Dealing with a salary cut
“Air India employees face salary cut from April 2013”
“Infosys recasts staffers’ salary structure, cuts variable”
“Cadburys India cuts the pay of its managing director and other senior executives”
Such news has been making headlines of newspapers and magazines in 2013. The job market was almost stagnant last year in 2012 with very few fresh recruitments and negligible salary hikes even for top performers, apart from the pay cuts due to cost cutting measures by organizations because of the economic slowdown. Though the situation seems to have improved this year, employers are still adopting a very conservative and cautious approach when it comes to paying bonuses and increments.
Difference between RGESS and ELSS
Budget 2012 introduced RGESS ( Rajiv Gandhi Equity Saving Scheme ), a scheme which allows tax rebate/tax deduction for investment in specified equity schemes. Since there already exists another similarly structured scheme called the ELSS ( Equity Linked Saving Scheme ) under which an investor can claim tax rebate u/s 80C up to Rs. 1 Lakh, it is important to understand the differences between the two.
Some useful finance websites
Planning to take a loan, invest in stocks or mutual funds, trade online, buy insurance, file returns, apply for PAN or KYC and want to know more details on how to go about it? Technological advancement and the revolutionary internet has made all this information available to you at the click of a button.
Here is a list of some useful websites to refer for information on finance related topics-
Are women better money managers?
The title may seem a bit feminist, especially with the international women’s day being celebrated today. Actually that is what spurred my thinking today on these lines :).
How to maintain a good credit history
Credit History
Now that we know how important it is to have a good credit score when you apply for a loan ( read previous post “ Your credit score- meaning and importance), let us see what we can do to maintain a good credit history-
Your credit score- meaning and importance
Back in the 1960s, 1970s and even the 1980s, people lived a credit free life. There were no credit cards, no vehicle loans (not many owned cars anyway!) and no home loans – the business class and the richer sections of the society were the ones who could afford to build their own houses early in life. Many of the middle class and upper middle class people stayed in company provided/rental accommodations during their working years and used the PF/gratuity/terminal benefits to buy a house of their own on retirement.
