Akkiblogpost

A fixed deposit feels simple. You deposit your money, the bank promises an interest rate, and at maturity you receive your principal along with the interest. If a bank offers 7% interest, it is natural to assume that your money is growing at 7% every year. But there is one important detail many depositors overlook: **FD interest is generally taxable according to your income-tax slab.** The bank may deduct Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), but that deduction is not necessarily your final tax liability. Depending on your total income, you may have to pay additional tax or claim a refund. There is also a major paperwork update. From 1 April 2026, the Income-tax Act, 2025 and Income-tax Rules, 2026 have replaced the familiar Forms 15G and 15H with a consolidated **Form 121** for Tax Year 2026–27 onwards. Let us understand how FD interest is taxed, when banks deduct TDS, how the new thresholds work, who can submit Form 121, and how much of a 7% FD return you may actually keep. 📌 Key T...

It is 5 PM in India. At one roadside stall, office workers are standing with small glasses of hot chai. A few kilometres away, a group of college students is sitting inside a café, holding iced lattes and cold coffees while taking photographs of their drinks. Both groups are enjoying a beverage, but the experiences look completely different. For generations, chai has been part of India's everyday routine. It brings colleagues together during office breaks, gives neighbours a reason to talk, and makes an unexpected guest feel welcome. Yet, a new generation is increasingly exploring cappuccinos, cold brews, iced americanos, flavoured coffees, and speciality café menus. Coffee shops are becoming familiar meeting places in Indian cities. Young people visit them to study, work, meet friends, go on dates, or simply spend time outside their homes. A cup of coffee that might cost ₹250 in a café can be considerably more expensive than the ₹10 or ₹15 chai available at a neighbourhood s...

You decide to renovate your house. The contractor says the work will be completed in two months. You calculate the expenses, arrange the money, and start imagining how your home will look after the renovation. Everything seems manageable. Two months pass. The flooring is still incomplete. The electrician needs another week. The kitchen fittings have not arrived, and the contractor has discovered a few additional expenses. Suddenly, your two-month renovation has become a six-month project. The same thing happens with wedding budgets, office projects, college assignments, business launches, and personal goals. We confidently estimate how much time and money something will require, only to discover that reality has a different plan. Why does this happen so frequently? Are we simply bad at planning, or is there something deeper happening inside the human mind? Psychologists have a name for this behaviour: the Planning Fallacy . It describes our tendency to underestimate how long a ...