Financelogic

The dictionary definition of finance is “management of large amounts of money”. In practice, financial management is part of every individual’s day to day life. All of us do not have large sums of money but we still manage our finances every day. What do we really mean when we say “Managing our finances”? Does it mean earning large sums of money? No, not really. How we spend and invest our money so that we have enough to meet our expenses when we retire, is true management of finance. How do we begin? What do we need? Lets commence with something as simple as: a. Permanent Account Number (“PAN”) b. Bank Account Permanent Account Number Permanent Account Number or PAN as we call it in India, is the 10 digit number allotted by the Income Tax Department of India. It is used as a universal identification for all our financial transactions. It is a mandatory document for anything and everything related to spending and investing money by Indian citizens. Some examples of: a. Opening a bank account b. Purchase or sale of vehicle c. Application for credit card d. To be provided to employer when working e. Investing in excess of INR 50,000 f. Purchase of Insurance g. Expenditure in excess of INR 50,000 in one bill mostly The list goes on and on. Hence it is extremely important that we begin our financial journey with procurement of a Permanent Account Number. Bank Account When we start earning money, the question is where to receive it and how to store it? The answer is in your bank account. A bank account in-turn facilitates numerous others avenues for managing your money, such as: a. Locker facilities b. Fixed Deposits c. Insurance Schemes d. Investments in shares and mutual funds We need a PAN in order to open a bank account, hence the first step is to get a PAN and then open a bank account. Many may think – how to choose a bank and which account to open? Well, the following things can be considered prior to opening a bank account: a. Location of the branch – open a bank account which is nearest to your residence for ease of access and operation b. Operating hours – Some banks offer extended operating hours. If you are a salaried person and cannot go to the bank during regular banking hours, then choose a bank with extended operating hours. c. Open a savings bank account as it will give you some interest on the average balance in it. d. Online banking facility – online is the way to go in future. Hence open a bank account which offers online banking facility and makes it easier for you to transact in future. e. Nationalised or good reputation private banks – Choose a nationalised bank or a private bank with a very good reputation. Don’t be lured by high interest rates. Go for a bank which is stable. Once you have done the above two, you are ready to commence your journey in the world of finance. We will cover one topic at a time in our subsequent blogs.

Cancelled Flight!!!!

We were on our way to the SIN city!!!! Finally, after months of planning, begging my multiple bosses for leave, working crazy hours to reschedule work....we were finally off to the US of A for a 25 day holiday:-) starting with Las Vegas!

Having only ever seen Vegas in movies, my husband and I were really excited to be landing in Vegas. Hubby dear cannot sleep in the flight, hence was dreading the 32 hour long journey to Vegas (As we were planning a long trip, cost was consideration in choosing the flight and not the time). We had two connections, one at Frankfurt and another at Washington. I happily popped a anti-nausea pill and went off to sleep as soon as I sat in the flight and woke up only when we landed at Frankfurt.We searched for our connecting flight on the display board but could not find it.....inquired with few security guard about the terminal which generally flies flights to US and headed for the same, only to reach there and find out that our flight has been CANCELLED!!

Never having faced this problem before, we did not know what to do or how to proceed and were worried about our connecting flight in Washington. After much difficulty and running around, we were directed to a single counter of the airline in another terminal, a counter which was not manned! It was 9 am in the morning in Frankfurt, the airline had a cancelled flight and they did not think it important to man the counter till 9 am.

Till then, I used to be under an impression that only a privileged few can fly, specially international, hence they would be treated with care and as royalty....boy was I in for a rude shock!. I met people in line who were stuck at the airport for as long as three days! This was either because their connecting flights were cancelled or because they had missed their connecting flights. As they were economy class passengers, the only thing they got was food passes from the airline and no accommodation....they did not have a German Visa, hence they could not go out. I thought things like this happen only in movies.

Finally royalty arrived and to our ire, took almost an hour to settle. He then asks all the US nationals to come forward and takes them away somewhere....all the rest were made to wait for another half an hour before he granted us audience....only to tell us that he does not know what will happen to us and that we need to wait.

I had had enough.....I had paid a bomb for my tickets, had worked endlessly over last few months to take this month off and was not going to let this guy ruin my trip....I along with some other customers refused to budge from the counter till he gave us a solution.....

After many arguments and fights, we were asked to go back to the terminal which flies US flights. I was so scared that we were going to miss our connection in Washington and not go to Vegas...what if we get stuck for days too:-(

But finally, at the terminal they gave us another flight in the next two hours, which would help us take our connection!

Those were some scary few hours.....an experience.