8 Things you can do in the next 30 minutes that will enhance your financial life

1. First things first, DOWNLOAD your banking app on your phone! You need to be able to see your money at a moment’s notice.
2. Setup separate accounts for savings/investment and expenditure. I have two accounts, one is an expense account and one is an investment/savings account. At the beginning of every month, I move a certain amount for expenditure from my salary account (which is also my savings/investment account) to my expense account. Figure out something like this that works for you, so you don’t have to go insane with tracking your expenses.
3. Open a demat account for your investments! This hardly takes any time. There are so many brokers that offer this. There’s Zerodha (Kite), ICICI Direct, HDFC, Sharekhan. What do I use? I dabble with Kite and Sharekhan. Download the app on your phone!
4. Jot down all the expenses you think you have had this month. Then look over your account statement. How right were you? What did you miss? What are your blind-spots?
5. Look over your payslip and understand the split. What is HRA? How much tax are you paying? What is your EPF contribution? Are there any other deductions?
6. Check your EPF balance. Go to https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login and login with your UAN and password. Now if you don’t know what these things are, then I suggest you take this 30 minutes to get to know what the hell is going on here. It’s really important that you have access to your EPF account. Also ensure that you have updated the nominee details.
7. List down all your assets. How much is in your bank account? What is the total amount you have invested? How much have you accumulated in your PF? How much gold do you have? What’s that worth? How many fixed deposits do you have? Are there any SIPs that are running every month? What do they add up to?
8. List down all your liabilities. If you have debt, then ensure that you are doing everything you can in order to pay it off. Paying back the minimum for your loans only increases the interest rate. So come up with a strategy on how you can tackle this.