[hserus]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

True. I started losing confidence on the robustness of the economy when the skeletons kept tumbling out in regular succession. If it so easy to loot and scoot, and the taxpayers have to bail out the banks, where is the trust factor?

All the elderly uncles who held their money in land, gold and under their mattress in a tin box were probably the wisest people in the land and we should go back to following their example. But then there's demonetization to worry about :(

[smartindboy]

Originally Posted by mxh

You will not get any interest since it has matured. Don't waste your money in PPF.. It grows at snails pace not even enough to cancel out inflation. If you can take a bit of risk, go for balanced mutual funds. If you can't take risk there's always debt funds or bank account.

Originally Posted by ranjitnair77

I think a PPF is an essential part of any portfolio. The returns are higher than an FD. It is very safe. It is the only instrument that is Exempt-Exempt-Exempt when it comes to tax. You also get 80C benefits. I would always advice everyone to max out PPF.

Surprising to see that PPF is being discouraged. It is a wonderful product and it's effect can be seen if you notice how it compounds after you give it enough time.
There are people like me who always look for FM's speech during budget if he is going to increase it limits.
PPF also makes an excellent choice for goal based investing, provided your goal is 15 yrs away and with guaranteed returns and 0 speculation.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by smartindboy

Surprising to see that PPF is being discouraged. It is a wonderful product

True. One should not have any other debt in one's portfolio until PPF is maxed out. It's the only debt product in India which is E-E-E (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt).

[rovingeye]

Absolutely agree with the comments above. Not maxing one's PPF account is a sin. It's the greatest debt product from a tax perspective. So much so that I have two - one that I manage and the other that I have my dad manage on behalf of my daughter.

Mind you I'm not a conservative investor who sticks to debt. But, PPF is a no brainer.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by carboy

True. One should not have any other debt in one's portfolio until PPF is maxed out. It's the only debt product in India which is E-E-E (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt).

Actually there is one more. EEE all the way and an even higher interest rate. Only catch is that you can open it only if you have a girl child. It's called Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.

[kavensri]

Though I was aware of PPF since I started investing in VPF since I started working, I never took this PPF thing seriously. That was until 2016. One of my friend explained the benefits of this PPF and I realized my mistake immediately. Since then, I have been maxing out both PPF (two accounts) and SSY, that too I make sure that I invest the money before April 5, to avail the maximum benefit.
I am very much a conservative investor with zero investment in shares/MFs. My investment has been only on FD, VPF, PPF, SSY, NPS and SA.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Though I was aware of PPF since I started investing in VPF since I started working, I never took this PPF thing seriously. That was until 2016. One of my friend explained the benefits of this PPF and I realized my mistake immediately. Since then, I have been maxing out both PPF (two accounts) and SSY, that too I make sure that I invest the money before April 5, to avail the maximum benefit.
I am very much a conservative investor with zero investment in shares/MFs. My investment has been only on FD, VPF, PPF, SSY, NPS and SA.

Can you enlighten how PPF is better than VPF? Both are EEE. But EPF has much more flexibility than PPF in withdrawal if I am right. VPF interest is also higher than PPF.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by poloman

Can you enlighten how PPF is better than VPF? Both are EEE. But EPF has much more flexibility than PPF in withdrawal if I am right. VPF interest is also higher than PPF.

I am not an expert here, so experts can correct me if I am wrong.
From what I understand, two things caught my attention in PPF (when compared to EPF/VPF).
1) Post the lock-in period, by keep extending the block period (of 5 years) indefinitely, I can use PPF account as a ‘pension scheme’ by withdrawing some money every year, there by keeping the majority of the money in the account to get the interest for subsequent years.
2) Post the lock-in period of 15 years, it is easy to withdraw money from PPF account when compared to VPF, where we need to meet some criteria to withdraw it.
See, I am not saying that VPF is bad and all. Just that, PPF has slight advantage over VPF. Anyway, I have maxed out my investment in all these schemes. Therefore, I am not exactly in a situation where I had to think whether to invest in VPF or PPF.
I hope I have clarified.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Though I was aware of PPF since I started investing in VPF since I started working, I never took this PPF thing seriously. That was until 2016. One of my friend explained the benefits of this PPF and I realized my mistake immediately. Since then, I have been maxing out both PPF (two accounts) and SSY, that too I make sure that I invest the money before April 5, to avail the maximum benefit.
I am very much a conservative investor with zero investment in shares/MFs. My investment has been only on FD, VPF, PPF, SSY, NPS and SA.

Hey thanks for this, I always "knew" that one can have only one PPF account, but reading around I see that one can open another PPF account!

Can you provide more details on what minimum qualification criteria is for opening another PPF account?

[poloman]

Originally Posted by kavensri

I am not an expert here, so experts can correct me if I am wrong.
From what I understand, two things caught my attention in PPF (when compared to EPF/VPF).
1) Post the lock-in period, by keep extending the block period (of 5 years) indefinitely, I can use PPF account as a ‘pension scheme’ by withdrawing some money every year, there by keeping the majority of the money in the account to get the interest for subsequent years.
2) Post the lock-in period of 15 years, it is easy to withdraw money from PPF account when compared to VPF, where we need to meet some criteria to withdraw it.
See, I am not saying that VPF is bad and all. Just that, PPF has slight advantage over VPF. Anyway, I have maxed out my investment in all these schemes. Therefore, I am not exactly in a situation where I had to think whether to invest in VPF or PPF.
I hope I have clarified.

PPF is more suited or tailor-made for self-employed professionals or business people, not salaried employees. It can be used as a tax saving instrument, but if you are a senior level employee, your EPF/VPF can easily cover your entire 80C.
EPF can be withdrawn if you lose the jobs or if there is no contribution for 3 months. PPF withdrawal is much more difficult. Currently, EPF/VPF has a 1% more interest advantage over PPF which is significant over long tenures. So VPF looks very much advantageous to me if you are a salaried employee.

AFIK there is no limitation to your VPF contribution. There were some reports that Govt is looking to limit it since lot of highly paid executives were diverting a significant chunk of their income towards VPF.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by poloman

PPF is more suited or tailor-made for self-employed professionals or business people, not salaried employees. It can be used as a tax saving instrument, but if you are a senior level employee, your EPF/VPF can easily cover your entire 80C.

I being a senior level employee, my EPF alone covers 80C. So, I am definitely not talking about tax saving aspect here.

Originally Posted by poloman

EPF can be withdrawn if you lose the jobs or if there is no contribution for 3 months. PPF withdrawal is much more difficult.

I agree with you on this point.

Originally Posted by poloman

AFIK there is no limitation to your VPF contribution. There were some reports that Govt is looking to limit it since lot of highly paid executives were diverting a significant chunk of their income towards VPF.

Our PF is managed by a trust and it has capped the maximum VPF at 28%. And as I mentioned earlier, I have already maxed out this VPF contribution since many years.

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Though I was aware of PPF since I started investing in VPF since I started working, I never took this PPF thing seriously. That was until 2016. One of my friend explained the benefits of this PPF and I realized my mistake immediately. Since then, I have been maxing out both PPF (two accounts) and SSY, that too I make sure that I invest the money before April 5, to avail the maximum benefit.
I am very much a conservative investor with zero investment in shares/MFs. My investment has been only on FD, VPF, PPF, SSY, NPS and SA.

Originally Posted by alpha1

Hey thanks for this, I always "knew" that one can have only one PPF account, but reading around I see that one can open another PPF account!

Can you provide more details on what minimum qualification criteria is for opening another PPF account?

I think kavensri is referring to the PPF account of his/her partner. You can't open more than one PPF under one name/PAN. But you can make use of your family members to open one more if they earn and want to utilize the 80C benefits.

-Sunil

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by kavensri

I am very much a conservative investor with zero investment in shares/MFs. My investment has been only on FD, VPF, PPF, SSY, NPS and SA.

If you are ok with NPS then why not ELSS MFs or regular MFs (since you won't get 80c benefits from ELSS) and RGESS?

You are taking some equity exposure already, I believe.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by sunilch

If you are ok with NPS then why not ELSS MFs or regular MFs (since you won't get 80c benefits from ELSS) and RGESS?

You are taking some equity exposure already, I believe.

No, I am still not having exposure to equity as my funds in NPS are in Corporate bonds and Government securities.
May be in the future, I will change this by moving some of my funds to Equity.

[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

From this govt notification https://www.dacollege.org/GOs/index_...esindetail.pdf , it appears that you are eligible for interest :

This is great news!

My dad visited SBI office this morning to enquire and they said 'you won't get any more interest if you keep the money between now and (say) Diwali, when we plan to withdraw the corpus completely.


So, this contradicts with the ground reality.