Where to put money and what it actually returns after tax, costs and penalties — compared with the sums shown rather than asserted.
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The EPF Scheme, 1952 was superseded on 1 July 2026. Full withdrawal on resignation now needs twelve months out of covered employment, not two. What the new paragraphs 46, 47 and 49 say, how to read a passbook, how to chase a missing contribution, and where the pension and gratuity thresholds sit.
Answers inside
A credit card against an FD, a loan against mutual funds, a loan against PPF, an overdraft against an FD, and an overdraft against salary: five ways to raise cash without redeeming what you already own, with the real rates and one government rule that punishes lateness by 6 times over.
SEBI rewrote the list on 26 February 2026: retirement and children’s funds are gone, life cycle funds are new, and every fund must be named for its category. Each type explained by what it holds and what it suits, with tax under the new Income-tax Act and what a regular plan really costs you.
Gold ETFs and gold funds are SEBI-regulated; SEBI says digital gold operates entirely outside its purview. How the three compare on cost, on the tax rules that changed in April 2025, and on your own amount.
A SIF is a mutual fund scheme that can short up to 25% of its assets, sold only to investors with ₹10 lakh or more. What SEBI allows, what happens if you fall below the minimum, and what eleven months of AMFI data show.
The option window closed on 30 November 2025, but new recruits still choose within 30 days and UPS members can switch back to NPS once. Here is the comparison from PFRDA’s own formulas, worked through in rupees, including the 60% withdrawal that permanently shrinks the UPS payout.
Everyone repeats the same framework (safety for near money, equity for distant money) and almost nobody attaches the numbers. Here are the notified rates, the tax treatment, the lock-ins, and the two changes most published advice has missed.
Three credible sources tell three different stories about Indian money in Dubai. All three are right, and none of them covers the rule that decides what the asset actually returns.
Two of these are savings products and one is a loan, which is exactly why people get the choice wrong. Worked through with the arithmetic, the penalties and the tax shown.
Figures come from the organisation that published them — the regulator, the bank’s own rate card, the filing, the Act. Where a number could not be verified, the guide says so instead of estimating.
Worked examples are calculated, not illustrated, and every table states the assumptions behind it so you can redo the sum with your own numbers.
Each guide carries the date it was last checked rather than the date it first appeared, and corrections are published on the guide itself.
