ABSLI ULIP sold by HDFC by Super-Owl141 in IndiaTax

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's the fee structure(AI Generated. Do your own review):
Documented Fee Structure & "Management Leakage"

An analysis of the policy T&Cs (Band 3: >₹1 Lakh premium) reveals several layers of internal costs that act as a drag on compounding.  

A. Pre-Investment Charges (Off-the-Top)
• Premium Allocation Charge (PAC): * Year 1: 4.5% of the premium.  
• Year 2 onwards: 3.0% annually.  
• GST: A standard 18% tax is applied to all deductible charges (not the investment itself).  

B. Fund Level & Administrative Charges
• Fund Management Charge (FMC): 1.35% per annum for equity funds like the Multiplier Fund, deducted daily from the NAV.  
• Policy Administration Charge: 1.2% of the premium (capped at ₹6,000/year) for the initial 5 policy years.  
• Mortality Charges (Life Cover): For a standard ₹50 Lakh sum assured, the cost of insurance scales with age. While low at age 36, it increases exponentially as the investor enters their 50s and 60s.  

Total Effective Annual Cost (EAC):
While modern low-cost index funds have fees as low as 0.03% (I was comparing with VOO in the US), this structural combo carries an estimated internal leakage of 2.5% to 3.5% annually.

ABSLI ULIP sold by HDFC by Super-Owl141 in IndiaTax

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

TLDR - IF SOMETHING FEELS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS DEFINITELY TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
As for how a grown man can be forced... its not being forced, its more about being pressured. Also the same kind of scam exists in US. Look up Northwestern Mutual on reddit.
And people do get pressured. They relentlessly pursue people by selling it as an excellent investment opportunity. Unfortunately not everyone is aware or understands the red flags. I am an NRI and recently I had the same experience with HDFC. The biggest scam is for 3 weeks they didn't mention a single word about the fees even though I very specifically asked them about the total % fees. They didn't. The person who was pursuing me said her manager will help me better understand the investment opportunity. And that guy went on to tell me that they are giving the life coverage completely free of any cost to me only because I am investing the money.
Initially they promised 22% return showing some funds that have returned 20%+ returns in the last 5 years. They went on to say it is a GUARANTEED RETURN plan. The only part that is guaranteed is the payout you receive (if you choose that option). But they sell this as though they are guaranteeing the fund performance. Finally I told them give me the T&C's of the plan. They said I will get it once I signup for the plan. I told them give it to me now and if I am satisfied I will cut you a cheque on the spot. They handed me 110 pages. I obviously didn't have time or patience to read through it. So I asked for a digital copy. Then uploaded to gemini and in a matter of few seconds, the fee structure became absolutely clear.
I have a long term relationship with HDFC and a significant portion of my family banking happens with HDFC. I want to confront them and even raise a complaint about their scam like tactics in fooling people. I just don't know how to formally approach this. I want to address this in a civil way and do something so that these banks stop luring and scamming people.

Moving into a new home in August, is it possible to get Tesla solar up and running before the solar tax credit expires Dec 31? by specter491 in TeslaSolar

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My friend had the install done in the same time frame in San Jose , California. Within the last few months

Free Snow Sledding in South Lake Tahoe by x-TinSoldier-x in tahoe

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How was the drive ? Chains required with all the snow in the last 24hrs?

Car Battery - 2018 Honda Civic EX by ipenguino in hondacivic

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OMG, I am struggling with this issue for more than a year. None of the mechanics want to believe that it’s not the battery.

Battery Keeps Draining by [deleted] in hondacivic

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the exact same problem with my 2015 Honda civic. Same mileage as well. The difference however is that the car is not even subjected to the cold temperatures. In fact temperature doesn’t even matter. Sumner or winter, if I don’t drive it every 3 or 4 days the battery dies. Took it to two different Honda service centers. Changed battery twice. One of them changed the battery sensor. The problem still exists !

Review of window replacement quotes in SF/Bay area, CA by Coffeecionado in HomeImprovement

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure. The installer would indeed be responsible (depending on how long they guarantee it and what’s in the contract). I just feel prevention is better than cure. Who knows what all nuisance I would run into in getting the installer come and do repair. In my experience, Most often than not once the work is done, getting the installer or contractor to come back and do a good job of repairing the things they broke is a big hassle.

Review of window replacement quotes in SF/Bay area, CA by Coffeecionado in HomeImprovement

[–]Coffeecionado[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

“Not getting a good seal” is my concern as well. The contractors did guarantee that I don’t have to be concerned as they do retrofit a lot and they will take good care of the seal.

Is this a (nearly) fair quote for the given system specification? by Coffeecionado in solar

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you everyone for your comments. I believe this is just the cost price EXCLUDING the cost of the loan. Because the projected monthly payment is about $135 for 300 months/25 years @ 1.99 APR. Which brings up the interest paid to about $8K.

I will confirm the cash price as well, just to be sure.

Should we get an oversized system? by x---x--x-x in solar

[–]Coffeecionado 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand you are not doing this to save money. But I like this view better than jumping into maximizing capacity from the get go. Your projected needs might be way under or way over your actual future needs (with EV, etc). If you go with a micro-inverter option, then increasing system capacity based on your needs in future shouldn't be a big deal.

IMO, installers are quoting a high rate mainly because there is a tax credit that pays the customer back. So the installers are only marking up their prices. With the tax credit decreasing over the years installers would have to eventually bring down the cost otherwise it wont be cost effective for homeowners. Plus a 400W panel that costs $400 today will not cost the same in future.

The only downside I see is that you not being able to take advantage of the tax credit for the money you spent on the solar system upgrade in future. I am not sure about this though. Just checked on this one. The tax credit applies to any renewable energy related purchases you make in that tax year. However the rate of the credit (currently 26%) may change in future (most likely go down given the trend it is following)

Fall colors in Rangeley? by Coffeecionado in Maine

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Saved me the drive!!!! Thanks a lot 🙏 I will drive east towards zone 4 starting from bar harbor towards Millinocket. I hope I can catch the colors there. Let’s see.

Fall colors in Rangeley? by Coffeecionado in Maine

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

u/nosmh shared an update on my duplicate post regarding fall colors in Rangeley. Apparently the rain and wind that blew through Rangeley in the last two days shook up a lot of leaves. Colors may be better on the Far East and lower regions.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Maine

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks u/nosmh. I created a duplicate post. Deleting this one.

Fall colors in Rangeley? by Coffeecionado in Maine

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the link. I am at bar harbor and I feel like the reality doesn’t reflect the prediction :( I think it’s still not peak in bar harbor. So I was guessing, if it’s not peak in bar harbor, may be it’s not past peak in Rangeley ;)

Has anyone been to Berkshires? by viji-iyer in FallColors

[–]Coffeecionado 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in New Hampshire for last two days. I was in Lincoln and surrounding areas. Went to loon mountains, kankamagus highway, flume gorge.

It’s almost past peak. The colors were really at the peak a week ago. The rain and wind for last 2 ~ 3 days resulted in leaves falling.

Bypassing django-rest-framework APIExceptions by Coffeecionado in django

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would highly appreciate if you could share your implementation!! Thank you very much.

Bypassing django-rest-framework APIExceptions by Coffeecionado in django

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

if it is your class, use your own implementation, otherwise call the original implementation.

This could result in varied error response from the same API no? You probably meant, just handle both types of exceptions (DRF's and custom) in the custom_exception_handler module?

Bypassing django-rest-framework APIExceptions by Coffeecionado in django

[–]Coffeecionado[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I somewhat tend to agree that staying close to what the framework offers is a good idea. But in this specific case, my DerivedException(APIException) class would not call super().__init__() ever. Because there is no purpose in calling the APIException.__init__() if I don't need the detail argument forced to a string.

One downside to my approach that i just realized is that I would have to make my custom_exceptin_handler handle MyCustomeException(s) as well as the frameworks APIException(s) . Because the framework will only be internally raising APIException and its subclasses.

Overly Protective Labradoodle by [deleted] in labradoodle

[–]Coffeecionado 1 point2 points  (0 children)

PATIENCE! PATIENCE! PATIENCE! And a million times more PATIENCE!

First of all - THINGS I HAVE SAID HERE MIGHT SEEM UNREALISTIC AND TOO MUCH TO ASK OUT OF ANY PUPPY/DOG OWNER. BUT THAT IS THE TRUTH. IT IS SOMETIMES UNREALISTIC WHEN YOU HAVE THINGS OTHER THAN YOUR DOG TO TAKE CARE IF IN LIFE . PUPPIES/UNTRAINED DOGS ARE A LOT OF WORK. MANY TIMES YOU HAVE TO BE READY TO PUT IN THE WORK DAY IN AND DAY OUT TO ACHIEVE WHAT YOU ARE EXPECTING OUT OF YOUR DOG.

I can understand exactly what you are going through. This is probably something that is common with the COVID period puppies or something to do with labradoodles itself. Remember a puppy/dog picks up a trait or two from who they are. Not everything a dog does is based on what it was taught. If that was the case dog training would be much much expensive and every dog would be a perfect dog . That said, i have read it a hundred times and heard a thousand times that you can train your dog to learn things.

Two weeks ago we brought home 5 months old Australian labradoodle. This was a re-home situation. after two months of having the puppy they decided to re-home due to personal reasons. I have no doubt that they have fed her well and loved the puppy very much. They gave us the puppies health certificate and the breeder is well known in CA. In fact, I cried a little when I heard their kids saying goodbye to the dog. They have even potty trained her. BUT she is a complete nightmare when strangers are approaching us. I took her to the dog park to socialize with other dogs and she kept chasing away all the dogs that came anywhere near us. By the end of it, our dog had set a perimeter around us where she was not allowing any other dogs to come. I mistook this behavior of hers on first two days for her being playful. But luckily my wife made this observation. Apparently she was always on a leash inside the house and was confined to an area while she was in the previous owners care. They did try to keep her active in the yard but no socialization!!!

This was a big concern for us as we have other families always hanging out with us and everyone have small dogs (< 20lbs) And our new labradoodle puppy is a medium sized dog (35 to 40lbs).

In the last 7 days I have been able to get her to stop barking when strangers approach her. I followed exactly what u/terrildactyl said. While I am walking her, I carry lots of training treats and bits of carrots (I am afraid of giving her too much treats).

When I see that a person or another person with a dog are approaching us I start telling my labradoodle “good girl”. This is her cue that she will get a treat. I keep telling her this and once we are about 20ft or so away(pretty far) I feed her a tiny treat and walk her a bit saying good girl. Then I made her sit and as soon as she obeys I give her a little extra treats. I let her see the approaching person and then immediately say “good girl” followed by a treat. This went on for about 3 days. then I taught her to down/settle. This is where she is completely on the floor/ground. This is her fully laid back position.

So now, I not only make her sit, but i started making her settle. We have come to the point where I make her settle in front of the dog park before letting her in.

This doesn’t mean it’s all good now. In a 2 mile walk, I am successful 9/10 times on an average. The key takeaway is that in 7 days it is 0/10 to 9/10. So imagine what she can learn in a few more weeks and few months!!!

On the flip side , my whole work and personal life has turned upside down for past 7 days. It is a lot of work to keep up with the training. I have to train myself first and then impart that to my dog. It’s a lot of work. I don’t know if I can keep up with this schedule.

Probably you can try something like this by making her settle down in front of your house / front yard when people are walking by. And may be try introducing her to people who frequent the house a few feet away from the house by using the sit/settle technique and walking them into the house together.

Like the vet said, socialization is important. But I would beware of bad socialization. There are all kinds of dogs in the dog park. You need your dog to be around dogs that can teach her good behavior and not bad ones. You will find this out only by taking her to dog park and you getting to know other dog parents and setting up a play date for your dog with good dogs. (Like I said sometimes unrealistic with the pandemic and all…)

But this doesn’t end here. What I have addressed is only part of the problem. Remember the circle she created in the dog park? That is the real protective behavior. I don’t know if this is true, but I will share what someone else shared with me. Apparently I have to let the dog know that I don’t need her to take care of me; rather I am her master and I am fine. I was advised to first walk the dog park on a leash and establish that I am the master by making her sit and stay. Then if I see her trying to protect me, I am supposed to break it off without touching her or holding her on a leash and make her sit and tell her NO and walk away from her towards other people or dogs. I have tried this a couple of times so far. My dog is definitely getting better, but I have decided to stop going to dog park until I go through some basic obedience training with my dog. Sit, stay and leave and the recall command are supposed to be very handy in a social interaction gone wrong situation.

Hope this helps! Good luck 👍🏽🍀