Last Date: 31st July. Hurry!

The last date of filing your Income Tax Returns is coming closer – July 31, 2010. A gentle reminder so that You should not be left stranded the eleventh hour to file your returns, trying to find someone who would prepare and file the tax return for you.

A very friendly and upcoming option is e-filing. Now there are very intuitive tax applications which offer you live chats and help/tutorials in helping you to file your taxes online. It also gives you an opportunity to learn a bit of your finances yourself. I mean by doing it by yourself, you learn a lot about your finances and how you can improve upon it.

I am happy to inform that InvestmentYogi’s tax application TaxYogi has been specially white labeled for my blog/website readers. Take a look.

You can experience an intuitive and step by step process for preparing and e-filing your return. The tax filing online also gives you tips for tax planning for the future.

<a href=”http://mintmoney.livemint.com/tax/2010/07/e-filing-your-tax-is-easy-do-it-now/”>Bindisha Sarang, LiveMint</a> has reviewed all the tax filing applications in India and she rates the Taxyogi application “Excellent”. <a href=”http://www.investmentyogi.com/content/LiveMintJul9.pdf”>Check out Bindisha’s review here</a>

All you have to do is:
Register yourself
Prepare your Tax Return online
File your Return online

You do not need to know any tax laws, sections etc. It is as simple as filling up any online form!And as Bindisha says, “The biggest advantage of doing it yourself is that you get involved in your own financial life”.

RupeeManager is a easy-to-use personal finance software to manage your money. It primarily helps organize one’s finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money goes and comes.

Measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. And that’s what RupeeManager helps you to get started with.

Other than tracking your earnings and your expenses, it is important to see if your money is working for your future. We have a feature where you can allocate your income among fixed expenses, discretionary expenses, short term savings and long term investments. It’s like assigning goals for your money.

Also, you will get an idea how to balance your portfolio according to your risk profile. You will match the portfolio with your risk appetite and see if you can take more risk or go more conservative. In other words, you get to decide your asset allocation strategy.

It is always good to remember that the software can only be as good as the data it has to process. Garbage In Garbage Out. But if you have started thinking of even using a Personal finance software you are well on your way to making every Rupee count

The guiding principles behind the RupeeManager has been posted before. Link

You may like to see the Manual before you want to participate in the private beta.

I have some of my friends participating in the private beta. Would you like to participate too? Please visit this post

• Think of the business in quarters. A month is too short, an year, too long.
• Put up a quarterly report to a Board of 3-4 members and review.

See the entire post

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling

Are they of any use?

Would you imagine “entrepreneurship capabilities in a 40+, parents knowing nothing of doing business and who has spent 18 years working in a PSU environment ?

But, each individual is different.Who knows what this 40+ guy can do!!

The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s rounding error compared to the founders.

Which means that what matters is who you are, not when you do it. If you’re the right sort of person, you’ll win even in a bad economy. And if you’re not, a good economy won’t save you. Someone who thinks “I better not start a startup now, because the economy is so bad” is making the same mistake as the people who thought during the Bubble “all I have to do is start a startup, and I’ll be rich.”

Powerpoint magic steps from Seth Godin

Rajesh believes that there is no better market than India for launching the new paradigm and the next platform.

I’ll be rooting for him to win.