What are the best home loan options available in India for a techie for 50 lacs, with a tenure of 20 years?

It depends on your priorities. If you are willing to buy some time and waste less money, then go for PSU banks. They take time, but are very transparent and their interests are reasonable and have no hidden charges but you might not get the expected amount.

Private banks offer good service, fast processing and you might the get amount as you expect but beware of hidden charges, high interest rates, they are slow to reduce interest rates, have pre-closure charges, etc.

so if you are in a hurry, financially smart and have a keen eye for detail, and expecting your income to rise considerably in the future, or surely make profit from your home, then go for private banks but keep a tab on their charges every month.

If you just want a peaceful home to stay, and not get into any further trouble in the future, just struggle a bit till you get the loan from a PSU bank and be contempt.

As of now competition is tough and all banks offer interest rate in the range of 9 percent to 10.75 percent. This is one of the best times to buy a home loan with interest rates at a low point. If you are young and your spouse is earning or financially secure, go for floating rate of interest, as interest rates are expected to go down due to the market conditions.

If you are already having a lot of financial commitments and have saved very less money, and don't want to take any risks go for fixed rate of interest home loan.

What are the merits and demerits of SBI and HDFC home loans?

SBI home loans:

• Reasonable or lower interest rates.


• Some branches might have poor customer service.


• No unnecessary charges


• No pre-closure or part payment charges


• Over draft facility with SBI max home loan for loan account


• Overall You get what you see.. transparent home loan

Demerits

• Time consuming


• Have to produce all the documents


• Might have to make down payments or margin payment, which is usually up to 20 percent of the home loan amount. For eg: if your home loan is for 30 lakhs, you might be asked to have a amount of 5 to 6 lakhs in hand.


• Lot of rules and regulations


• Might not get expected loan amount

HDFC Home loan merits

1. Fast loan amount disbursal


2. Prompt customer service


3. Not a time consuming process


4. Can bargain and also get higher loan amount

Demerits

• Very slow to reduce interest rates if home loan rates come down


• Penalty is high if one month EMI is missed


• Hidden charges


• Pre-closure charges


• Pre-payment charges


• Highly expensive when compared to PSU home loans

What are the problems facing Indian life insurance companies? What is your opinion of Indian insurer LIC grabbing of the future competitive market?

Let’s face the facts, its like we all blame TV, mobile phones. The problem lies not with TV or mobile phones but the way we use them.

Similarly INSURANCE, is a good product but the brokers are hell bent on getting high commissions and only selling products with high commission.

For example, If 28 year old youth can get a term plan of 1 crore for 10k till the age of 75 why do you have to sell him a plan of 5 lacs with a premium of 35k per annum. Agreed in case of LIC the premium is given back to the customer after the maturity of the plan but is 5 lacs sufficient for your dependents.

But out of that 35k premium from LIC, if I invest 10k in a term plan from other insurers, i have remaining 25k and I can invest in other instruments like FD, mutual funds, gold, silver, ETF, chit funds etc and I would have made more money than 5 lacs sum assured from LIC.

For eg: I have 50k per month.

LIC plan - Roughly for a 30 year old male, non smoker will get a coverage of 50 lakhs. So after maturity I will get whatever premium I paid with some bonus or interest on the premium paid. Offcourse, my coverage will continue for the rest of my life. In short LIC plans are endowment plans which are equal to fixed deposits, or market linked which are equal to mutual funds or non linked plans equal to pure insurance plans with some profit.

Offcourse, some market linked LIC plans are good and you need not even pay the premium after certain years but for that the plan has to really do well which is again highly difficult because of the high fund management charges, plus the life cover and assured returns provided on the plans.

So if you want good coverage and just about decent returns in the worst case, you can go for LIC. But considering current rate of inflation and future cost of living, these plans will have to return really high in which the probability is high.

Moral of the story - never mix investment and insurance.

Insurance should purely cover your family or dependants and give a GOOD financial security for some years atleast.

Now imagine out of 50k i invest 10 in a term plan of 1 crore from a other or private players. Remaining 40k i can invest and make better returns with just SIP in mutual funds or even FD, etc.

LIC does have a slightly better option, LIC has launched a term plan as well but costs 20k roughly for 1 crore while private players charge less than 10k. Offcourse, LIC is a better brand but I am okay to buy from good reputed private players as well with some research.

Agreed, LIC is a good company but they need to change and give better plans.

It will still take some time but private players are already started eating into LIC’s monopoly. LIC still has time, resource and trust to maintain their market monopoly but not for long with this kind of lethargic attitude.

Agreed they have the best settlement ratio, good customer service but there are private players who offer equally good services at lower premiums. Remember what happened to Nokia.

My suggestion LIC plans are good for people who are having good source of higher income, well settled and are just happy with decent returns without too much risk.

But again, if you can get better returns being a little wise..its upto you..Afterall imagine from where does LIC gets the profits to give you. Their fund managers must be similarly doing the same.

My advice, will not suit everyone nor I am against LIC, nor I am insurance agent or will be in the future, but at those who are looking at alternative options.

Should we choose a maximum policy term if my wife and I are earning well? Or should we take the max sum, which is assured till 65?

Lets say at 79 years in case of an eventuality if sumthng happens..thn ur policy will come in force. This is the good side.

But what is the main pupose of insurance? It is NOT to make you rich. It is for financial security. So ensure you are adequately covered considering all your liabilities including expected money for your dependents to lead a decent life in case the police holder dies.

By the age of 60 or retirement or until the day you stop working, you should surely have insurance.

But you should not be still paying a high premium for insurance after your retirement. Ur basically investing your money in a not so effective way.

My suggestion buy a policy which covers your financial liability for the next 20 years.

As you age you can decrease your cover and buy a new policy. Basically after every few years you should be acheiving financial stability and being financially stable.

Also not to forgot that while you are reviewing your insurance cover after few years, your paying less premium and you can invest the money elsewhere instead of paying the same premium till maturity.

So think but at all costs NEVER BUY LESS INSURANCE COVER.

ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF EXTRA COVER.

What is the yearly rate of incremental premium increases for health insurance policies in India? Is there any upper or lower limit of increase?

Mostly it increases based on:

Taxes.

Age - after a age of say for eg: every 3 or 5 years based on insurance companies premium raises.

Otherwise premium will not increase for existing customers due to increase in medical costs.

Say at age of 20 if u brought a policy in 2017, you would have paid a premium of 10,000.

But if I brought a same policy at the age of 20 in 2025, i would be paying higher premium as costs would have been increased.

There is no way to calculate the exact percentage or predictable range. As you see the factors are all highly variable.

What's the best place to buy health insurance directly instead of via an agent in India?

First you need to decided which policy.

For this you have to call agents and meet them.

Or you can Google as well.

You can also try online policy comparison sites like

policy bazaar, coverfox or bankbazaar.

Also check Edelweiss tokio insurance. Their products also seem to be good.

Alternatively you can also directly buy from the insurance company websites.

Which is the best health insurance policy available with less premium?

You can try any government insurance companies like New India Assurance Company, United India , Oriental and National Insurance.

The premiums will be cheaper but it will have high deductibles (which means you will have to pay some percentage of money for the treatment from your hand, like 50–50 or 75–25 like that).

But if you search you will surely get one or two cheaper.

Does it make any difference if you purchase an LIC policy through an agent, and if you buy it directly from your portal online?

Except for term plans, LIC does not sell any policies online nor you can buy from online. However, there will be no difference in premium for you as a customer.

What percentage of your salary do you invest in mutual funds each month? What are the goals/targets that you want to achieve with this, and by when?

First decide what is your financial plan.

Sit with a financial planner or yourself ask what is your financial plan or aim. It should cover your retirement, saving for kids education, health expenses etc.

So based on your current income calculate along with inflation how much money you need after retirement. See online calculators. Hardly two mins.

Then see if mutual funds suit in your investment. For eg: If you are someone who is saving 3–4 lakhs for per months. Mutual fund might not be a good idea. You should try investments which offer better returns. Take higher risk, start a franchise, run a business etc. but the main goal all this should fit with your retirement plan. Don’t forget the big picture.

Now you will know how much percentage of your salary to invest in mutual funds each month.

Then first cover all your liabilities like:

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  • Life insurance - should help your dependents to live the same life standard incase policy holder dies
  
  
  
  • Health insurance - dont depend only on your company’s insurance. Eg: You get a new job. Joining is on 1 July. You quit old company on 15 June. Some health issue happens on June 20. What you will do. Some companies policy lapse year end, govt job people need not worry, but get the importance.
  
  
  
  • If not brought buy home insurance. If your having own home or high costly item in your home, even if rented home. Earthquake, theft, burglary, gas leak, fire etc..can happen to anyone but we just leave it careless. In case house got damaged home loan insurance which most banks make you buy wont pay. Home loan insurance is like life insurance, only if policy holder dies or got completely disabled, not getting income then they pay home loan and give house to your family. So buy home insurance, cover home building, items in home or both if its own home. Its cheap, eg i pay less than 4500 rupees for 65 lacs. Covered my home bricks, cement structure, furniture, electrical items, kitchen items, clothes, doors, windows. So you see how much precious things are in home. Burglary is also covered. But you have show bills while buying the policy, only then claim insurance will be possible if some theft happens in future.
  
  
  
  • Always have 6 months amount of your salary or income as savings. Eg: we have insurance, we have investments but any emergency like job loss, say major function or repair at home, or you got sick for 6 months. How family will run home. We borrow and this cycle never ends. Always plan for emergencies. DONT NEGLECT.
  
  
  
  

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  • Buy any other plans based on your requirement like critical illnesscareplan. Eg: health insurance pays only hospital expenses. Life insurance pays after death or serious disability. But critical illness insurance plan pays lump sum if person got detected with cancer, heart attack, stroke. So your treatment health insurance will cover but your house expenses…so..
  
  
  
  

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  • Buy Top up health insurance. 10 lac health insurance in market will cost say 60,000. But buy 5 lacs insurance for 30,000 and top health insurance for 5lacs, cost only 10,000. So total 40,000. Only thing only if your hospital bill crosses 5lacs, your top plan gets activated. So see if this plan suits your planning. Dont choose if you run the risk of being hospitalized more than once a year from chronic diseases, it is best to pay for a super top-up plan. If you run the risk of being hospitalized more than once a year from chronic diseases, it is best to pay for a super top-up plan.
  
  
  
  

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  • Like this sit with a financial planner cover all your liabilities, buy all the necessary plans, HAVE EMERGENCY FUND, then remaining amount Invest based on the returns you expect.
  
  
  
  

• Lastly, always keep an eye on your financial plan. Atleast know what is happening.


• Review 6 months or yearly once. Search for better plans, cheaper rates, better service. See if you retirement is as per plan. Br ready to change the plan after major events like marriage, kids, promotion etc.

Remember investment is LAST STEP in financial planning.