Raja's Exocortex

Personal Finance

A personal finance system based on

  1. The Automatic Millionaire -- personal finance automation.
  2. The Four Hour Work Week -- use credit cards as much as possible.
  3. The Richest Man in Babylon -- advise for a healthy financial life.
  4. The Millionaire Next Door -- research thesis on the habits of millionaires.
  5. Implemented using HDFC Bank systems and features.

David Bach's 7 Places Your Money Needs to go Automatically

Rules

  1. For any transaction, always push funds from your bank, do not allow vendors/others to pull from your account.
  2. Automate all bill payments through a primary credit card, ensure bill limits are set for every biller.
  3. Automate all monthly payments, set standing instruction to use NEFT.
  4. Use debit card only in ATMs to withdraw cash, never use it online or over the counter.
  5. Use credit cards only for online, over the counter, etc and never use a credit card in an ATM to withdraw cash.
  6. Funnel all payments and expenses through a primary credit card, this will run up maximum reward points.
  7. Setup auto pay for the primary credit card to pay the full amount.

HDFC Netbanking

  1. Personalize login name for easy login process.
  2. Set transfer limits for NEFT/RTGS and other types of transfers.
  3. Set transfers for UPI (if using linked GPay).
  4. Set SMS/email alerts for transactions.
  5. Set account balance alerts and warnings (eg. below Rs 5000 balance, send alert).
  6. SMS alerts are charged and email alerts are free, use judiciously.

HDFC Netbanking Transfers

  1. Always use NEFT, do not use IMPS or RTGS.
  2. In NEFT transfer, the narration clearly appears in the bank statement for future reference.
  3. In RTGS/IMPS transfers, the narration mentioned in the transfer screen does not appear in the bank statement.
  4. For standing instructions (repeat payments), always use NEFT.

HDFC Credit Card

  1. Get a single high value card (eg. Regalia) and several addon cards for family members.
  2. Addon cards share the same credit limit of the primary card.
  3. Set transaction limits in Netbanking: disable ATM use, online, merchant, and tap to pay daily limits.
  4. Daily limits can be set individually for every addon card.
  5. Setup auto pay in net banking so that the entire amount owned on the card is automatically paid every month from your savings account.
  6. Never delay a single card payment and always pay in full.
  7. Redeem reward points as Lifestyle vouchers and spend in Lifestyle, Max, Home Center outlets.
  8. HDFC Credit Card dues can be paid from 3rd party banks or 3rd party HDFC accounts using the HDFC Bank CardNet portal. Payments made from 3rd party banks will take 4 working days to be reflected in the credit card balance.

HDFC Netsafe

  1. For online transactions, never use the physical credit card.
  2. Create a one-time use temporary netsafe credit card and use it online
  3. Netsafe credit cards limit can use set during card creation and it auto expires in 24 hours.
  4. Netsafe card will draw from the primary card limit, if not used within 24 hours the funds will be credited back to the primary card.
  5. If the netsafe transactions needs to be refunded (eg. Amazon purchase was returned and refund processed), the refunded amount will get credited back to your primary card.
  6. Netsafe cards cannot be used for recurring payments, eg. Google, Netflix, etc.

HDFC Bill Pay

  1. Use HDFC Bill Pay with bill limits for all vendors - phone, electricity, etc.
  2. Bills will be auto paid 4 days before the due date.
  3. If a bill limit of Rs 1,000 has been set and the biller requests Rs 1,500 only Rs 1,000 will be paid and the balance amount of Rs 500 will be unpaid.
  4. Set the primary credit card as the source for all bill payments.

HDFC SiHub

  1. Be in control of your cards recurring payments, use the SiHUB portal for HDFC Credit Card to set the frequency and limits for every payment.
  2. Recurring payments like Netflix cannot be paid using a single use netsafe card as it you are providing the vendor a mandate to withdraw funds from your cards as required.
  3. Only the physical primary card can be used with these vendors for monthly/yearly payments.
  4. Once you register the primary card for monthly payment, visit the sihub.in URL provided in your SMS to list and manage all the standing instructions in your credit card.

HDFC Card Less ATM Withdrawl

  1. Using net banking, a transaction amount (Eg. Rs 5,000) can be set and assigned to a beneficiary mobile number.
  2. The beneficiary can go to any HDFC ATM, use his/her mobile number to receive an OTP and withdraw cash.
  3. This system works all over India in any HDFC ATM and thus you can give cash to anyone in the country.