Hazards of lending money to close friends and relatives

We used to bailout our friends or relatives whenever they are in financial trouble. The loans may vary from Rs 100 to even Rs 100000 depending on the situation, need and the lenders lending ability ( I would call it as a soft corner). I used to get calls from my friends like

“Machi, my home loan is due today and I don’t have sufficient fund in my account could you transfer it? I will give it back in two days”

 “Wow I like this shirt da, could you use your credit card to buy it and I will transfer you after reaching home” 

Sometimes the request will itself be like a demand like “You were asking me to introduce my girlfriend’s roommate right? I am taking my girl friend and her roommate to a nice hotel for my birthday, so lend me 5000, you can also join us” This is a tough one to turn down.

I used to be the first person to lend money to my dear ones, when I started earning until I had two bitter experiences.  I was not fortunate to get a job in campus, I tried hard for around 8 months and got placed so when I got placed some of my friends where still searching for job. One day I got a call from my close friend who was in Bangalore asking me to transfer Rs.5000 to pay house rent that too not for him but for his close friends. He promised me that he will send it back that month end. My salary itself was Rs. 7000 and also I was paying EMI for my bike, but he was my best friend and we know each other for almost 8 years so I transferred it from my meager savings.  I expected him to pay me back next month but he didn’t, I expected him to call me back but he didn’t when I called him he apologized and told me that he will transfer it next month. Next month when I called him he neither attends my call nor called me back.  Few months later when I was in dire need for that money I asked one of my friends to call him and check with him, the reply I got was shocking “He is earning right? Then why is he pestering me like this for just 5000 Rs? Tell him that I will settle his money soon and ask him not to call me often“

In another occasion I loaned my colleague Rs 20000 who needed it for his surgery, he promised me to pay me back in installments.  He gave me 8000, 2000, 2000 and 5000 in the span of 8 months. Then after a year I found that there is no sign of him paying back the rest. When I asked him, he said he paid the entire amount. I checked my entire account but I found 3k short, I asked him again, he said he paid it in cash. I used to note down all my transactions using one of these tools, so there is no way that I can miss it but still I couldn’t argue with him.

Some of the attributes I observed on people taking loan from friends/relatives are:

• They just want us to help them in all the occasions. They don’t care about our financial positions or commitments.
• Even though they have option to avail soft loan with minor interest like loan from office or even taking salary advance, they don’t do it they just want an interest free loan with no commitments.
• Most of them with my experience will never payback in time or pay it as a whole. They split it into small pieces where it loses its value.

Lessons learnt:

• Make sure that if the person is not paying back to you on promised time it won’t affect you financial goals.
• Don’t be too generous to put a salary advance and loan it to someone.
• Never lend someone huge money for the first time. If you have already lent some money to him and he sticks to the deadline or at least have courtesy to call you back and inform you about the delay then you can go ahead.
• Avoid accepting part payments if you can’t then at least ask him to send an email whenever he transfers the money quoting the amount he has transferred. Make sure to save the mail.

Whenever I need some money I will take this approach

• See whether I can avoid/defer a buying decision to avoid loan.
• See whether I can borrow from my friend and pay it back within 10 working days.
• See whether I can use credit card or sell some of my shares/mutual funds and finally
• Ask my dad.

So I suggest you people to go slow on lending.  If you decide to lend make sure that your relationship won’t turn worse. Whats your take on Lending money?

Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

WikiLeaks releases US embassy cables

The release of over 2,50,000 secret cables exchanged by US embassy on Sunday by WikiLeaks has created tremors across the world. The cables showed us how the embassies involved in background lobbying and their hidden agendas. Some of the highlights of the leaks are

• Fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, “if the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons,’ he argued.”
• American and South Korean officials have discussed the prospects for a unified Korea, should the North’s economic troubles and political transition lead the state to implode.
• Corruption within the Afghan government, with concerns heightened when a senior official was found to be carrying more than $50m in cash on a foreign trip.
• US officials being instructed to spy on the UN's leadership by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
•  A global computer hacking effort: China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.
• Bargaining to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison camp - including Slovenian diplomats being told to take in a freed prisoner if they wanted to secure a meeting with President Barack Obama.

WikiLeaks  is an international non-profit media organization that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous sources and leaks. They have earlier released Afghan war diary and Iraq war logs. Julian Assange is believed to be the founder and spokesperson of the WikiLeaks though there is no official word on it. I wonder what would happen to him if he was an Indian and released dozens of classified documents of Indian politicians. 

I like their tagline "Courage is contagious". 

FYI: In India there have been eight murders and 20 serious attacks on RTI activists in the last one year alone.

Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

Chrome OS is coming, really?

I first heard about Chrome OS when I started using Chrome Browser, I was confused on whether Chrome OS is just like Windows/Linux to be installed on our machine or is it an OS that runs on the Chrome browser. To complicate my understanding, Google came up with Android OS.  Android is another OS similar to Windows Mobile, iOS,etc.  So I thought its just an rumor, but man its happening and its happening fast.

Initially Google wants to make life simpler for people who spends most of the time in internet like checking emails, chatting with friends, looking for information. Why the heck should they wait for the OS to boot or worry about the automatic updates or viruses? So the main objective of Chrome OS is Speed, Simplicity and Secure.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at net-books. Google's objective is that anyone who is using Chrome OS shall go to any part of the world and still access their contents in seconds, everything is in cloud. Here is an related article on Chrome OS.

But still confusions are there on how native application will run?. I think for a while both Chrome OS and Windows OS will coexist together. People will install Chrome OS in their Windows PC and make Chrome OS as a default OS. User will then boot their computer into Chrome OS, and within seconds be able to use the Chrome browser and web-based apps. When the user needs to run native app, they activate it and Chrome loads Windows in the background.  

So after a while, people will start developing Apps for Chrome OS. Wow, I hope there is bright future for Indian IT companies, at least for next 15 years. Imagine companies trying to port their native applications to Chrome OS!!!

Note: Acer is working on a net-book which runs on a Chrome OS and may be available this year or early next year.

Exciting!!!!

Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

Investing in Mutual Funds - Part 1

I got exposed to mutual funds in 2003, I don't have any idea about MF at that time and still managed to invest and make profit. I treated MF just like stock, after it gained 20% I just sold it and bought another MF. I didn't care about the track record of the fund, I didn't know the asset allocation. After an year of investing in MF I started taking it seriously and analyzed everything before investing.

I will share my experience on investing in Mutual funds in a series of article.

1.What is a Mutual fund?
Mutual fund is a scheme where many people pool their savings together to invest.

2.Who pools the fund? Are they safe?
AMC's (Asset Management Company) manages the fund and it sets an objective like

• Hey guys with this fund we are going to invest in Large Cap(Blue chip) companies and most of our investments will be in Energy Sector.
• Our benchmark is Sensex ( We are competing against Sensex, if you invest Rs 10000 equally in all the stocks which makes Sensex and the same amount in our MF then we will make sure that we will give you more returns than Sensex)

Yes, your investment is safe. All the AMC's come under the regulations of SEBI (Securities and  Exchange  Board of India)

3.What investing in stocks? then why cant I do it myself?

Yes, of course you can do it but there are certain reasons and benefits associated with investing in MF

• You can invest in MF even with a small amount, say Rs 1000.
• You can diversify your investment across many stocks in MF. Your 1000 Rs might be invested in 20 different stocks.
• You get a fund manager to overlook the investments made, track the performance and take corrective action if it doesn't perform well.

4. Should I pay anything to the AMC?

• If you invest through  your financial advisor, LIC agent,  your lovers brother then you will be charged with transaction charges(Since abolished entry load)
• Certain funds charge you Exit Load if you sell your funds within a year. 
• There is a fund management fee . You can check the Expense ratio of a fund to determine how much you pay a fund in percentage term every year to manage your money.

5. Is there any way to avoid all the costs associated with MF?

I started liking you, now you are looking for a free lunch.  You can't avoid all the costs but certainly you can avoid transaction charges by investing directly with the AMC. 

6. How should I do it?

Go to the AMC's web site directly and invest it online (For Ex: http://www.hdfcfund.com/). However for the very first time you need to visit the Investor service center of the AMC and invest.

7. What is NAV?

Net Asset Value is the value of your single unit of fund.  For Eg: If you have Rs. 10000 and if you want to invest in XYZ fund whose current NAV is 10, you will get 1000 units.

The rule is every AMC should declare NAV once in a week however most of the MF declare it every day.

8. Hey my friend invested in Unitech shares and got 100% returns in 6 months, will I get similar returns here?

No,  sicne MF is diversified it wont give you astonishing returns like investing in shares however MF will not go down heavily like stocks.

9.No man there is no thrill in MF's, its boring?

If you seek thrill then go Bungee Jumping or propose to Dawood's daughter. 

In next series we will see what are the different types of Mutual funds and on how to choose a fund.

    




Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

Mobile Number Portability

The long wait will be over soon, yes the first phase of MNP is rolling out on 25th November in Haryana. MNP allows users to switch between mobile phone service providers without their mobile number getting changed. So here is how MNP works

1. Send this SMS  "PORT  < Mobile Number >"  to 1900
2. You will get an SMS with your unique porting code. This is a unique number that will be maintained along with your mobile number with a third party called  MNP Service Provider. 
3. You need to fill an application with the new service provider quoting your unique number.
4. The new operator will negotiate with the existing operator on the date and time for porting. Once agreed, the date will be communicated to you and the MNP service provider.
5. On the set date and time, the mobile number will be disconnected by the current service provider and the new operator will activate it.

Some FAQ's

• The charge for porting your number is Rs. 19 Max
• You can switch between operators any number of time. But there is a lock-in period of 90 days with each operator.
• If you want to move to another state and want to maintain the same number then MNP is not the answer. MNP allows you to port between the operators in the same circle where your number is currently registered.
• It may take a maximum of 4 days for porting your number.
• At the time of porting your number will be disconnected for about 2 hours.
• Pre-paid customers will loose their existing balance when they port the number.
• Post-paid customers will have to clear all the dues before porting.

Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

Swallowed Objects - A tip for parenting

Babies and young children generally put almost everything into their mouth, thats how they understand shape and taste of the objects. Most of the objects pass from the throat to the esophagus to the stomach and eventually pass out in stool. Some times it got stuck in the throat which results in choking. One of the nightmare of first time parents is this and I learned it hard way.

On one occasion my friends visited my house and gifted a ring to my kid. After they left, me, my wife and my kid went for grocery shopping. While returning we find the ring missing, when I touch my kids finger it was wet. Panic stuck, we made a frenetic search every where. We went to all the shops we visited and inquired, everyone started advising how to be careful. We couldn't find it anywhere and so thought of taking him to hospital. I told my wife to take him home and get ready while I went another round searching. Luckily I found that ring under my parked car.

On another occasion my kid was playing with a teddy bear. Suddenly I noticed its nose and one eye were missing. Again we searched the entire house and found out the nose, but couldn't find the eye. We took him to the hospital immediately. X-Ray was ruled out since the eye is made of plastic. Doctor told us not to worry since he was playing well. He told us to wait for couple of days and examine his stool carefully OMG (Ithu oru polapa). The doctor also gave a pill which has to be inserted in his anus if he struggle to pass out. It was very frightening, whenever he struggles we don't know whether it was because of constipation or the because he is pushing the object out. Our wait was in vain, nothing turned out.

Here are some of my tips:

• Inspect the room carefully every time you enter the room.
• Don't give raw carrot, nuts, popcorn, hard chocolates, anything difficult to swallow before 18 months.
• If your kid is sitting in the same place for few minutes without playing check the mouth immediately.
• Don't give small objects for the kids to play. Avoid small cars, toy car tires, marbles, beads, safety pin, coins, button battery, busted balloon.
• Before giving any toy check whether it has some broken or loose parts.
• Avoid keeping coins,medicines,hazardous materials reachable to kids.
• If you are ultra rich baby proof your entire house. 

Symptoms: 

• Choking
• Vomiting
• Trouble swallowing
• Making noise while breathing

It is common that kids eat things which should not be eaten like clay, soil, chalk, even snails and small insects. Even pregnant women develop some unusual carving for strange things. Some children begin to like the taste and go on eating it, this condition is called Pica, this may be due to developmental, behavioral problem consult your pediatrician immediately. 

Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

Gravity

Talking about Gravity in my previous post. I thought of sharing this information about that company. Gravity is an interesting startup which focuses on building a tool called Interest Graph that helps portals to fetch right kind of information to the people.

Interest Graph: an online representation of your real world interests and a new lens through which to view the internet. Your Interest Graph is your own personal electromagnet. It pulls the best stuff to you based on your interests and leaves all the noise at a safe distance where it can’t distract you. We build your Interest Graph by analyzing social data (like tweets, retweets, status updates, likes and shares) to create a holistic picture of who you are and what you’re interested in.

Amit Kapur is the CEO and co-founder of the company, he did his BS from Stanford University. He was formerly COO of MySpace. Here I present an excellent article from him.


The Future Will Be Personalized

When my partners and I joined MySpace, we were lucky enough to be at the leading edge of the social revolution that changed how we use the Internet. A new groundswell is coming, transforming the web once again: the personal revolution.

Information Overload

Today, we live in a world where we’re constantly overwhelmed by information. There are over 90M tweets per day, 34 hours of YouTube video uploaded every minute, and every Facebook user has an average of 130 friends who are becoming more and more active all the time. We also experience this with content farms flooding search results and with the thousands of articles available everyday on traditional websites like the New York Times and ESPN: of which only a handful appeal to each of our individual interests.

The rampant proliferation of information isn’t a new phenomenon. The signal-to-noise ratio on the web has fluctuated substantially as new technology to organize information has battled with new technology to create and distribute information.

Their Web: The Early Days of The Internet

In the early days, content was created and organized by professionals. At first, it was contained in networks like AOL, one of the pioneers of the Internet. As the Internet opened up, Yahoo! brilliantly organized the open web with Yahoo! Directory. But eventually the volume of the information overloaded even the directory, and search companies like Google introduced a better way to find content we were interested in. By understanding how sites linked to each other, Google applied new science to find a solution within the problem itself. It worked so well, every website is search engine optimized for this framework.

Our Web: Present Day

In 2003, user-generated content hit the mainstream via sites like MySpace and YouTube, and the volume of information being created increased dramatically.

“Every two days, we create as much information as we did up to 2003.” –Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

Search engines weren’t designed to effectively organize this social and real-time data. So innovative companies like Facebook and Twitter created a social filter by empowering our friends and people we trust to organize information for us. This new filter has given us access to more and better information than we ever thought possible. Like search, it’s so effective, every website is socially optimized for this framework.

Many of you reading this are avid users of social technology. Like me, you’re probably beginning to experience information overload in your social streams. There’s great content there, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to find it. In engineering terms, the signal-to-noise ratio is dropping (or, as a corollary, the work-to-reward ratio is increasing). And, as more people become more active in the social and real-time web, the problem will only get worse.

Your Web: The Future

Imagine opening up any web page or application and being presented with an experience that’s entirely personalized to you. Go to ESPN.com and see stories about the sports you love and teams you follow featured on the top. Check your daily Groupon for deals that map to your interests. Receive updates from Foursquare about restaurants you’ll want to visit. This is where things are headed. It’s about shifting from you trying to find the right information to the right information finding you.

In the past, we lacked the data and the technology to make this type of personal experience a reality. But that’s changing quickly. The abundant social data that’s overwhelming our social streams not only presents a problem but the solution. Using natural language processing and semantic analysis to evaluate your tweets, status updates, like, shares, and check-ins, it’s possible to build a holistic understanding of who you are and what you’re interested in.

Once the web knows your interests, it can start to change… Any website or app can use knowledge of your interests in order to give you a personal experience.

Music followed a similar evolutionary path. Music discovery has grown from being curated by professionals (DJ’s, MTV) to being introduced socially (mixed tapes, playlists) to being organized around your personal interests (Pandora).

All of this doesn’t mean that editors go away or your friends’ referrals don’t matter. Rather, it’s a new lens focused entirely on you.

Building the Personal Web: Enter Gravity’s Interest Graph

Incredible academic and commercial research in the fields of natural language processing and semantic technology has built the groundwork for where we are today. Still we have a long way to go before the personal web is a reality. Gravity will be one of many companies working on the personal web in the coming years. Our platform will allow partners to personalize their experiences when a user connects to the service. The basis for our platform is what we call the Interest Graph, an online representation of your interests, including your strength of attachment and its trajectory over time.

To view your Interest Graph right now and help us tune our algorithms, we’d love for you to play Twinterest (gravity.com/labs) and send us feedback.

[Source: TechCrunch]

Do you like it? If yes don't forget to vote for it.

Girl Locator App

Hey somebody please develop an App for the following requirement

Even though it looks funny, I think this can be done if we know our ex-girl friends phone number. We can do some sort of triangulation of the cell phone towers and plot the points with respect to our mobile location.

Augmented reality is also possible. I believe by combining  minimal AI, face detection technique and data mining through the social networking profile we can achieve this. Already a tool called Xobni does an excellent work in mining the data from lots of social networking sites. Another interesting company called Gravity does a lot of AI and mining work in social networking sites to fetch content relevant  and personalized to you.

App developers please comment.

கோவை கொலை

சென்ற வாரம் என் நண்பன் உடைய திருமனத்திற்கு பொள்ளாச்சி சென்றிருந்தேன். அங்கு கோவையை சேர்ந்த சில நண்பர்களையும், அந்த மாவட்டத்தை சேர்ந்த சில மக்களையும் சந்திக்கும் வாய்பு எனக்கு கிடைத்தது. கோவையில் அந்த குழந்தைகளை கடத்தி கொலை செய்த சம்பவம் எல்லோரிடமும் ஒரு தாகத்தை ஏற்படுத்தி இருப்பதை உணர முடிகிறது. கொலை செய்தது மட்டும் இன்றி அந்த சிறுமியை வன்புணர்ச்சி செய்தது மக்களை மிகவும் கொதிபடைய வைத்திருகிறது. 

இது போன்ற என்னற்ற சம்பவம் சென்னை போன்ற நகரங்களில் மிக சாதரணமாக நடந்து கொண்டு இருக்கிறது. பள்ளிக்கு செல்லும் குழந்தைகள்  ஆசிரியர்களால், வேன் டிரைவர்களால், பள்ளி மாணவர்களால் எதோ ஒரு வகையில் செக்ஸ் தொல்லைகளுக்கு ஆளாக படுவதாய் நாம் தினந்தோறும் செய்தி தாளில் படித்து கொண்டு இருக்கிறோம். சென்னை போன்ற ஊர்களில் அடுத்தவருக்கு நடந்தால் அது செய்தி நமக்கு நடந்தால் அது கஷ்டம் என்ற மனபான்மைய்லே நாம் உள்ளோம். கோவை ஒரு கூட்டு குடும்பம் போன்ற அழகான ஊர் என்பதால் அங்கே மக்கள் இடத்தே இந்த கொலை ஒரு பெரிய கிளர்ச்சியி ஏற்படுத்தி இருக்கிறது.

அந்த குழந்தைகளின் இறுதி ஊர்வலத்திற்கு ஐந்தாயிரம் பொது மக்கள் கலந்து கொண்டார்கள் என்றும், அந்த கொலைக்கு காரணமாக என்கவுண்ட்ட செய்யப்பட்ட டிரைவர் மோகன்ராஜின் பிணத்தை அவனது சொந்த ஊரில் அனுமதிக்க மறுத்தார்கள் என்றும், என்கௌன்ட்டர் செய்ததை விட சித்ரவதை செய்து உயிருடன் அவனை விட்டு இருக்க வேண்டும் என்றும் அவர்கள் சொனதை கேட்க நேரிட்டது.

இப்பொழுது சமூக ஆர்வலர்களும், மனித உரிமை போராளிகளும் சட்டபடி தீர்ப்பு வரும் முன் ஒருவரை கொலை செய்தது தவறு என்றும். அப்படியே அவன் தவறு செய்தால் கூட, குற்றவாளி தவறு செய்த காரணங்களை அறிந்து அதனை களைவதற்கான முயற்சியை தான் செய்யவேண்டும் என்றும் கூறுகின்றனர். இது திருட்டு, உணர்ச்சி வசப்பட்டு செய்யும் கொலைகள் போன்றவைகளுக்கு பொருந்துமே ஒளியே சிறுமி என்று கூட பாராமல் வன்புணர்ச்சி செய்த ஒரு மிருகத்துக்கு எப்படி பொருந்தும் என்பது எனக்கு புரியவில்லை.  

என் குழந்தைக்கு காய்ச்சல் வந்தால் கூட செய்யும் வேலையில் கவனம் சிதறி போகும் எனக்கு, அந்த பெற்றவர்கள் பட்டிருக்கும் ஒரு ஒரு நொடி வேதனையும், குழந்தை எப்படியும் கிடைத்து விடும் என்ற நப்பாசையும், அது சிதறி போகும் கொடுமையும் நினைத்து கூட பார்க்க முடியவில்லை. அவர்களுக்கு எந்த மாதிரி நம்பிக்கையை இந்த சமுதையம் இனி வழங்க முடியும்? குற்றவாளியின் மரணம் தான் இதற்கு ஒரே தீர்வு. இது அவர்களுக்கு இறந்து போன குழந்தைகளை திருப்பி தராவிட்டாலும் ஒரு மன அமைதியை ஏற்படுத்த உதவும்.

மரண தண்டனை இருந்தும் கொலை குற்றங்கள் இன்னும் நடந்து கொண்டு தான் இருக்கிறது, அதே போல் இந்த என்கவுன்ட்டர் எந்த மாற்றத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்தாது, ஒரு சில மாதங்களுக்கு ஒரு தாகத்தை ஏற்படுத்தும் மற்றபடி இது  போலீசின் கையில் இன்னுமொரு பலமான அயுதத்தை கொடுக்கும் என்று சொல்லும் பெரியவர்கள் இதை புரிந்து கொள்ள வேண்டும். நிமிடத்திற்கு ஒரு பாலியல் வன்முறை  நடக்கும் இந்த சமுதாயத்தில் ஒரு மாதம் அமைதி இந்த என்கௌன்ட்டர் ஏற்படுத்தும் என்றால் அதுவே எனக்கு நிம்மதியை கொடுக்கிறது. 

குற்றம் செய்த சில மாதங்களுக்கு உள்ளாகவே தீர்ப்பு கொடுத்து தண்டனை நிறைவேற்றும் வரை இது போன்ற என்கௌன்ட்டர் அவசியம் என்றே தோன்றுகிறது.

இருந்தும் இந்த என்கௌன்ட்டர் ஒரு சில அரசியல் உள்நோக்குடன் நடந்தது என்பதை மறுக்க முடியாது. உயர் பதவியில் இருந்து தவறு செய்யும் அதிகாரிகளை விட்டு, ஒரு பின்னணியும் இல்லாத குற்றவாளியை போட்டு தள்ளியது சாதனை அல்ல.

ரத்தோர் போன்ற அதிகாரிகள் சட்டத்தின் ஓட்டையை பயன் படுத்தி வெளிய வரும் பொழுது அவர்கள் உதிர்க்கும் புன்னகை அருவருப்பாக இருக்கிறது. 

Expense tracking and Budgeting tips

Every time when I go for a trip and return home my mom use to calculate the expense and note it in diary. I used to make fun of her but now I started realizing the importance of it and started following it. The most common  problem is we often we forget to remember whom we have lent and how much. I will try to explain here on what are the various ways/tools I followed to keep track of my expenses.

Excel template:


My friend shared me an excel template called KharchaPani(Download), thanks for the unknown creator of this template, its a life saver. I started entering daily expenses and loans I took/gave. It is very simple and gives a basic chart for  your income vs expenses. The problem I faced with this is you have to always track the latest version and the merge issues if you have two copies one at home and one at office. This tool can be an alternate for online tools available for those who are afraid of privacy.

Buxfer:


I then moved on to an online expense tracking tool Buxfer. I used it for almost 5 years, its free and it has lot of features that reduces your manual work. It allows you synchronize with your bank account (For Indian users it allows only ICICI and HDFC).

You can create Wallet as an account and store the amount in you wallet and add manual transactions daily. For the transactions that you made with your debit/credit card it will sync automatically with your bank account and create an entry here, only thing you need to take care is tagging the transaction.

There is feature to create automatic transaction which I use it for recurring expense like Loan, Rent etc. It creates an entry with predefined tag and also generate alert as sms or mail.

Buxfer is a really cool tool, it gives you a lot of analysis of how we spend and also gives you projections on whether you will overshoot your budget.


Intuit


Currently I started using free trial of Intuit for my expense tracking(Intuit Trial). The paid version comes at 402.80 per year. Intuit is known for their famous softwares like Quicken and Turbo tax. Intuit acquired Mint in 2009 and gained lots of expertise in online personal finance tracking tools.

Man I love this tool. You can synchronize almost all the major bank accounts in india. It also helps me to synchronize my portfolio from money control and form ICICI direct which is a major plus. I can view my entire financial status at one point. It has alerts and remainder too!!

Initially I was worried about the data security but my friend who is working for Intuit explained me about the level of security which somehow eased my initial jitters.

-----

The major advantage I gained after tracking my expenses are

• It induced my interest for learning other areas of personal finance.
• I can easily track the money I loaned.
• I stopped taking loans from my friends, since I budget every expense an year ahead.
• I always know how much cash I will have at any particular point of time for that year.
• I never missed my Insurance payments and bills.
• I started advising my Dad  :) 

Disclaimer: I suggest you to please analyze the security features of whatever tools you want to use and make an informed decisions.

@Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg announced a new messaging system yesterday which was earlier considered as "gMail Killer". Here are some of the features of the new messaging system

• It combines SMS, IM and e-Mail together.
• Once you have @Facebook id, anyone can mail you using traditional mailing system.
• All the messages from someone who you really cares(There seems to be a privacy setting to control this)  will reside in "Social Inbox".
• Rest of the messages like bank statement, credit card bills etc will reside in "Others" folder. It works pretty much like "Priority inbox" of gmail.
• You need not worry how the messages are delivered, If you are online the messages will be delivered to you as IM.
• There is no Subject,CC or BCC fields. The focus is purely on the message. Choose to whom you want to send the message, type the message and enter it.
• Entire conversation history is stored in your inbox. 
• It now works on Invite only.

You can request your invite here. Go grab yours!!! 

Note: Gmail was down shortly after Facebook unveiled its new messaging system.

Amazing Kinect!!!

Microsoft has come up with their next gen gaming console Kinect. It redefines the gaming no joysticks, no controller, nothing. You just simply convert your whole body into joystick and start playing. I played a lot using Nitendo Wii, it basically works on the principle of motion control. You get a Wiimote, we can use it to play the games. That brings a problem if we have a additional friend who likes to join us to play the game. Kinect comes handy here everyone in the hall can almost play the game.

Kinect is awesome, easy to install. You can flip through the menus just by waving the hands. It picks up all the motions, voice almost anything. It combines the social networking feature in it too. You can connect to a friend who has kinect using WiFi  and play a game.

Xbox 360 4 GB Console with Kinect costs around Rs.22,990. You can pre-order it here http://www.microsoftstore.co.in/microsoft/62/productlist/gaming.aspx

தமிழ் சினிமா - வரி விலக்கு

"ஒச்சாயி"நு ஒரு படம் ரிலீஸ் ஆச்சு, இதுல என்ன சிக்கல்னு பாத்திங்கன இது தமிழ் பேரா? இதுக்கு வரி விலக்கு குடுக்கலாமா வேண்டாமா? இது தான் பிரெச்சனை. ஒத்தாண்டம்மன் - ஒச்சாண்டம்மனாகி, அதிலிருந்து மறுவியப் பெயர் ஒச்சாயி, இப்படி விளக்கம் எல்லாம் குடுகரங்க.

இத விடுங்க "வ குவாட்டர் கட்டிங்" அப்படினு ஒரு படம் வந்திருக்கு, இது தமிழ் பேரம் அதுனால இதுக்கு வரி விலக்கு உண்டாம். இப்படி ஒரு வார்த்தை கேள்வி பட்டது இல்லையே அப்படின்னு மண்டைய ஒடச்சு அகராதி எல்லாம் தேடின பிறகு தான் இது கெடச்சுது

கைநாடி கசிந்துரகி டாஸ்மாக் அருகில்
வ குவாட்டர் கட்டிங்

                   - (கீ மு 1805) அய்யன் வரே வ சேட்ஜி, 

                      மேட்லி சப்வே. 


தமிழ்ல படம் பேரு வைத்தால் வரி விலக்குனு சொன்னதும் எதாவது ஒரு பேரு வைக்க வேண்டியது ஆனா படம் பூர இங்கிலிஷ்ல பேச வேண்டியது. கெளதம் மேனன் இருக்காரே  அவரு தான் இதுக்கு குரு. அவரு படத்துல பாதி வசனம் இங்கிலிஷ்ல தான் இருக்கும் ஏன்னு கேட்டா, "ஐ அம் இன் லவ் வித் யு " என்ற வசனத்தை தமிழ்ல சொன்னா கொச்சையா இருக்காம். ஏன் இருக்காது நம்ம தான் "மயிறு"ன்ற வார்த்தைய கெட்ட வார்த்தை அகிட்டோமே.

ஒபாமாவும் துபாய் மாமாவும்

ஒரு வழியா ஒபாமா வந்துட்டு போய்ட்டாரு !!! இதுக்கு என்ன ஆர்பாட்டம், என்ன அலம்பல்.. பத்து வருசத்துக்கு முன்னாடி என் மாமா துபாய்ல இருந்து வரார்னு கேள்வி பட்டதும் ஒரு வாரத்துக்கு முண்ணாடி இருந்தே நாக்கை தொங்க போட்டு காத்து கிடப்பேன் . வந்து எறங்கி ஹல்ல உகந்து டி சாப்பிடும் போதே எப்போடா பெட்டிய தொரபாருனு பாத்திட்டு இருப்பேன் . ஒரு வழிய எல்லா கதையும் பேசி பெட்டிய தொறந்து அம்மாக்கு யார்ட்லி பவுடர், அப்பாவுக்கு துபாய் வாட்ச், எனக்கு எதாவது துணி, சாக்லேட் குடுக்கற வரைக்கும் மனசே ஆறது. அப்படி ஆய்டுச்சு நாம ஒபாமா கதையும்.

நம்ப ஒபாமா பத்தி தான் நமக்கு  தெரியுமே , பெங்களூர் கரன் தான் அமெரிக்க காரனுக்கு ஆப்பு அடிக்கிறான், பாகிஸ்தான் பச்சை குழந்தை அது ஒன்னுக்கு உன்னை ஒன்னும் பண்ணாது, டேவிட் ஹீட்லி என் ஒன்னு விட்ட சித்தப்பா பயன் அவன் வலி தெரியாம இந்தியாக்கு வந்துட்டான், இப்படி பல விசயத்துல நம்ம அறிவு கண்ணா தொறந்து விட்டவரு .

இவருக்கு கோழி வறுவலாம், முட்டை பொறியலாம் (http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/nov/09/slide-show-1-obama-visit-presdiential-banquet-at-rashtrapati-bhavan.htm) நம்ம ஆளுங்க கிட்ட எனக்கு புடிச்சதே இந்த விருந்தோம்பல் தான். இதுல நம்ம பெருமை பட வேண்டிய விஷயம் என்னன்னா, இதுவரைக்கும் ஒபாமா எந்த நடலையும் இவளவு நாள் இருந்தது இல்லையம்.  என்னமோ போங்க நம்ம நாராயண மூர்த்தியே "அதிதி தேவோ  பாவ (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_don-t-be-apologetic-on-outsourcing-during-obama-visit-narayana-murthy_1457816"  சொல்லிடாரு நமக்கு என்ன.

டிஸ்கி: அமெரிக்க நம்ம அண்ணன் ஒபாமா தங்க ஒரு நாளைக்கு 900 ௦௦கோடி ருபாய் செலவு செயுது (http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/nov/03/slide-show-1-obama-visit-us-to-spend-rs-900-crore-a-day-on-india-trip.htm).