Alpha Investments-One stop solutions for all Investments

Know SSY Objective To encourage parents to save for the education and marriage of the girl child in a regular manner, which provides a guaranteed tax-free return. Specific Feature Only girl child can be enrolled for this program Who can join? Any girl child, who is below 10 years of age. Who is the account holder? Girl child is the account holder Who contributes to the scheme? Parents or legal guardian of the child Who operates the account? Parent or legal guardian till the child reaches 18 years of age and afterwards the account holder operates the account.   How many accounts one child can hold? Only one account per child is permitted. Maximum account in a family Two accounts per family is permitted and more than two accounts can be held provided  that more than two accounts may be opened in a family if such children are born in the first or in the second order of birth or in both, on submission of an affidavit by the guardian supported with birth certi...

I get a lot of communication from my NRI friends on investments. As usual, all the calls comes with a common quest for the  best fund to invest or how to invest in stock market which gives a good return.  Since I had  worked in Saudi for a short period of time, I can understand the possibilities and limitations faced by NRIs. So in this article , I am trying to give an overall view of the savings & investment options that are necessarily required and available for them. The information here will be more suitable to NRIs living in the Middle East & Far East or NRIs who have a plan to return to their mother land to spend their retired life. Health Insurance Always  remember that, Health is  the real wealth . Illness and treatments can wipe out one’s savings. But sadly health insurance remains  the most neglected area among NRIs, the reason being  simple, as most of the expat workers are provided with health insurance by their employers which prov...

Retirement planning is one of the most neglected areas in personal finance. It actually means the amount you require at the time of retirement to lead a comfortable post retirement life. The income requirement varies for all and hence the corpus amount. In this article, I highlight on its importance and the factors which needs to be considered while doing the planning. Retirement can happen at any stage, irrespective of the age in numbers. It can happen at 55,60 or 65 years. By retirement, we mean a state, when one is able to generate an income without depending on job or anyone else to lead a life of one’s own style. So, in reality, retirement happens when you are moving from a pay cheque to self cheque. The reason why number does not matter is that there are professionals like lawyers, doctors, chartered accountants etc. and entrepreneurs, who can practice or work as long as they wish. However, they may be met with scenarios where they will be unable to continue their services becaus...

  Cancer treatment cost still remains highly expensive irrespective of the advances in the treatment modalities and methods. When it comes to cancer treatment, unlike other critical diseases, treatment is not confined to hospital alone. Depending on the stage and degree of severity, treatment method varies which includes hospitalization, home care, palliative care etc. Though one have a regular health insurance, all such expenses as mentioned above are not covered by it. Here comes the benefit of holding a cancer specific insurance in meeting the treatment costs. Cancer Policies are issued by General Insurance (GI) Companies like New India Insurance, Star Health, HDFC Ergo and Life Insurance (LI) Companies like Max Life, LIC, HDFC Standard, ICICI Prudential. The main difference is that Cancer Insurance Policies are individual policies unlike health insurance policy, which you can take on family floater basis. The other main difference between the policies issued by GI companies a...

Recently a friend of mine approached me with an interesting question. He had his company health insurance coverage of 3 Lakhs and his own personal health insurance of another 3 Lakhs. He wanted to increase the coverage of his personal health insurance because he felt that a mere 3 lakh coverage would be very insufficient with the rising cost of treatments. In the current scenario, a coverage of 3 Lakhs or even 5 lakhs may become inadequate. I suggested him a Super Top Up policy, which would work along with his current policy, without having to     increase the coverage of his personal health insurance. He was hearing about such a policy for the first time. Many of us face similar situations as most of the organizations, irrespective of whether government or private, provide all their employees with a basic health insurance coverage of up to 3 L or 4 L.   So, the ideal way to enhance the health insurance coverage in the most economical way is to buy a Super To...

Health is  wealth. We all know that it is the most precious asset for all of us. In this time of  pandemic, we need to be double conscious about our health conditions. Imagine a situation where one of us get infected and require hospitalisation. It will surely affect our financial condition and will erode our hard earned money. In such situations, to protect from the high cost of treatment, everyone should opt for a health insurance. Currently, many insurers, both public and private sectors are offering health insurances. There are few things , which are very important that one should be aware while buying a health insurance plan. Health insurance policies cover expenses related to hospitalisation or for treatment of illness identified under day care treatment. Many friends  have told  me that they have  purchased health insurance and are  paying premium regularly but with no benefit. My answer to that is ; the benefit of taking healt...

Currently people are largely aware of Mutual Funds. Thanks to the "Mutual Fund Sahi Hai" campaign by AMFI. Even after this effort, people are averse to investment in Mutual Fund because of fear of loss of money. This is mainly because of lack of understanding on what & how mutual funds are and its working method.  Many consider mutual funds as an indirect instrument to make investment in equities. So, people treat mutual funds in the same style as how they deal with investment in stocks. The above understanding is partially correct as mutual fund invest in stocks. However, when it comes to returns, it works differently.   To make the understanding of mutual funds, let me explain it with help of one of the popular and oldest savings methods, which is chit funds. In a chit fund scheme, a fixed number of people called subscribers are grouped by an individual or an organisation and all these contribute an equal amount for a fixed period to create a sum. ...

Everyone aspire to be independent.  One will be able to enjoy the benefits of freedom only if he feels secure.   Do such a life really exist? Can we all attain that freedom in spite of our different living conditions? Security and Freedom are interlinked.The same applies to personal finance management also.  We think that the most important thing in financial security is high salary. But remember that getting a high salary alone will not take you anywhere . We need to actively make a good financial  plan well in advance to attain it.   Safety & Security should be given top priority in financial management also. As we first put seat belt in a car to be safe, in financial planning also, insurance play such a similar role. Insurance provides protection against the financial risks. Insurance is needed for Life and Health risks. Hence Life Insurance is a must for all irrespective of the life stage like a person is single or married or young...

For most of the salaried employees time is fast approaching for the submission of documental evidence on the investments and expenses qualified to get tax exemption. The most popular option to save tax is put money in schemes allowed as per Sec 80 C of income tax. There are many tax saving/investment options qualified under Sec 80 C. Under Sec 80 C, all can claim a deduction up to 1.5L from their gross taxable income. Many times people remember about tax saving requirement at the last moment and put money in schemes without knowing its details and ends up in blunder which causes loss of money and pain. One should understand different parameters and carefully choose the product before putting money into it. In order to get the maximum benefit from the tax saving option, it is advised that he should align his life goal with the investment product. At the same time, you need to know the tax treatment on the maturity at the end of the investment period. Along with savings, certain...

Two of the most confusing words to many people in personal finance management are Insurance and Investments. Many people mix both of this as they choose insurance product for the purpose of investments and some choose investments that offer a small insurance coverage. A sound financial plan is a combination of protection, savings and investments. The simple reason to have an insurance plan is to avoid a financial crisis that can happen due to the occurrence of unpredicted events at unpredicted time. Insurance are generally categorized into two main Category-Life Insurance and General Insurance (Non-Life Insurance). Life insurance is covering the risk of human life value in case of an eventuality and Non-life insurance offer the risk coverage for all other risks like health, vehicle, fire etc. Life Insurance products in general can categorized into two and they are pure insurance (term insurance) and insurance combined with savings which could be further subdivided into En...