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National Pension Scheme Fund Screener July 2025: Shortlist consistent performers

This is a National Pension Scheme Fund Screener to shortlist consistently performing NPS schemes. You can also spot NPS schemes with a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. This is similar in design to the freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener. Inside, you get discounted links to our robo advisory tool and…

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I cannot buy health insurance due to poor health – how can I plan for hospitalizations

A reader asks, “Would you please suggest how one can manage financially if one is not eligible for health insurance due to pre-existing diseases for younger folks? Medical expenses are an inevitability. How do we plan for that as best as we can?” Most private health insurers today are unlikely to accept the risk of…

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Central Autonomous Bodies are not (yet) eligible for the Unified Pension Scheme!

Ever since the announcement of the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), I had assumed that it would also apply to the Union Government’s Central Autonomous Bodies (CABs) (which include all the IITs; see a full list in the link below). That is not the case. Contrary to some reports online, none of the official notifications about…

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Can I use a simple equity + debt portfolio instead of multiple retirement buckets?

A reader asks, “Can I use a simple equity + debt portfolio instead of multiple retirement buckets? Won’t this be easier to manage?” When I was younger, I would have agreed with the reader. Age and experience change perspective. See: I thought a pension was unnecessary, but age taught me a lesson on retirement planning!…

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My farmer parents’ sacrifice and my socialist dilemma on equity investing

We recently received an interesting email, which is reproduced below with the author’s permission. “I have come across your work in the field of saving/investing for financial independence very recently. I come from a family of marginal farmers. Both my parents toil in the fields. For more than 30 years, they used to borrow money…

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