A reader wants to know,” Will the Public Provident Fund (PPF) interest rate be increased after three successive RBI repo rate hikes?” The PPF interest rate does not directly depend on the RBI repo rate. Some history is in order to appreciate how small saving interest rates are decided. Several committees that have discussed the…

When Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams could not find a publisher for a one-page book on “Everything you need to know about financial planning”, he was forced to write a 368-page book – Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels. (Ref: MyMoneyBlog) You don’t even need a page to hold all the advice that Adams gives. All…

In this article, Srivatsan (a regular and popular freefincal guest author) offers a different take on the lemon spoon race video which recently went viral. Srivatsan, who would only like to be referred to as a “long-time reader” of freefincal has written several articles here before and is responsible for adding the Earnings power box…

The impact of inflation over the long term can be devastating to our finances as shown recently – Inflation has reduced Rs. One Lakh to just Rs. 5741 in 41 years! The only way to beat inflation or at least keep pace with it is to invest right. But what does “investing right” mean? Many investors…

A reader wants to know if he can now rebalance his portfolio by shifting funds from fixed income to equity since the market is down. A discussion. Yes, we think this market “correction” is a great opportunity to rebalance our portfolios and increase equity exposure. However, this opportunity is only applicable to certain investors. Many…

A reader writes,” Sir, I read your 2021 personal finance audit, where it says,  I have been investing for my son’s future since Dec 2009 (a month before he was born). Then it was an 18-year-old goal, and now it has become a 6-year-old goal. Last year I reduced the equity allocation from 67% to…

A reader writes, “Dear Sir, I read two articles that you had rebalanced your long-term portfolios twice last year (April and Sep 2021). I was in two minds after reading this. Should I rebalance now and book some profits into fixed income or should I wait a bit more? I decided not to rebalance because…

A reader asks, “Sir, I love travelling and would like to go abroad on holiday once in two years. How do I plan for this without affecting my other long-term investments? When we went this summer it was a disaster as I had to stop investing for my retirement for five months. I don’t want…

The cost inflation index for the financial year 2022-2023 was recently announced. We compile 41 years of cost inflation index data to understand the devastating consequences of inflation and why our singular focus should be on beating inflation for our long term goals. The cost inflation index (CII) is not a measure of true price…

A reader writes, “I was wondering if you have written anything (or can write in the near future) about a comparison of portfolio rebalancing strategy – timed, percentage, cash flow based etc. I follow a directed cash flow based strategy to keep/maintain my asset allocation”. “I change every SIP accordingly (I know it is too…

A reader asks, “My son is 12 years old now and this is regarding his Higher education. I have Rs 21 Lacs lumpsum in hand. I also plan to start a monthly Rs9000/- SIP for a 5 years time period. Could you kindly advise how and where should the lump sum and monthly SIP be…

In the previous article, we discussed the basics and important considerations while planning for a five-year girl’s future. In this article, we will do the calculations with some inputs and assumptions. We shall also include the retirement planning calculation for the parents in brief. We shall use the robo advisory tool for this illustration. We…

A reader asks, “Sir,  my daughter just turned five. We have been investing here and there without focus or a target. Can you please guide us on how we can plan for her future? The first priority is of course her education until the PG level and her marriage”. “We are aware of options like…

Freefincal was founded in May 2012. So that makes 10 years of blogging, data analysis, research, reportage, call it what you will. These are 10 financial lessons learned over these 10 years. We thank our readers and viewers on YouTube for their patronage. 1. Nothing works all the time, at all places. No strategy, no…

Personal money management steps are simple to appreciate but hard to implement. These are some of our behavioural finance learnings on why investors struggle to invest and manage money prudently. 1 We often forget that personal finance is personal. Every move that we make ideally should be tailored to our needs. Right or wrong decisions…