIP for their children’s education can make the most out of this free online tool. For those who aren’t aware, a Systematic Investment Plan or SIP is a simple and convenient way to save and invest a fixed sum regularly in mutual funds. Investors can decide how much money they want to invest and then invest the predetermined SIP sum every month on a fixed date regularly till their investment objective is accomplished. SIP can be an ideal way for parents to build a solid education corpus for their children as long term investments in the mutual fund via SIP can allow compounding and rupee cost averaging. This will allow parents to generate more returns while reducing their average cost of purchase.

An online SIP calculator can help you figure out whether your monthly mutual fund SIP investments are enough for your child’s higher education.

 Here’s an example to help you understand better how the SIP calculator works:

Suppose you want to build a corpus of Rs. 35 lakhs for your child’s higher studies. You plan to build this corpus in 10 years and have started a monthly SIP of Rs. 15000 in a mutual fund with an expected 10 percent rate of return. If you put these details in the SIP calculator it will compute and tell you that your current SIP investments will only help you accumulate a total sum of Rs. 30.98 lakhs at the end of your 10 year investment journey. This means that you will be 5 lakhs short of your education corpus. However, by investing Rs. 17000 you will be able to achieve your financial goal. A SIP calculator can help parents with such calculations to ensure that they are investing enough for their child’s future.

There is a lot of fuzz surrounding SIP investments and a lot of people are confused because they do not know exactly what to do with all the information that is circulating through various modes of communication. The truth is that SIP is a great way to save and invest a fixed sum regularly in a mutual fund scheme. Mutual funds are a great investment vehicle to create long term wealth and one can start their investment journey in mutual funds via SIP. Why SIP? Because in the long haul, SIP has the power to convert one’s small investments into a commendable corpus.

And one way to ensure that your SIP investments are in sync with your financial goals is by using the SIP calculator.

How is the SIP calculator useful?

Online SIP calculator is an easy-to-use tool that lets investor determine their future returns which their SIP investments might be able to fetch over a certain duration. There is also a lump sum calculator for those who want to calculate their future mutual fund returns made through lumpsum investing but SIP investing is much better as one does not need to have a large sum as principal capital for starting their investment journey. To get a rough estimate on the returns which individuals can earn through SIP, mutual fund investors can use the SIP calculator.

However, the SIP calculator does not take several factors like exit load and expense ratio into consideration while computing results.

The SIP calculator is grounded on the following formula –

M = P × ({[1 + i]n – 1} / i) × (1 + i)

In the above stated formula –

‘M’ stands for the amount you receive upon maturity

‘P’ stands for the amount you invest at regular intervals

‘n’ is the number of payments you have made

‘i’ represents the periodic rate of interest

Calculating returns with SIP calculator

There are two different ways in which a SIP calculator can work. This may vary depending on which SIP calculator you use. Of course, all SIP calculators serve the same purpose but might be designed by AMCs in a slightly different way from one other.

If you know what your ultimate financial goal is, all you have to do is –

• Enter the corpus that you want to achieve e.g. Rs. 50 lakhs, Rs. 1 crore, etc
• Enter the expected rate of return i.e. the CAGR of the scheme, e.g. 8%, 10%, etc.
• Enter the investment horizon i.e. by when you need the above mentioned corpus. Depending on the calculator you may have to enter this in either years or months

The SIP calculator will compute and display –

• Total amount invested
• Targeted amount (total investment sum + interest earned)
• Monthly SIP sum that one needs to invest to achieve the desired financial goal

This is one way to use the SIP calculator. Another way to use the calculator is to find out how much your current monthly SIP investments can fetch in the long run.

To use the SIP calculator this way –

• How much you are investing in mutual funds via SIP every month or how much you want to invest every month
• Then enter the number of years / months you wish to continue investing this sum
• Enter the expected rate of return

The calculator will display –

• Total amount invested
• Total wealth created

Investors are free to change the monthly SIP investment sum, expected rate of return, and investment horizon so that the calculator can compute and display various results. This might allow the investor to plan his / her mutual fund investments in a better way.

We all know how useful SIP can be for mutual fund investors with a long term investment horizon. For those who do not know, a Systematic Investment Plan or SIP is an investment tool that allows investors to save and invest a fixed sum at periodic intervals in a mutual fund scheme of their choice. The frequency at which the SIP investments are made is predetermined and so is the investment sum. Just like a recurring deposit, a SIP auto debits the predetermined sum from the investor’s savings account and lets them buy units irrespective of the existing market conditions. When you continue to invest, you are automatically saving regularly, and this investment approach might be necessary to create long term wealth or for someone to achieve their financial goal.

And to understand how much your monthly investments in mutual funds via SIP should be, investors can make use of an online SIP calculator.

How to achieve goals with an SIP calculator?

To achieve life’s short term or long term financial goals, investors need to first prioritize their goals depending on their urgency. A short term goal can be anything like renovation of your house, planning a short vacation, buying a new car, etc. Such goals can be achieved through SIP investing for a duration of 1 to 3 years and be achieved by investing a fixed sum regularly. Investors usually invest a bigger amount when they have to achieve a goal in a short duration.

For example, if you want to buy a new car that costs Rs. 15 lakhs in the next three years, as per the calculations computed by the SIP calculator a monthly SIP amount of Rs. 35000 might be sufficient for you to achieve this goal. Here, we have assumed a 12% rate of return from the mutual fund scheme.

Long term goals are usually monetary goals that require thorough financial planning. Because one might need a large corpus spanning over Rs. 1 crore or even more depending on their goals. One must also remember that they need to have a long investment horizon to achieve such a hefty corpus.

Let’s say that you want to build a retirement corpus worth Rs. 2 crores so that you can enjoy financial freedom and do not have to depend on anyone. You have 25 years in hand before you retire. After putting in the necessary details in the SIP calculator it will tell you that a monthly SIP of Rs. 15000 can help you achieve the desired retirement corpus. Here, the rate of return assumed is 10%.

Multiple simulations in a few seconds

Investors can use the online SIP calculator to derive multiple results in just a few seconds, thus saving a lot of time. If an average human had to manually compute all the results, it would be a time consuming process. Since it is such a fast and easy to use tool investors can easily change the expected rate of return, change the SIP sums and investment horizons to get different results. This way they might help you to understand whether your current SIPs are aligned with your targeted goals or whether they need to invest more.

A mutual fund SIP calculator is an ideal tool that any existing or aspiring mutual fund investor can make the most of. However, investors must understand that mutual funds do not guarantee returns, and hence, it is better to diversify their investment portfolio across asset classes.

In mutual funds, there are two different ways to invest your hard earned money. Investors can go the old-school way and make a lumpsum investment right at the beginning of the investment cycle. Such investors have a good chance of buying more units at the scheme’s current NAV (Net Asset Value). However, if one is making a lumpsum investment in equity mutual funds, they are exposing their entire investment sum to market upheavals. The second way to invest in mutual funds is through a Systematic Investment Plan. Systematic Investment Plan or SIP is a simple and effective way to save and invest a fixed sum regularly in mutual funds. A lot of young investors consider SIP over lumpsum because some funds allow them to start their investments with a monthly SIP sum of Rs. 500, even lower in other cases.

Investors who have long term financial goals generally consider mutual fund SIP investment as they are known to offer several benefits in the long run. But before you start a mutual fund SIP there are certain things that you must be aware of, like how much you must invest in order to get closer to your financial goal or in how many years the SIP gives you the expected returns if you invest regularly.

To figure this out, you can use an online SIP calculator. The best part about using a SIP calculator is that it computes desired results in split seconds.

Here are a few benefits of using SIP calculator:

The SIP calculator produces accurate results

When you are investing in mutual funds, you are taking calculated risks. It is essential to depend on a tool that can help one plan their SIP investments properly. This is where the online SIP calculator comes in as it produces accurate results. All you have to do is put in a few simple details like the overall corpus that you want to accumulate, your investment horizon, and the mutual fund scheme’s expected rate of returns. Within no time the calculator will show how much you need to invest monthly via SIP to achieve the financial goal. The SIP calculator is backed by a foolproof formula hence it cannot produce inaccurate results.

A time saving tool

Apart from the fact that it produces precise results; the SIP calculator is pretty fast as well. The calculations that it does in few seconds, if humans try to do the same calculations it will take time. This makes the SIP calculator a time saving tool as it computes data and delivers results like total investment sum, maturity amount, and total SIP returns (investment sum + maturity amount) in a jiffy.

Allows investors to make an informed investment decision

Since the SIP calculator is so fast in delivering accurate results, investors can forecast their SIP investments and plan better by computing different results. For example, if the SIP calculator can show how much you can earn by investing Rs. 10,000, Rs. 12,000, Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 20,000 for a certain period of time in a scheme that is expected to give certain returns. You can even change the time horizon or expected rate of returns and still get different outcomes pretty fast. So, depending on how much corpus you want to accumulate you can decide how much to invest.

Investing in mutual funds via SIP is a good option as it mitigates the overall investment risk and allows investors to earn better returns. However, mutual funds do not guarantee returns and hence one should invest as per their risk appetite.

We are all aware of the fact that various internet scams have been on the rise lately. In modern times, when everyone can afford a company and open their website, it is no wonder why more and more cybercriminals are taking advantage of this situation.

Because of various get-rich-quick schemes that promise huge profits that sound “too good to be true,” it is very likely not authentic. There are scams on the Internet at every possible step, and that is why every person who has access to the Internet must be aware of this fact.

To adequately protect yourself from everyday cyber scams, it is essential to know the most common scams in 2021 are? We will provide you with a specific and 100% legitimate list of the most common scams we should all stay away from. Let’s get started, shall we?

COVID-19 related scams

Given that a coronavirus pandemic marked 2020 and 2021, it is not surprising why the Internet has become full of scams in this regard. Cybercriminals exploit the widespread fear and concern of people about the spread of the pandemic by sending “legitimate” messages about the virus, or emails, phone calls, and malicious websites, to reach their victims.

The typical Coronavirus-related scams

The most common Coronavirus related scams include the following:

• Scam websites that sell fake disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizers, face masks, and other high-demand products will never arrive. It’s essential to purchase products from well-known marketers only.
• Scammers pose as health authorities or fake health organizations, like the WHO ( World Health Organization) and Centers for Disease Control, offer tests, cures, or other Covid-19 information.
• Bogus government sources, such as scammers that claim to issue payments and updates on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On the other hand, it could be on behalf of the local tax authority.
• Fake financial offers – it’s possible that scammers might appear as debt collectors, investors, or banks, with highly great suggestions that were designed to steal your financial information.
• Scam nonprofit donation request – Since many people are willing to donate to charitable causes to help with disaster relief, cybercriminals have begun to set up fake hospitals and nonprofits to collect funds.

Scam Shopping Websites

A significant number of websites offer “amazing deals” on behalf of world-famous brands. These sites usually include URLs similar to the brands they wish to mimic, such as “AmaZzon.net.” In case you purchase something from any of these websites, there might be chances that you’ll get a fraudulent item in the email or nothing at all.

Fake Tech Supports

Fake tech supports are somehow easy to spot. Usually, a victim receives an email, phone call, or pop-up warning with information that your computer is at significant risk. If you’re dealing with this, you’d need to ask yourself, “How could they know?”.

If you don’t recognize it as a scam, you might download the application that allows them to control your computer remotely. Then it will download an actual virus so that you’ll believe that something is wrong, and then they’ll tell you they can fix the problem free of charge.

Besides that, there’s another way that they might reach you, and it’s search results. In this case, fake tech support will work hard to get their sites to show up in numerous online search results, or they’ll run their ads.