Last Updated on September 11, 2021 at 6:10 pm We choose a type of instrument almost solely based on the kind of returns that it can yield. Thus, our expectation is governed by past history. While there is nothing wrong with this, past returns can vary quite a bit, and depends on the period chosen…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 4, 2018 at 10:19 am Here are ten questions that every investor should answer. I have inserted links to relevant posts for some questions. If you are DIY investor or intend to be one, ask yourself these questions. If you have engaged a financial planner, ask these questions to the planner…
Continue reading →Last Updated on December 18, 2021 at 10:44 pm Every so often one hears the passionate refrain, ‘I have been conned into buying XYZ policy by my agent/adviser/relationship manger …., what should I do?, … how can we complain against such mis-selling?’ Do such people deserve our sympathy? Have they been mis-sold a policy or…
Continue reading →Last Updated on August 30, 2021 at 4:21 pm A real estate investment trust (REIT) is like a mutual fund that invests in property. Here is why I think REITs are not suitable for goal-based investing. I know very little about how REITs work and I have sourced my information primarily from three articles. If…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 5, 2021 at 8:28 pm Here is a risk vs. reward analysis of debt mutual funds. This is a companion post to: (Equity) Mutual Fund Investing: Risk vs. Reward vs. Volatility and The key to successful mutual fund investing All the posts are based on Value Research Online’s fund selector page. First…
Continue reading →Last Updated on April 27, 2024 at 10:07 am I wrote a guest post for Avadhut Nigudkar’s website, financewalk.com aimed at financial career aspirants. The monthly financial tracker I have been using for the past 6 years was modified to include the goal analysis sheet from the automated mutual fund tracker The sheet allows you to keep…
Continue reading →Last Updated on December 18, 2021 at 10:43 pm Here is a simple goal planner that serves as a visual aid to highlight the importance of beating inflation for long-term financial goals. It compares the evolution of the current cost of an expense with an assumed inflation rate and the growth of monthly and lump sum…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 4, 2018 at 9:59 am Here is a simple Excel sheet to keep track of monthly SIPs. Unlike the automated mutual fund tracker, where the focus is on returns, this sheet helps to visually track the growth of a SIP relative to an expected growth. The user will have to enter…
Continue reading →Last Updated on March 23, 2023 at 6:26 am The first brush with a retirement calculator is typically memorable, if not unforgettable(!) for pretty much all investors – including ones who do not take them seriously. The typical responses would be, ‘Why do I need such a huge corpus for retirement?’ ‘How do you expect…
Continue reading →Last Updated on December 18, 2021 at 10:43 pm LIC agents are busy advertising the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana. An annuity product which would hand out a ‘pension’ against a lump sum payment at an annual return of a little more than 9%. Here is why you should not consider any pension product at face value….
Continue reading →Last Updated on October 1, 2023 at 5:44 pm Last month I had posted a stock price downloader from the BSE website. Jatin Visaria pointed out that if the price is not adjusted for corporate actions bonuses, splits and dividends, the data is not useful for analysis. Krishna Kishore pointed out that Moneycontrol lists historical…
Continue reading →Last Updated on December 18, 2021 at 10:43 pm While planning for retirement, we encounter several rates: rate of return before and after retirement rate of inflation before and after retirement While calculating the corpus required and the monthly investment required, we assume these rates are constant for each year before retirement and during retirement….
Continue reading →Last Updated on October 17, 2017 at 10:39 am A discussion on why one should not mix insurance and investment and buy pension plans, endowment plans, moneyback policies or even ULIPs. As far as regular freefincal readers are concerned this post is preaching to the choir. Most of you guys know and understand why insurance and…
Continue reading →Last Updated on July 9, 2016 at 10:35 am A step-up SIP, also known as growth SIP or increasing SIP or top-up SIP is one in which the monthly contribution amount increases each year either by a fixed amount or by a fixed percentage of the current contribution. Here is a step-up SIP calculator that can be…
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