[abhinav.s]

Team BHP can be called a one stop shop!!! There is nothing which you cannot find here.

Well coming back to topic, reading the thread completely, I learnt that i follow some of the things mentioned and adopted some suggestions regarding the savings.

I have started writing out the expenses from this month onwards to keep tab on the expenditure. Hoping to reduce expenses and increase savings in about 3 months time.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Team BHP can be called a one stop shop!!! There is nothing which you cannot find here.

Well coming back to topic, reading the thread completely, I learnt that i follow some of the things mentioned and adopted some suggestions regarding the savings.

I have started writing out the expenses from this month onwards to keep tab on the expenditure. Hoping to reduce expenses and increase savings in about 3 months time.

Try GNUCASH the free software for maintaining accounts.

[vasoo]

Originally Posted by sridhar_setty

...

Eg: If CTC is 10L, you should look at car around 3.5L. Within 3.5L, you should be able to pay 1.75 as down payment and rest as EMI of 5,000 ~ for 2 yrs.

Hmm, looks very conservative to me. I bought my Santro when my CTC was just about 25% more than the car's on road cost and I paid in full, no loan. My current car loan EMI is approximately 20% and Home loan EMI is about 30% of my monthly take home. Maybe I am living on the edge...!

[aargee]

Originally Posted by ampere

Try GNUCASH the free software for maintaining accounts.

Does that have Indian method of computing taxes & maintaining accounts? I've been using Intruit Quicken for a while until I bought everything under control.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by aargee

Nope, take a city bus; it works out cheaper. Pal, so you work hard to pay off the taxi bills or to pay yourself? Without struggles, there's no convenience; unless you're born with a silver spoon.
^^^Golden words

I work hard to pay myself and a car is one form of paying myself . Like someone said, its all about striking a balance. It should not be that you keep struggling and realize that your life is over and there is no time to enjoy.

Also why not consider the fact that the CTC also increases with time? So if I buy a car with an EMI of say 30% his CTC, after a couple of years the EMI would reduce to 20 or with some luck 10% of the CTC. Then I am not living on the edge

[black12rr]

If some one have cash ,where would one park it for best returns with safety , short term say 1- 2 years .Should be able to liquidate in case of emergency .

[ampere]

Originally Posted by aargee

Does that have Indian method of computing taxes & maintaining accounts? I've been using Intruit Quicken for a while until I bought everything under control.

I dont think. Its a basic accounting system. Helps you keep tab of all items. But yes much-much better than an excell sheet !

Originally Posted by black12rr

If some one have cash ,where would one park it for best returns with safety , short term say 1- 2 years .Should be able to liquidate in case of emergency .

Safest is FD. Lock it for a period best for you.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by ampere

I dont think. Its a basic accounting system. Helps you keep tab of all items. But yes much-much better than an excell sheet !

Then you need to try Intuit Quicken

Originally Posted by ampere

Safest is FD. Lock it for a period best for you.

Sorry, FD may be safe upto a Lakh, beyond that money is not guaranteed. To me post office always rocks as they provide the highest rate of interest till date.

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

I have started writing out the expenses from this month onwards to keep tab on the expenditure. Hoping to reduce expenses and increase savings in about 3 months time.

Excellent. The most important step to savings, I would say.

Originally Posted by ampere

Try GNUCASH the free software for maintaining accounts.

Originally Posted by aargee

Does that have Indian method of computing taxes & maintaining accounts? I've been using Intruit Quicken for a while until I bought everything under control.

Guys, isn't these software an overkill? To maintain a neat record, one need not go beyond Google Spreadsheets. You can update from any place, any time.

I can even export to excel and see fancy pie charts and bar graphs on the trends, categories etc. But that again is an overkill. Just look at the category (like eatouts, travel, cinemas etc) and you would know where you have over spend.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by sbraj

Guys, isn't these software an overkill? To maintain a neat record, one need not go beyond Google Spreadsheets. You can update from any place, any time.I can even export to excel and see fancy pie charts and bar graphs on the trends, categories etc. But that again is an overkill. Just look at the category (like eatouts, travel, cinemas etc) and you would know where you have over spend.

Overkill??? - you made my day; Anyway, I'm tired of excel & here's the advantage of using accounting software

1. Track regular expenses
2. Track savings & expense accounts seperately
3. Alert as per the flag on bill payments that includes, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, half yearly & annually
4. Track asset values & calculate depreciation
5. Allows to create a budget & track expense accordingly & alerts as per the flag
6. Helps to track balances in each of the bank/accounts
7. Some even helps to compute tax (perfios in India, not quicken)
8. Helps to analyze through several reports (atleast 10-15 that I know of in quicken)

All the more, its easy to accomplish all the above 8 points; there're even more that I haven't ventured out. These are the advantages that I found over Excel.

[MX6]

@aargee. What I meant was that CTC on paper says something else. At the end I get lesser in my hands. Tax is one component on CTC. But major things called benefits that don't translate to actual cash in your account reside in the ctc as well. Like my company adds the medical insurance premium it pays me to the ctc. It adds loads of such things which I don't get in hand to spend. So the CTC is a bloated figure compared to the liquidity I get called monthly take home!
Hence I don't plan my loans based on the CTC. I plan the emi which I can pay and accordingly ask for a loan amount! When my pay increases down the line, there's more money to invest!

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by MX6

Hence I don't plan my loans based on the CTC. I plan the emi which I can pay and accordingly ask for a loan amount! When my pay increases down the line, there's more money to invest!

Right. It should be income, and not CTC.

Originally Posted by aargee

Overkill??? - you made my day; Anyway, I'm tired of excel & here's the advantage of using accounting software
...

With all due respect, I disagree. I keep the stuff plain and simple. It is only my expense log. Nothing else.

For other stuff like planning and anything to do with my income, taxes, bank balances etc, I do not use any software or maintain any log. I consider them as unsafe, and single point of failure. If this data gets stolen, risks are high.

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Also why not consider the fact that the CTC also increases with time? So if I buy a car with an EMI of say 30% his CTC, after a couple of years the EMI would reduce to 20 or with some luck 10% of the CTC.

That, my friend, is the power of inflation :-)

And, had you bought an asset - like a house, flat (i.e. borrowed money to make an investment) - its value would have gone up! So you get a double benefit - your original investment has improved in value and your loan repayment remains static (of course, assuming interest rates are staying same. normally, rise in rates are not very high over the life the loan)

There is a concept of Present Value - an indicative figure which tells you how much you have to save / invest, in order to maintain the same standard of living on an assumed rate of interest and inflation.... the lower the PV, the better the benefit in future.

For example, you have taken a loan of 1.00 lakh. Repayment is 6,000 EMI for 5 years. Your CTC is 7 lakh. EMI to CTC is 10% now.

In the next two years, your CTC improves to 9 lakhs. EMI remains at 6,000 (no rise in interest rates). EMI to CTC will be 8%. But due to inflation, the actual value of your original EMI of 6,000 is now 6,200 (at todays price levels) - so there is an indirect saving of Rs. 200/-.

Even if you factor in increase in interest ates, and the EMI has gone up - you won't loose anything till EMI crosses 6,200!

and, the story doesn't end here (people are peeping over my shoulder with what I am so busy during the hectic audit schedule - so till I get my next break!)

[tsk1979]

I use moneytrackin for my accounting.
So basically, after every couple of months I see how much the total bank balance of all accounts has gone up(total). Thats actual savings.
then I have another user id to track every expense. Right from 10rs snacks to big purchases.
And I get XLS and pretty graphs too from the site if I want.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by aargee

Then you need to try Intuit Quicken


Sorry, FD may be safe upto a Lakh, beyond that money is not guaranteed. To me post office always rocks as they provide the highest rate of interest till date.

I think its a paid software. Their site does not say anything about this.
MIS schemes in Post Offices are very good. I agree.