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Monday, May 30, 2016

Everything You Need to Know About Your Salary Slip

Every month, your finance department will send you a salary slip once the gets paid out. For most people, the importance of salary slip is only when they apply for a loan or a new credit card. Otherwise, the confusing terms and figures seem like a puzzle you don’t want to solve.
But here’s why you might want to understand your salary slip better.
    • Choose smartly from competing offers when you are looking to switch jobs
    • Optimize liability by making full use of the deductions available
    • Understand what percentage of your salary is forced savings (EPF, ESI etc.)
Salary-Slip

The income part of your salary slip

#1: Basic Salary
It’s the most important component of your salary and generally comprises 35-50 % of your total salary. Most of the other components are structured around it. Bigger the basic salary, the more tax you need to pay.

Tax Implications: 100% taxable
Adds to in-hand? Yes

# 2. House Rent Allowance:
It’s an allowance to pay your house rent. Normally, HRA is 40-50 % of the basic, based on your location (metro or non-metro).
Tax Implications: You get based on whichever of the following is lower
  • 40% of your basic pay
  • Actual rent minus 10 % of basic
  • HRA component specified on your salary slip
Adds to in-hand? Generally Yes

# 3. Conveyance Allowance:

It’s paid by the company to take care of your official commuting needs. The amount varies depending on your job profile. For example, sales executives who have to travel frequently get significantly higher conveyance allowance.

Tax Implications: Rs 1600 per month or the conveyance allowance component in your salary slip, whichever is lower, is exempted from tax.

Adds to in-hand? Yes, depending on how much you actually spend.

# 4. Leave Travel Allowance:
It’s given by employers to cover the cost of employee travel while on leave. It includes travel expenses of your immediate family members as well.

Tax Implications: Proof of journey required to avail deduction subject to certain limits. Any expenses incurred during the trip apart from travel does not count towards your LTA tax exemption. The exemption is also applicable only for 2 journeys undertaken in a block of 4 calendar years.

Adds to in-hand? No.

# 5. Medical Allowance:
It is given by employers to cover any medical expenses incurred during the period of . It is also generally a reimbursed expense and thus subject to providing proof of expense.

Tax Implications: The allowance is exempt up to 15,000 per annum subject to proof of expenses such as medical bills.

Adds to in-hand? Yes. If you fail to provide the proof, you still receive the amount, but will be fully taxed.

# 6.   and Special Allowance:
It is given to reward or encourage employee performance and varies with performance or company guidelines.

Tax Implication: 100% Taxable

Adds to in-hand? Yes. It can be variable and therefore, difficult to assess as part of your in-hand.

Other Allowances: There are quite a few other kinds of allowances based on the industry or the company. Most such allowances are fully taxable. They might or might not add to your in-hand salary based on the conditions they are subject to.
Make sure you talk to the HR and get a clear understanding of the in-hand and tax implications of your salary components.

The deduction part of your salary slip

# 1. :
PF is typically 12% of your basic salary which is put into a government controlled body, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. Your contribution is typically matched by the company subject to certain maximum amount, defined as per the company .  You can also choose to opt out from the PF scheme.

How to lower this deduction? You can choose to opt out of the PF scheme. In case you opt out, make sure you invest it regularly in better options like equity mutual funds that gives you a higher return. If you are unsure of investing the money, it’s best to stay invested in PF.

# 2. Professional Tax:
This is payable only in the following states-Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Orissa, Tripura, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. It normally amounts to just a few hundred rupees each month and is subject to your gross tax slab.

How to lower this deduction? This deduction cannot be lowered.
# 3. Tax deductible at source:

This amount, which is decided based on your overall tax slab, is deducted on behalf of the income-tax department by your employer.

How to lower this deduction? You can reduce this burden by investing in tax savings instruments under Section 80 C or other sections under the IT act.

Things to keep in mind when comparing salary slips in offers:

# 1. Your basic salary is critical as most of your allowances will be based on that figure. This is your real salary or primary hiring cost.

# 2. Look for special allowances and check whether they are performance or event based.

#3. Do not focus only on the in-hand salary. Look at the other benefits the company provides (health insurance, accident insurance, free food, bus transport, better career growth) which might outmatch a higher in-hand salary offer from some other company

This article was first seen on Scripbox

How Much Traffic You Need To Earn $100 Per Day With Google AdSense

Earning $100, $200 or even $300 per day with Google AdSense is not an impossible job.
Many bloggers and website owners are doing it, and you are not an exception. The only thing you need is better planning and execution, hard work, determination and passion for blogging about your topic or niche.

Before diving into the exact process, let’s know some terminology for better understanding of Google AdSense and how you can generate more revenue by selling your ad inventories on your blog.

What Is AdSense: It’s a monetization program by Google for online content from websites, mobile sites, and site search results with relevant and engaging ads.

CTR : Your ad Click-through Rate is the number of ad clicks divided by the number of individual ad impressions. Suppose you are showing 3 AdSense ads on every page, your 1 page view is equal to 3 ad impressions.

CTR = Clicks / Ad Impressions X 100
Suppose, you get 5 clicks out of 500 ad impressions, your CTR would be 1% (5/500X100).

CPC : Cost-Per-Click is the revenue you earn each time a visitor clicks on your ad. CPC is usually determined by the advertisers. In some competitive niches like finance, marketing, online products etc. advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others.
CPM: CPM means “Cost Per 1000 Impressions.”

Sometimes advertisers opt for CPM ads instead of CPC and set their price for 1000 ad impressions. And they pay each time their ads appear on any website.

Let’s Make $100 Everyday With Google AdSense, Right?

For the convenience of calculation we assume that – You serve your AdSense ads on your blog or website, irrespective of showing your ads on your mobile site and added the site search results with AdSense.

Your CTR is 1% and your average CPC is $0.25. It’s quite achievable and lots of bloggers usually get it. We also assume that Page View = Ad Impression for easy calculation. You can manipulate the parameters on your own for desired results.
  • To make $100 everyday you need 40,000 Page Views/day Or, 400 Clicks a day @ 1% CTR and $0.25 CPC. For 40,000 Page Views you have to produce 500 awesome articles or blog posts which attract at least 80 or more page views/article everyday.
  • Apart from CPC, you will also earn from your CPM ad impressions. Irrespective of any niche, the average CPM earning is $1 to $1.5 per 1,000 impressions. You can make $40 to $60 per day easily from 40,000 page views.
  • You can also sell your Ad space directly or via BuySellAds.com and generate $6,000 Per Month on an average from 40,000 page views. Check out how webmasters and bloggers are making $6,000 to $8,000 Per Month from BuySellAds with forty thousand page views per day. So your daily earning will be $200 (6000/30=200).
  • A niche blog with high quality articles converts very well with affiliate marketing. You can easily earn $40 to $80/day from affiliate selling with correct implementation and execution.
Now your total earning per day is $100 + $40 + $200 +$40 = $380 from CPC, CPM, Direct Ad Sell, Affiliate Marketing for 40,000 page views per day. I’ve taken the lowest possible earnings from all the 4 sources.
$380 per day means $11,400 per month (380X30= 11,400) Or, $136,800 per year(11,400X12=136,800). Isn’t it a whooping amount to lead a lavish life?

Which is well above your desired earning of $100 per day from Google AdSense, right? 1000s of people are making money by writing articles, and you can also do it. The only thing I want to say is “Be Focused!”
P.S. The above results can be possible if you produce at least 200 to 250 great articles or blog posts per year for 2 years. So how much traffic you actually need to make $100 per day from Google AdSense – It’s way less than 40,000 Page Views Per Day!

Source: http://seohour.com/blogging/how-to-earn-100-per-day-with-google-adsense-and-how-much-traffic-you-need-12153/

Friday, May 27, 2016

Online Travel Site every Traveler should know

Looking for that cheap flight deal and amazing hotel reservation for a well deserved get away? No worries, we have compiled ten of the best sites where you can get all the best and exciting vacation packages on earth with less hassle.
Smarter Travel is a search engine that finds your requested information on other travel sites.
It has much more to offer than the other online travel search engines. The first thing you may notice on their homepage is the "Editor's Pick's: Airfare Deals" section, click on any fare and it will bring up the requested info plus a host of others.
Standout Features:
  • Easy to use Homepage
  • Free newsletter
  • Editor's pick airfare deals
  • Easily compare results with all the major travel sites
  • Great Booking Options
 Expedia is an travel website based in the US, localised for over 22 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK, US).
It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages and various attractions and services. Expedia keeps coming up with innovations such as the "Trend Tracker," which offers a list of destinations, then shows you the best time of year to go by showing a history of airfare prices, hotel rates and weather trends.
Standout Features:
  • Low price guarantee
  • Trend tracker
  • Low booking fees

Orbitz is a leading online travel company which enables travelers to research, plan and book a broad range of travel products, flight searches and hotel searches every day.
They offer something most other online travel sites don't: a search option. Instead of navigating around the site, type in a keyword, click, and you'll get to the page with the information you’re looking for.
Standout Features:
  • Amazing Search option
  • Last minute flight deals
  • No booking fees

Travelocity is an online travel agency with many great features. Some recently added features such as: a hotel 'Price Guarantee,' and the elimination of both flight booking fees and Travelocity-based charges for changing your hotel or vacation package itinerary makes this site much more competitive in the online travel community

Kayak searches hundreds of websites at one time, turning up the web's best flight deals.
You can also set fare alerts for flights. Choose preferred travel dates to destinations of your choice. Kayak fare alerts can be scheduled as daily, weekly or monthly emails.
Kayak's interface also lays out airfare to a particular place across a span of a month or more. Travelers can then pinpoint the lowest rates and the cheapest dates to fly. The company also offers exclusive deals from "Secret Carriers" — airlines are revealed after purchase. Kayak's money-saving management tools also include price alerts.
 OneTravel can book reservations for flights, hotels, cars and cruises. A great feature about this website is that all taxes and fees are included with the price shown in your search.
OneTravel.com provides you with several flight, hotel, car and cruise options when searching or scheduling your reservation. These include preferred airline, nearby airports, hotel amenities and vehicle transmission type.
They have a "lowest fare guarantee" which states, if you purchase a ticket with a lower fare than the ticket you purchased from OneTravel.com they will give you a refund on the original ticket price. The second purchase must be made within 24 hours of buying the ticket from OneTravel.com. Both tickets must be identical including same passenger, airline, date, flight numbers, cities and flight times.
Some other great resources available to you through OneTravel are weather reports, a currency converter and passport information.

CheapAir is a great site with a powerful search engine.
One major concern: check the URL in your browser before clicking on a site. In this case, if you see "http://www.cheapair.com/", in the top line, you're on the right site. If the browser shows "http://airfare.cheapoair.com/", you're not.

Priceline is a website that helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company is not a direct supplier of these services; instead it facilitates the provision of travel services by its suppliers to its customers.
Priceline.com has suffered numerous complains in the pass however, plenty of people still successfully use the online travel service — to be on the safe side read the fine print before completing any purchases.

Hotwire is a discount travel website that offers low prices on airfare, hotel, rental cars, and vacation packages by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices.
Hotwire.com uses an opaque sales model which means you have to make your purchase blind for flights and hotels; you won’t know the airline, routing or exact time of your flight; or the name and address of your hotel, until after you pay.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC

Music comes in many different types and styles ranging from traditional rock music to world pop, easy listening and bluegrass. Many genres have a rich history or geographical significance, a cult following or music roots that go far beyond the 20th century

Blues

Types of Blues

  • Delta blues
  • Piedmont blues or East Coast blues
  • Jump blues
  • Chicago blues

Classical Music

Types of Classical Music

  • Symphony
  • Opera
  • Choral
  • Chamber music
  • Gregorian chant
  • Madrigals

Country Music

Country music is music that developed from Southern American folk and western cowboy music in the rural regions of the Southern United States in the 1920s. Dance tunes and ballads with harmonies and simple form played with banjoes, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonicas and fiddles.

Types of Country Music

  • Early Country Music or Mountain Music
  • Blue Grass Music
  • Traditional Country music
  • Cowboy and Western music
  • Western Swing
  • Honky Tonk
  • Rockabilly
  • Nashvile Sound
  • Country Rock
  • Bakersfield Sound
  • Outlaw Country
  • New Traditionalist
  • Texas Country
  • Alternative Country
  • Contemporary Country

Electronic Music

The term Electronic music today suggests that the character and quality of the music is synthetic, the music is created and manipulated by electronics instead of performance by acoustic instruments.
This type of music began about 1942 when Pierre Schaeffer put up what is believed to be the first Electronic music studio using a mixture of recorded normal sounds, variable speed tape recorders, phonographs and microphones.

Types of Electronic Music

  • Ambient
  • Break
  • Downtempo
  • Electro music
  • Electroacoustic music
  • Electronica
  • Electronic rock
  • Eurodance
  • Hard dance
  • House music
  • Industrial music
  • Intelligent dance music
  • Jungle
  • Post-disco
  • Techno
  • Trance music
  • UK garage

Jazz

Jazz music was born from a mix of European and African music traditions at the beginning of the 20th Century among African American communities in southern areas of the United States. African undertones are evident in the mixture of blue notes, polyrhythms, improvisation, syncopation, and the swing note.

Types of Jazz

  • New Orleans Jazz
  • The Chicago Style
  • Bebop
  • Fusion Jazz music

Latin Music

Latin music naturally originates from the broader Latin world, mainly from Latin America with fusions by Latinos of the United States as well as genres from European countries such as Portugal and Spain.
Language, the cultural background of the artist, geography and music style are the main elements that define Latin music. These four elements fuse in different ways usually with a combination of two or more of the main elements to give a production the Latin Music Tag.

Types of Latin Music

  • Salsa
  • Tango
  • Merengue

Pop Music

Often, pop music is confused with popular music. Whereas Pop music describes music that evolved from the rock and roll revolution of the middle 1950s and continues in a definite route today, popular music refers to music that is associated with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class during the period covering 1800s and industrialization to date.
From the 1950s until today, Pop music is identified as the hits most often played on radio, that which attracts the largest audiences, sells the most copies, and the musical styles that displayed by the biggest audience therefore it is really an amalgam of whatever is popular at any given moment and doesn’t represent any specific genre(s).

Metal

Metal music is characteristic of powerful and loud bass drums and aggressive electric guitars. It was developed in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s and also in the United States. The words are usually about provocative and controversial themes. Metal music fans are referred to as head bangers and metal heads.

Types of Metal Music

  • Avant Garde Metal
  • Black Metal
  • Celtic
  • Death Metal
  • Doom Metal
  • Funk Metal
  • Gothic
  • Grindcore
  • Groove Metal
  • Hardcore Metal
  • Nu-Metal
  • Power metal
  • Speed Metal
  • Thrash Metal

Punk

Developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, Punk Music is a type of Rock Music Genre based on Garage rock Protopunk music. Bands made hard-edged songs that were short, political, anti-establishment with stripped down instrumentation.

Types of Punk Music

  • Anarcho Punk
  • Celtic Punk
  • Cow Punk
  • Gypsy or Immigrant Punk
  • Pop Punk

Rap

Rap music originated among African-Americans’ inner-city street culture in the 1970s. Rap is considered as a mainstream type and is popular among people of all ages and background around the world.
Rap music is generally not sung. The words are spoken with a backdrop of music borrowed from soul, funk and rock pieces. Musicians remix sounds, and rhythms with their own innovations and synthesized musical elements.

Types of Rap Music

  • Gangsta Rap
  • Political Rap
  • Alternative Rap
  • Crunk

Reggae

Reggae Music arose from Jamaica in the late 1960s. Reggae Music refers to a style that developed from Ska and Rock Steady.

Types of Reggae Music

  • Roots
  • Dub
  • Dub Poetry
  • Toasting
  • Lover’s Rock
  • Niyabingi
  • Slack Dancehall
  • Conscious Dancehall

Rhythm and Blues (R&B)

Types of R&B

  • Motown
  • Funk
  • Disco
  • Doo-wop
  • Club blues
  • Jump Blues

Rock

Types of Rock Music

  • Rock n Roll
  • Garage Rock
  • Punk Rock
  • Glam Rock
  • Southern Rock