Left your job but forgot your old PF account? This one ‘mistake’ of yours will cost you lakhs of rupees in your old age.

Provident Fund (PF)… It is not just another government scheme. This is the result of thousands of hours of hard work that you do in the office. This is the ‘protective shield’ of your old age, which does not allow you to depend on anyone.

But think, what if one small carelessness of yours creates a big ‘hole’ in this protective shield? Yes, this can absolutely happen, and millions of people unknowingly make this mistake every day.

What is the mistake?

This is a mistake – leaving your old PF account ‘orphaned’ after changing jobs.

When you leave one company and go to another, your old company stops adding money to your PF account, and the new company opens a new account. We think, “The money is safe with the government, we must be getting interest.” And this is where we make the biggest mistake.

3 big and ‘fatal’ consequences of this ‘small mistake’:

1. Interest payment will stop after 3 years! (biggest shock)
According to the new rules of EPFO, if no new money is deposited in your PF account for 36 months (3 years), then that account is considered ‘inactive’, and interest on it stops.

• Example: Suppose, you have ₹ 10 lakh lying in your old account. At the current interest rate of 8.25%, you would be losing around ₹82,500 in interest every year! This loss in a few years millions Will reach in.

2. If you withdraw money before 5 years, you will be hit with ‘tax whip’

If your total service period is less than 5 years and you withdraw your entire PF money after being unemployed for more than 2 months, then that money will be considered as your ‘income’ and you will have to pay tax on it as per your income tax slab. That is, a large part of your savings will be deducted in tax.

3. ‘Great Disadvantage’ of Power of Compounding

When you don’t transfer money from your old account to the new one, you lose the biggest benefit of the ‘magic’ of compound interest. Your money lies in separate pieces and does not grow as fast as it could when taken together.

So what makes sense? (just a small task)

Experts give only one advice: As soon as you join a new job, your first task should be to transfer the money from your old PF account to your new PF account online.

This process is now very easy and you can do it yourself from your UAN portal, sitting at home.

This 10 minutes of your hard work can save lakhs of rupees in your old age. Don’t leave your hard-earned money unattended.