Managing health insurance, setting up kitchen: Top personal finance stories

In this week's newsletter, we report about rising health insurance premiums and the best modular kitchens in the market

News reports suggest that a number of insurers have hiked the premiums of health insurance policies, or will do so soon. In this week’s lead story, Sanjay Kumar Singh and Karthik Jerome explore the reasons for the latest hikes and how customers can cope with this growing financial burden.

The second article, by Namrata Kohli, delves into the designs of modular kitchens preferred by today’s generation. Homebuyers want kitchens that reflect their global lifestyle and culinary aspirations. This has converted kitchens from functional areas into state-of-the-art culinary havens.

If you have an investment horizon of about one-three years, invest in a short duration fund. If you are looking for a fund from this category, go through Morningstar’s review of Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Fund.

If you are looking to buy a four-wheeler, look up Paisabazaar.com’s table to get an overview of the interest rates and processing fees offered by the leading lenders in this segment.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

More than 4.55 million demat accounts were added in July, according to data from the Central Depository Services and the National Securities Depository.

The total demat count rose to nearly 167 million. This is the fourth month in 2024 that new additions have topped 4 million. Net additions in July were the highest since January, when a record 4.68 million customers opened new demat accounts. The rapid increase in demat account numbers points to the strong interest retail investors have in direct equities currently.

While digital onboarding has made it easier to join the equity market, a strong initial public offering pipeline and rising markets have drawn many to the stock market. First-time investors in equities should approach the markets carefully, all the more so on account of the recent bout of volatility. A recent report by the Securities and Exchange Board of India found that 71 per cent of intraday traders incurred losses averaging Rs 5,371 in 2022-23. Instead of betting blindly, investors should learn fundamentals-based, buy-and-hold investing.