Although the 8th Pay Commission is yet to begin its work, it will be interesting to see how it deals with the Pay Matrix introduced by the 7th Pay Commission. The Pay Matrix promised to remove the anomalies noticed in the running Pay Bands and Grade Pay introduced by the 6th CPC.

Employees Provident Fund Organisation has kept the EPF interest rate for FY 2024-25 unchanged at 8.25%. In past, EPF subscribers have enjoyed up to 12% interest on their provident fund deposits. The EPFO started its journey in 1952-53 offering 3% interest, which went up to 12% in the 1990s. The EPF interest rate has never been below 8% since 1977-78.

Taxpayers can save tax on up to ₹1.5 lakh income by making investments under schemes approved for tax deduction under Section 80C of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Of these, some popular schemes allow tax deductions even on investments made in the name of a child.

Investors who are getting out of SIPs now are essentially ignoring the basic principle at the heart of investing regularly through SIPs, which is cost averaging.

While the individual LIC policies are contracts between the policyholder and the insurer, the sum assured is backed by a sovereign guarantee. This means, even if the LIC fails, the government would pay the sum assured to a person holding a LIC policy.

Margin trading facility is a financial tool that enables investors to buy stocks by paying only a portion of the total value while the broker provides the rest. With the help of MTF, investors can buy a larger value of stocks against the money they may not have.

SEBI says that an investor can declare up to 10 persons as nominees in the demat account or mutual fund folio. However, the investor will need to declare the nominee. It cannot be done by the Power of Attorney (PoA) holder(s) of the investor.