Your saving account will now earn more

Withdrawing a big amount from the saving account even a few days before the month end, results in loss in interest the month. Now Greetings for saving account holders from RBI (Reserve Bank of India), who announced on this Friday that banks should start calculating interest on daily basis for saving accounts effective from 01st April'10.

The move will enable saving account holders in earning better interest rates since banks currently calculate interest on these accounts on the lowest available balance from 11th and the last date of a month.

Though, earlier banks had urged RBI to postpone the move. Indian Banks Association chairman MV Nair had said "We requested them to either reduce the savings rate or postpone the implementation. It will affect our margins and profit"

RBI said in a notification "We advise that payment of interest on savings accounts may be made by banks on a daily product basis with effect from April 1", which also asks banks to ensure a smooth transition and work out the modalities in this regard.

Now, one point need to be noted here that, currently interest rates on saving accounts are de-regulated, barring up to Rs 2 lakh. The RBI only administer interest rates on saving bank deposits up to Rs 2 lakh, and for the deposits above this amount, banks are free to give any interest rates.

Source
http://beta.profit.ndtv.com/news/show/now-savings-accounts-to-earn-interest-on-daily-basis-26569

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.

The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius canceled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honor of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavored to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feast. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.

Gantantra Divas ki Haardik Shubhkamnayein...

Kuch panktiyan ... bhartiya jawanon ko mera naman ...

Bhagwa Safed Hara
Jeevan chakra mera
Dharm, satya dharti ma
Sada bharatiya mein rahoo
Bharatiya mein jiya
Bharatiya hi mara
Bharatiya mein chala
Bharath kay liye chala
Bhagwa Safed Hara;
Jeevan chakra mera...

Hide your Facebook friend list from others

"I dumped my girlfriend last week, and she is visiting my Facebook & Orkut profile, and leaving wrong information to my friends by going through my friend list. What to do?" There may be many scenario like this, where you think your friend list must be private & hidden from other users / non-friends. One new feature launched in Facebook solves the problem.
Now you can hide your friend list from everyone who is not your friend. It can be done in few easy steps:

• Open your profile page
• Scroll down to your friend list section
• Click at the pencil icon there to edit
• Uncheck the box that says "Show Friend List to everyone.
• Done

These settings can be crossed checked in "Settings, then Privacy Settings".

One point need to be noted that you can't hide your friend-list from your friends.

New Post : http://timir126.blogspot.com/2011/06/facebook-friend-list-hide-from-others.html

Some humor

Arz kiya hai

Jeevan me kamyab hone ke liye 3 factory lagao !!!!
1) Dimag me Ice factory.
2) Zuban par Sugar factory.
3) Dil me Love factory. Phir life hogi satisfactory..

Ek din Sagar ne Nadi se pucha:
Kab tak milati rahogi mujhe khare pani se ???
Nadi ne haskar kaha :
Jab tak tujh me mithas na aa jaye tab tak !!!
Thats "RELATIONSHIP".

Dostana andaaz mein Mujh se kisi ne pucha,
Tum sabko email bhejhte ho ? Tumhe kya milta hai ?
Maine hass kar kaha, Dena Lena to Vyaapar hai,
Jo dekar kuch na mange, Wo hi to PYAR hai.

1 tree makes 1 Lakh matchsticks.
But 1 matchstick can burn 1 Lakh trees.
Similarly 1 negative thought or doubt can burn thousands of dreams....Be Positive Always !!!

Chehre ki hasi se har gam chupao,
Bahut kuch bolo par kuch na batao...
Khud na rutho kabhi, par sabko manao
Ye Raz hai Zindagi ka, Bas Jite chale jao

Wa prabhu kya leela teree :
Chuhe Billi se darte hai,
Billi Kutte se darte hai,
Kutta Aadmi se darte hai,
Aadmi Aurat se darta hai,
Aurat Chuhhe se darti hai.

Have you enabled Auto-Sweep?

Saving account is a special place for day to day transaction like ECS, salary, loan & credit card payments etc which keep money flowing bidirectional. It carries interest rate of 3% to 3.5%. The alternate way to gain higher interest rate has some schemes with some locking period, which are like PPF, NSC, LICs, bonds, Fix & recurring deposits and Mutual funds with market risks associated with it. Traditional fix deposits provide an interest rate of 6-7%.
But as major chunk of our money is kept in saving account attracting interest of only 3%, one can opt for a scheme which give benefit of Savings Account + Fix deposits, called Auto-sweep.

What is 'Auto Sweep'?
It is combination of saving & fixed deposit. It interlinks saving and deposit accounts.

How 'Auto Sweep' works?
A customer specifies the amount to be kept in the savings account or agrees to the minimum amount as decided by banks for auto sweep. An amount above this specified limit, called as threshold limit, is then automatically transferred to the customer’s fixed deposit account, which is attached to the savings account. Thus, the money does not remain idle in this arrangement and also earn a higher rate of return for the customer. Whenever the customer wants to withdraw money greater than what he/she has in the savings account, the excess is reverse-swept from his/her fixed deposit account. In this case, the customer earns interest as per the prevailing fixed deposit rates for that particular period. In simple words

1. You decide the maximum amount that you want in your account. This is also called the threshold limit.
2. The amount for which the FDs need to be created, is decided
   
3. The tenure of these FDs, is decided.
   

After this, technology takes care of everything!

An Example?
Let’s understand this with the help of an example.
Vishnu deposits Rs 30,000 in his ‘Auto Sweep’-enabled savings account on Jan. 1, 2008. The defined threshold limit for his ‘Auto Sweep’ account is Rs 10,000 while the minimum balance required by the bank is Rs 5,000. So, out of his total deposit, Rs 20,000 will go to the fixed deposit account which offers a higher rate of interest. (Presently, one-year deposits carry an interest rate of 8 per cent.) Vishnu withdraws Rs 15,000 on Jan. 1, 2009. Since he is already having Rs 10,000 in his savings account (assuming that he has not done any transaction in this period) and he has to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 5,000, he requires another Rs 10,000, which will be taken from his fixed deposit account. He earns 8 per cent on the deposit of Rs 10,000 (remaining amount in the fixed deposit account) unlike in normal savings account where he earns only 3.5 per cent. In case Vishnu withdraws all his deposits after a period, say, 5 months, he would be entitled to get the prevailing deposit rates for 5 months along with certain penalty (usually 1%), which in any case will be higher than 3.5 per cent, the current savings account rate.

Any Disadvantages?

• Amount must be transferred for a minimum period to avoid any penalty. E.g. If money stays at-least 3 months out of minimum period of 1 year, one may go for it.
• Some banks calculate simple interest in 'Auto sweep' unlike of cumulative interest on Fixed deposits.
  

So what is the conclusion?
With Auto Sweep facility, investors get the best of both worlds – they enjoy the liquidity of savings account and at the same time earn extra return from fixed deposit account. This is one of the best way to channelize and utilize one’s unused savings, especially meant for salaried people who often end up with some idle money in their savings accounts. So, if your savings accounts are still not activated for the auto sweep facility, ask your bank officials to enable it for the threshold limit as desired by you or to the bank’s minimum threshold limit.

Other sources?

• ICICI bank http://www.icicibank.com/pfsuser/temp/tcbank_rules_regu.htm

LTA Claim - Must know things

Leave Travel Allowance (aka LTA) affects every salaried employee. In the start I got a lot of confusion too, but after doing a little research I found some information, which may be helpful for you as well. Let me first tell you in brief, then I'll try to explain in detail.

• LTA is always from Jan 1st to 31st Dec . So current block is Jan 1 , 2010 - 31st Dec 2013
• You can claim 2 journey's in 4 yrs block.
• You can claim LTA just one time in a year. So if there are two journey's, You can claim just one . The best thing to do is that you claim one and other your Wife :)
• If somehow you have not utilized your 2 claims in a year, You can carry forward 1 LTA claim to next Block and have to utilize it in the First year of next Block . So all the people who have any Claim remaining after 2009 , they can claim one extra in next block of 2010-2013 (Total 3, 1 in the first year for sure)
  

Also do remember, By saying LTA claim duration for a year is an 1st to 31st Dec doesn't mean you need to claim it before 31st Dec. You can claim it till 10th March (or before, check with your HR).


Now there are some more rules (yes many more) about LTA, which I'm trying to summarizing here:

1. You can get LTA only if you have applied for leave from your company (like minimum 3 leaves in my company) and have actually traveled. However, international travel is not valid. You must have traveled within the country.
2. Only the travel costs (not entire holiday cost) are covered. So, whether you fly, hope on to a train or take public transport, you will have to show the ticket to claim your LTA. This means you will need to keep your air, rail or public transport ticket.
3. If you travel by car and it is owned by a central government organization like ITDC, the state government or the local body, then LTA is permitted. If you could not get public transport and resorted to private transport like renting a car, get a bill issued by the rental company. If the bill is not accepted by your employer, you can always file an income tax return, claim an exemption and get a refund.
4. LTA covers travel for yourself and your family accompanied by you (of course). Family, in this case, includes yourself, parents, siblings dependent on you, spouse (even if your spouse is working) and children. For children born after October 1, 1998, the exemption is restricted to only two surviving children (unless, of course, one birth has resulted in multiple children like twins and triplets).
5. LTA is not related to when you started your employment. The government fixes blocks of years. These blocks are calendar years (January 1 to December 31). The current block is 2010-2013 (January 2010 to December 2013). The earlier one was from 2006-09 (January 2006 to December 2009). During this time period, a person is entitled to two LTA claims.
6. Though you can claim two journeys in a block of four years, you can claim the LTA benefit just once in a year. You cannot claim both the journeys in one year. So, while a person can get an income tax exemption for two journeys in a block of four calendar years, he can make a trip only once a year. If you make two trips in a year, you lose one. One way out is to claim one and make your spouse claim the other.
7. You can carry forward your LTA. One LTA can be brought forward and claimed in the first year of the next block. Let's say you do not take your LTA in 2002-05. Or that you use only one LTA. Don't worry, you will be able to take the pending LTA in 2006. This means that, in the 2006-09 block, you will be totally entitled to the three journeys.
8. If you switch jobs, you can get the LTA not only from your present organization but also from your former employer, if the concession is lying non-utilized. Let's say that, in the 2002-05 block, you claimed LTA in 2003. In 2004, you switched jobs. You can still claim your second journey with your new employer. Of course, your new employer will ask to look at your earlier tax returns to see whether it has been claimed or not.
9. If your LTA is not utilized, it gets added to your salary and you will be taxed on it. Let's say you and your spouse are both employed and both have LTA as part of the salary package. Your LTA is Rs 20,000 and hers is Rs 20,000 too. Both of you and your child go for a holiday. The tickets for the three of you amount to Rs 15,000. You supply the tickets to your office and this amount will be eligible for a tax deduction; the balance Rs 5,000 will be taxed. You can claim exemption only to the tune of your expenditure. If you claim this, your spouse will not be able to claim this same holiday from her employer. His/ Her Rs 20,000 will be taxed. Unless, of course, you go for another holiday and he/ she claims it. Or, let's say, you spend Rs 30,000 on tickets but your LTA is just Rs 20,000. You can claim up to Rs 20,000 and tell your spouse to claim his/ her ticket from his/ her employer.
10. You must take the shortest route to your destination to be eligible for LTA. Let's say you are going from Delhi to Mumbai on a holiday. So the cost of your travel from Delhi to Mumbai and Mumbai to Delhi will be eligible for LTA. If you decide to go to Mumbai via Agra, Jhansi and Itarsi, your LTA from Delhi to Agra will be covered. But Agra to Mumbai will not be covered.
    

Let's take another scenario. You traveled from Mumbai -- Kerala -- Delhi -- Mumbai.
If you take a direct connection, you will be eligible for LTA. Mumbai -- Kerala -- Delhi -- Mumbai: LTA covered
But if you throw in Hyderabad, then it goes out of gear.

Mumbai -- Thiruvananthapuram: LTA covered
Thiruvananthapuram -- Hyderabad -- Delhi: LTA not covered
Delhi -- Mumbai: LTA covered