MONEY EXPLAINED
Money guides
A calculator gives you a number. These guides explain the reasoning behind it: why a longer loan costs so much more than it appears to, when the old tax regime still wins, what a fair rent or buy comparison has to count, and how the government savings schemes differ from one another.
Each guide works through real figures from the calculators on this site, so its examples match what you see when you run your own numbers, and each one links to the calculators it uses.
If you already know which decision you are facing, open the guide that matches it. If you are earlier than that, still deciding what to do with money at all rather than which product to pick, start with the personal finance checklist. The other guides fit into the order it describes.
PLANNING
A Calm, Useful Personal Finance Checklist
Personal finance is less about optimisation than sequence. Most plans fail not because the choices were wrong but because they were made in the wrong order, or were too elaborate to sustain.
In this guide: First: know what you actually have · Second: build a buffer before anything else · Third: clear expensive debt · Fourth: protect against what would be ruinous
Read the guide →BORROWING
How EMI Works: Principal, Interest and Tenure
An EMI is one number hiding two moving parts. Understanding the split is the difference between comparing loans properly and comparing only what the lender chooses to show you.
In this guide: The formula, and what it is doing · Why tenure matters more than the rate · What the EMI does not include · Fixed and floating rates
Read the guide →BORROWING
How to Compare Loan Offers Properly
The interest rate is the number lenders compete on, so it is the number they make look best. A fair comparison puts every offer on the same footing and adds back the costs the rate leaves out.
In this guide: Put every offer on the same tenure · Add the fees back in · Use the APR when you can get it · Read the prepayment terms
Read the guide →BORROWING
Prepay Your Home Loan or Invest the Money?
Every rupee you put towards a home loan earns exactly the loan's interest rate, with no risk. Investing can earn more. The decision comes down to whether the extra return is worth the uncertainty.
In this guide: What investing the same money might earn · The fair comparison · Tax changes the hurdle · What the numbers leave out
Read the guide →INVESTING
SIP vs FD: Choosing a Home for Your Savings
These are not competing products so much as answers to different questions. The useful comparison is not which returns more, but which suits the money you are putting in.
In this guide: The trade you are actually making · Start with the time horizon · Why a SIP suits regular saving · Where fixed deposits genuinely win
Read the guide →RETIREMENT
PPF, EPF and NPS: How the Three Retirement Accounts Compare
All three are built for long-term saving and all three reward leaving the money alone. They differ in who sets the return, how much of it is guaranteed, and how easily you can get at your money.
In this guide: Who can open each one · Lock-in and access · How tax treats each · What each can grow to
Read the guide →SAVING
Post Office Savings Schemes Compared
The small savings schemes all carry a government-set rate and very little risk. What separates them is whether they pay you an income or grow your money, who can open them, and how long your money is tied up.
In this guide: Monthly Income Scheme · Senior Citizens Savings Scheme · National Savings Certificate · Kisan Vikas Patra
Read the guide →TAX
Old vs New Tax Regime: A Worked Walkthrough
The new regime has lower rates and almost no deductions. The old regime has higher rates and lets you subtract a long list of investments and expenses. Which costs you less comes down to how much you can deduct.
In this guide: Example 1: ₹12 lakh salary, ₹1.5 lakh of deductions · Example 2: ₹18 lakh salary, ₹3.5 lakh of deductions · Example 3: ₹25 lakh salary, ₹5 lakh of deductions · Why the breakeven stops rising
Read the guide →TAX
How HRA Exemption Is Worked Out
House rent allowance is paid to you in full, but usually only part of it is tax-free. The exempt part is the smallest of three figures, and which one is smallest depends on your rent, your salary and your city.
In this guide: A worked example · Which test usually limits you · Metro or not · Documents and common mistakes
Read the guide →TAX
From CTC to Take-Home: How a Salary Offer Turns Into Cash
A cost-to-company figure is what the employer spends on you, not what you receive. Some of it is paid to someone else, some is paid years later, and tax and provident fund come off what is left.
In this guide: What never reaches your account · What comes off gross salary · A worked example · At a higher salary, tax takes over
Read the guide →TAX
How Capital Gains Are Taxed on Shares, Funds and Property
A capital gain is taxed differently from salary, and how differently depends on two things: what you sold and how long you held it. Once those are clear, most of the calculation follows.
In this guide: Short-term or long-term · Listed shares and equity funds · Property, gold and other assets · Debt funds follow different rules
Read the guide →PROPERTY
Rent or Buy a Home: What a Fair Comparison Includes
Rent against EMI is the comparison most people make, and it is the wrong one. A fair comparison follows both paths for the same number of years and asks what each leaves you with at the end.
In this guide: What a fair comparison counts · An example where renting comes out ahead · An example where buying comes out ahead · The three things that decide it
Read the guide →INSURANCE
How Much Health Insurance Cover a Family Needs
The sum insured has to pay for the worst year, not an average one. That means sizing it from what a serious hospital stay costs, how fast that cost is rising, and how many people could need care in the same year.
In this guide: Allow for medical inflation · Floater cover and two claims in one year · Employer cover is not a base · Terms that matter as much as the sum insured
Read the guide →More explanations, not more products
This is not a news blog. Every guide here exists because a calculator kept raising the same follow-up question, and a results page is the wrong place to answer it in full. Guides that quote tax rules or scheme rates say which year the figures come from, because budgets and quarterly rate resets change them. New guides are added as more of those questions come up.