The freefincal robo-advisor software tool helps you plan your retirement (early, normal, before, and after), as well as non-recurring financial goals (such as child education) and recurring financial goals (like holidays and appliance purchases). The tool helps anyone aged 18 to 80 plan for retirement, six other non-recurring financial goals, and four other recurring financial…
Continue reading →Traditional retirement planning models and calculations rely heavily on the use of assumptions. Most individuals assume long-term post-tax returns of, say, 12% from equity and 7% from debt when saving for retirement. Inflation is typically assumed to be 6%. Such assumptions are known as steady-state assumptions. They generally do not change throughout the individual’s investment…
Continue reading →We publish a monthly list of low-volatility, momentum stocks. We provide data for BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks. Update: Starting March 2026, we have significantly updated the screening metrics (details below). Three different screener files are now available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100 large cap universe are available…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I am 26 years old and recently started working. My monthly expenses are about Rs. 60,000. I aim to aggressively invest for retirement, aiming to achieve coast FIRE in 10 years and retire by 55. Coast FIRE then allow me to freelance, spend more and invest significantly less (I will continue to…
Continue reading →In this guest post, SEBI-registered investment advisor Avinash Luthria, who is part of the freefincal curated list of fee-only advisors and fee-only India, discusses six simple and elegant approaches to managing money. Avinash previously was a Private Equity & Venture Capital investor. His articles have appeared at Business Standard, Mint and The Ken. I respect Avinash’s…
Continue reading →Let us discuss a retirement plan for a 28-year-old who wishes to retire by age 50. The following inputs and assumptions are used in the retirement calculation. Age 28; Retirement age 50; Life expectancy age 90; Monthly expenses Rs. 40,000; Current corpus is practically zero; Inflation before retirement: 7% and after retirement 6%, Return expectation…
Continue reading →Rolling return charts have gained popularity among DIY investors and advisors for analysing mutual funds. However, few users understand how rolling return charts are computed and their benefits and limitations. We discuss how not to use these charts! Rolling lump sum, rolling SIP, and many other mutual fund, time series analysis, and financial planning tools…
Continue reading →This composite case is built from patterns I see repeatedly in practice. Names and numbers are fictional. I show every calculation so you can check it and reuse the method. This is Part 2 of a four-part case study. Read Part 1 here: Retirement Planning Case Study Part 1. Read Part 2 here: Retirement Planning…
Continue reading →Here is how you can be a successful equity mutual fund investor. This also applies to the long-term direct equity (stock) investing. Understand the true nature of the stock market: All those stories of “compounding” that you have been fed do not pan out in real life. See: Don’t get fooled: Mutual funds have no…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “How much should I invest to achieve Rs. 1 Crore in five years?”. Assuming you are sure that Rs. 1 Crores is the right amount of money, factoring in inflation for your goal, the answer depends on how important the goal is. If the goal deadline is non-negotiable, you “must”have the money…
Continue reading →Gold has always been more than just a precious metal in Indian households. It is part of weddings, family traditions, celebrations and, for many families, their approach to saving. Ask someone why they bought a few sovereigns of gold jewellery, and you will often hear something like: “It’s an asset. If we ever need money,…
Continue reading →We discuss how to plan for financial goals 5-10 years away. These goals are neither long-term enough to include equity nor short-term enough to avoid equity completely. Financial goal planning is all about setting the right priorities. If my need is within five years, it would be prudent to avoid all equity. Equity returns are…
Continue reading →Some investment decisions are prudent with reasonable risk, while others are reckless with unreasonable risk. Some risks have a reasonable chance (not a probability) of success based on common sense and/or history if given enough time, and other safety measures are in place. For other risks, the data (history) tells you that most people fail….
Continue reading →A reader asked an interesting question: “Kindly guide on a rebalance doubt. When you redeem from a mutual fund, the units brought first are sold back to the AMC, but those units give us more profits. Once we redeem such units yearly, we reduce the possibility of better profits, right?” Investors will go to any…
Continue reading →Let us be honest about something. You can build the most careful spreadsheet, run every projection, and still fall short in your retirement corpus. Life gets in the way. Sometimes through choices you made. Sometimes through things you never saw coming. A medical emergency. A job that ended before you were ready. Sibling’s education. A…
Continue reading →This article compares my stock portfolio with an equivalent investment in a Nifty index fund and the Nifty 100 Low Volatility 30 TR index. We post this comparison each month. Before we begin, new readers need to understand the context of these investments. Note: The stock portfolio has underperformed indices significantly over the last couple of…
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