Mind over Money: Mastering the Mental Game for Financial Triumph

We all strive for financial success and stability in our lives, but the path to achieving it can often be challenging. While it is essential to develop a solid understanding of financial strategies and investments, we often overlook the importance of our mindset when it comes to money. In this blog post, we will explore how our mental game plays a crucial role in our financial triumph.

The Power of Positive Thinking

One of the fundamental aspects of achieving financial triumph is the power of positive thinking. Our thoughts and beliefs shape our reality, and when it comes to money, having a positive mindset is crucial. Instead of dwelling on past financial challenges or fearing the unknown, focus on the opportunities that lie ahead. Embrace a growth mindset that allows you to see setbacks as learning experiences and motivates you to take calculated risks. Remember, your thoughts become your actions, so make them work in your favor.

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs can hold us back from reaching our full financial potential. These beliefs, often rooted in fear and self-doubt, can prevent us from taking necessary risks or exploring new avenues for financial success. Identify and challenge your limiting beliefs. Are they based on accurate information or just assumptions? Surround yourself with positive influences and seek out mentors who can help you overcome these beliefs. By pushing past your limitations, you open yourself up to a world of financial opportunities. There are many beliefs that prevent one from taking the necessary steps.

Example: Many investors have this strong belief that Equity Markets are very risk and one must stay away from investing in it. And now, imagine a situation, the market is in growing state and if investing in equity would be beneficial still due to your beliefs you will not invest during that time and then you might lose this opportunity.

Managing Emotions

Emotions play a significant role in our financial decisions. Fear and greed can cloud our judgment and lead us to make irrational choices. Mastering the mental game requires effectively managing emotions. Develop self-awareness and recognize when emotions are influencing your decisions. By staying calm and composed, you will make decisions based on logic rather than temporary emotional states.

Setting Clear Goals

Without clear goals, it is difficult to achieve financial triumph. Take the time to define what success means to you and set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. Whether it’s saving for retirement, paying off debt, or investing in a new venture, having tangible targets will keep you motivated and focused. Break down your goals into smaller milestones to celebrate your progress along the way. Visualize your success and use it as fuel to propel you forward. Goals could be different like owning a dream car, dream house, or retirement fund but having a clear goal helps you reach your destination easily

Conclusion

Mastering the mental game for financial triumph is a journey that requires dedication, discipline, self-reflection, and continuous growth. By adopting a positive mindset, challenging limiting beliefs, managing emotions, setting clear goals, you can take charge of your financial destiny. Remember, success is not just about the numbers; it’s about the mindset. Embrace the power of your mind, and the potential for financial triumph will be within your grasp.

Now that you have a foundation to build upon, it’s time to take action. Start by incorporating these principles into your daily life and watch as your financial journey transforms. Success awaits those who master the mental game of money. Are you ready to embark on this transformative path?

Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme-related documents carefully.

ELSS OF MUTUAL FUNDS- SMART OPTION TO SAVE TAX & CREATE WEALTH

Are you looking for smart financial strategies to grow your wealth while enjoying tax benefits? Look no further! We are excited to introduce you to an incredible investment opportunity that combines tax-saving benefits with the potential for long-term wealth creation – Equity Linked Saving Schemes (ELSS).

Why ELSS?

Save on Taxes: ELSS offers you the opportunity to save taxes under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. By investing in ELSS, you can claim a deduction of up to ₹1.5 lakh from your taxable income, reducing your tax liability while building your wealth.

Wealth Creation Potential: ELSS is an equity-based mutual fund scheme that invests primarily in the stock market. Historically, equities have shown the potential to deliver higher returns compared to traditional investment avenues like fixed deposits or savings accounts. ELSS offers you the chance to participate in the growth potential of the stock market, helping you create long-term wealth.

Shortest Lock-in Period: ELSS has the shortest lock-in period among all tax-saving investment options. While other tax-saving instruments like Public Provident Fund (PPF) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) have lock-in periods of 15 years and 5 years, respectively, ELSS has a lock-in period of only 3 years. This means your money remains invested for a shorter duration, providing you with liquidity and flexibility.

Systematic Investment Option: ELSS offers you the convenience of investing through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP). With SIP, you can invest a fixed amount regularly, benefiting from the power of rupee cost averaging and mitigating the impact of market volatility.

Professional Fund Management: ELSS funds are managed by experienced and qualified fund managers who make investment decisions based on thorough research and market analysis. By investing in ELSS, you can leverage the expertise of these professionals to optimize your investment returns.

Start your journey to tax savings and wealth creation with ELSS today! We are ready to assist you in choosing the right ELSS fund that aligns with your financial goals and risk appetite.

Remember, the earlier you start, the longer your investments have to grow, potentially unlocking higher returns and securing your financial future.

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity! Invest in ELSS today and take a step towards saving taxes and building wealth. Get in touch with our team or visit our website for more information.
Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risk. Read all scheme-related documents carefully.

New EPF Tax Rules and Alternative Investment Options to Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF)

During Budget 2021 Finance Minister announced interest earned on the EPF contributions (only employee contribution) above ₹2.5 lakh a year will be taxable from 1 April 2021.

If there is no employer contribution, the deposit threshold limit in provident funds has been raised to Rs 5 lakh per year, with interest remaining tax-free

 

The High Net worth salaried employees who use Voluntary Provident Fund to invest more than mandatory 12% of basic pay, will also be impacted as it will fall under their Tax Regime.

Under the existing tax provisions, interest received/accrued from employee’s provident fund (EPF) is exempt from tax. It is proposed that the interest earned on the EPF contributions (only employee contribution) above Rs 2.5 lakh a year will now be taxable. This could potentially impact employees in high-income bracket or employees making large voluntary employee provident fund contributions(VPF)

 

 

Any Alternative Investment Options to VPF Post This New PF Tax Rule ?

 

Yes .We Will discuss Three of the Alternative Investment Options

 

 

1-Debt Mutual Funds-Alternative Stable  Investment Option to VPF Contribution Above 2.5 Lacs Under Fixed Income as Asset Class

 

The SLR of investment stands for safety, liquidity and returns. EPF / VPF is safe. Debt MFs can also provide reasonable safety provided you select the Debt fund with the right portfolio quality and do the right matching of portfolio maturity and your investment horizon.

 

Wealthy PF Investors May Opt for Medium to Long Duration Debt Funds as Budget changes Tax Rule

 

Wealthy investors who park their spare money in voluntary provident fund (VPF) accounts may consider moving to debt mutual funds after the Union Budget’s new proposals.

In  Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF), employees contribute voluntarily, there is no tax benefit under section 80C of the Income tax Act (unlike contributions to EPF which qualify for tax benefits under Section 80C). But VPF earns the same attractive rate of interest as EPF and the interest has been tax exempt till now.

 

Headline salary would be approximately Rs 40-41 lakh per year. People earning higher than this can look for comparable options for their VPF contribution like Debt Mutual Funds as Mentioned Above.

 

Considering the actual  rate of interest in 2020-21 being 8.5%, Taking a tax rate of 30%, ignoring surcharge and taking cess at 4%, the net of tax return comes to 5.8% .

 

Liquidity is an issue in VPF. As against that, open ended mutual funds (MFs) offer liquidity in the form of easy redemptions and good credit quality as well, provided you select the right fund. There are Government Security based funds, there are funds based on State Government papers known as SDLs (State Development Loans) and funds with portfolios of AAA oriented PSUs and private sector companies. Debt MFs offer tax efficiency as well, over a holding period of 3 years or more. There is indexation benefit.

 

2-Alternative Investment Option to VPF Contribution Above 2.5 Lacs Under Equity as Asset Class

 

ELSS- Equity Linked Savings Scheme.ELSS is a category of Open Ended Equity Mutual Funds which has lock in of 3 yrs ,provides equity returns and tax benefits under 80C.Though it denotes Investment in riskier assets ie equity,but If one has risk apetite and uses disciplined process which Mutual Funds bring, ELSS is one of the best 80C investment which gives an investor Wealth Creation +Tax Benefits Under 80C . Need to Note Long Term Capital Gains applicable on Withdrawal ie LTCG 10% More than 1 Lac.   ELSS schemes from AMCs have delivered superb Long Term double digit Compounding Returns

 

3-Low Cost Pension Scheme as Alternative to VPF Contributions Above 2.5 Lacs for Creating Potential Retirement Corpus

 

NPS (National Pension System). This is a post-retirement income product that provides for a market-linked pension system. It allows the investor to choose an asset allocation between equity and debt,  matures at age 60, but has some restrictions on utilization of corpus on maturity. Only 60 percent of the NPS corpus can be withdrawn tax-free, while the remaining 40 percent must be used to buy an annuity (pension) product to provide taxable pension-income. If one is already investing in equity funds, then one can set conservative allocation for NPS (Schemes G and C ) and invest the amount above Rs 2.5 lakh in NPS instead of VPF.

Many employers offer NPS in addition to EPF.

By this one can divert the excess part of employee contribution to conservatively-allocated NPS. For those who have no other exposure to equity, equity in NPS allocation can be considered. Since equity in NPS is expected to deliver higher-than-debt kind of returns in the long run (as NPS returns are market-linked)

 

Tax Loss Harvesting and Its Advantages,in Investment Parlance

Tax Loss

Tax Loss Harvesting and Its Advantages,in Investment Parlance

Investors adopt this strategy during the financial year-end.Also this approach can be executed at any time of the year.


In this approach,an investor tends to sell the equities or equities dominated instruments which are experiencing a fall in their value. These securities are sold if an investor believes that there is a bleak chance of them,rebounding from current levels.

This loss thus booked gets adjusted to the capital gains booked in other securities in the portfolio.This strategy lowers the net capital gain for investor, thereby reducing his tax liability for the year.

Simple Steps for Tax Harvesting

1. Identify stocks that have seen a constant decline and ones that have lost enough value that they may not recover soon enough.
2. Sell them off and book losses. The capital losses can be offsetted against capital gains you have made in your portfolio.Long term capital losses can be set off only against long term capital gains, but short term capital losses can be set off against both short term and long term capital gains in your holdings.

How to Maintain Asset Allocation Post Applying Tax Loss Harvesting Strategy

Investors cud also buy shares of the same sector from the sale proceeds he received after booking losses, to maintain sectoral balance of the portfolio and healthy diversification.

Important Capital Gain Tax Rules For Better Personal Finance and Tax Loss Harvesting Rules

Short-term gains can’t be used to set-off Long-term losses.
1. An investor shud estimate tax liability before executing any loss-making trades.
2. An investor shud assess the risk-return profile of an instrument before investing the released capital
3. This method shud be used only for tax saving. It shudn’t drive investments.

To conclude, tax loss harvesting is an important concept which helps in reducing the tax liability that may arise, due to profits booked in both short-term and long-term investments

Long-term capital loss (LTCL) arising out of sale of any capital asset can be used to set off Long term capital gains arising out of sale of any capital asset.


STCL can be used to set off both STCG and LTCG.LTCL can be used to set off only LTCG.


You cud use these set offs across asset classes too.


You can use STCL from sale of debt mutual funds to set off STCG from the sale of equity funds/shares/debt funds/gold/bonds/real estate etc.

You can use STCL from your stocks/equity funds to set off STCG or LTCG from debt mutual funds or other capital assets or even STCG or LTCG on equities booked earlier in the year.


Summarising,U can harvest your losses and make money out of it,if U apply yourself intelligently !!!

Indexation Benefits in Debt Mutual Funds Over Traditional Fixed Income Instruments

Indexation

When fixed deposit rates are so low ,then it’s natural for Investors to try & look for alternatives to bank FDs/Traditional Fixed Income Investments . And one very obvious alternative is the Debt mutual fund. Debt funds have historically delivered returns better than fixed deposits.

 

One clear advantage that debt funds have over FDs (fixed deposits),is their tax treatment. And that too ,Indexation benefit which allows debt funds to drastically cut down  tax outgo and improve post-tax returns.

 

The  tax rate depends largely upon whether the capital gain was earned over a short or a long-time period.

 

Latest Debt Fund Taxation Rules (FY 2020-2021):

 

  • Short Term Capital Gains (STCG)– Gains made on investment in Debt Mutual Funds held for less than 3 years (or 36 months). And this Short Term Capital Gains (or STCG) on Debt funds are taxed as per the investor’s income tax slab rate.

 

  • Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) – Gains made on investment in Debt Mutual Funds held for more than 3 years (or 36 months). And this Long Term Capital Gains (or LTCG) on Debt funds is taxed at 20% with indexation

 

What is Indexation?

 

Indexation is a way to adjust capital gains as per the prevailing inflation index. So via indexation, the purchase price of an investment is adjusted for inflation (usually upwards). By increasing the purchase cost, the capital gain for tax purposes gets reduced. As a result, the actual tax you pay, also reduces significantly.

The government regularly releases the Cost of Inflation Index (CII) which is used to index (or adjust) the cost of acquisition of the debt mutual fund units

 

Examples of Indexation Benefits in Debt Mutual Funds

 

Suppose you invested Rs 20 lakhs in a  debt fund in Sep 2016. After a little more than 4 years, i.e. in Dec 2020, the value of your debt fund investments has become Rs 28 lakhs.

Now you plan to sell your debt fund investment at this point.

So mathematically speaking, you made capital gains of Rs 8 lakhs, i.e. Rs 28 lakhs – Rs 20 lakhs. Is that your actual profit? Answer is No

 

This gain was made after a period of 4 years, which is more than 3 years requirement for capital gains qualifying as Long Term Capital Gains for Debt Funds.

So do you pay tax on this full Rs 8 lakh gain at the time of selling?

 

No,once again.

 

Cost of acquisition = Rs 20 lakh

  • CII number for 2016-17, the year of purchase = 264
  • CII number for 2020-21, the year of sale = 301

 

So the indexed cost price of acquisition is calculated using the formula:

Indexed Cost = Actual Cost * (CII of Sale Year / CII of Purchase Year)

And in our example, this comes out as follows:

= Rs 20 lakh * (301/264) = Rs 22,80,303