A promising year.. 2012?!!!

Back again…J

Well, I do not know how this year will unfold; high hopes pinned to it. Lot of things to do before the world ends ;-) 

2012 is already here..cant believe time flew this past. 

So, life is moving but I don’t see light at the end of the tunnel yet, I keep going with a hope that I’ll be happy with whatever I see at the end. I pray to God to give me the strength to handle myself. It is what it is and sadly, I have a very little control over certain things. Came across Khalil Gibran's quote - "Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens". Beautiful, aint it?!

I found this interesting website pinterest.com. How I got hooked onto it. It has everything from beauty, fashion, décor, DIY to fitness tips; very interesting and lots of good tips in all aspects.

I went to watch Agneepath last weekend. OMG! Hrithik Roshan was awesome!!! I think I’ve never seen him on a big screen in a long time after KKKG. Yes, a very violent movie but outstanding performances by everyone.

Hoping I’ll be a little regular at blogging, Ciao…..

O well!! The credit card act is finally here......

Few important things what I'd suggest checking with your bank.

1) What is the interest rate increase on your account (from ** to what **).

2) Will the bank charge if your account is not active. Few banks are charging 19$ on dormant accounts.

3) If they are charging any Annual fee for accounts with rewards program.

4) If you are not using the rewards on your accounts, check with the bank and remove the rewards program. This will drop your interest rate by a huge %. One of my cards had a variable APR of 13-17% and after removing the rewards program, the interest rate came down to 5-8%. May be you can keep the rewards active on just 1-2 accounts whichever gives you the best deal.

5) Opt in/opt out of the over limit fee. If you opt out of this, and if you use your card beyond the credit limit, your card will be declined unlike before where they were charging 39$ for using your card over the credit limit.Also, if the account is linked to any of your other accounts, it does a cash advance.

6) Check for the interest rates on Balance Transfers/Cash advances/Purchases. If you’ve made any cash advance/Balance transfer before, the payments what you made were applicable to the lowest interest rates first.

For example, if you made a balance transfer (with a promo rate of 2.99 and later on it will increase to 24.99 something)
Purchases may stay at 13.99% (your normal purchase APR)
The tricky part is when you pay off the balances on your account. When you pay your monthly dues, it will be used to pay off your purchases balance (with lowest APR) first and then your balance transfer/Cash advance etc (highest APR). This way the banks were getting money for the balances on high interest rates for a longer period.

This has changed now – the payments what you make will be applicable for the highest interest rates first making it easy to avoid paying high interest rates.

7) Going forward, your monthly statement will show the number of years it will take to pay off your balances on your account if you pay only the minimum monthly payments.
Chase has an easy to use tool which calculates this for you.

 

Disclaimer - These are just my suggestions based off my understanding of the Credit Card Act rules.

No Separate Telangana please......

Its so sad to know that people look at separation as a means to grow, develop. My belief says if a person is strong in his ideas and beliefs, nothing can alter it. He should be able to help the state grow as a nation and not divide it based on regions.Yes – I’m talking about KCR – I don’t want to sound indecent but wish I could bad mouth him for his deeds and selfish motives.

When congress gained power in May 2009 at the state and central, I was a little apprehensive thinking about how the Telangana issue will shape up. I wished BJP had won the elections for the same reason. Nevertheless, any party would have oscillated for their selfish reasons – getting the maximum votes.

And sad enough, they are caching on the younger lot. These students who get easily agitated, high of their adrenaline rush, get provoked so easily. Its sad to see a majority of students falling into his trap. Two students committed suicide – what did they even think they were achieving by doing this? And on top of this, we have KCR who is fasting onto death and threatening to suicide if doctors treat him. Any matured human being working with his proper senses and one who claims to be the president of a party will not instill such qualities – would never sort to suicide as a solution. He has to be an icon to the people who follow him and this is what he’s leading them to.

Sometimes, I wonder why the media don’t show the adversities of separating a state. Its beyond doubt that the students were provoked with all the wrong reasons possible. They are only seeing one version of KCR - if atleast they were enlightened about it, perhaps they would think differently.

A lazy saturday

I'll not say - I got back to blogging cause for me 'it' never started. 2 years is a long time but yeah, I want to do this now.

My life has changed much today when compared to the time when I started writing the blog. How I wish I could turn back time and do all the things I always wished to do. But how does that matter cause inspite of feeling this, I'm still not doing anything to change it today.

Was sitting in the couch all day long, watching videos from TED India to politics and listening to songs. What a way to pass my time.

A blog to warm up for today. More later........

My first blog!!

I took quite some time for this. Blogging- what I always wanted to do, but never really had the time to do so. I wanted to share few strong and sensible thoughts. And here I am - at it finally.

It was a busy day at work with a task on my neck to finish. But need to get a cup of strong coffee to brighten my day. Back to my table, with the process running in the background and BBC.com on the foreground. Read the possible news from India to America.
I was reading a blog written by my friend and I came across this quote which says

'When you take eyes off your goal, all you see is Obstacles' - Unknown author

This seems so true. I'm here with a goal and want to achieve what I want to in the least possible time. But at times, its so difficult- feel tough to pass a single minute too but what pushes me then is my goal and reminds me of the person behind all this. What I'm trying to achieve might not be so huge or wont make a huge difference to the society but makes a difference to me. It makes me happy. I'm not an ego-centric person but at times its important to look at what makes you happy. And at the same time, I cant keep looking for happiness, but I have to live everyday.

There isn't any road to Happiness but Happiness is the road.
"Happiness is a Voyage not a destination"