Reading a fixed deposit rate honestly
Deposit interest is taxed at your slab rate. For a taxpayer in the thirty per cent band, a headline 7.15% becomes 5.0% after tax. Against 6% inflation, that is a real return of roughly minus one per cent: the capital is safe in rupees and shrinking in purchasing power.
- Headline rate
- 7.15%
- After tax at 30%
- 5.01%
- Real returnafter inflation
- −0.94%
When a deposit is still right
Frequently. Money you will need within three years has no business being anywhere else, and the emergency fund is not an investment. Capital safety and real return are different objectives, and a deposit is honest about which one it delivers.
The mistake is not holding deposits. It is holding a twenty-year goal in one, and being surprised at the end that it bought less than expected.
Arjun Kapoor
Financial planner
Arjun writes about retirement planning and the arithmetic of long-term saving. He has been a financial planner for eleven years and remains unconvinced by anything that promises certainty.
Want this applied to your own position?
An article describes a general principle. A plan works out what it means for your income, liabilities, tax position and timeline.
Book a consultationThe emergency fund is boring, and it is the foundation
Without cash cover, the first unexpected expense becomes debt — or forces the sale of a long-term investment at the worst possible moment.
Nandini Rao · 29 August 2026
Term insurance is the cover; everything else is investment
A policy that combines insurance with investment reliably delivers less of both. How to size cover, and why the two jobs belong apart.
Arjun Kapoor · 22 August 2026