Vipin Khandelwal

Get e-CAN – paperless to transact online in mutual funds

December 21, 2016December 10, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

This post was originally published on Unovest.

If you are familiar with online investments in mutual funds, you would know about Common Account Number or CAN and how it gets you a single point access to transact online in direct plans of several mutual funds. The CAN is issued by MFU, a mutual fund industry initiative.

In fact, Unovest too uses MFU’s infrastructure at the backend to process online transactions in direct plans.

However, the creation of CAN was a paper based process till now.

The good news is that CAN has now gone electronic. It means that you can now apply and get your CAN online, completely paperless.

Let’s now quickly dive in and create an e-CAN.

Getting Rich – How to increase your networth to crores?

December 9, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

“I want to get rich.”

I turned around to face Ankit, my young cousin, who was visiting me.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I want to see myself with a networth of a few crores.” He said flashing the latest issue of the magazine that has the list of the country’s Richest.

“How should I do it?” he followed up.

“How many crores do you want?” I decided to have some fun.

“Many. 5, 10, 25, even more.”

I was taken aback with the pace of the discussion. Before giving a response, I took a deep breath.

“Ok. Let’s take the easiest option first.

Markets are falling – What should I do with my investments?

November 23, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Markets are volatile. That is their nature. They go up and then they go down, sometime in a small range, sometimes wildly.

Have a look at the following charts with Sensex movements over various time periods.

1 month movement chart

3 months Sensex chart

Tax saving investments – Some warnings and ideas

November 21, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

capital gains tax saving guide investments - save taxes with mutual funds elss

Despite all the advice to the contrary, it is highly likely that you are one of those who will soon be scrambling around to make your tax saving investments. Because if you don’t, you will see deep cuts in your take home salary.

So, what should you do?

Don’t let your hard earned money suffer from tax cuts. Make the most of the available time and exercise your options.

Here are some inputs about tax saving investments plus some warnings.

HDFC Prudence vs HDFC Balanced – A tale of 2 hybrid funds

November 17, 2016November 16, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

“Vipin, I am planning to start investing in mutual funds. However, I do not want to go headlong into equity so will start with a balanced fund.”

OK. That sounds good. Balanced funds bring the best of both the worlds to you.

“Now, I was told about one of the most reputed funds – HDFC Prudence. But then I realise that HDFC has another fund – HDFC Balanced. I am confused.”

Why are you confused Vinay?

“Arre bhai! Which one should I invest in? And why are there 2 balanced funds in the same fund house?”

OK, lets begin from the start. What were you told about HDFC Prudence Fund?

“That it has a good track record. Also, that is managed by one Mr. Prashant Jain, who is supposedly one of the best fund managers.”

Hm, anything else?

“I also looked up the site which gives star ratings. It has got 4 stars.”

We both smiled.

“I know it doesn’t matter. OK, now you need to help me decide. Which one?”

Sure Vinay. Let’s get a better understanding of each of the funds. That would automatically bring out the difference between the two.

Hopefully, you will get to decide the right one for yourself.

How to start using UPI for digital payments?

November 20, 2016November 10, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

I am thrilled. I received my first fee payment via UPI.

Why am I telling you this?

Let me share the backdrop.

You now know that the Government of India is making a big push towards a Digital Economy. The old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes have been declared illegal effective Nov 9, 2016. The new notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 will be issued over time, in limited quantities.

The biggest contributor of this Digital movement will be the money moving up there. Once money starts moving digitally, will the dream of a Digital India (@_DigitalIndia) be truly realised.

UPI is an important initiative in this direction to make money go digital. It is the way we will make payments and receive money in the future.

It’s time that we get ourselves familiar and start latching to the medium.