Last Updated on July 19, 2016 at 6:51 pm A little more than seven years ago, my expenses dropped to ‘normal’ levels after my father passed away (post a prolonged battle with cancer). I had been in a regular position for less than two years then and was taking stock of my cash flow and…
Continue reading →Last Updated on October 8, 2023 at 1:32 pm The physics PhD students of IIT, Madras invited me to speak on the rudiments of personal finance in their weekly meet on Oct. 24th. Here is a transcript of the talk. Since I spoke impromptu (following an outline!), I cannot reproduce everything that I said, but…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 6, 2019 at 11:49 pm When I posted a checklist for DIY investors: What it takes to do your own financial planning, Ashal Jauhari had the following to say. I would like to think he gave vent to his frustrations (about time too!): “Dear Pattu Sir, I’m in DIY mode. Please…
Continue reading →Last Updated on January 12, 2023 at 9:57 pm Use this rolling returns calculator to compare the consistency in performance of one mutual fund with another. When you have shortlisted two funds and are not sure which one to choose, this tool along with the Fund A vs. Fund B Risk and Return Analyzer can…
Continue reading →Last Updated on April 10, 2016 at 11:26 pm Buying a term life insurance policy based on an insurers claim settlement ratio (CSR) is a meaningless exercise. All it does is offer psychological comfort to the buyer who refuses to understand that each death, and therefore each claim settlement is unique. When a nominee applies…
Continue reading →Last Updated on June 5, 2020 at 4:10 pm R. Balakrishnan is a person of great renown in the banking and financial services space. He helped set up CRISIL and the Malaysian credit bureau, was head of equity research at DSP Merrill Lynch, executive vice president of Edelweiss, to name just a few. He is now an organic farmer,…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 4, 2018 at 10:19 am In this post, let us compare two large cap funds from the same fund house. One a consistent performer with a terrific track record and the other a young superstar. The results will hopefully show how herd instincts among investors (and perhaps amcs and therefore(?) intermediaries too?)…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 4, 2018 at 10:19 am In the first part on why you should ignore mutual fund star ratings, I had stressed on the importance of focusing on our portfolio health and performance of the fund with its benchmarks. In this post I would like to add a couple more reasons to strengthen the…
Continue reading →Last Updated on September 4, 2018 at 10:19 am ‘Should I choose only five star rated mutual funds?’, ‘Should I switch funds each time my funds rating is downgraded?’. These are extremely common questions among mutual fund investors. In this post, let us discuss how star fund ratings are irrelevant to the goal-based investor. Any action,…
Continue reading →Last Updated on April 14, 2024 at 7:49 pm Track the monthly growth of your retirement corpus with this Excel sheet. The user will have to first use the retirement calculator. The inputs of this sheet are used for tracking the corpus each month. The monthly investment made in equity (stocks or mf) taxable debt…
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