Money guides
The calculators tell you what a number is. These guides tell you what to do about it — every figure computed with the same engines, dated, and honest about trade-offs.
- Breaking an FD early: what it actually costsThe premature-withdrawal penalty is not a flat fee — your deposit is repriced to a lower slab and then penalised on top. The exact math, the January 2026 rule change that guarantees withdrawal on deposits up to ₹1 crore, and how to structure deposits so breaking one never hurts.
- How your credit score sets the rate you are offeredBanks price loans in credit-score slabs — the advertised rate is the top slab, and each step down can add 0.10–0.50% to your rate. How risk-based pricing works, what a slab jump costs in rupees over a 20-year loan, and the mechanics of checking and repairing your score before applying.
- Deposit insurance: what the ₹5 lakh cover actually protectsEvery rupee in an Indian bank is insured — up to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank, principal plus interest, across savings, current, FD and RD together. How the limit really works, the joint-account multiplier, the 90-day payout clock, and what is not covered at all.
- XIRR vs CAGR: which number is your actual return?A fund fact sheet says 14% CAGR; your app says 11% XIRR; your own math says the money grew 60%. All three are correct — they answer different questions. When each measure applies, why SIP returns must be XIRR, and the traps in comparing them.
- GST for freelancers and small businesses, without the jargonWhen you actually have to register, what to charge, how input credit gets your money back, and whether the composition scheme is the shortcut it looks like — the working rules for a one-person or small operation, in plain language.
- How to read your salary slip — every line, explainedBasic, HRA, special allowance, PF, professional tax, TDS — what each line on an Indian payslip actually is, which ones are your money in disguise, and the three checks worth doing every single month.
- What inflation quietly does to your moneyIndia’s ~6% inflation halves your rupees’ buying power every twelve years — faster for education and healthcare. What that does to savings accounts, FDs and salary hikes, and the four moves that actually defend against it.
- Rent or buy? We ran the 20-year numbers on a ₹60 lakh flatA ₹60 lakh flat, bought with a ₹48 lakh loan versus rented at ₹17,500 a month with the difference invested — simulated month by month for 20 years. The verdict depends on one number almost nobody checks: property appreciation.
- Saving tax under the new regime — what still works in FY 2026-27Most tax-saving advice in India is written for a regime you probably left. Under the new regime, 80C is dead — but employer NPS, EPF restructuring and the ₹12 lakh rebate cliff still move real money. With computed examples.
- Prepay the home loan, or invest the surplus?A ₹5 lakh prepayment on a ₹50 lakh home loan saves ₹10.7 lakh of interest. The same money in equity at 12% grows to ₹27.4 lakh. Here is how to actually compare the two — with the tax, risk and liquidity fine print.
- Where should money sit for 1, 3, 5 and 10+ years?The best investment is a function of when you need the money back. A horizon-by-horizon map for Indian savers — savings, FD, RD, debt, PPF, equity — with computed numbers and the two mistakes that cost the most.
- First salary? Here’s the whole money plan on one pageWhat to actually do with a first salary in India — in order: know your real in-hand, build one month of float, then the emergency RD, then a small SIP you never stop. With the ₹45 lakh cost of starting five years late.
- Old vs new tax regime: how to actually chooseWith no deductions beyond the standard one, the new regime wins at every income level — by ₹1.75 lakh a year at a ₹16 lakh salary. The old regime only earns its keep past a deduction threshold. Here is where that threshold sits and how to check your own.
- How big should your emergency fund be — and where should it sit?Six months of expenses is the standard answer; your actual number depends on how replaceable your income is. Where you park it matters almost as much: the same ₹3.6 lakh earns ₹10,900 in a savings account and ₹25,100 in an FD over a year.
- Step-up SIP: what a 10% annual raise to your SIP actually doesA flat ₹10,000 SIP at 12% reaches ₹1 crore in 20 years. Step it up 10% a year and the same starting amount reaches ₹1.99 crore. The mechanics, the honest caveat about where the extra crore comes from, and when a step-up beats simply starting bigger.
- FD laddering: lock rates without locking yourself outSplitting one deposit into several maturities solves the two problems every FD investor faces — needing money mid-tenure and reinvesting everything at whatever rate prevails on one arbitrary day. How to build a ladder, with the premature-withdrawal math.
- How banks decide how much home loan you getLenders cap your total EMIs at roughly 40–50% of monthly income — a ratio called FOIR. At ₹1 lakh income and a 40% cap, an 8.5% 20-year loan tops out near ₹46 lakh. The full mechanics: existing EMIs, rate sensitivity, co-applicants, and what actually raises the number.