Top 10 personal finance blogs globally and why I love them

So happy to say 3 top personal finance blogs are from India.  Indian blogs Bemoneyaware, Jago Investors and Basu Nivesh in the top the list! not being partial at all!

There are several blogs I follow globally, many of them I like just because they maintain a consistency on the subject they cover. Mostly very niche, within the personal Finance, they chose a topic – example – budgeting, loans, spending, investments or insurance. Based on their content, alexa and Moz ranking I have curated  a list of 10 personal finance blog you must have a look. The blogger in the personal finance list belongs to Asia, Europe, Canada, US even India.

1.       The Penny Hoarder – In 2017, Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. for the second consecutive year, and #25 on the overall list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. With over 12-17 million reader per month and 1.2 million subscriber, they are in top of their game. The Founder and CEO of the blog, Kyle Taylor is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the founder & CEO of The Penny Hoarder. The blog cover huge array of topics from freebies, discount deals. The blog makes money interesting, catchy and funny.

     This blog enjoys an amazing ranking of 3,686 in the United States and global ranking of         14,637

2.       Bemoneyaware Being an Indian, its giving me great pleasure to list this blog on the top. The author, Kirti is a mother of 2 kids and a software professional. Having faced difficulty in the financial processes, in field of investing and other mundane transactions, she decided to start this blog, and this is one of the highest  ranking blog in India as well as globally.

     #The top Indian personal finance blog currently enjoys a Indian Rank of 5275 and a                  global rank of 68,800

3.       Jago Investor – An Indian finance blog, founded by Manish Chauhan and Nandish Desai in 2008) with the aim to educate more and more investors and improve their financial life by imparting financial education among them. They have been writing about personal finance and have been conducting various workshops in different indian cities. They have also authored various personal finance books. They work with clients across India from various cities and have a 10 member team across Pune and Ahmedabad.

The team has written 1000+ articles, 7 books amongst many other achievements.  
    #The top personal finance blog enjoy an Indian ranking of 12750 and global ranking of             163,000 in Alexa

4.  Get Rich Slowly – J.D. Roth. I founded Get Rich Slowly in 2006, published Your Money: The Missing Manual in 2010, created the year-long “Get Rich Slowly” course in 2014, and for four years contributed the monthly “Your Money” column to Entrepreneur magazine. In 2009, for reasons both personal and financial, I sold Get Rich Slowly — but stuck around as manager, editor, and primary writer until 2012. Then I “retired”. (Sort of.) In October 2017, he bought Get Rich Slowly back. The Canby, Oregon born founder has been featured On Forbes.

       #Listed on the top 10 #personal finance #blog, currently enjoys US Ranking – 21,200               and global ranking of 80,000.

5.  Basu NiveshThis is Indian Finance blog is authored by Basavaraj Tonagatti. In his blog, he mentioned that the blog originated from the idea of educating people on personal finance. Apart from being a successful blogger with a big follower list, he is one of the few celebrated Fee Only advisers. (SEBI registered advisor). The blog is 8 year old and doing a great job on creating financial awareness amongst Indians. 
     This Indian personal Finance blog enjoys Indian ranking of 5,942 and a global ranking          of 78,500

6.       FrugalWoods– Liz, better known as Mrs. Frugalwoods, writes about a wide range of topics, including her experiences as a young  parent, her adventures as a novice homesteader, and the financial decisions that made our life possible. Her philosophy is that managing money wisely enables one to pursue unusual aspirations and opens up a world of options for how to live one’s life. She covers a wide range of category including biking, home improvement, health and beauty, holiday and special. Her blogs are engaging and makes me click every hyperlink.

      The blog has a US ranking of 44,000 and Global ranking of 1,96,000

7.       Oblivious Investor  – This one essentially is an investment blog. The author Mike Piper is a CPA and the author of several personal finance books. The point of this blog is to show that investing doesn’t have to be complicated. He dedicates this blog to spreading the idea that investment success is based upon following a few principles: Diversifying portfolio, minimizing cost and avoiding media noise.

      The blog enjoys a US ranking of 50,833 and Global ranking of 2,38,800

8.       Afford AnythingThe beauty of the blog lies in its name- Afford anything. Accrding to the blogger –  Afford Anything is a movement rooted in one idea: You can afford anything, but not everything — and that’s true not only for your money, but also your time, focus, energy and attention.
The author Paula Pant has an elaborate CV to flaunt. Besides being the founder of  the award winning  website AffordAnything.com and a writer she is a speaker specializing in money, business and real estate investing.She has been featured more than four dozen major publications, including Forbes, Fortune, Money.com, AOL DailyFinance, Marketplace Money and many more.
She’s contributed to dozens of major websites, including U.S. News, AARP Bulletin, MSN Money, Bankrate, Hotpads, Trulia, Huffington Post etc.  She is the Budgeting and Personal Finance Expert for About.com.

     The blog enjoys US ranking (on Alexa) 42,725 and global ranking of 1,61, 600

9.     My Money BlogThe blog is run by Jonathan, based in United State and I’ve been sharing about money since 2004. He is a self-directed investor, financial freedom enthusiast, and calls himself a perpetual learner.  He is running the blog for 13 years.

      Enjoys a US ranking of 30,674 and a global ranking of 131,485

10.   Budgets Are SexyIt is a 10 year old blog. Blogger blogs with the name J. Money. The blog covers savings, money management and tips. Budgeting is an important part in the blog.

      The #Top personal finance blog enjoys a US ranking of  27,895 and global alexa ranking        at 129,700

   As you are a special reader who have read the whole blog post, you deserve more. Here you go with one more blogpost which I really like for the money management lessons. 
    
       Squawkfox  – The Author Kerry is a  Financial Journalist and author of of 397 Ways to Save Money. She is a world renouned blogger, and known for her fun approach to personal finance writing reaches an audience of millions around the globe each year and inspires readers to become financially independent. Based out of Torronto, she is a personal finance columnist, TEDx speaker, a money expert on CBC’s On The Money, and a contributor to the Globe and Mail. She has appeared on lifestyle shows The Marilyn Denis Show, Canada AM, and CTV’s Your Morning.

      US Ranking of 89,000 and global ranking of 316,500

Hope you make use of the information from the blogs listed here. I also read many more interesting international blogs which are very interesting, may not have as many followers and views as above blogs. Those personal finance blogs There are many more useful personal finance blogs, let me know if you want to know more about them.

7 business ideas with low or no investments India

India has evolved, and come far way from a mindest to secure a govt job or atleast at a service of Tata , Birla or State Bank of India. Oh I absolutely love the baby boomer generation, because of their steady income and savings habit, they are today financially secure, they are encouraging and supportive of the next generation to starting up their own ruther than pestering them to look for a suitable job.
The millennial are more and more liking the idea of starting their own business. The idea of starting up a new business is awesome. It is not easy to think of  breaking away from traditional family business or giving up a day job, especially starting a new business involve research, investment, human capital and lot of courage. However, in this post I would like to list down some no or low cost business ideas, which can ofcourse be scaled-up with investment and deploying resources. Mind you, still need to have courage to start up, research for your positioning and consistent efforts to scale-up
1. Content creation, blogging and vlogging – This is a huge and evolving industry, thanks to the ever growing internet usage and media consumption. Even twitter and Instagram can earn you money. If you like writing – short stories to economics, you can get freelance assignments of content writing. There are many agencies in the market. You can start your own once you are little comfortable with the idea. You can even have a blog of your own. To begin with you can have a blogger or wordpress account for free. You may even start writing before opting for a hosting service and a domain name.  If you are you-tuber, bingo, the world is your oyster. A good video which can fetch thousands of view, can fetch a good advertisement money as well as paid/ sponsored content. Being a Youtuber and blogger are serious career. You can also use it as extension of your profile if you dont even want to monetise it.
                                        
                                                      photo – steemit.com
2. Private tutorial – You dont need to teach in a school for this. This will essentially be driven by your interest in a particular subject or a overall training skills. You can have a day job of an engineer, Accountant or a sales manager for that matter. You can use with word of mouth, leaflet distribution and few youtube video classes for initial promotion
3. Translation and transcription services – 
The growing marketing and information distribution needs are opening up this arena. The marketers and communication professionals wants to go hyper local, in local as well as international market. Talking to the target audience in their language keeping their ethinicity and culture has become a priority. In this scenario, the translators have a huge potential for business, and If you are a multi lingual, especially with foreign languages like Japanese, Mandarin, you are in for a kill. Just spreading the word in the right places.
4. Financial adviser/ planner  – you dont need to be finance MBA or a chartered accountant. But, you need to clear a few tests to become SEBI approved financial planner. Additionally, you need to have inclination to have the passion for profession. It is not just selling the product or making instant money, if you like the idea of money management, you can give it a try. It entails lot of deliberation and counselling. It is a business of trust, it has a huge potential in India, if you have the intent.
5. Public relation consultancy – true. Yet it is a mainstream profession. Before jumping into any conclusion, it is a very specialised service and you need to have some exposure to the sector with education/ internship and job in corp comm/ PR Consultancies for experience as well as the networking ability. 
bollywoodshaadis.com
6. Mehendi or Tattoo artist – you can simply begin this by basic networking with friends and family. It doesnt require significant investments to start. You may consider high end tattoo machine, listing your services in premium websites, having a portfolio once you have started off and comfortable in your zone. 
7. Art and craft classes – Are you a painter? And have never took the step to make it your profession? Are you passionate about DIY crafts? Most of your free time spent in checking youtube for suggestion. Here you have a idea. You can have a class for yourself. You can begin with a summer camp for kids, a video channel and even a at-home sale for your family and friends. It doesnt have any significant expenses. You can use your existing resources to begin with.
This list can extend to photography, career consultancy, life coach, beauty salon, online bakery, baby sitting etc which will be little expensive yet not an exorbitant money.
Choosing these careers are not sheer happenstance. These businesses can begin with low investments. Each of the above business idea has great potential.but however each needs research, extensive study, understanding market and indomitable entrepreneurial zeal to make it bigger. Starting up is difficult but it is easier than maintaining the momentum, keeping the spirit high through the ups and down.

6 Ideas for your Diwali Bonus – Diwali Wishes

MyMoneyStreets team wishes you a Very Happy Diwali and Prosperous New Year (Samvat 2075)

Have you checked the car insurance papers?
Diwali is just 2 days away, one of the biggest festivities of India, and You might be in a Diwali shopping spree. This is a time to brighten up  homes, lighten up streets, wear bright clothes, distribute sweets, visiting relatives, burning firecrackers and buy new things. 

India INC celebrates this occasion, distribute sweets, gifts and most often distribute annual employee bonuses around this time. The little lamps are lit in every office, houses, the desks are decorated with Maa Laxmi Idols to celebrate the festival of lights . As we worship Laxmi Maa on Diwali, the Goddess of Wealth and prosperity, this occasion celebrates wealth too. It is an apt occasion for some good beginnings on money learning too. To make it crisp and put it to context, I have made a list of five things which you can use to put your Diwali Bonus to good use. 

Diwali Bonus, generally a variable income for many, organisations generously share their profits with emploees,  lucky ones fetch more than a year’s salary some time, some get a month’s salary, few gets a token money. However, receiving money on Diwali is ‘Shagun’, a token of good luck. Depending on the amount you recieve as Diwali Bonus, here are a few things you can consider looking at. 

1. Pay-off loans – Many of us literally live on EMIs – Car loans, home loans, credit cards etc. Though these are ultra-convenient tools, it comes with a cost “interest”. Its prudent to pay off some of your loans with the bonus money, to reduce the load on your monthly budget. If you have multiple loans, consider paying off the credit card as it is the costliest loan, followed by personal loan, followed by Car Loans and the Home loans and i that order. For rest of your year, you will feel lighter on your budget.
2. Put in Tax saving instrument – Seldom people start planning tax saving beginning of the year. Monthly budget many a times doesn’t leave us with much money for tax saving saving instrument, consider paying insurance premiums/ PPF/ ELSS etc with the money. Your target for tax saving will be taken care of.

3. Annual purchase of furniture/ Television/ Electronic gadgets – Year long people wait for Diwali Bonus especially to do a Diwali Shopping – buy gifts, home furnishings, decor, electronics etc, if you hate paying EMIs, Diwali bonus can be used for these annual purchase of the Consumer durables/ furnitures you long for. The festivities also brings lot of discount deals from Retailers and E-tailers.


4. Buying Gold certificates/ Jewellery – Diwali is considered as auspicious time to buy Gold. If you like Gold Jewelery, Silver Coins etc. Do consider using bonus for buying this asset. If you are not into Diwali shopping, you can still consider buying Gold ETF, Sovereign Gold Bonds (Offer 2.5% interest – payable half-yearly) which has a 8 year maturity period since launch. You may consider buying from secondary market – trading platform, as the SGB is not offering new bonds now.
5. Gift for family and friends – Diwali is a festival of connecting with people. As a custom people visit each other with gifts like Sweets, clothes etc, depending on the relationship you share. Do consider buying gifts for loved ones, the smile on seeing the gifts on their face is priceless!! isn’t it??

6. Joy of Giving – Last but not the least, there is nothing more joyful than joy of giving. There is a big part of society who are not as privileged as we are. There are Kids, Old people, Undernourished underprivileged lot. Do consider donating to them, buying them a few clothes or even donating your old ones will make a lot of difference to their lives. 

Wish you a very Happy Diwali.

Hope you find this post useful. Share your comments and feedback.

10 things you can do with your old phone

Car insurance is as important as the car itself
The other day, I was just checking the exchange value of a two year old HTC phone, perfectly functional, never went for a repair, all functionalities intact. To my surprise, Nokia offered me Rs. 1450 for that phone. I must say I checked online. So, there were nobody checked my phone and its condition, a random price popped up, yet as I was searching the deal on internet with the phone, AI ensured that the deal was for the same phone and model number I was checking for. I was impressed by the technology Nokia used to confirm my handset detail. However, disliked the fact that my careful handling of the device didn’t fetch me a fair price. I took it upon myself to find out how well I can use this phone as a spare handset, and if it would be value for money deal for me. And here are my findings, many of the functions don’t even need internet connection.
After re-checking the functionalities, I have noted down the things I will be able to do which will not only be beneficial, also will save me good money.

1. Calculator – In a daily mundane work, you need calculation every now and then. Be it calculating for grocery buying to checking the compounding effect of your long term investments. This function come handy all the time.
2. Digital Note book – if you have a habit of forgetting or you suddenly remember some important work, you just scribbled it down in the digital note. It may not be an exact function, you may use gmail, Microsoft word etc. as an option. The point is you have a handy digital note book. 
3. Calendar and Organiser – From an alarm to health tracker, it can do a lot for you. The phones are unanimously voted as the most important material object in one’s life. With the functionality of the smart phones, its even more. If you have an android phone, google pull all the data from gmail and other apps make a note in your calendar, if you have not noticed that yet, check it out. Additionally you can put reminders for meetings, alarm to wake up etc. It works like your personal assistant without a visible reccurring cost.
4. Extra files and folders – for saving photographs, important scanned documents. After data, storage is next more important thing in life. The phones more than functionalities priced on the amount of space it provides. So, if you have a smart phone, it will come with some memory. So the memory itself is the value for money option for saving your important data files, photographs etc. 
5. Browser – A smart phone is equal to mini laptop/ work station. If your old phone doesn’t have any technical issue, you can use it for your daily browsing needs. Research says, on an average millennial spends a significant waking hours in web surfing. So put your old phone to task, give some rest to your new phone.
6. Camera – Data, storage and camera are top priority while buying a phone. If your old blessed with twin camera, with over 5 – 8 mega pixel configuration, please dont sell your phone. It can be used for taking selfie and other photography.
7. Radio and musical device – are you a music buff? Most of the phone comes with an inbuilt radio. Just put o  the headphone, it will work like an antenna. Additionally if still have a spare sim, you can definitely diwnload the music app of your choice and listen to as many hours as you want.
8. Personal theater – with Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube need I say more that it is your personal theatre. You can also save movies in video formats and watch online. The best part is you dont have to fight for the remote, adjust with family members or roommates for keeping TV on for longer hours etc. Infact, many are opting phones over Television set for binge watching. 
You can also watch recreational and educational videos among others.
9. Shopping assistant – The days are gone when people used to plan for grocery and  home shopping for weekends. You just can keep bunch of apps on your phone like Grofers, BigBasket, FlipKart, Amazon, FreshMenu and Myntra. Then shopping out is just a choice or option not a neccesity.
10. Spare phone – Last but not the least. It is your fall back option if your phone faces some technical issue or lost etc. To sum it up an old phone still holds a lot of value, think before you opt to exchange it for a small money to buy a new phone.
There are many cool way of saving money, it need not be boring and stressful. Saving money is fun and makes one responsible. For the journey of Financial freedom, saving money is a first step. 

Did you know “Addiction” costs one half a million rupee in 10 years on an average!

You can cusomize your car insurance
Saving money is not attractive to many of us. For a few, it is old school. Being spend thrift and a shopoholic is a in-thing, it is a difficult challenge I am urging my millenial friends to try. Its cool to spend on recreation, food, travel and shopping etc. But if somebody maintains a minimum discipline in the way they manage their money. For starters, let us look at few things we consume can be expensive for our pocket

Cigarettes – A life-threatening addiction is quite common. A stick with an average cost of Rs. 15 per piece, 10 cigarette a day costs Rs. 150. A month supply costs about Rs. 4500. And year supply? A whopping Rs. 54,000. Without calculating interest loss or inflation on cigeratte prices, a 10 year supply would cost about Rs. 5,40,000, more than half a million rupee!

Alcohol – Another unhealthy habit, some term it as a social “thing” comes expensive on pocket. Even one is a weekend drinker, ends up spending 1000 per week per person, the hangover led laziness costs extra on ordering fast food. If one is a regular on it, even in moderation, costs nothing less than Rs. 4000 per month, makes it Rs. 48000 a year. 
So, now the point I am trying to make here is the reducing and ending these addiction and channelizing these addiction to something constructive. Let us look at 5 good things we can do with a sum of  money 48-54 thousand Rs.

Gold – with saving money, one can buy about 14 gm of Gold,  Rs. 32 Thousand for 10 gm, .

A trip to GOA for 2 – mind you a good one with return air tickets from Mumbai and 4/5 star accommodation for 4 days and sight seeing.

Buy LED TV / Furniture – often these products come within Rs. 50000. And many ends up taking a EMI option or Credit card deffered payment route. It costs a high interest rate. It can be easily paid by cash and ease burden by just maintaining a healthy lifestyle and keeping addiction away.

You can buy grocery for 4 with this moneey for 3 months, and the list can go on. The point here is putting money to a constructive use, may make your life happier.

Take up a challenge of Cigarette fasting for a month, every time you get the urge of smoking, put that Rs. 15 in a piggy bank, and lets see saving that money have what kind of effect on you.

Keep Saving. Have a good life

What a dollar can buy you in India? Wish I had Dollar shop!

My favourites
Well Folks! ‘Dollar’ is the “New Gold”, skyrocketing at 72-73, Dollar -rupee relation is strained at an all-time high, the imports are under watch, RBI is stressed, price of diesel and petrol giving the citizens nightmare. But, my post, as usual, will focus on the positive side of the story. India is witnessing a high remittance, means, the NRIs are sending money home! If we have an NRI relative or, for some reason you have accumulated some ‘dollars’ in your pocket, let us see the things you will be able to buy with a ‘Dollar’ in India. Just making lists under various heads which are part of our daily lives. 
I divided it in ten heads focused on the daily living habits – 
1. Reading
Amazon e-Books – You get host of them from different genres and different authors! you can get physical versions as well. Top best seller e-books – Bahubali – Rise of Shivgami, Chetan Bhagat’s collection of 7 books, Speed Reading, all these come well below 1 dollar. Isn’t that cool! you can read all  of them on your phone or a Kindle Reader. Saves space and keeps your books with you all-time! 
2. Hygiene –Hygiene is the most important part of our day to DAY living, we need to buy many things to keep ourselves neat and clean. Items like tooth brush, tooth paste, coconut hair oil, hand sanitizer. Detergents, Toilet cleaners all from renowned brands etc within a dollar. 

3. Groceries and snacks – The daily pantry supply we need at home can run into a big list.Cow/ Buffalo Milk come for less than a dollar, Dozen of eggs, raw veggies like – Potato, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, tomato etc all come in a decent quantity. 
In the ready to eat segment, our ow Indian Bhelpuri, Maggi, Egg Roll, Pani Puri for 2, Veg Patties, Mc. Donald breakfast burgers, and lot many options.

4. Recreation and Entertainment – You can get a Ludo board game, Cards, UNO Set, Mini Chess boards from neighborhood stores within a dollar. You can also play online video games and watch premium Video content in a dollar.

5. Transport

Pubic Transport in India is affordable. You can take the luxury rides in a dollar here. Ola/Uber/AC Taxi ride – For about 4 kms you can ride within dollar. Ride in an AC Bus – Well in Mumbai You can travel a good distance within a dollar. Ride in AC Train – Churchgate to Mumbai central costs you less than that. Even, you zoom past between from Ghatkopar to Varsova (Mumbai, India) in AC Metro train in less than a dollar. Isn’t that dearth cheap in one of the largest and expensive cities in the world!


6. Health and wellness – Health and wellness doesnt have to be expensive, Band-aid, Borolonene, basic OTC medicines and nutrient supplements, 


7. Beauty and grooming – Beauty and grooming – Amazon has lot to offer within dollar 1. from make-up blender sponge, glue for artificial eye-brows, Himalaya Kajal pencil and lot more

garden shopping dollar 1

8. Jewellery and Accessories – If you are getting crazy with my post, let me tell you I have curated this list after browsing throw Amazon shopping, neighborhood shops, D-mart Supermart, Train hawkers. And feel proud to say that India has lot to offer you in 1 dollar.
In a mood for a long bike ride, get  this @Rs. 62 at Amzon India

You get many items in the handy accessories, Amazon really surprised me with the list it offered, I still feel its overpriced at Amazon, but, the point is – even Amazon have products below Dollar 1.  
9. Gardening and home decor
Are you a garden enthusiast? You can buy various seeds of your choice from Amazon store. You can also get fertilizers and sprinklers below dollar 1. 
Besides, you can buy a mini rose bouquet for a Dollar, you can buy some small show-piece from roadside hawkers. And You can try some DIY decor ideas within this budget and using some re-cycled items. 
10. Office stationary

Last but not the least. Hey! I am not boring, the office is almost my second home. Spending 9 productive hours of the day, Office desk/ Work station is important part of our life. So let me tell you the list of things I found we can buy for a dollar. Guess what, plenty of office stationary we can purchase in a dollar, in-fact we can buy many items together in a dollar. A Stapler, Parker Pen, A5 – 150 page note book, A box of pencil, a pair of scissors and the list goes on.

Planning to rent a house? 10 things you should keep in mind

Planning to buy a car? Consider this too

Home is a place we grew up from a child to an adult. Home is a place where we build a family and raise children. The home is a feeling of belonging which begins at finding a house, creating our comfort corner.
Lucky are those people who are privileged to stay at Parent’s or has earned enough to buy on their own. For those who are yet to find a own house, this post is to help you get the next best option – ‘Renting a house – and make it a home’. Renting a house is not an easy task, a dream home is not easy or may not be pocket friendly or commute friendly. It takes amount of research, negotiations and hard work. 🙂 Here I am listing the critical points which will help you find the best home. I am taking Mumbai as a case for this, as I call the city my home.



1. Broker or no-broker? 
Mumbai is a huge metro city, finding a rental home without a professional help is difficult. You may consider taking brokers list from neighbourhoods. The online help at JustDial listings or even property websites like 99 acres, Magic Bricks, housing.com etc is also a great help as they also provide the sample pictures of the property along with the broker coordinates. Brokers generally take down the criteria from you as in budget, location and property and help you with options. Incase you dislike third-party involvement, there are websites like nobrokers.com, purely listed by owners can get you property with no brokerage. However, in these cases, assistance in registration, background of the owners etc is difficult. 
2. Location and neighbourhood – the list of a preferred location can be long with neighborhood, market, hospital, railway station, bus stand – A big city comes with a few advantages as well as disadvantages.  According to me, commute time to workplace should be the first criteria while searching a house, a smart planning will help save you cost as well as time. 
3. Rental amount – Rent of a house will depend on multiple factors like age of the property, locality, society, proximity to local facilities like hospitals, schools, multiplexes, shopping malls etc. You need to decide a rent budget basis your net income, saving goals and other liabiities (like ongoing personal loans, car loans etc.) Ideally a home expenses like rental, and bills (electricity, water, telephone bills) should not exceed one-third of net monthly income. If you can keep it lower than that, would be better for you. Also, pre-decide the hike in rental with home-owner if you are planning to make multi-year contract. 
4. Home owner – The house you are planning to make your home is somebody else’s property, the legal contract of the house will be between renter so knowing the owner in person would be a good idea. Have a conversation with your requirement to agree upon a mutually convenient contract.
5. Documentation requirement – As rental document is a legal contract, it follows procedure such as police varification, you would need to provide copy of Adhaar card, Pan Card, Passport size photograph, cancelled cheque leaf etc. Ensure the documents are attested with date and purpose (mention – for rental agreement). 
6. Brokerage – In mumbai, the brokerage is generally a month’s rent, don’t agree for more even if you doing multi-year agreement. Broker’s primary job is to list down your various criteria and take you for online and physical visit to the properties. The broker should be able to provide you with registration assistance and helping with a conversation with the owner. You are not liable to pay any fee untill the broker is able to complete the deal. Many a times if a broker doesnot find a suitable option in his designated geography, he/she may reach out to other brokers who may have properties which meets your demand, in these cases they often ask and negotiate for bigger brokerage, you shouldnt agree to this unreasonable demand.
7. Rental Agreement – This is the legal document for you and your home-owner. You need to check the document carefully to ensure your interest is protected. Often times there is a clause of minimum lock-in period, which means incase either party wants to end the contract may have to shell out a pre-decided amount to the other party. Check the document, clarify with the owner, broker as well as the registration official on any doubts. Keep a copy of the agreement safely. It will be needed for many official use including dealing legally with the owner if need be. 
8. Amenities – There are some basic and important requirements of every individual in a home. Figure out if you would like to use pre-owned amenities or you would like to rent a house which has some basic fixtures. Basic amenities would include Gyesers, exhaust fans, ceiling fans, electricity connection, water connection, cooking gas connection etc. You should keep these factors in mind while chosing the house and negotiating the rental.
9. Furniture – This is the second most aspect of a home after the basic ameninites. If you pre-own furniture, you can be sorted with a un-furnished house, but depending on requirement and your current possessions you may look for semi-furnished or fully furnished hones. The semi-furnished home may come with a bed, modular kitchen. A fully furnished house may include a sofa, dinning set, TV cabinets etc.

For furnitures, you also have many options –  buying brand new or second hand from platform like OLX, Quikr. You have additional option of renting your furniture from websites like Fabrento, Rentomojo, Pepperfry etc., they also provide packages for bed room, dining room, living room etc. The renting and owning is a personal choice, may be will write another post on that!
10. Maintainance – The rented flat/ apartment should be properly registered with the building/housing society.  Society maintenance cost is home-owner’s responsibility. But you need to ensure you get a spik n span house with colour, window mesh, pest control and furnitures and other amenities repaired and you will be expected to return the house key in the same manner when you leave the house.

Make checklist as per your requirement to help you make the shifting a smooth affair.
Advantage of renting a home – my passion is calculation. With a basic reseach I found the concept of renting is much convinient on pocket than buying a new property. Renting is a super cool option unless you have deep pocket and have the capacity to buy a house with existing savings without going for an EMI. Rent saves money, you have a option of staying in the house as long as contract permits, stay in the locality you want in about 1/4th of a owned house (EMI+maintanance). India is obsessed with owning house, wouldnt want to debate too much here. But do some google and sone excelsheet, you will understand my viewpoint. Hope this article will be useful fir renting a home in mumbai. See you soon with my next article! 
Happy saving, Happy Investing and Happy Renting!

How to use your accumulated wealth systematically for retirement or sabbatical

The discussion is always on planning a new thing, making a new investment, buying a new car, seldom we think or plan on how to wrap-up. What to do with the proceeds of fixed deposit maturity amount or an insurance payout. Planning helps, not only in beginning also in wrapping up and moving on. What after we reach the goal, after our equity investments hit the target, it is equally important to have systematic process to sell-off your investments utilise the proceeds.


how-to-use-your-accumulated-wealth

Everything has a shelf life or an expiry date, however rude may it sound, human too are born with an expiry date. We don’t see things ending, we dieing, losing, we like clinging to our stuffs and dont make most of our investments. If we take a case of the investment world, we don’t often refuse to see the asset class dooming. We love to ride the bull, and anxiety bites when bear strike! Every asset class has its performance cycle and as an investor aligning our goals with the performance of the asset class is important. Even financial investments too have expiry dates. Like life insurance comes for a term and fixed deposits come with maturity date.
#how-to-use-your-accumulated-wealth
For the instruments which doesn’t have an expiry date need to have a periodical review on their returns. I am not here getting into the physical assets like gold , yet will have a pointer on real estate investments. I am focusing on financial assets like equity and open ended mutual funds especially. 
What do you do with asset class which are perpetual in nature like equity, open ended mutual funds and even ULIPs with long term 20 year maturity period. Return on the equity is amazing on the long term. But how long is long for you is purely upto your goal and comfort level. Also, equity market with its long term wealth creation is known for its volatility. Any investment should be attached with a goal. It could be retirement planning, child’s education or summer holiday in europe. If we use-up the sum for a particular goal, we are sorted. But if the sum is saved-up for a retirement or a sabbatical, here are few ways you could look at – 
We could have few systematic process to make the most of financial plan at every stage of life.

Few ways to use the accumulated wealth

Systematic Withdrawal Plan – Exactly the same concept of SIP, in this process you could chose a specific sum or units for withdrawal from your folio, which will be credited into your designated bank account, with this you will have a regular income every month. chosing a hybrid or short term debt fund is an ideal option for this.

Monthly income plan – A lump-sum amount, proceed from PPF/ EPF or full and final settlement can be put under such scheme. MIP schemes are debt heavy funds, with marginal equity exposure upto 30%, making it more consistent on returns. However, the dividend is not guaranteed, subject to the performance of the fund.  

Deferred payment on Insurance proceeds – Incase of unfortunate demise of an earning member of the house, assuming he/ she would be insured, the nominee is entitled to get a lump-sum amount of the sum-insured. Often the nominees are unaware bout how to prudently use the money, it is a good option to chose deffered payment options to secure regular income for a long period of time.  

Reverse mortgage of house – This is still unconventional concept in India, but it is taking shape. For anybody above 58 years, this is an option for regular monthly income. In simple words, this is exactly opposite to conventional home loan. Ideally for senior citizen, is the borrower pledges the property to a bank and get a regular income till the end of his life. The bank in this case disburse loan periodically to the house owner, end of the term, bank takes the house or sell it, additional amount if any from the proceed of the sell is passed onto the legal heir.

It takes sweat, blood and discipline to create wealth, but once it is created, we must be prudent in-terms of utilising the proceeds with prudence. Happy investing, happy spending. For any query on money management I am accessible at mymoneystreets@gmail.com #how-to-use-your-accumulated-wealth

Do you have the Moolah to buy your desires? Budgeting will help

This article is written by Guest Author Ms. Nayan Thapar, a personal finance enthusiast and pursuing post graduation in communications. Views are welcome at mymoneystreets@gmail.com


You wish to buy a house? A car? Or let’s say you are this “I love to travel so let’s pack our bags and go on an adventure trip” kind of a person. But, the fact that there isn’t enough money in your bank account to fulfil your whims and fancies, you cease to live life the way you want to live. You somehow always end up restricting yourself and ultimately, just get used to the life that lacks impulse.

From the blog – Create wealth with conviction and planning

In order to provide a cushion to your dreams, here are some tips that could ease your financial pain in no time. So to be precise, let’s talk about the ‘B’ word: Budget

·         The little things; #thatmatters
We joke about these little things but at the end of the day, these Lilliputian efforts that you put in, really matter. Giving an example would make a difference. As a student, you are always late to catch the college bus that you get as a service and instead you end up taking an Uber or an Ola because you want to be in class before 10 am. Now, that costs you around 30 bucks which is insignificant but when we calculate it in our monthly expenses, it sums up to about 900 which “could” have been used as your bus ticket to the next destination on your travel bucket list. Does it make sense? I think, it does.
·        Confessions of a shopaholic
Everybody understands when we talk about impulse buying because everybody has gone through that phase at some point in their life and everybody has gone on a major guilt trip now and then. The question is how do we curb this feeling? Well, now that we are staying in a world full of digital heads, there are so many apps which can help us keep a check on the kind of purchases that we make and in which areas we end up splurging on. Apps like Walnut, MoneyManager and Monefy can actually curb your urge to splurge!
·        Get set Goal
Set a monthly as well as an annual aim or a short term and a long term goal, according to your suitability. It just makes things a lot simpler. You already have a pathway on how you have to go about throughout the month and it won’t come out as a shocker unlike the times when you suddenly realize that you are underpaid or you fall under the ‘urban poor’ bracket.
·        Strike a happy medium
Balancing your way through is essential. Every month, when you plan your checklist, categorize on where you want to extravagantly indulge and where you can cut down on your expenses to balance out your expenditure.
If you make these miniscule changes to your financial calendar, then there is a definite chance that you might bag some bonus trips and getaways or might end up purchasing more than what your pocket allows (but that is helpful sometimes and not all the time).

NPCI the enabler of India’s dream of less cash society

True partner of the “transformational growth” Indian economy undergoing, NPCI conceived and launched series of products and services to ease the cash situation in India especially during the time of demonetization. Indian citizens and merchants, a special focus to the general public and small merchants were greatly benefitted by the initiative.
#NPCI #UPI #BHIM #IMPS
NCPI,  the umbrella organization was created to address the need of payments system of India jointly by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) is a not-for-profit organisation. Over last five years, the organization has worked relentlessly to come out with world-class products and services to match the needs of the hour.

In this post, I would like to talk about the products and services on payments especially designed for common man, and their phenomenal features we are not much aware about the products. Though the NPCI initiatives have benefitted both individual and merchants, this blog aims to reach out to common man, and going with the tradition I would focus on the initiative taken for the general public

#NPCI #UPI #BHIM #IMPS
UPI – Unified Payments Interface (UPI), pilot launch with 21 member banks was first launched in April 2016. It first allowed Indians to do “Peer to peer” transactions. Available to smartphone users, this app was the first to merge multi banks functions under one App.
Benefits for end Customers are round the clock availability, single application for accessing different bank accounts, Use of Virtual ID is more secure, no credential sharing, Single click authentication, raising complaint from Mobile App directly.
BHIMLaunched on 30th December 2016, this UPI app was designed for both smartphones and feature phones. The Adhaar based app launched *99# service for wide base of feature phone users in semi-urban and rural India proves to be a true partner of the financial inclusion drive. App available on play store and i-tunes, the main objective is to get every Indian onboard to the digital payments system.  
User just needs to link his/her BHIM App to the bank accounts and use host of featues which was previously available to net banking customers. The features actually helped converge many functions into one The features includes – Send/ Receive money, Scan and pay, and do transactions.
With creation of Virtual payments address, users can safely transact without divulging accounts details, it also made the experience much smoother compared to the other existing transfer process. It made the transactions instant.
#NPCI #UPI #BHIM #IMPS
IMPS – Fastest online banking transaction, IMPS first launched on pilot basis in the year 2010. It is a fee based service compared to percentage based remittance services.
Rupay – RuPay was introduced as linear extension of all other products available in the payments system. Having a long run by VISA and MasterCard, RuPay is our own Indian Payments  card. Available in credit, debit and Pre-paid category it is an complete offering of plastic money. Competitive pricing and global partnership with Discovery, makes it an emerging leader in the category
According to news reports, the digital transactions have grown exponentially over last decade. The introduction of these innovative products and services empowered the common man of India. No more standing in banking queues and sending cheques. The digitization also likely to help a lot on documentation, keeping a prudent check on money laundering and terror financing.  

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