Tensai Sensei

Employer NPS has become increasingly attractive, especially under the New Tax Regime. In fact, the employer's NPS contribution under Section 80CCD (2) is one of the few meaningful tax deductions still available. Because of this, many employees may be tempted to move their existing NPS accounts to the Corporate Sector model. While the tax benefits are undoubtedly attractive, there are several operational changes and lesser-known implications that are rarely discussed. None of these are deal-breakers, but they're worth understanding before making the switch. Here are some things I discovered along the way. 🎯 PFM & Asset Allocation Lock-In Under Corporate NPS, the employer may choose the Pension Fund Manager (PFM) and asset allocation on the behalf its employees. The problem? One size doesn't fit all. You might be a young investor with a long investment horizon and a high risk appetite. Yet your employer may select a conservative scheme with lower equity exposure. Over de...

In one of my other articles, I discussed some of the lesser-known changes that come with moving from an All Citizen NPS account to Corporate NPS. One of those changes is the possibility of being moved to a different Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA). When I enrolled in my employer's NPS program, my NPS account was migrated from Protean CRA (formerly NSDL CRA) to KFintech CRA. At that point, I had already been investing in NPS for nearly 6 years and had become quite familiar with the ecosystem. Unfortunately, my experience with the migration and the new CRA has been far from smooth. Support Process That Creates More Work The first thing I noticed was the support experience. Creating and tracking grievances is unnecessarily complicated. The portal itself is difficult to navigate and often behaves unpredictably. Attachments uploaded while raising grievances don't appear when tracking the issue later. Even more frustrating was the quality of responses. Whether through email, phone...

This is the 4th article in my  NPS series . In this one, I’m sharing some ideas to make NPS even more investor-friendly. 1️⃣ 100% Equity Allocation As a young investor, I’d like the option to allocate my entire corpus to equity until I’m 5 years away from retirement. 2️⃣ Beyond the Top 200 Companies Fund managers should have the flexibility to invest beyond the top 200 Indian companies. In my younger years, I’m comfortable with higher risk and would love exposure to smallcaps and even microcaps. 3️⃣ Global & Commodity Exposure NPS should offer options to invest in commodities like gold & silver, and also in global markets - US, China, Brazil, and other emerging territories. 4️⃣ Higher Allocation to Scheme A The current 5% cap on Scheme A feels restrictive. Subscribers should be allowed to allocate a higher portion here. 5️⃣ Flexible Annuity Options Subscribers should be able to choose more than one annuity...

When planning for retirement, every rupee matters. Maximizing your retirement corpus isn't just about returns, it's also about minimizing tax impact. Choosing the right investment vehicle for retirement can significantly improve your post-retirement income. After publishing my last article on How to Use NPS Tier II Account for Higher Returns & Greater Flexibility ,  one question kept popping up: If the goal is to purchase an annuity at retirement, why not just build the corpus using mutual funds and then buy the annuity? 💡 Here's why I believe NPS is a smarter choice over mutual funds for this purpose 👇 🔁 1. No Tax on Rebalancing With NPS, I can change: My Pension Fund Manager ✅ My asset allocation ✅ My investment style ✅ …without paying any capital gains tax ! That means I can gradually shift from equity to debt as I near retirement, without losing money to taxes . 👉 Try doing this in mutual funds, and you’ll be hit with tax at every switch! 🛡️ 2. EEE Structure ...

NPS is Misunderstood The National Pension System (NPS) is often misunderstood. Unlike other investment vehicles, NPS is specifically designed for retirement planning . Every feature of this product is geared toward long-term investing , making it fundamentally different from conventional investment options. Financial security is a basic human need. For those earning a salaried income, receiving a monthly paycheck provides a sense of stability. Naturally, we want to maintain the same sense of security even after retirement. One of the best ways to generate a steady post-retirement income is through an annuity . An annuity works by investing a lump sum amount, which then provides a fixed income at predefined intervals — in this case, monthly payments. Importance of Annuities Scientific research has proven that humans are not biologically wired to make complex decisions repeatedly. Our brains tend to rely on shortcuts, which can often lead to poor decision-making . Emotions like f...

I appreciate Microsoft's certification policy. Like Salesforce, they do not require candidates to retake an exam to renew their certifications. Instead, passing an online assessment is sufficient to maintain validity. Even better, Microsoft's Fundamental certifications do not expire. Microsoft takes it one step further by offering region-specific pricing. Unlike Salesforce and AWS, where certification costs are listed in USD, Microsoft's exam fees are displayed in INR and adjusted to India's pricing capacity, making them more affordable. Additionally, Microsoft provides a dedicated learning platform to help candidates prepare for exams, similar to Salesforce's Trailhead. I have successfully completed and passed 5 fundamental certification exams, including achieving a perfect score of 1000/1000 in the Azure Data Fundamentals exam. It’s unfortunate that AWS does not offer free renewals, making it less accessible compared to Salesforce and Microsoft. You can check out ...

My #Journey2Salesforce Salesforce.com 🔥Introduction In my previous post , I shared how my financial journey began and how I set a bold goal - to accumulate ₹100 crore by the age of 60. But to reach that massive target, I needed serious investments. And to make those investments, I had to increase my income. So, I set a new challenge for myself: earn ₹2,50,000/month by the end of 2023. At that time, I was working in an R&D team, constantly exploring and innovating. It was exciting! But after my company got acquired in 2020, things changed. I was reassigned to a client project that felt monotonous. The opportunities to experiment were gone, and I started feeling stuck. Additionally, the salary increment I received was not aligned with my expectations, further prompting me to reassess my career path. It was clear - I had to take control of my career.   🌟 Exploring New Avenues I wanted to future-proof my skills and diversify beyond frontend development. The tech landscape i...

🎯 Introduction Hey, it's Tuhin here! 👋 I'm a FrontendExpert ™ with 9+ years of experience, specializing in modern web frameworks like Angular  and Vue.js . I thrive on experimenting with technology and staying ahead of the curve. Learning new things has always been my passion. I also consider myself financially literate. Many of my friends and colleagues trust my knowledge and come to me for advice. In this article, I’ll share how my own financial journey began. 🚀 How It Began 2018 was a turning point in my life. In September of that year, I took my first step into investing by starting a SIP in the Tata Digital India Fund . Little did I know that this small decision would ignite a journey that would reshape my financial mindset. Coming from a typical Indian middle-class family, I grew up hearing my father say: 🔹"Things were better in my time!" 🔹"Private companies are looting us!" 🔹"The government has failed the common man!" Every time Sachi...

If you want to obtain everything that you dream of, you have ask for it and work towards it. You can't just sit there and wish that you get it. Life doesn't work that way. Nobody's gonna notice you and offer things to you because you deserve it. No, you must seize it yourself! If you don't ask, the answer is always no The more you ask, the more you get. If you don't ask, you better forget (it). Everything is negotiable There is always a budget There are 2 types of people in this world - obtainers and complainers.

Wisdom #1 If you want to live a peaceful and happy life, automate/delegate/eliminate things that don't really add any value to your life. This will help you muster time for things that you want to do in your life. Always remember, time is your only asset that you cannot produce more of. Examples Automate - Your investments using SIPs Delegate - Hire a maid or a cook to do the chores Eliminate - Taking a bath every single day

The Angular Ecosystem Angular is an amazing framework. It enables us to build modern web apps easily. Yes we can build a modern web app with just HTML + CSS + JavaScript, maybe with a dash of jQuery 😉 But Angular just makes it whole lot easier. Users today's web apps to be fast, well designed, offline-capable, secure and a delightful. Since Angular is a opinionated framework, it forces you to make the right choices. Today Angular is not just a web framework. it has created its own ecosystem. As you might have guessed, I am a Angular fanboy 😎. But one thing I'm not a fan of is writing test cases 😛 I started learning about software testing in late 2019, because I asked to setup unit + E2E testing for one of our projects. What I learned was, Angular come with Karma + Jasmine setup (for unit testing) out of the box. But it has built a specialized E2E testing framework called Protractor . But I couldn't figure out why they called it Protractor of all things. Later it dawned o...

Introduction The National Pension System is a great financial product for creating your retirement kitty. With contribution of just ₹5000 per month, you can accumulate more than a crore! I am a NPS subscriber (through NSDL eNPS) myself. If you have read my previous post  regarding EPF you know I like NPS for the following reasons. 60 year lock-in period Additional tax exemption under section 80CCD (1B) Choice of various assets classes Choice of pension fund managers Option to change your asset allocation or pension fund manager Low cost of fund management Transparency & organization structure Good customer support Online account opening and management Multiple exit options at retirement Screenshot from  Pension Calculator | NPS Trust Some Not So Great Things NPS is...

Like every employee who joins a company in the organized sector, I too was forced to open an account under the Employee Provident Fund scheme. So far I've had a pretty bad experience with the scheme. Over the years I have faced lots of issues with it. This post started as an investigation on EPF. It started more like weekend project to check if EPF still has value in today's day and age where employees are financially educated and better retirement products exists. Let's start from the beginning... What is EPF? 🤔 The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a scheme that helps people save up a sufficient corpus for retirement. The plan was introduced with the Employees' Provident Funds Act in 1952 and is today managed by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Source:  ETMoney As per the law, every employee has to put 12% of their salary (=Basic Salary + Dearness Allowance) in their EPF account every m...

Open up any e-commerce website and you’ll be bombarded with No Cost EMI offers. On the surface it seems like the merchants and the banks have tied up to help you buy your favourite products on installments, without paying interests. But this is far from the truth. They will trick you into believing you are buying the product at 0% interest but you'll end paying more than the original price. Just as there's no such thing as a free lunch, similarly there is no such thing as a No Cost EMI. It’s all just predatory marketing. Let me explain with an example. First off let me tell you, according to RBI's regulations a lender cannot lend money on 0% interest. So banks use different tactics to make it seem like the effective interest rate is 0%. Now let's assume you want to buy a product worth ₹3599. If you bought it using regular EMIs, the bank will charge you ₹133 as interest. So the effective price would be ₹3732. Now if you opt for the No Cost EMI scheme, the merch...

Dear edX, I was in my 2nd year of college when you came to life. And I was ecstatic! No, not to be in college (LOL) but to have finally found my calling. Computer programming. I was browsing through all the resources I could find. Codecademy courses mainly. And right at that moment, you arrived. Your parents hail from the Harvard University and from the MIT. So of course you received my attention. Also, you had an unique selling point: free certificates. This was huge! No one else was doing it. It seemed you were actually trying to help students learn new skills and show off to the world. I was stoked to enroll into the course developed world's top professors. The free certificates were a big motivator to complete the courses. The first course I enrolled into was developed by The Linux Foundation. I have taken several courses since then. Some were on computer programming, some were about a country's history and some provided advice on career growth and personal finance. 2 ...

It's been almost 5 years since I started blogging. This is the 30th post being published. That means over the course of 5 years, I've written 6 posts per year. Although 30 is much less than I would have liked, this is one of those pet projects I have continued even after the honeymoon phase. Today I want take some time and discuss why I started this blog in the first place. I was in my 3rd year of engineering studies when I started out. I had already developed a keen interest towards programming and tech in general by then. Having a blog seemed liked a cool idea. There were couple of more reasons to go ahead with this idea. That's what we are here to discuss today. Setting up a blog seemed like a technically challenging task. I wanted to know how to setup a blog with comments, advertisements and with a custom domain. It sounded like a great way to acquire new skills and learn new things along the way. Back then I didn't know anyone who shared my enthusiasm for tech...

Okay, that was a clickbait. But this isn't much different than what we see on social networks these days. This post is not about JavaScript's elusive this keyword. This is about a pattern I see now-a-days; almost everyday. Social networks have had a big impact on our daily lives. It's how we keep in touch with our friends and family. It's how we follow the people we admire. And now more than ever, it's how we get our daily of dose news. The authenticity of that news is another topic. Today I'll focus on how that news is presented to us. But first check out these screenshots. Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Example 5 See anything in common? Sadly, this is how we see the headlines. More often than not the links are clickbaits or suffer from information withholding. This pattern is prevalent; be it Facebook or Twitter or Google News. In each instance, the publisher could have written the actual subject/topic in the headlines inst...