The 80C checklist most people fill out backwards

Section 80C gives you a ₹1.5 lakh deduction, and almost a dozen instruments compete for it — ELSS, PPF, life insurance premiums, principal repayment on a home loan, NSC, five-year tax-saving FDs, and more.

The mistake we see most often: a life insurance policy bought in March, purely to 'save tax,' that quietly locks up money for years at a return that barely beats inflation. If your 80C bucket is empty and you have no existing insurance obligations, ELSS should usually be filled first — it has the shortest lock-in (3 years) of any 80C option and, historically, the best long-term return potential of the low-risk-to-moderate options available under the section.

Rule of thumb: fill 80C with instruments you'd want to hold anyway, not instruments that only exist to fill 80C.