TheSVibes

  For a long time, I thought a CIBIL score was just another number that banks checked before approving a loan. I did not pay much attention to it until I needed credit and realised that this three-digit number could affect my loan approval, interest rate, credit-card limit and even how seriously a bank treated my application. Many people hear terms like CIBIL score, credit score, credit report, credit utilisation and hard enquiry, but very few understand what they actually mean. Some people believe that having a high salary automatically gives them a good score. Others think that checking their own score will reduce it. I also believed a few of these things until I started reading my credit report carefully and understanding how the system works. This article explains CIBIL and credit scores in simple language, based on practical experience and the mistakes many ordinary borrowers make. What is a CIBIL score? A CIBIL score is a three-digit number that represents your credit...

The first time I applied for an IPO, I genuinely thought it was going to be complicated. I imagined forms, paperwork, maybe even a trip to a bank branch. Turns out, applying for an IPO today takes about two minutes on your phone. The part that actually needs understanding isn't the "how to click apply" bit — it's everything around it: whether you should apply, how allotment actually works, and what happens after you get (or don't get) shares. So let's go through the whole thing, start to finish. What an IPO Actually Is IPO stands for Initial Public Offering. It's the process through which a private company sells shares to the public for the first time and gets listed on a stock exchange like the NSE or BSE. Before this, the company's shares are held by founders, employees, and private investors — you and I simply can't buy them. Once it goes public, anyone with a Demat account can own a piece of it. Companies do this mainly to raise money — ...

Every time I mention the new tax regime to someone, I get the same reaction: "Bhai, wahaan toh koi deduction hi nahi hota" — there's no deduction there at all. And I understand why people think that. The new regime under Section 115BAC is built around the trade-off of lower slab rates in exchange for giving up HRA, Section 80C, 80D, and most of the exemptions people grew up filing with. But "fewer deductions" isn't the same as "zero deductions." There's a short, specific list of benefits that quietly survive under the new regime for FY 2026-27 (AY 2027-28) — and most salaried people never claim them simply because nobody tells them these exist. If you've moved to the new regime (which is now the default one) assuming you've got no room to reduce your taxable income at all, you're probably leaving money on the table. Let's fix that. 1. The Standard Deduction — ₹75,000 This is the one most people do know, but it's worth ...