A reader was trying to convince his friend that retirement planning is the number one priority in investing. All others, including our children’s education, come next. He wrote to me looking for “logical support”, as he put it. He was, however, sorely disappointed with me for believing just the opposite.  So this is my attempt…

A reader asks, “I am 32 years old, an IT employee, and recently we had a new baby boy. I wanted to thank you first for your continuous financial lessons, which have changed my thoughts on personal finance. I have one crore term insurance and 10 lakh medical insurance and below MF investments.” “PPFAS Tax…

We are happy to announce the launch of the freefincal investor circle! This is an exclusive space for investors, advisors, fintech employees and students to access financial planning and insurance tools, mutual fund and stock analysis tools, coding strategies and Excel macros for data extraction. 400+ members are now part of our investor circle. The resources…

Here is a money management action plan for young earners fresh out of college. Use your first paycheck and make your parents and the rest of the family happy. Use your second paycheck to get something for yourself (money is there to be spent, after all!). Just make sure these are not high-end recurring expenses….

All of us dream. Some of our dreams are serious enough to become goals, and like it or not, many dreams are financial. That is, they require money to implement. Here are three key factors that decide our financial success. That is, how well we can achieve our financial goals. Although each individual is different,…

SEBI has included nine freefincal calculators created by M. Pattabiraman in its investor education website. Ms Monika Halan, the SEBI Investor Protection Education Fund Advisory Committee chairperson, suggested including these tools, and the committee inaugurated them on 22nd Nov 2022. The concerned SEBI team, headed by Mr Manjesh Roy, converted the excel files to online…

A reader writes, “I am 29 years old and had started a few LIC policies on my parent’s insistence six years ago. I pay an approximate total of 3000 a month for 25 yrs, or so the policy insured sum is 1 lac for seven policies, and the return the life insurance agent said I’d…

I evaluate my retirement portfolio’s performance and my son’s future portfolio each year in a personal finance audit. This is the tenth edition. Published from 2013 onwards, these audits provide a sense of accountability and ensure I do not fall prey to fear of missing out, preventing bad investment decisions. They also point out the…

Jan 1st is just another day, but we consider it a time for new beginnings. If you want to manage money better, here are 15 personal financial resolutions and resources to consider for the new year. In his 2013 Ted Talk, former Google search quality chief Matt Cutts talked about the power of trying something…

The Indian stock markets have lost momentum for the past year. One can easily speculate reasons for the fall and wonder if we should stop investments or pull out money (we have started receiving such emails!). However, developing a simple market-independent strategy via systematic risk reduction would be far more productive. Why? We have no…

This article discusses the most crucial steps in defining and planning for a financial goal. Only after the goal is defined should one consider products for investments. Sadly most investors have a product-first, plan-later approach. Some assume they do not have a financial goal and only want to create wealth. They need to find a…

Many parents would like to know if they should include an international equity fund in their portfolio for their child’s education to account for currency depreciation against the US dollar. A discussion. The short answer to “Should I invest in an international fund for my child’s education?” is, that it is unnecessary. There is, however,…

A reader asks, “Sir, I have read several of your articles and noticed that you always recommend 50-60% equity for long term goals. I am 31 and wish to retire by 60. However,  I am extremely uncomfortable with stock market investing. So can you please let me know if I can manage with not more…

A reader asks, “how do we decide the right rate of inflation to be used in financial planning calculations?” Let us first address the easy part: “What inflation rate NOT to use!” Financial planning is a personalized exercise. All inputs and assumptions should reflect our personal circumstances. Therefore the rate of inflation we assume has…

A few weeks ago, in response to our article, “My salary is low, is financial independence an impossible dream for me?”, reader and contributor Anand Vaidya pointed out, “those with low incomes are often more irresponsible with money and expenses. I can share two examples” So we invited him to do so along with lessons…