This week in personal finance: Things to remember while filing your ITR; ways to maximise investment returns

Among the items that taxpayers struggle to decode is the way one can claim exemption on one’s House Rent Allowance (HRA) while filing tax returns. Well, you can claim HRA exemption benefit only when you are living in a rented house. Those who live in their own house cannot avail tax exemption benefit on HRA.

In fact, the exempt HRA amount can be seen in the tax projection statement provided to you by your employer at the beginning of the financial year. The employer deducts the HRA from salary. When it comes to filing of ITR, you can view the deduction in Part B of your Form 16.

Here is a lowdown to make the process simple for the taxpayer.

The equity market has not seen much action during the week. However, you need to keep your investment plan intact and have realistic expectations on your portfolio returns. Having unrealistic expectations from your investments can lead to disappointment, especially when the instrument you are investing provides market-linked returns.

So, how would you analyse whether you are getting good returns on your investment? One way is to link the expectations to a financial goal which has a certain time horizon for its accomplishment.

Here are 5 things to keep in mind while investing to maximize your returns and have your goals fulfilled.

To chase high returns, equity investors often end up following investment moves of celebrity investors such as Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Poriju Veliyath and Dolly Khanna. However, one should not get carried away and buy those very stocks without doing their own due diligence. Failing to do so can lead to erosion of capital.

Read to know why blindly following investment moves of such celebrity investors can lead to problems for you and why you should do your own homework or take the help of an investment advisor.

On the life insurance front, the amount of cover required for a person changes with changing lifestyle and age. Also, the rate of inflation necessitates a higher level of coverage in later years of life. Therefore, to estimate the correct amount of sum assured, you should ideally go for incremental term insurance plan instead of a basic one.

In this video, Naval Goel, CEO of PolicyX.com, explains how incremental term insurance plan helps you get better sum assured over a period of time and how it is different from basic term policy.

To facilitate growth in the non-life and health insurance business in the country, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) introduced a new type of distribution model called point-of-sales person (PoSP), who are engaged either directly by insurers or by intermediaries such as corporate agents and insurance brokers.

Here we give you a lowdown on key differences of buying a policy from PoSP and insurance brokers in this story.

Finally, when it comes to writing a Will, there process has been made simpler by online services now available to execute the document. Whether the will is prepared using online services or one engages the services of a lawyer for getting the same drafted depends on one’s financial and personal circumstances.

Here we bring to you the key points you should know while getting an online will made.