Converting an expired US License To Victorian License

     I was holding an expired license from Florida when I arrived in Melbourne-Victoria last year.I was thinking of going through all the tests to get a Victorian license when I found in one of the internet forums that we can get a US license converted even if it is expired. The only thing is it should not be expired for more than 5 years. Mine had few more days left to reach the 5-year mark.

      I immediately went to one of the VicRoads customer service centers. You will have an officer waiting at the entrance to help you with tokens for each service. Please let the officer know that you are for license conversion. He/she will give you a token number. Please reach out to the counter based on your token number. They will give you an application for license conversion and an appointment. My appointment was 10 days after. You need to pay a fee of AUD 18.20.

       On the appointment date, please make sure that you are there at VicRoads customer care center 10 minutes before your appointment.Also please have your US license, completed application for license conversion, and identity documents as listed. I had my bank statement which clearly showed the Victorian address and my passport.Just let the customer care officer at the entrance know that you are there for license conversion appointment. This time you don't need a token.They will ask you to take seat in front of the officers. One of the officer will call your name and purpose.You can head to the officer. They will inspect your US license, verify it online and then request you to pay the victorian license fee.You can find the fee details here. I paid the fee for a 10-year license to avoid the renewals frequently.Afterwards, I had a quick eye test, they just asked me to read a couple of lines from a board and then they took my photo and gave me a temporary document to drive until I receive my full license at my home address.It took maybe around 20 minutes to complete the process. Later my full card license reached my home in a week. That's it !. You are fully licensed to drive on Victorian roads.

        But I would better suggest you go through VicRoads youtube videos and VicRoads drivers manual which is called Road to Solo Driving Handbook before you drive in Victoria. You can download a pdf copy of this book here Here is a link that you can follow to get details on overseas license conversion process https://billing.vicroads.vic.gov.au/bookings/overseas

How to calculate tax refund in US

Most of us are very happy to see the fat tax refund check or refund in bank account from IRS....surely HDTVs,laptop,tablets might be going through the minds of many,but in reality we are loosing some money for that.

The reason why we get a huge refund is mostly due to the fact that we were paying the government too much as tax on our income throughout the year.A withholding tax allowance is simply a number that you can claim on your W4 form that will change the amount of your income that your employer will withhold from you throughout the year. The number of allowances can vary, but is most likely 0, 1, 2 or 6. The higher the allowance number, the less tax will be withheld from you with each paycheck. A W4 is filled out by an employee when they start employment. Allowances on a W4 can be updated at any time by filling out a new one. Most employers will allow you to do this whenever you desire  and your withholding tax amounts should take effect in your next full pay period (normaly next month).

So imagine if you were not paying government more than required tax and were investing that for high return. That's what my point is. You were loosing this high return..... 

There are numerous website to calculate tax allowances.Some are listed below.You may consult a tax professional if you are still unclear..

IRS Withholding Calculator
H & R Block withholding calculator

How To Make Virgin Coconut Oil At Home

Last week I was buying some coconuts from the local grocery store. The cashier was curios to see the number of coconuts I was buying and she asked me what I am going to do with that. I explained that I use those for making virgin coconut oil. She was amazed to know that we can make that at home because she  used to spend a lot of money to buy the bottled ones from market.I have learned this from my grandmother because I am from Gods Own Country-Kerala which is the southern most state of India and there we use virgin coconut oil a lot.... in curries,dishes,as hair oil, for body massage,as baby oil, to make bath soap and in lot of Ayurvedic medicines
Its easy to make virgin coconut oil at home. Follow the below simple steps and watch the video.

1. Get ripe coconuts.
2. Trim off the brown off the coconut.
3. Break the coconut into two part.(you may collect the coconut water and drink it.Its good).
4. Shred the coconut.
5. Use your hands to squeeze maximum milk out of the shredded coconut.
6. Add  enough water to the squeeze shredded coconut residue to squeeze out the remaining milk.
7. Strain the milk to a saucepan and set the stove to medium heat.
8. Keep on stirring the milk.
9. After sometimes the milk starts curdling and oil starts to get separated.
10. Boil until the residue becomes golden brown and the oil somewhat stops to bubble.
11. Now take the saucepan off the stove and place the saucepan in a slanting position so that the oil settles down and gets separated from residue.
12. After the oil cools off,carefully scoop the oil off the pan to a dry container
13. Your home made virigin coconut oil is ready for use. :)

How Do You Type The New Indian Rupee Symbol In Computer Keyboard

Indian Rupee symbol has been announced .The new symbol, designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, was approved by the cabinet today -- reflecting that the Indian currency, backed by an over-trillion dollar economy, was finally making its presence felt on the international scene.Kumar's entry was chosen from 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakh.The finance ministry selected the currency sign after short-listing five from entries received in a competition announced last year, according to information on its web site. The government had recommended in the contest guidelines that the symbol should represent India's history and culture and must be acceptable across the country.

If you are wondering how will you type the rupee symbol using your keyboard, well it might take sometime to get the symbol in action (to gain acceptance in India) and probably an year for international acceptance.

Vendors say they will roll out the symbol as soon as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) sets the guidelines, since it takes only a minor software change to incorporate it.It takes only a simple internal coding to assign an additional function to any one of the existing keys that currently holds a single function. But it will be interesting to see which key is going to take that function.