Retirement planning

You're 30. You have a job. You see money deducted from your salary every month — EPF. Maybe you opened a PPF account because your father told you to. And now HR is asking if you want to join NPS....

You put away ₹10,000 every month. Twenty-five years from now, where does that money actually end up? Sitting in a bank FD earning 6%? Or in something that builds a corpus you can actually live on?...

Your friend just opened an NPS account. You decide to do the same. You visit the website and see two options: Tier I and Tier II. Which one do you pick?

If you are wondering whether to exit your NPS account, you are not alone. I have walked through the exact rules so you can make this decision with confidence. Whether you are turning 60 or need...

If you're trying to pick between NPS (National Pension System) and APY (Atal Pension Yojana), here's the short version: APY gives you a guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month, but...

You're 30, earn ₹12 lakh a year, and have decided to put ₹15,000 every month toward retirement. You mention this in a group chat and get two strong opinions:

What is the EPFO interest rate for FY 2025-26?

Most of us meet retirement the way we meet a train we cannot catch. Every year we say we will start. Every March we look at the same two or three options and pick the one we understand least.

Locked out of your NPS statement PDF? The password is not random — it is your name + date of birth. Exact format, real examples, and how to download the statement without a password in 2026.

You applied for your NPS withdrawal a month ago. The money still hasn't hit your bank account. Your nodal officer isn't picking up calls. Emails disappear into a black hole.

EPF passbook not opening, invalid credentials, OTP not coming, or a blank screen? 7 fixes for UAN login issues after the July 2026 EPFO upgrade, including UMANG face-auth activation steps.

Ramesh uncle retired from the railways with ₹22 lakh in savings. His son sat with him and compared two options side by side. At 7.05% a year (SBI’s 5-year senior FD rate, as per the bank’s live...

Rates as in force at 1 October 2026. Government small-savings rates are those notified for the third quarter of FY 2026-27 (1 October to 31 December 2026), unchanged from the previous quarter....

Retirees ask the post office clerk two different questions, and the answers pull in opposite directions.

A KVP, NSC or RD can be continued by up to three survivors. A PPF, SSY or savings account closes, and the DICGC limit decides when a family needs a court.

You put money into NPS for 20 years. Your corpus hits Rs 15 lakh. Then the old rules say you must park at least 40% (Rs 6 lakh) in an annuity. You barely get to touch the rest.

You are in your 40s, you have been putting money into NPS for a while, and suddenly retirement does not feel that far away. What can you actually take out? And what changed in December 2025? A lot.

Loan against PPF at 1% or against a PMVVY policy? What it costs, how much you can borrow, and why an unpaid loan can reduce your family's death benefit.

Work out what PM-SYM costs at your age, whether you qualify, and when payments start. The contribution chart, the ₹3,000 arithmetic, and an eight-question eligibility check.

SCSS premature withdrawal penalty is 1% of the deposit after two years, 1.5% between one and two, and all interest inside year one. The 80C bill is bigger.

Rules in force as at 1 October 2026, verified against the NPS Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines 2025 and PFRDA notification PFRDA/2026/14/NPS-Vatsalya/02 (effective 23 February 2026). Tax positions...

Nomination vs will, joint accounts and legal heirs for SCSS, PMVVY and bank FDs — what actually decides who gets the money, with the document checklists.

Rohit is 34. He earns ₹18 lakh a year. Every March he asks the same question: should the ₹1.5 lakh he puts away for retirement go into a PPF, or into NPS? He is not asking a silly question. Both...

MIS — Monthly Income Scheme: Who It Suits, Payout Mechanics and the Reinvestment Question

"Start investing ₹5,000 a month in NPS Vatsalya for your newborn. By the time they retire, they'll have ₹11 crore." You've seen this headline. Maybe your bank relationship manager sent it on...

Soon you'll be able to pull money from your EPF through UPI. Withdraw at an ATM. Watch claims settle in hours instead of weeks. Your provident fund is about to feel less like a locked box and more...

Here's the TL;DR: Your NPS is managed by one of three companies (Protean, CAMS, or KFintech). Log in to the right one, and you'll see your balance in under 3 minutes. No internet? Give a missed...

So your NPS account is sitting there, and you have no idea what changed in December 2025.

Picture this. Your daughter turns 60. She's getting a monthly pension from money you started setting aside when she was five. You're not around anymore, but the habit you built for her? Still...

You've been putting money into your EPF account for years. It's been sitting there earning 8.25% interest, tax-free — and if you're curious about how much you've accumulated, our EPF Calculator...

You've been putting money into NPS for years. Maybe through your employer. Maybe on your own. Then one day you try to withdraw — and the system blocks you. Reason? Aadhaar isn't linked properly....

You paid money into your National Pension System (NPS) account. Months or even years later, you try to withdraw it. Nothing happens. The money is not in your bank account. It is not gone either....

If you already put money into the National Pension System (NPS), or you’re just hunting for a legitimate way to lower your tax bill, Section 80CCD(1B) is probably the deduction you’re not using....

If you have an NPS account (that's your Permanent Retirement Account Number, or PRAN), linking your Aadhaar isn't just a good idea — it's actually required to keep accessing your pension funds and...

Picture this. You have put money into NPS for 20 years. You turn 60, and you want your money back.

You earn ₹15 lakh a year. You've heard that the National Pension System (NPS) is a great way to build a retirement nest egg AND save on taxes. But then you hear, "Wait, in the new tax regime, you...

You've been contributing to NPS every month, hoping to build a solid retirement corpus. But when was the last time you actually checked how much has piled up in your account? If your answer is...

Meet Ravi, 30. He earns ₹80K a month. He wants to retire at 55 with a solid corpus. Two options in front of him: Fixed Deposit (safe, predictable) or NPS (market-linked, tax-friendly). Which one...

Ravi opened his NPS in 2021. Put in ₹1,000. Did it again in 2022. Then 2023 happened — his dad fell sick, he switched jobs, and the ₹1,000 slipped his mind entirely.