Author: Rithwin Siva

Tips to Increase Your Home Loan Eligibility
Have you ever wanted to buy an iPhone as easily as groceries? Now, compare that iPhone to a huge financial investment like a house, or better yet, a ‘dream home’. Didn’t the amount multiply significantly?

After you’ve decided which iPhone model you want, the next step would be whether you can spend a huge amount in a go to purchase it.

The concept of Equated Monthly Instalment (EMI) helps you divide a big expense into tiny expenses over a specific period.

Similarly, there’s a crucial step after you’ve decided on the “model” of your dream home. It is the step that takes you closer to owning your dream home – The Home Loan.

A house is a huge financial investment. To fulfill your dream to buy a home, the loan is, in most cases, an unavoidable step. The EMIs that you pay for the house, are mini-installments to pay back the lump sum home loan amount.

We want to ensure that you don’t choose a home loan that might look great at first but later becomes heavy on the wallet. Here comes the home loan eligibility criteria that play a key role in determining your home loan EMI.

Let’s see how.

What is Home Loan Eligibility?

Simply put, it is the criteria that the lender considers ensuring you pay back the lump sum amount on time.

For example, you’re buying a high-end car and paying a monthly EMI for approximately six months. This amount was arrived at with the help of a car loan EMI calculator.

But, to get your dream home, you’d have to pay this Home Loan EMI for a maximum tenure of almost thirty years.

Even the lowest tenure of a home loan goes on for five years. It’s precisely why calculating your home loan eligibility criteria is crucial.

Because the more eligible you are, the lesser the interest you have to pay. Remember, the home loan tenure includes many years even after you’re living in your dream home. The home loan eligibility calculator is technical in approach and considers numerical data. But, the home loan eligibility criteria are more tangible points that can help you get a lesser home loan EMI.

What are these factors that determine your Home Loan Eligibility Criteria?

Your current age

The younger you are, the more likely you are to clear your loan with the interest on time. Why is that? Well, simple logic. The younger you are, the farther you are away from retirement.

This makes you and your partner more eligible to pay off the home loan on time. The same logic stands true for an individual who is closer to retirement and pays a bigger Home EMI plus interest on the home loan.

Your financial stability

Like how every one of you wishes to have the home of your dreams, each borrower who goes to the lender has a different financial situation.

These financial institutions are extra careful to ensure that they get the borrower returns this lump sum home loan amount on time. They consider various factors like age, annual income, stability of income, etc. to get a clear understanding. This is one of the numerical factors, like monthly income, that is a key factor in calculating your home loan EMI.

Your credit history and scores

Do you recollect how back in college, your assignments would get fewer marks if you submitted them after the deadline?

Your credit score is literally the “marks” you get for paying back your debt on time. The more time you take to ‘submit’ your debt amount, the less credit score you get.

Credit history is how diligently you submitted all your previous debt “assignments”. No borrower wants to take the risk of giving a huge home loan at an affordable home loan EMI rate when you score well only in one exam!

If you have any existing financial liabilities

Liability in simple terms is an existing financial burden. For example, a car loan EMI that you’d have to pay along with your home loan EMI.

Clearly, if there’s already a big payment you’re making, the Home Loan EMI is bound to become another huge liability. The lender wants to make sure that you don’t miss out on the home loan payment! Similar to the concept of BNPL, you can’t have too many liabilities that lower your points on the EMI calculator.

Your personal profile

A profile in the finance world is additional personal information about you to have a better understanding of you. For example, you might not have an existing financial liability like a car loan, but you might have an elderly family member who depends on your income. This is another added factor that increases both, the risk to the home loan financier, and invariably the home loan EMI.

At Vittae, we learn about you in the very first step that helps our Financial experts to give you a personalized financial plan. Our finance experts give you advice that’s both professional and personalized, on matters like these.

Your dream home factor

What makes a dream home dreamy? Prime location, quality amenities, and everything that you’ve always dreamed would be a part of your own home.

All these factors also play a role in determining the cost of the home of your dreams. The bigger this dream is, the costlier it gets.

But the interest you pay on your home loan doesn’t have to be that costly too. Making a smart choice about buying the right home is important.

We also give you expert advice when making these long-term investments.

How to calculate the Home Loan EMI?

The tool used by any financial institution is a Home Loan EMI calculator. It considers all the metrics to calculate how much money you’ll be spending every month on your housing loan. This helps you get a clear picture of how the amount was derived, and plan for the future.

The below image will give you a clear understanding of the parameters the home loan calculator considers while calculating your home loan EMI.

Here are 5 easy tips to increase your home loan eligibility
- Having a co-applicant helps the process
When you include your spouse or an earning family member as a co-applicant, your credibility increases. You are more likely to pay off the home loan faster with a dual income and avail greater tax benefits.
- Ensure you have a good credit score
The credit score is a strong metric for calculating your home loan EMI. Having a higher credit score boosts your eligibility and helps give you a lower EMI. It’s no rocket science how you can do this. All you have to do is pay back your debts on time, consistently. You can’t trick the home loan eligibility calculator with a bad credit score and hope for a less home loan EMI.
- Be diligent about repaying any existing debts
It is only natural for a household to have existing loans or debts. These debts can be existing loans like car loans or monthly installments like washing machine EMI.

This helps you not only manage your expenses but also gives a higher credibility. Repaying debts is also a subset of the BNPL mindset that helps you buy costly necessities like a car at an affordable EMI, like a car loan EMI. Remind yourself about the upcoming home loan EMI and that should help!
- Pick a longer tenure to help you
It’s a common misconception that having a longer tenure will be like a longer burden to pay off the home loan. But it’s simple math that a longer tenure means lower interest for you and less risk for the lender.

It’s okay to choose a longer tenure. This gives you the assurance that the extra number of years help you count the home loan EMI as a recurring expense and not a burden. But that doesn’t mean you apply this on other payments like a car loan EMI and drag it forward. Pay off what you can, at the right time.
- Update about any additional income sources
Having an additional source of income adds a lot more weight to upgrade your home loan eligibility criteria, and gives you an affordable home loan EMI.

It’s a given that any amount of additional flow of money like rental income increases your payment capacity and invariably gives you a better home loan.

These above-mentioned factors revolving around your finance management, are simple tips that will help you immensely when you make a big decision like buying a new home, or better, celebrating a beginning.

But, given the chance to buy your dream home at a low home EMI, wouldn’t you grab the first deal you get?

Well, that’s the ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) mindset, that’s playing tricks on you.

And, we want to ensure that you don’t fall prey to this BNPL mindset and choose the wrong loan. Essentially a wrong loan is not a bad choice, it’s not cost-effective considering the long number of years you have to pay off the home loan.

The ‘BNPL’ concept lets you shop, check out, choose a BNPL player, and then pay later. This allows the BNPL financier to pay on behalf of the customer. It’s as if the customer took a mini-loan for the purchase and can return the amount with zero interest, in most cases. This further affects their credit score too.

Quick online purchases let you add items to a cart at the click of a button or a tap on the screen. But, buying a house is a long-term investment that should not be made hastily.

We can attest that every rupee saved, is a rupee that can be invested, and grown.

Understanding these simple metrics helps you, as the borrower, get the most optimum home loan for you. Furthermore, these tips to improve your home loan eligibility criteria will make the drawn-out home loan EMI payments easier on the pocket.

Our Financial experts are both aware of the intricacies of the home loan process, and the current market conditions, to help you make the best choice for you.

Buying your own home is not a long-term investment but more importantly a memorable milestone. It’s often not a singular decision, but a collective call taken by a family who wants to own their dream home.

The home loan application process, with the home EMI calculation, and on top of that, the monthly payments (with interest) can be mentally taxing. We want your dream home to be more about your dream come true, than a home loan that feels like a burden.

With Vittae, you can understand, learn and make an informed decision. We enable you to grow financially and also help take tough financial decisions like these. Our experts will ensure that you don’t follow the herd mentality, but take a call that’s personalized to you, truly. You are only one step away from making the right decision for you, and your dream home.
September 3, 2023
How to live like a Millionaire?
The word Privilege brings out various emotions and the true emotion toward it changes from person to person. For some, it might be enjoying the basic amenities i.ie., needs whereas for others, it might be worldly luxuries i.ie wants.

The lifestyle and expenses that come along with privilege are universally classified into NEEDS and WANTS. This concept plays a major role in how we live and how we aspire to live.

What is a Privileged Life?

When someone is more than happy with what they receive and when they receive those privileges easily, compared to the rest of the population, then we can say that they are privileged.

It is a perspective that changes from economic status to caste barriers. For example, people who are living pay cheque to pay cheque, the act of dining outside once or twice a month is a privilege.

On the other hand, if someone has the chance to start saving more than 20% of their income, then for them, the act of purchasing an iPhone or Samsung is deemed as a privilege.

The biggest form of privilege is the feeling of financial security that lets you take care of your NEEDS and your WANTS without any distress. It is very much possible for individuals to feel that way when they can plan their personal finances or their cash flows smarter.

What does it take to live a Privileged Life?

The secret sauce to living a great lifestyle with little to no stress lies in the act of how you let your money make more money for you. People who are living the privileged life today, have created their own recipe for success using this secret sauce.

The effect of compounding in combination with patience is the secret sauce to most of the people that we end up looking up to. No one can deny that and it will stand as a universal truth.

Managing your money smartly and investing it in the right avenues is the biggest lesson that you will get to learn from successful people. They never did this alone and they never did this out of luck.The privilege of financial freedom comes when you are consistent and this consistency in success is curated by personalized financial plans & strategies.

The Priviledged Life

The struggles faced by Millionaires in India

A Lifestyle is created out of sweat and blood. The success stories are spoken out loud by everyone, but no one really knows the struggle behind these success stories.

Few inspirational stories that made it to the list are
1. Dhirubhai Ambani
Mr Ambani is known for his business conglomerates and he had a very humble beginning. He started by selling Bhajias and also worked at a gas station before creating a powerful company that is managed by his family today.
1. Dharampal Gulati
The Masala King of India is none other than Mr Gulati and he is not just popular here in India but has numerous export tie-ups with countries like Europe, USA, Canada and UK. He started his journey in a 14ft X 9ft shop at Karol Bagh in Delhi.
1. Gautham Adani
Mr Adani has been making the news for the past 6 months. He came to Mumbai at an early age of 18 years to fulfill his dream. The Adani Group was started with a few hundreds that he had with him at that time.

There are many more such stories and every single one of them has one thing in common. They were hardworking in their efforts and smart working in managing their personal finances.

When you read these stories in depth, you will learn that they got the right loan and made the right investments with the help of financial advisors.

A few right decisions turned their life into a privileged one. So, it is not difficult for us all to seek support from Financial Experts to start our money story.

Discipline in your Financial journey gives you great returns and it is never too early to follow it. The opportunity to create wealth starts from the moment your parents start giving you your pocket money.

Great minds such as Warren Buffet & Charlie Munger started early and planned out their financial journey. A journey that is a great example for us all to follow.
October 12, 2022
Cash Flow Management For Individuals
Everyone applauds a company for various business milestones that they achieve. It could be their seed round of funding or it could be their first Million. The top gun companies of the world celebrate being the best by following the habit of managing their money better.

Cash Flow Management is a scientific art of understanding and optimizing the amount of money that is moving into and out of a business. When a company can manage this with maximum accuracy then, you can truly find purpose driven products and services coming out of them.

A venture capitalist finds immense pleasure in knowing that their portfolio companies are able to manage the invested money better. They end up calling these companies as companies with brilliant balance sheets. In a way, these companies would know how to plan and manage their money for sustainable long term growth.

Why aren’t these ideologies used when it comes to financial planning for individuals? No one really considers looking at an individual’s cash flow at a comprehensive level, except for managing the money held by the super rich. This disparity shown towards the HNIs (High Networth Individuals) by the Financial Advisors has made it difficult for the commoners to build wealth in the most optimized manner.

What needs to happen?

The best financial advisors in the world need to start managing everyone’s money in the most comprehensive manner and this comprehensiveness will come when they start optimizing their cash flow.

The thinking has to move away from just working for commissions to working for what is needed for the customer. The certified advisors learn the art of financial planning which includes these comprehensive steps of understanding the customer and then, optimizing the best plan for them. Unfortunately, all those hours of learning simply becomes diluted scripts that will help the advisor earn extra commissions.

It’s time for a customer first approach and start with working on an individual’s cash flow to get them a great balance sheet

What is Cash Flow Management for Individuals?

When an individual’s personal finance is broken down into layers, you will notice four layers that play a strong role in their Life’s Balance Sheet.
1. Income
What we all earn as salary becomes the primary source of income for all of us and then, there are other passive income sources such as side hustles, rental property income, royalties etc.
1. Expense
What we spend on, be it the needs or the wants. They all fall under our expenses. In practice, expenses are divided into personal, household and family expenses. This level of segregation is common among all.
1. Investment
What we save is what ends up being invested. Normally, our savings are sitting in a savings bank account and earning interest of less than 4% per annum. Some of us take the smart path to save it in tools such as mutual funds, bonds to earn higher return rates.
1. Loans
What we owe falls on us as a liability. Loans play a good role in our lives if we plan to get one keeping our future in mind. There are so many avenues to get loans today starting from loans against securities to loans against gold aka gold loan.

When these layers are understood and optimized with personalized suggestions then, there is continuous positive growth. The advisory team needs to do this for every single individual and help them with not just investment suggestions but also on how to budget better for themselves and their families etc.

Why is this very crucial?

The market always has its ups and downs. When there is a recession, it is important to have a balance sheet that is protected to withstand the tough times. It is hard to understand the impact of recession in India but it is easy to understand the need to have your balance sheet managed better.

The survey conducted by The Week emphasized the need for cash flow management. It stated that the urban population is saving and investing less, while allocating 59% of their income for their expenses. Only 31% of the respondents planned for retirement and the results are shocking as people were dependent on their insurance for their retirement spending.

Further, people are heavily dependent on personal loans to make their ends meet post pandemic and this is merely because of lack of discipline in their financial plan. More of these red flags were highlighted by Mint in their survey.

The Future Ahead

The Indian economy is strong and taking on every other country along the way. Recently, we went past the United Kingdom and if we have to be a 30 Trillion Dollar Economy, then, we have to uplift the commoners to practice sustainable Financial Habits.

With the help of a team of advisors who can guide them, they can easily start making smart decisions around their cash flow management starting with budgeting, goal planning, and even, with getting an insurance or loan that fits best for them.

When fitting solutions find an individual, it reduces leakage of funds from their Life’s Balance Sheet.
September 16, 2022
6 Reasons to Choose Personalized Financial Plan
Many customers are left disheartened by the financial products that they have purchased. It could be anything from Fixed Deposits to Term Insurance. Everyone has their own reasons but the majority of the problem stems from the fact that products don’t meet customers’ requirements.

For some, Impulse buying is the main reason and a reward based credit card is a good example of this. For others, it is the same old enemy – the concept of motive-driven selling by financial agents.

Clearly, society longs for a better solution, and web traffic on financial planning & financial advisory, suggests the same. Adding to it, the pandemic has made customers realize that the world of VUCA is here. They were in dire need of help from financial experts to guide them through these confusing times.

What is VUCA?
- V – Volatility
- U – Uncertainty
- C – Complexity
- A – Ambiguity
If someone shouts “it’s crazy out there” then, we can strongly believe that they are talking about the VUCA world. It is predominantly used to describe a situation that is difficult to comprehend. Predicting the outcomes of our decisions is tricky during this situation. More on VUCA here.

What are the advantages of a personalized financial plan?

→ Creating a Sustainable Financial Plan

It is very important to start with a plan. Without understanding your current situation and caliber of risk, it would be fruitless to plan your financial journey. The Rich capitalizes on advisory service by providing their goals and targets so that they can enjoy life without falling short of funds.

→ Delighting with Customer Satisfaction

The feeling of being listened to is something that everyone loves. Through personalization, the best financial advisor in town would concentrate on listening to the customer and then, providing them with customized financial solutions. This curated solution helps with steady growth and will certainly leave a smile on your face.

→ Building Corpus for Goals

Financial security is a reality when there is little or no stress about our monetary situation. To get into this secure headspace, we have to find ways in which our money can make money to help achieve our goals. Power of compound interest along with the guidance of a financial planner will do wonders in this world.

→ Attaining Mental Peace

Confidence and the positive mindset to tackle the day comes from feeling mentally secure. Overthinking about money will push everyone’s mental health to the edge. Personalization can certainly help in passing over the burden of stressful decisions to an expert.

→ Maintaining your portfolio

Getting a customized financial plan is just the beginning of personalisation. The plan should always include regular check-ins and restructuring of the plan so that your money story is moving in the right direction. A good financial advisor will recommend reallocation or restructuring every 3- 4 months.

→ Higher ROI

It is easy to start your financial journey with the content from generic news and also, free advice on YouTube or MoneyControl. But this is not going to be as powerful as the one that is designed through personalization. The return on investment is higher because you are connecting your hard-earned income to your needs and wants.

Why is a Personalized Financial Plan crucial?
- To steer the customers through the right financial journey, they require an expert who can understand their needs and wants. Someone who can shine a light on their financial plan by personalizing it to their needs and wants. Someone who will guide them to see their financial success.
- A combination of understanding and listening to the customer is the inception of personalization. Today, there is less listening and more selling that is happening.
- Pampering the consumers with misfit solutions that have short-term benefits. Clearly, there is a lack of sustainable planning because products like credit cards, buy now pay later, instant micro-loans, etc. are helping them with their short-term needs and wants.
- Sustainable financial planning will always be a customer-first approach and will be completely designed to help the consumer get the best mutual funds, best ELSS funds, best bonds, etc based on their goals. A certified financial advisor creates a higher level of trust, comfort, and comprehensiveness.
In a nutshell, people who are hunting for the answers around best mutual funds or best way to invest in gold can tweak their habit to include personalization and get themselves a strong advisor. When they do so, they will not only find answers for their questions but also find that wealth creation is easy with more people working together hand in hand.
June 23, 2022
How To Escape From Motive Driven Selling
A busy yet gloomy Monday morning filled with chaos to get to work in time right when the phone rings and an unknown number flashes on the phone screen. From experience, you know you shouldn’t pick upt, yet, you do with the hope of it being relevant and useful. The first few words that you hear might sound like this, “I am calling to inform you that you have a pre-approved loan…” or “you have been approved for a free credit card…” The intent of the call might be different every day but the general tone will give you a picture of the person on the other side.

Why Sales people want you to buy their product?

In the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sector, “cold calling” is used as a sales method to sell loans, credit cards, or insurance products. A process that is very important in the sales cycle of an Insurance Agent, Loan Agent, or Credit Card Agent. This call that you happen to answer is their opportunity to convince you to try their product. If you contemplate buying one of these, then, that gets them excited. You might wonder why? Some of you might already know the answer to this. The answer is that you helped them get a hefty commission by just agreeing to take the product that you might not truly need.

What is a good financial product sale?

There is nothing wrong with getting a reward for a good sale. A good sale is nothing but understanding your needs and goals before suggesting the product to you. The trait of a good sale would be to give you options: these are the best credit cards out there for you or this insurance covers all your medical needs for the next 10 years. If they listen to you and understand, they can suggest better financial products.

What is going wrong with their sales pitch?

Unfortunately, their scripts find themselves bunched up differently. The sales team’s script needs to start with understanding your situation and then, recommend the product that fits well in your financial plan. Instead, they are in a rat race to mis-sell term insurance or health insurance, or even a loan, just for the sake of commission.

Do we truly have an option to find the right financial product?

There is a growing trend for people to look for a financial consultant to guide them with the right financial advice. This is to stay filtered from the ones who are behind those calls with an elaborate script to persuade and sell the highest commissioned product to you.. This mis-selling behavior in the banking sector or BFSI sector has been reported several times in the past. The study conducted by The Economic Times clearly talks about how dealing with them is the only option. This is indeed reality as your personal data is being pushed even into the smallest banks, where you have never had any transactional relationship. These make you highly exposed and vulnerable and are cornered by your own trusted banks/NBFCs.

Going Above and Beyond for a smarter Financial Decision

A good sale always leads to more referrals and definitely helps the financial institutions to supercharge their growth. But now, the opposite is happening where customers are warning their friends & family about the annoying, daily sales calls. Until the sales agent realizes the secret power of value selling, you as a consumer have to be smart with your filtering process to get the best financial products.

These are a few tips that can help us decide what product to get.
- Research on options that will match your needs – Be it Insurance, Loans, or Credit Cards, today we can quickly access the information on the internet and get extensive research done on key metrics needed to buy a suitable financial product.
- Find the one that is affordable – Always understand our appetite and find the product that we can afford without hindering our lifestyles. It wouldn’t be wise to compromise on other life-altering decisions based on a bad financial decision.
- Learn about the fine prints – It is crucial to read between the lines and understand the hidden and invisible conditions associated with the chosen financial product. If we don’t know what to ask, we can start learning from communities that promote financial literacy. There are plenty of educational resources available to help us cultivate this best practice.
- Seek Assistance from Financial Experts – Always have some trusted individuals who are preferably experts in this field. This could help us benefit and sometimes even exploit (in a legal way of course!) our financial system and achieve your goals. An expert who can provide guidance in everything ‘money-related’.
In time, such customers will evolve to take right decisions on their own with experience and/or with external guidance from advisors. When that time comes, most of these insurance brokers, loan agents, and credit card resellers would find it challenging to trick customers into purchasing a product unsuitable for their financial needs. Until then we have to protect ourselves with knowledge that will help us distinguish the good from the bad. A good place to start would be on vittae.money, where we can learn from your own community The content shared will help us upskill and stay informed on the products and other regulatory methods proposed by the Reserve Bank of India.
May 24, 2022