In most of the interviews or podcasts I do today, I get asked, “A lot of people are using AI for personal finance. Is this healthy?” Change is inevitable. In the three years that AI assistants were introduced one after the other, they have become a part of our lives. A few months ago, I…

A reader says, “I am a regular follower/reader of freefincal and started my financial planning journey in 2020 after reading your book “You Can Be Rich Too with Goal-based Investing.” “I have followed a unified portfolio approach for all the long term goals, like retirement (26 years from now), child higher education (15 years from…

Writing a Will is a crucial aspect of personal finance and life planning. Although it is often presented as a straightforward task, certain nuances must be understood. Under Section 74 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (ISA), which lays down the rules for drafting a Will, it is not mandatory to use technical terms or…

A reader asks, “Can I invest a lump sum in equity MFs to increase my equity allocation from 45% to 65%?” A 65% equity exposure is not that high, but what matters is, do you have a strategy to reduce risk progressively as you head towards the goal deadline? As we have shown, this can…

“How do I invest a lump sum I don’t need for the next 5-7 years?” is a question most often asked to us or other social media forums. The best way to eliminate this confusion is to rephrase the problem statement. Better still, if one has a proper goal-based financial plan, the answer to this…

These are some reasonable and unreasonable risks in investing and money management.  We all agree that some risk is necessary for our careers, life, and investing. But not all risks are the same. Some risks have a reasonable chance (not a probability) of success based on common sense and/or history if given enough time and…

I go past a famous clothing store each day for my walk. One day, I heard a heated argument between an auto driver and two old ladies over the fare. The auto driver said, “Madam, you are still living in the sixties. Costs have increased significantly, and you will have to pay more.” That is…

While reading about living trusts and retirement planning, I came across a very important regulatory update from SEBI – one that directly affects how your investments are handled if you become temporarily or permanently unable to sign documents due to a physical condition. About the author: Manmohan Sethumadhavan is a freelancer, investor, and personal finance enthusiast…

A while ago, I was speaking with a financial advisor, and the conversation shifted towards the use of AI in personal finance. He believed that those who see the help of AI are not really DIY investors. Does this make sense? Like most things in life, “it depends” on how we use AI. First, let…

The internet is full of investing advice to grow wealth or budget better.  Most of this advice comes from financial advisors (who earn commissions from the corpus you generate), financial influencers (who prey on your vulnerability to earn lakhs from brands), and your neighbourhood insurance advisor (who is desperately upselling to pay their own EMIs)….

I was recently asked, What are the key factors in building wealth? A discussion. 1. Luck/Chance: Let get rid of this first. Yes luck or chance plays a huge role in building wealth. Being born in a financially stable (but not wealthy) family is important. If the family is swimming in debt, then we will begin our…

This is how you can plan for your child’s education and marriage in 12 steps. 1. When to start planning. The moment the pregnancy is confirmed! 2. What do you do first? Evaluate your insurance cover and buy more if required. 3. How to evaluate insurance coverage?  Let us consider a couple with a two-year-old…

You may have seen that mutual fund annualised returns are computed using a method known as XIRR (extended internal rate of return). We explain what this means using a simple example. When you make a single investment (lump sum for want of a better word) in a mutual fund or stock, the return (after a…

Many readers ask us from time to time how to increase their equity exposure for long term financial goals. Their current portfolios are debt-heavy and largely ill-liquid. This is a serious problem many investors face, particularly those who started earning early in their 20s. In my case, I started earning and investing for retirement only…