Perfios- Money Manager

The last few post that i had written  were quite in favour of Artha money., however there have been multiple upgrades to perfios over the last few months and i have finally decided to try out the new money manager and do a comparison again with Artha Money.
[Earlier posts
Review of Artha Money ( http://simplefinancialsense.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-of-artha-money.html)

and Money Managers- Intuit, Arthamoney. (http://simplefinancialsense.blogspot.com/2010/04/money-managers-intuit-artha-money.html) ]


The interactive session of perfios in the first instance looks a lot lot better than artha money. However i am still in the process of setting up my accounts and then when i have more information- we can compare and contrast.

Whatever be the situation, please do invest time and effort and set up your money manager- Its free and it has multiple uses ( read the earlier posts on this topic)

Happy investing
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Arthamoney- Free again

Yup, its true- No more charges on Artha money.

In my last post on this subject i had mentioned that i would go for arthamoney even if i had to pay 500Rs a year to get the features it provided me. ( Link)


Now with the fact that there are no charges- it makes it again one of the best available money managers around! You can blindfoldedly use the tool.

Happy Investing!!

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5 Rules for using credit Cards

Credit cards can be a boon or a bane for your financial health. It has revolutionized the way of spending money in todays world. Today, when i travel, i have very limited amount of cash in my pocket, i basically just use my credit card for hotels, flight tickets and any other purchases.

Two days ago, i heard a story from a very senior collegue. We were all meeting outside for a two day workout. When he reached the toll road, he realized that he had no money in his pocket. He was luckily able to scrape out Rs 83 to pay for the toll else he would have been stuck. He was found borrowing some money from people in the offsite. Not surprisingly, most of us also had only a limited amount of cash in our pockets.

So, the idea of this post is to understand how we should ensure that we use the power of our credit cards to the best possible means- without hurting our finances.

1. Understand the amount of interest that the credit card company charges. Yes,  i know that credit cards come with zero lifetime fees. But, seriously did you think that they gave away the annual charges? Of course not, what ALL credit card companies did is to increase the monthly interest rates if you dont pay the dues to at least cover for the annual fees.

what this means is that the earlier card would have had say a 2.5% interest rate per month, and now the Free for life card has a 3% per month interest rate.

2. Realize the billing dates and the credit periods of your cards.

Usually when one use the credit card, one gets around 0-55 days of free credit. The credit usually starts post the billing date. So, if you make a purchase just after the billing date, one can enjoy a free period of 55 days and if one makes a transaction one day before the billing date, one has only 15 days of credit period ( before the due date).

So, have two credit cards which you usually use. Understand the billing cycles and if possible eep these fairly apart so as to have options of using your credit period fully. Use the card which is furthest away from the billing date to make use of the credit period ( remember, one now earns daily interest for the money in the bank , each day counts!)

3. Pay your bills in full.

Automate your finances, put a reminder in your phone or your diary, whatever you do just ensure that you pay your bills in full at least a day in advance of your bill date! The rate of interest is too high to make this mistake.
Because of me automating this feature, money goes out of my bank immediately as it gets due. No worries, no hassles and huge amount of savings because of me being focussed in this rule.

4. Track your expenses.

Sometimes when the bill comes it comes with a shock. Every few months i find that i have used my credit card a little too freely. It is always best to track your expenses and unbilled credit usage at least once a week.

Break up the expenses to get a better understanding of where you are spending your money.

5. Use your reward points

Earlier, i found that i let a few of my rewards points lapse. However , nowdays every month i check if any of my points are going to expire. If they are , i try and redeem it immediately.

Sometimes there are some good offers that credit card companies give out on reward points- " Get 2X on every purchase". At that time , i ensure that i use those credit cards where these offers are available.

It is important to have a credit card. I am not in the group which asks people to not use their credit cards. I prefer to be careful and use them wisely and believe so should you.

Happy investing.

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Arthamoney - Is it worth it?

This always happens-- companies bring in new products for free -- and then after sometime they start charging for the services and artha money has just sent an email asking for 499/- a year for payment.

So-- how does it really help us save money--and should we really be spending money for it?

Initially i felt that arthamoney would use their other products to generate income... but this was a complete surprise.

My feeling is this..

Its a great tool if you have some standard sites/ financial products--- it does not / cannot link to sites such as HDFC life, Indiabulls etc.-- so you cannot get a full view of all of your finances anyway.

The budgeting tool- did not really help... it send me alerts-- but not too often and doesnt seem to be useful.

The one great feature was adding comments to each of the transactions in your bank... absolutely great...

But do i want to spend 500 Rs on this tool?

I would suggest you try it for a year-- nothing comes for free-- use all of its features over a longer period of tiime-- and then take a call.

Happy Investing
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Money managers- Intuit, Artha Money, Perifos.

I had written about Money manager Artha Money sometime back and i continue to use it quite often.
Recently I tried out Perifos which is also quite interesting. Both of these are free softwares that are presently out in the market.

I recently read an article on the money manager softwares available in the indian market ( i recently downloaded the Quicken version 2010-- but it doesnt work in India) on money today magazine -- here is the link for you to go through. - Link

Here is a snapshot of features across the four managers.

I think there is going to be sometime soon when artha money and perifos also start charging money for their services.

Right now-- go for perifos or arthamoney-- why spend money on intuit if the features are as good ?

Save money-- understand where it is spent-- and Invest well

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Reading a new book-- Summary

I Just finished reading a book called

"Money for life-- 12 weeks to financial success"

here is a link where you can download it... HERE

Its quite an interesting book written like a story, of two people christine and ryan who are having issues in their personal life because of financial isssues and they meet up with Tom who is  financial planner and their story afterwards.

They use a tool called mvelopes ( mvelopes.com) which uses the principle of creating envelope budgets for each type of category online and how understanding how much money they have left lets them get a control on their finances.( My mom did this quite well-- and now they have actually created a software basis this)

The online tool links to bank accounts and credit card accounts and one can classify transactions basis that to get almost real time information as to where the money has been spent and how much money is left in which envelope.( Wish arthamoney also got the transaction in credit cards out also-- which it presently does not do)

Quite a useful tool-- used widely in the US-- so people in the US who read this blog-- try it out at http://www.mvelopes.com/ - there is a free trial period and after that they charge a very little amount per month.

Its a short book, well worth reading-- again-- here is a link where you can download it from - Link

Happy reading... and if anyone has an idea of how the tool works in real life... let us all know.

Happy Investing
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Financial Clutter ?

when I am in one of "those" moods , I start going around the house and look for stuff to throw away ( ESPECIALLY the bookshelf behind my parents bed ). I get frustrated by the amount of stuff we have in our house... most things which have not been used for long periods of time and stuff which i will never use in my lifetime.... CLUTTER.

In Six Sigma we always talk about the concept that the water level hides 80% of the glacier beneath itself... and thats where the opportunity for improvement lies.
In other words-- when the water level starts to come down--- The SHIT is visible :)

The same simple concept is also applicable in our everyday lives-- in our homes and in our finances.

• I mean i think i will have at least 10 empty diaries at home--- and i think it can last me for the next 3 - 4 years if i use them professionaly
• I have loads of books that i have bought but am still reading --- at least 3 at a time
• I have so many clothes--- that buying new clothes has become taboo for me for the next year ( the sale came and went -- and I did not buy)

So how does something like this translate into finances?

• The number of Bank accounts we may have-- some of them dormant ( eating away whatever money we may have there)-- but all adding upto more money than is required for your emergency fund
• The Number of credit cards we may have--- yes, they come free nowdays-- no annual fee-- But imagine the no of statements we get every month-- and to track the payment date is crazy  ( I finally took my dad's advice and use only two nowadays--- HDFC and SBI)
• The additional cheque books that i ordered from my bank -- I mean the no of times i use a cheque is very rare ( only to pay the club and the electricity bill-- else everything is online nowdays!)
• The multiple MF statements one gets ( Finally my financial advisor opened up his own website and i can see everything there in one place)
• I get at least 4 telephone bills everymonth-- 2 mobiles, 1 LL, 1 data card!

You can see from the above statements how much clutter one can have in ones life-- and it starts to have a domino effect impacting your financials in a big way.-- a few examples are given below..

• You have more money than required in cash -- thus lowering your earning potential
• You miss your credit card payments--- creating late fee issues
• You miss your multiple insurance policy payments--- late / re instatement fees again!
• Your dormant account finally becomes totally dormant-- since all the money has been taken back by the bank to maintain your account
• and more and more and more....

So , it is best to understand how to control such waste ( I am a certified lean practitioner) and use tools like arthamoney.com ( read here) to get all accounts in one place and use strategies of automating your finance payments ( read my earlier post here) to have a more easy life.

 

 

However this is not the only issue with clutter- having clutter in your house and life also forces you to spend more--- because you cannot find the stuff you are looking for--- It is hidden somewhere in all that clutter! The more clutter you have in your house, the more cluttered will be your finances--- there is a perfect correlation!

 

Take the first step-- take control of your clutter... and you will take control of your finances.

 

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Review of Artha Money

I was very excited when i saw the first advertisement of Artha Money the first financial tracking site that i had seen in India.

There are a lot of these sites that i have seen in the US--- Intuit money manager, mint.com etc--- and i did try and use them-- however they did not have the capability to link to Indian financial sites. Quite dissapointing really. After all- with a Billion people population -- they just needed to expand their tools and they would have had a great bussiness immediately!

So lets come back to Artha Money.

The website ( i created my account on it today) is a good financial tool and has the capability to link most of your accounts  and give you an overall view of your assets.

 It also has two other great reporting functionalities
1. View of your spending habits
You can come back and put forward tags to each of your transactions in your accounts and artha money hence you can have a view of your monthly spending habits!

2. Creating a Budget on your habits
With the ability to create a budget you can actually view how well are you doing against your plan on an almost real time basis... fantastic feature.


There are a few drawbacks

1. Not all accounts / providers feature in the list
There are some banks which dont seem to be covered in the list

2. Only accounts for which you have online access can be linked-- obviously. This ensured that most of my mutual fund savings etc cannot be shown in the list-- which is not helpful at all!

3. Havent found a means to add any manual inputs -- eg if one has any company deposits-- again creating a gap in your networth or if you have any home loans against your name..

Summary
In all a decent tool for some of the +ves mentioned above. However without being able to add all providers and all accounts it becomes more of a liability than an asset. My own homegrown tracking mechanism seems to be a better bet to get a true financial picture of my net worth.( i will be putting this up as a free product for you all to use-- just putting in my final touches)

does this mean i am not going to use this website at all-- No- I will definately be using this site for looking at my budgeting process and identifying each and every transaction for tracking purposes.

A thumbs up for artha money..

There are few other financial sites that have been launched-- Intuit money manager, perifos... keep on the lookout for my comments on those also.
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