Archive of Articles and resources for financial planning
In June 2013, Rajesh Dalmia a certified financial planner and director of Mandar Learning Academy authored an impressive do it yourself financial planning guide for investors to understand the basic features of insurance planning and goal-based investing. He readily agreed to shares his work here. I think it is time that a new generation of…
Continue reading →The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) published a report on transforming India’s gold market in February 2018 and proposed the introduction of a new financial product: Gold Savings Account (GSA). Let us look at its main features, benefits and discuss how and when to use the GSA. As on date, the scheme is only a…
Continue reading →At some point, after you started investing in mutual funds or stocks, you might have heard the words “annualized returns” or “CAGR” or “XIRR”. If you are interested to know what these mean, how they are calculated and how to interpret them, read on. But first, do check out My Handpicked Mutual Funds September 2018 (PlumbLine)….
Continue reading →Each time the markets move up for a few sessions, it makes many investors uncomfortable. Is it a bubble? Is it euphoria? They wonder and if the movement results in an all-time time, the worry machines are turning in full swing. In this post, I discuss some reasons for this investor behaviour and how one…
Continue reading →“I started investing Late, Can I Catch Up?” I am often asked this question. The catching up here refers to being able to create an adequate retirement corpus. The answer depends on the age of the person. For someone in the 30s (even late 30s), I think it is quite possible if they put their head down…
Continue reading →One of my favourite quotes about goals is by Harvey Mackay: “A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” That just about sums it up!! In this post, let us look at how to define a financial goal with the Audi as a dream car. It…
Continue reading →Diversification is a word that many investors use rather loosely. Whenever they seem something “offer good returns” I have seen many investors want a piece of that action and say “I have added it for diversification”. Again that classic mistake. Choosing a product/security/asset class by looking at its (recent) returns and not its risk. People who…
Continue reading →In about nine months, India will be voting to choose its 15th prime minister in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. It is well known that in the build-up to every general election and immediately afterwards, the market is filled with excessive fear and hope resulting in swings that can unsettle the nerves. So is there…
Continue reading →Portfolio rebalancing refers to resetting your asset allocation (equity: fixed income ratio) from time to time – typically once a year – to lower risk in your portfolio. In this post, I show backtesting results and discuss exactly how much is the risk reduction and in spite of tax and exit loads, it is totally…
Continue reading →A few days ago, I gave a talk at a CFA Society meeting. One of the modules is covered in this post: How much equity should I hold in my portfolio? We know that equity has the potential offer better returns than fixed income (emphasis on potential) but how much equity – either as direct equity…
Continue reading →We all invest with the hope of having enough money for our future needs. This is true for even those who claim they do not have a goal – they just don’t know it yet. A good amount of equity exposure is important to beat inflation for long-term (10Y+) goals. However, many people make the…
Continue reading →For a while now, I have been wanting to do a full back-test of multiple market timing or tactical asset allocation strategies. I used a speaking invitation as an excuse to create a spreadsheet where multiple models can be quickly tested with 1000s of time periods. While at it, I asked myself, do we need to…
Continue reading →Resolve is a series of steps on investing and portfolio management. In the first step, we considered how to quickly select equity mutual funds and build a diversified (equity) portfolio. As a second step, we will consider how to quickly decide if I should stay invested in a mutual fund or exit it. To be frank, the…
Continue reading →As readers may be aware Re-assemble is series on the basic of money management aimed at beginners and young earners. Since it now pretty much complete with a compiled free e-book released, I think it is time to move on to the next step. Introducing. Resolve: a series of steps on investing and portfolio management. In…
Continue reading →In a major boost to senior citizens, the union cabinet approved the doubling of the investment limit in the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandan Yojana (PMVVY) annuity scheme. Earlier it was Rs. 7.5 Lakh per family and now it is Rs. 15 lakh per senior citizen. A discussion on the pros and cons of this scheme and…
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