Inflation in India is slightly above the “tolerance limit”, and the government is taking steps to control it, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

 “Because we took a very calibrated approach, today we have an inflation which is slightly above the tolerance limit, but which is constantly being worked at so it can be brought down,” she said on Saturday.

India’s annual retail inflation for March rose at the slowest pace in nearly 15 months and was below the central bank’s upper tolerance level for the first time this year, on the back of softer food prices.

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It is natural for people’s attitudes to change as income increase. Mobile phones are usually replaced every six months or a year. Similarly, instead of travelling by bus, it has become a habit to call a call taxi. Instead of buying cheap clothes, some people look only at branded clothes.

There is nothing wrong with raising the cost of living in line with rising incomes. Ultimately, we work and earn an income to make life more comfortable. But if you do not pay attention to how much you spend in line with raising the standard of living, the costs will go beyond the limits. If the standard of living rises beyond that of income, it will adversely affect financial discipline.

The increase in the cost of living is most likely to affect people between the ages of 20 and 30. At this age, young people with light financial responsibilities may feel more inclined to get a good job and gradually increase their salary. Higher salaries at a young age can create a false sense of security. But while job security depends on many factors, it is not correct to assume that there will always be job security in life. Unexpected job loss can upset the standard of living.

The annual increase in the cost of living for people between the ages of 25 and 40 is 15 per cent to 20 per cent. But the increase in revenue is much lower than this. We often confuse this golden stream with the well. For example, suppose you bought a Maruti Suzuki Alto in 2014. Assuming a loan of Rs.3.5 lakh for this, the EMI can be assumed to be Rs. 6,000 to Rs.7,000. Now, if you buy a Swift car with a loan of Rs.5-6 lakh as part of raising your standard of living, the EMI will be Rs.10,00 to Rs.11,000. The increase in the cost of EMI is very high.

If raising the standard of living is a pleasure, then lowering the standard of living for unforeseen reasons is an unpleasant experience. This experience can be counterproductive if there is no control over costs. The drastic increase in the cost of living can lead to a decrease in the income required for later life.

It is important to maintain a balance between savings for future life and expenses for enjoying life today. You can reap the benefits in the future by avoiding some additional costs. This will help you to achieve the goals you want to achieve in life.

Unnecessary expenses can be avoided if the investment is carried forward in line with one’s life goals. If the investment is planned with retirement income, children’s education, marriage and housing in mind, there will be no money left over for unnecessary expenses. Only the money earned after investing a certain amount of income from each month for each of these purposes should be used for expenses. Care should also be taken to make it a habit to spend only within a fixed budget.

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Some adjectives lose their sheen over a span of time. In the days of democracy, the adjective ‘king’ is still being used by the people as a tradition. Their monarchy is only in name. What is lost when social change comes is the meaning of the title of king. Words about economic prosperity have suffered a similar meaninglessness.

In the past, a person having Rs.1 lakh was called Lakpathi. Today, people in the Information Technology sector and government employees with five or 10 years of experience or officer rank receive a monthly salary of over Rs.1 lakh. Even then, no one calls him a millionaire. Even some is called that, it’s considered as a joke. If the one who had lakhs of rupees was a nobleman, the one who had crores of rupees was a millionaire. Even though Rs.1 crore still a huge amount, no one calls a person who has that much money a millionaire.

In the past, those holding Rs.1 crore were rare. People in those days saw such achievements as possible only for those with special blessings from God. Therefore, a person having a crore rupees was considered a millionaire. But today, with just Rs.1 crore, we may not even be able to achieve all our life goals.

For someone who is continuing with the goal of earning Rs 1 crore after 30 years of investment, it may seem that he is planning to earn a large sum of money, but that amount may not even be enough to meet his daily needs in future.

For example, suppose the current cost of living for a 30-year-old is Rs.3 lakh a year. He is investing in an equity mutual fund with the goal of retirement at the age of 60 after 30 years. Under the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), he invests Rs.3,000 a month. The investment is targeted at Rs.1.05 crore after 30 years with an average return of 12% a year.

But will Rs.1 crore be enough for him to retire 30 years later and continue his retirement life smoothly? Assuming an average inflation rate of 60 per cent, he would need Rs.17.23 lakh a year for daily needs after 30 years.

At that time, if the interest he would receive from a bank for fixed deposit is six per cent and if he had deposited Rs.1 crore in the bank, he would get only Rs.6 lakh a year. If the tax is deducted, the return will decrease again. That is, he would get less than one-third of the amount he needs to live on by depositing Rs.1 crore in the bank. If you invest in a debt fund instead of investing in a bank, you can expect a slightly higher return, but you will not get the above amount.

If he wants to get Rs.17.23 lakh per annum with 60% return from the investment after 30 years, he has to have Rs.2.9 crore in his hand. If he continues with the existing SIP, he will have to get a return of 16.5 per cent per annum to get this amount. This is not easy to achieve. If the expected return is as high as 12 per cent, the monthly investment should be increased to Rs.8,500.

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KOCHI: Airtel Payments Bank has partnered with Mastercard to build customised solutions for payments for farmers and SMEs. The companies aim to cater to underbanked spectrum of users and enable digital adoption via the partnership.
“The collaboration aims at building a digital platform which provides farmers with knowledge about advanced farming techniques and connection to marketplaces, while simultaneously enabling them to receive payments directly in their Airtel Payments Bank account,” according to a company said in a statement.
Airtel Payments Bank currently hosts 4 crore customers across 5 lakh banking points.
“These solutions will enable them to access a larger market base, receive payments easily into their bank accounts, safeguard their money against risks associated with cash and get easy access to credit,” Porush Singh, Division President, South Asia, Mastercard said.

Airtel Payments Bank and Mastercard will work together to create differentiated card solutions, including solutions for contact less payments via NFC (Near Field Communication) for customers and merchants. NFC payment works when users pay with their smartphones in lieu of credit cards simply by waving their phone in front of a terminal.

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