Managing Your Personal Finances

Budgeting, saving and investing, interest and compounding, inflation, kinds of investment, insurance, EMIs and taxes.

Key ideas

A budget balances income and expenses: list spending, set a savings goal, track it and adjust, with needs before wants.
Saving keeps money aside; investing puts it into assets to earn a return.
Compounding earns interest on earlier interest, so money put away early grows much more.
Inflation is a general rise in prices; it lowers what the same money can buy.
Fixed deposits pay a fixed rate with low risk, bonds are loans to a government or company, shares are part-ownership with more risk, and mutual funds pool money to spread risk.
Before investing, weigh risk, return, time horizon and liquidity.
Insurance shares risk: you pay a premium and the insurer pays for the losses it covers.
Income tax is a direct tax and GST an indirect one; progressive taxes charge higher rates on higher incomes.

Remember

Simple interest	principal × rate × time ÷ 100
Compounding	₹1,000 at 10% a year: ₹1,100 after 1 year, ₹1,210 after 2
Inflation	at 6% a year, a ₹1,000 bag costs about ₹1,060 next year
Liquidity	how quickly an asset can be turned into cash
EMI	a fixed monthly payment that repays a loan with interest
Slab tax	tax each part of the income at its own slab rate, then add

Watch out

Taxing the whole income at the top slab rate: each slab is taxed at its own rate.
Forgetting inflation: money kept idle buys less each year.
Treating shares as being as safe as a fixed deposit: share values can fall.

Worked example

Using the book’s new-regime slab table (0% up to ₹4 lakh, 5% for ₹4–8 lakh, 10% for ₹8–12 lakh, 15% for ₹12–16 lakh, 20% for ₹16–20 lakh, 25% for ₹20–24 lakh, 30% above), and ignoring rebates and cess as the book’s example does, what is the tax on a taxable income of ₹3,000,000?

Working: tax each slab part at its own rate and add

Answer: ₹480,000