Disciplined Habits
The cover package was smart, intelligent and touched all the aspects of spending, saving, investing, and the loopholes to avoid while making big purchases, such as investing for a home. Treading The Fine Balance Between Spending And Saving in the October 2023 issue was an eye-opener on the importance of not going overboard with our festive shopping. I liked the example of septuagenarians Celine Dass and her husband Herbert who maintain the saving habits adopted in their working years. There’s a lot we can learn on how to be smart in money matters from them.

Rajesh Nigam, email

Debt Funds

The article in October 2023 issue, How Debt Fund Benefits Retirees, was thoughtfully written. Though it is known that mutual funds typically beat inflation in the long run, and can be of immense benefit to the retirees to give a boost to the retirement kitty, investment in risky mutual funds goes against the very grain of safe investment for most people in their 50s and certainly for senior citizens. They either invest in government schemes or in bank fixed deposits which offer some kind of liquidity too, completely ignoring the aspect of taxation, which actually takes their overall return from investment well below inflation.

Anuradha Sikdar, email

Asset Combination

I have been investing in mutual funds for a while now, and was never in favour of multi-asset funds despite them getting popular. The key takeaway from the article, Many-In-One: Which Combination Of Assets Suits You? (October 2023 issue) is that investors should carefully choose the fund as most fund houses follow their own-in-house strategies, which may not entirely align with your investment needs.

Nikhil Kamat, email

Diabetes Insurance

Diabetes is a debilitating disease that can lead to a lot of complications, including those of the heart, eyes and other vital organs of the body. Sadly, our lifestyle habits have contributed a lot to it. Many young people are getting afflicted with diabetes early in their working life. The fact that specific health insurance plans for diabetics also exist (A Friend In Need For Diabetics, October 2023) is a big relief to many diabetics like me, as most regular health plans either do not cover diabetes or offer too little by way of coverage. It’s good to know that while choosing a diabetes-specific health cover, one should go for a policy with a shorter waiting period and also be aware of factors, such as co-payments or sub-limits as these can impact our out-of-pocket expenses.

Nitin Deshmukh, email