Next: Investing
What a share actually is
A share is a slice of a real business, not a lottery ticket. Where shares come from, how they reach your demat account, and what every trade quietly costs.
19 min
beginner
EPF, NPS and the retirement machine
Where 24% of your basic pay goes every month, why EPS takes a slice, what a UAN is really for, and why withdrawing at a job change costs more than the money.
3 lessons · about 22 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
24% of your basic pay, and where it lands
You put in 12%, your employer puts in 12%, and the two halves do not land in the same place. One is quietly building a pension you have never seen.
8 min
The UAN, and what taking it out really costs
One number follows you across every job you ever hold. Emptying the account at a job change looks like free money and quietly resets two clocks at once.
7 min
NPS: two tiers, one locked box
Tier I is the retirement account and does not open until sixty. Tier II is a wallet attached to it. At the exit, most of the money has a job waiting.
7 min
Check yourself
5 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
Tools for this
EPF Calculator
What your PF builds to, and where the employer’s 12% actually goes — because not all of it reaches your EPF.
Gratuity Calculator
What you are owed under the Payment of Gratuity Act, and the five-year rule that decides whether you get it.
NPS Calculator
Corpus at 60, the compulsory annuity split, and the monthly pension that actually results.
Retirement Corpus Calculator
What a retirement lasting twenty-five years actually costs, in inflated rupees.
What changed recently
Dated commentary on this topic — a Budget change, a new rule, a scam pattern.
2026-07-17 · 8 min read
Notice period and the final payslip
The last payslip is not a normal one. Leave encashment, notice recovery and gratuity all land on it at once, which is why it takes weeks to arrive.
2025-08-19 · 6 min read
Changing jobs? What withdrawing your PF costs
Withdrawing resets the compounding and breaks the service record that decides your pension — and before five years it is usually taxed. Transferring does not.
Sources
- Employees' Provident Fund Organisation — the EPF Scheme 1952, the Pension Scheme 1995 and the UAN — Employees' Provident Fund Organisation · checked 2026-08-11
- NPS Trust — tier structure, exit rules and the annuity requirement — National Pension System Trust · checked 2026-08-11
- PFRDA (Exits and Withdrawals under the National Pension System) Regulations — Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority · checked 2026-08-11
- Payment of Gratuity Act 1972, section 4 — the five-year rule and the formula — Ministry of Labour and Employment · checked 2026-08-11
- Income Tax Department — treatment of provident fund withdrawal, gratuity and pension deductions — Income Tax Department, Government of India · checked 2026-08-11