Free Google home Mini Deal

Step1 – Use this link to register at topcashback site

https://www.topcashback.com/ref/member107528519520

Step 2 – Activate your topcashback account ( a confirmation would be sent to your email id )

Step 3 – Activate the 5$ Walmart bonus  ( https://goo.gl/bcxJu3). Valid only on 11/27/2017 ( 9am to 3 pm pst )

Step 4 – After activating login to your topcashback account and click get cashback. It will take you to Walmart.com.

Step 5 – Search for google home mini and purchase it. Take pick up at store option, it will to total 31.68$

Step 6 – Now go to your topcashback account and click tell a friend and refer yourself at different mail id. It will give you 10$ referral bonus.

Step 7 – Again create a new topcashback account with your own referral link generated by tellafriend ( like this )–

Step 8 – Activate the 5$ Walmart bonus  ( https://goo.gl/bcxJu3). Valid only on 11/27 ( 9am to 3 pm pst ).

Step 9 – After activating login to your topcashback account and click get cashback. It will take you to Walmart.com.

Step 10 – Search for google home mini and purchase it. Take pick up at store option, it will to total 31.68$

Step 11- Once you activate both google home mini and add Walmart account with your google express account, you ll get 25$ credit at google express. It can be used to purchase any store items.

Details - https://www.walmart.com/cp/Google-Mini-Google-Home/6378575

Google Shopping Express Coupon Details*

Buy any Google Home product from Walmart and get up to $25 off a Walmart order through Google Express. Available in the contiguous United States only. Device must be activated and Walmart and Google accounts linked between October 4, 2017 and January 15, 2018 to qualify. Coupon expires January 31, 2018. Coupon will be automatically issued after Walmart account is linked to Google, and the offer is claimed in the Google Home app. Valid only for Walmart orders on Google Express. Only two coupons total per household. Unused coupon amount doesn’t carry over. Exclusions apply. See terms.

Deal total –

Transations	Amount	Amount
Google home mini	31.68
Google home mini	31.68
topcashback referral bonus		10
topcashback possible walmart bonus		10
google express credit		50
Total Spent	63.36
Total Cashback		70
Total Deal		6.64

Financial Planning - Tax saving Instruments- Public Provident Fund (PPF)

Hi Friends,

Most of us are not aware of tax planning or tend to give a low weightage towards this. I have seen lots of my friends who have messed up with their tax planning and end up giving generous tax to Govt at the end of financial year closing. In the era of single digits hikes, it’s prudent that we save most of the hard earned salary by proper financial planning.

Hence it’s beneficial that you know some good investment horizons to save your hard earn Money. When we talk about tax planning, 1^st option that comes in our mind is PPF. But we hardly know all Good things and technicalities about PPF. Here are some of the things you should know about your trusted tax saving instrument. 

Account Opening

The Public Provident Fund (PPF) is one of the most popular tax-saving schemes, which can be opened in a post office or designated bank branches (SBI/ICICI).

Interest Rate

The interest rate offered on the PPF is no longer fixed, but linked to the market. It is 0.25% above the 10-year government bond yield. This does not mean that the rate will change on a day-to-day basis. It will be announced every year in April, based on the average bond yield in the previous year. For the current financial year, it is 8.7%.

How does the interest accrue?

This is very Important part that you should aware of. The interest on your PPF balance is compounded annually, but the calculation is done every month. The interest is calculated on the lowest balance between the fifth and last day of every month.

For Example, If you have Rs 1000 in your account from 1^st to 5^th day of the month, You ‘ll get the interest on 1000 rs only even if you credit any amount after 5^th to End of month. You will get interest on lowest balance between the fifth and last day of every month.

Hence it’s advisable to credit your PPF account between 1^st and 5^th of every month and If possible make the entire deposit during 1-5^th April of every year to get full year interest.  I know it’s tough to get 1 Lac investment during start of financial year, hence you can deposit every month as well to get maximum benefit. If you can’t invest 1 lac amount at the start of the financial year, you can start the SIP for it and invest  5-10k monthly as per your capacity.

Tax Benefit and Min/Max investment-

It’s and EEE investment, hence your final amount after 15 years is tax free. You are eligible for tax benefit under 80C as per you tax bracket( Max 30%). You can invest maximum amount  of 1 lac only. You have to put in at least Rs 500 in your PPF account in a year. You will be levied a penalty of Rs 50 if you fail to do so.

Prior withdrawal/ Loan

If you need money, you can withdraw after the sixth year, but it cannot exceed 50% of the balance at the end of fourth year, or the immediate preceding year, whichever is lower. You can also withdraw only once in a financial year. You can also take a loan against it, but this cannot exceed 25% of the balance in the preceding year. The loan is charged at 2% till 36 months, and 6% for longer tenures. Till a loan is repaid, you can't take more loans.

Maturity-

It matures after 15 Years, but you can extend the tenure in blocks of five years after maturity and continue to get the normal rate of interest.

What are the nomination rules?

Don’t forget to nominate someone. Nomination is available in the name of one or more persons. Nominee cannot continue account of the deceased subscriber in his/ her own name.

Sample Investment and Returns-

Investment – 1 lacs/year ( on 1^st April )

Current Rate- 8.7%

Duration- 15 Years

Returns- You will get approx 31 Lacs after 15 years of your investment that too tax free.

An IRR return of approx 13% for the highest tax bracket person. 

Happy Investing.. :)

Infrastructure Bonds: To Invest or Not - An Analysis

Most of us are not much aware about our tax planning and ends up with some tax saving investment with poor return at the last moment. So it’s important that you know about the options available for our tax planning. For tax planning we Have limit of 1 lac above 1.8 lacs limit from the govt. For this saving we invest in some of the tax saving instruments Like PF, PPF, ELSS, Life insurance, Pension, NSC, 5-year Bank FD, etc.

Apart from this govt has provided us an option of having tax saving above 1 lac limit in form of investment in Infrastructure Bonds up to 20,000 under Sec. 80 CCF. So we have this option available to save our taxes. But most of us are not sure if these infra bonds are worth investing. Here is an analysis after which you can decide if it’s for you or not.

I have taken example of IDFC Infrastructure bond for this analysis. This issue is available from 21^st Nov- 16^th Dec 2011. Key features of this Bond are as follows..

IDFC Infra Bonds: Issue Highlights

Issue opens:	Monday, November 21, 2011	Interest Rate:	9% p.a.
Issue closes:	Friday, December 16, 2011	Tenor:	120 months from the Deemed Date of Allotment
Issue Price:	Rs.5000 per Tranche 1 Bond	Rating:	"(ICRA) AAA" from ICRA "Fitch AAA (ind)" from Fitch
Listing on:	NSE and BSE	Issuance:	Dematerialized form or Physical form.
Issue Type:	Long Term Infrastructure Bond	Tax Benefit:	Additional tax benefits of Rs 20,000/-Over and above the permissible deduction of Rs.1 lakh under Section 80 C
Registrar:	Karvy Computershare Private Limited

SPECIFIC TERMS FOR EACH SERIES OF BONDS

Particulars Series 1 Series 2 Frequency of Interest Payment Annual Cumulative Buyback Facility Yes Yes Buyback Amount Rs. 5,000 per Tranche 1 Bond Rs. 7,695 per Tranche 1 Bond Buyback Intimation Period The period beginning not before nine months prior to the Buyback Date and ending not later than six months prior to the Buyback Date Tenor 120 months from the Deemed Date of Allotment Interest Rate 9% p.a. (Series I) N/A Minimum Application 2 Bonds and in multiples of 1 Bond thereafter Maturity Amount Rs. 5,000 per Tranche 1 Bond Rs. 11,840 per Tranche 1 Bond Yield on Maturity 9% 9% compounded annually Yield on Buyback 9% 9% compounded annually

These bonds are rated AAA by ICRA and are considered as stable ones. Now if you consider the actual return of these bonds. The returns are as follows for the investment of INR 5000, which gives you INR 7695 after 5 years.

	TAX SLAB
	I - 10%	II - 20%	III - 30%
Tax saving	500	1000	1500
Actual Return	2695.00	2695.00	2695.00
Actual investment	4500.00	4000.00	3500.00
Percentage return( Before Tax)	11.33	13.98	17.07
Tax on interest received	269.50	539.00	808.50
Return After Tax	2425.50	2156.00	1886.50
Percentage return( After Tax)	10.54	12.34	14.49

These are the calculations based on the fact that we are using the buying back option after 5 years. So by using this option it makes sense to invest 20k in this infra bond. Because it’s giving you the effective return of 10- 14.5% respectively for 10-30% tax bracket folks.

Some Cons-

1. Strict lock-in period (at least 5 years till buy back option).
2.  Even if a bond gets listed on the exchange, the liquidity will be poor. That is, when you want to sell your bond and get the money it "may" be difficult to find a buyer.
3. Buyback option is not available in all bonds offered. Hence be careful before you invest.
4. Interest earned is taxable.

My Take- It’s more beneficial for folks falling in tax bracket 20-30% and who are ready to get invested at least 5 years. So take the decision carefully. Happy Investing :)

The B-School Competitions- Untapped Opportunity for B-School Graduates

In India no.1 portal for B-School aspirants is www.pagalguy.com , It brings the unique platform for B-School and the aspirants too. But it missed this huge business opportunity of tapping the B-School Competition Market. 

Thus it made the way for the new venture www.dare2compete.com which grabbed the opportunity from both hands. D2C started in 2009 and became a big hit in B-School community in very short span of time. 

There are more than 1000 B Schools in India. Most of these B Schools conducts their Annual B-School Event, which constitutes no of competitions to be won. But the Money on Offer is also very lucrative for the students.  The best part of the story is that it’s a multimillion $ industry in itself.

A glimpse of the B-School Competitions Market—

Let’s take only top 50 B-school Competitions in the country –

On Average the Prize money

         1. 6 IIM’s- More than 12 Lacs each ( Easily) à Total comes approx 72 LACS+

   2. Next Top 10 (Fms, IMT, MDI,XLRI, SJMSOM,NMIMS,SIBM,SCMHRD Etc.)- 8 Lacs Each    
   3. Next 20 Colleges- Approx 5 Lacs Each

Total Comes Approx- 72+ 80+100= 252 Lacs+

These are some of the approximated values of the competition prizes at stake. So one can imagine the opportunity offered to the students in these competitions. Apart from these monetary benefits the B-School Competitions offer lot of experience to the students, some of the key benefits from these competitions are- 

           1.  Exposure to the students of other B-School in the country 

                      2. Exposure to the real world business problem  

                     3. Excellent Networking  

                      4. Lucrative Prizes 

           5. Awesome opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to test their business model in Bplan  competitions.      

           6. Brings value to the CV that helps in Placements

The Season kicks off in style from July itself. But the big one’s start with SJMSOM-Avenues in October, then the November- January is the prime period for these completions. 

Most of the IIMS conduct their event @ this time itself (Ex. IIMA’ Confluence in Nov, NITIE-LAKSHYA, SCMHRD- NEEV,  ISB-Metamorphosis).

The season ends on high note with the events of SYMBIOSIS Colleges in Feb- March ( SIBM- Transcend, SIMS- ORION).

These Competitions form a key role in the learning opportunities for B-School Graduates. All the Graduates must utilize these opportunities to the best of their ability and make the most out of it. Because After 2 years of your MBA you won’t get these opportunities of learning and fun again..:)