EPF, CIT and SSF: Where the Retirement Deduction on Your Payslip Goes

 

If you have a salaried job in Nepal, your payslip probably has a line that quietly takes a chunk of your pay before you see it. It might say PF, SSF, CIT, or some combination. Most people I talk to know the money is "for retirement" and not much else.

That's a problem, because for many salaried people this is the biggest pile of savings they'll ever build, bigger than anything in a bank account or the share market. It's worth ten minutes to understand where it goes and to check that it's actually arriving.

Small Scans, Big Leaks: Getting Control of Your Wallet and QR Spending

 

A few years ago, paying for tea meant opening your purse and seeing the notes get thinner. Now it's a scan, a beep, done. eSewa, Khalti, IME Pay, mobile banking, Fonepay QR codes on every shop counter. It's genuinely better: faster, safer than carrying cash, and you have a record of everything.

But there's a catch I noticed in my own spending. When paying stopped hurting, I stopped noticing. Rs 60 here, Rs 120 there, a ride, a recharge, a snack. None of it felt like spending. At the end of the month, it was a few thousand rupees I couldn't account for.

Buying Gold This Tihar? Jewellery Isn't the Same as Investing in Gold

 

In most Nepali families, gold isn't really a financial decision. It's a wedding gift, a mother's security, something you buy on Dhanteras because it's auspicious. I'm not going to tell you to stop doing that.

But I hear the same sentence every year: "Gold is the safest investment." Sometimes it's true and sometimes it isn't, and the difference mostly comes down to one thing. Are you buying gold, or are you buying jewellery?

Before You Sign for That Loan: What an EMI Really Costs You

 

Festival season is loan season. The scooter ads, the "zero down payment" phone offers, the cousin who just got a personal loan approved in two days. Somebody tells you the EMI is "only Rs 11,000 a month," and it sounds manageable.

The monthly amount is the number lenders want you to look at. It's the least useful number on the page. Before I sign for anything now, I work out three other things: the total I'll pay back, how the interest is calculated, and what the loan does to my monthly budget. It takes ten minutes, and it has talked me out of at least one bad decision.

Investment Scams in Nepal: Red Flags and How to Protect Yourself

Scams in Nepal have become much more sophisticated. It's no longer just the obvious "you won a lottery" SMS. Now it's polished Telegram groups with "expert signals", fake trading apps that show huge profits until you try to withdraw, crypto "opportunities", and calls from someone claiming to be your bank, CDSC or even the police.

The tools change. The tricks underneath mostly don't. Once you learn to spot the patterns, most scams become surprisingly easy to recognise.

A Simple Money Plan for Families Living on Remittance

Walk through almost any village in Nepal and you'll find houses built with money earned in Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi, Korea or Japan. Remittance keeps millions of families going. But I also hear the same story again and again: years of hard work abroad, and very little saved by the time the worker comes home.

It's rarely because anyone was careless. Usually there was just no plan that everyone agreed on.

Insurance Isn't an Investment (And Mixing the Two Often Costs You)

Almost everyone in Nepal has a relative or friend who sells life insurance. And almost every pitch sounds the same: "You get protection AND your money back with bonus! It's like saving and insurance together!"

It's a tempting idea. Who doesn't want both? But it's also where a lot of confusion, and a lot of disappointed families, starts.

This post isn't against insurance. Insurance is one of the most important parts of a money plan. It's against buying the wrong kind for the wrong reason.

Bonds and Debentures: You're the Lender Now

When you buy a debenture, you're lending money to a company. They promise to pay you interest regularly and return your money at the end. Simple enough.

The question is how sure you are that they'll keep that promise. And whether you'll be able to get your money out if you need it before the end.

Fixed Deposits: Look Past the Headline Interest Rate

Banks love to put the FD rate in big bold numbers on a banner outside the branch. Those numbers matter, but they're not the whole story.

Before you lock money away, here's what I'd compare.

Mutual Funds in Nepal: 5 Questions Before You Invest

If you don't have time to research individual companies, read annual reports and follow every NRB directive (which is most of us), mutual funds sound like the perfect answer. A professional picks the shares, you just invest.

Sometimes it really is that simple. Sometimes it isn't. Nepal's mutual fund market has grown a lot in recent years, and the funds vary widely in structure, cost and quality. Here are the questions I'd ask about any fund before putting money in.