Welcome to Make It Make Cents
A weekly newsletter that summarises Mint Money team's stories.
Dear reader,
I welcome you to Make It Make Cents, my team’s newsletter. Over the past few years, people ask us (on what feels like a weekly basis) as to where they can find a collection of our stories. This newsletter is the answer.
Starting today, we’ll be publishing a quick summary of my team’s five stories. It will be in your inbox every Friday morning. Make sure to subscribe, if you haven’t already.
The week, we resume our wildly popular Guru Portfolio series. This is the 5th year in which we are doing the series, in which we ask India’s fund managers and financial gurus how they manage their own money.
The 5 year history gives us something unique: a context of past behaviour and outlook. Often people question us as to how we verify such private data. Indeed, that is a challenge. But as each year gets recorded by us, it is very difficult to lie.
After all, the past cannot be erased.
Our week’s work
On Monday, Jash Kriplani interviewed Kalpen Parekh, CEO of DSP Mutual Fund. Kalpen believes strongly in diversification - he switched from pure equity to hybrid funds as valuations got stretched. But this tactical churn hasn’t changed a largely static asset-mix.
On Tuesday, Shipra Singh wrote about the many kinds of TDS provisions that apply to ordinary people, such as TDS on each payment you make to a builder when you are buying a house. Generally payments are made according to project completion dates - in instalments. What people do not know is that TDS must be deducted with each payment. Shipra’s story gives you details on this and other types of TDS that you may be liable to deduct.
On Wednesday, Sashind gives us a lowdown on insurance mis-selling by banks. Generally ‘liability or loan-linked’ insurance is made ‘mandatory’ by banks. This is an expensive type of insurance and has full upfront payment of premium. The solution? Simply buy a cheaper term insurance policy and ‘assign it’ to the bank.
Thursday unfolds with some home loan hacks by Anil Poste. The overall strategy is simple. Go to a public sector bank if you are willing to put up with more red tape and document requirements and if you are buying a ‘Grade A’ property from a reputed builder. The interest rates are lower. Go to a private sector bank if you want less hassle but are willing to fork up more money.
Finally to close the week, read Aprajita’s story on ‘assigning’ or selling your insurance policy rather than surrendering it. Some fintechs have entered into the business of ‘buying’ your policy but offering to keep a part of the death benefit alive for you (pardon the pun). This can help policy holders who might otherwise surrender their policies (usually mis-sold ones) for a pittance. For investors or buyers, well there’s a tax-free maturity value to be had when the policy matures.
Fiscally responsible graphics
Since we’ve already written about home loan rates, you can refer to the image to tell you which banks are providing the most attractive home loan rates.
Social media funnies
What caught our attention on Twitter or LinkedIn this week.
That’s all from me for the debut edition of this newsletter. If you have any feedback, criticism, or generally want to vent about the state of your portfolio, do reply to this newsletter. Rest assured, I will read every one of your replies.
Best,
Neil Borate
Deputy Editor
Mint
Great initiative by the team!