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Loan On Farm
If you remember, the previous owner of our farm had a loan on the farm. They obtained the loan from a cooperative bank. At the time of registration, the agreement between us was that they will clear the loan once they receive money from us on the registration date. Once they repay the bank loan, the bank is supposed to report it to the Tahsildar office and the loan record is supposed to be cleared from our land documents. But it was easier said than done. Before receiving money, everyone agrees to all kinds of conditions. Once the money changes hands, we have to run behind them to get the things to which they agreed to do so willingly and cheerfully.
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When Warranty Works
We have a warranty on a product for various reasons. But I rarely found any warranty useful because either the product never has any problems, or it develops problems soon after the warranty expires. The later happens quite a bit with phones and laptops for me. Not sure how. So I find it very amusing when a product actually fails before warranty and gets replaced with a new one because it was under warranty. That happened a few days ago and it was like that once in a lifetime feeling. Of course the cost of the product is so low that there is nothing really to celebrate, but it is still something.
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Purchased A New TV To Help Reduce Electricity Bills
For all the claims I make about us being minimalists, we actually spend a lot. A few months back I decided to buy (yet) another TV. As if we already did not have enough in the house. We already have one large TV in the living room and one more old TV in my parents bedroom because my dad likes to watch TV quite a bit. He gets very bored when our parents visit us here in Bangalore. He doesn’t have much social activity like how he has back in my hometown where I grew up. He has a lot of social connections there. After setting up an old 32” TV connected to a Android TV box, he would happily browse youtube videos when he got bored. This was working fine until the ruling party changed in Karnataka and the new party came with Gruha Jyoti scheme. So I thought I should buy one more TV to reduce electricity bill and take advantage of the scheme. Yeah, that statement sounds contradictory, so let me explain.
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Farm Registration
In a previous post, I wrote about how we arranged money to buy the farm. It was a long and arduous process as it tested our patience. However, we later found out that the pain we have to go through and the patience required is just the beginning :). Anyway, I ended the previous post with us asking our real estate agent Mr. J to start the registration process. He has been very helpful in getting all the documents prepared and visiting the taluk office etc. After a few failed dates for registration, he finally fixed one date that worked for us. He gave us all the instructions and explained the process involved and said it would all be done in a few hours. We won’t even have to step into the office until the signature time. I was feeling upbeat about the registration.
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Reached A Milestone
We have finally reached an important milestone! But not in a good way :(. While we are sort of minimalists, we still spend quite a bit. As a result, we recently reached a milestone of Rs. 50 lakhs spent on various expenses since we became financially independent in January 2018. Generally people should be proud of their achievements, but this is not one of them :). Still, it is not all too bad. According to my projections of expenses I should have reached the Rs. 50L lakhs milestone by end of 2022, yet we did not reach it until July 2024. So not too bad.
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How To Spend Time
While everyone understands the value of time, very few actually value time. We are careful with spending money, but not careful how we spend time. Have you ever wondered where you spend your time in a day? I read a very nice article on the perspective of time which got me started on writing this post. This is definitely not a repeat or summary of that post. While I touch upon some points written over there, I am going to do an account of how I spend my time based on what is written there. So please read that first.
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Budget 2024 And How It Affects Me
Budget 2024 announcements concluded and like every year I have to check if it affects me. This budget was a major headache for my calculations. It doesn’t affect how I invest but making the tax calculations will take a lot of time. There were some bad surprises but that is how budget works. You just have to work with it. For one, the short term capital gains tax was increased from 15% to 20%. Indexation benefits have been removed. A big blow for real estate and long term debt mutual funds (in certain cases). There was some good news in the way of changing tax slabs for new regime and increasing standard deductions, but neither of them apply to me.
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How We Arranged Money To Buy Our Farm
After zoning in on the farm that we liked, we decided it was time to take the first step forward, which was to come to an agreement with the owners that we will purchase the farm within a certain duration. The way it is usually done is that we write down an agreement stating we will pay a token amount as advance, and will pay the rest before registration. Usually there will also be a time limit specified in the agreement before which the transaction has to happen. If the transaction is not completed in the stipulated time because the buyer could not arrange the money then the advance is forfeited. If the seller fails to clear their documents they will pay back the advance with interest. The trouble started right from there for us.
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Should You Prepay If You Are Nearing The End Of Loan Period
I recently wrote a post on whether one should prepay loan or invest if you have extra savings lying around. A reader commented that a friend had a different opinion about prepaying loan when she is already at the end of the loan period. Here is the comment again for your reference – “Not used to loans, but different view from my friend. She had availed personal loan for 4 years (if I’m correct) and was in 3rd year when she received a good bonus that she can close her loan but instead she didn’t. When asked she said as part of EMI she had paid all interest and what she is paying is her principal and very minute interest so she said it’s unworthy to repay the loan. She had a point there”. While she is correct in that, one is paying more of the principal than interest towards the end of a loan period, the benefits of prepaying still remain.
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Black Belt In Shotokan Karate
I finally received my Black Belt (1st Dan) in Shotokan Karate after training for it for nearly 7 years and I am super proud of it! I know it took a bit longer than a few others but I am too old I suppose :). I have heard of people, in fact kids receiving black belt in 2 or 3 years. I can tell you that at least in Shotokan Karate, it is almost impossible to receive any kind of black belt with in 5 years. It takes even longer for kids because they still have to build up the strength. My daughter who joined almost at the same time as me is now in Brown Belt (4th Kyu). Of course, if you are young, fit and dedicated you can still achieve in 5 years time.
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