Archive of Articles and resources for financial planning
Many investors appear confused between investing in gold and buying gold. Here is a discussion on when to invest in gold and when to buy it. Everything starts with the need. If we can clearly state our requirement, the solution often presents itself. Here is an example how to clearly define a goal: Financial Goal Planning:…
Continue reading →Here is a list of personal finance calculators and tools available for Mac Excel 2011. The screener.in stock analyzer is now available in Mac. Converting the Windows Excel tools to be Mac compatible is an ongoing effort and I shall update this page from time to time. I request the support of the Mac Excel…
Continue reading →I have received repeated request to write about investment options available for NRIs. However, since it is an area that I know little about, I requested fee-only financial planner Melvin Joseph‘s help to list the best NRI investment options in India. -=-=-=-=-=-=- India has the largest population of people living abroad in the world. As…
Continue reading →We all that know that one can invest up to Rs. 1.5L under section 80 to save tax*. However, are we making the best use of section 80C for tax saving? Have we cluttered the portfolio in the name of saving tax? Is tax saving an integral part of our goal planning portfolios? Here is an…
Continue reading →“If I have a lump sum, what is the best way to invest it in an equity mutual fund?”, is a question that I am asked repeatedly. In this post, let us discuss simple ways to invest a lump sum in an equity mutual fund. Lump sum in a debt mutual fund Let us first get…
Continue reading →Here is a list of SEBI-registered fee-only financial planners (investment advisors) in India. The advisors on this list charge a flat fee for financial plan creation and advisory and do not receive commissions/incentives from mutual fund houses, insurers or other financial product sellers. Unbiased financial advice is provided without conflict of interest. These are flat-fee…
Continue reading →This is a guest post by Bhavik Mehta. Bhavik is an avid Micro Cap Researcher and Personal Finance Writer. He has completed his CA and is a CFA (Certified financial analyst) and an FRM (certified Financial Risk Manager) . I requested him to write about how an investment portfolio is constructed. He was kind enough to…
Continue reading →With the government having approved the 7th pay commission pay hike for government employees, there is a furore and anger that the hike is not large enough. As with each pay commission, non-government employees grumble about how the govt servant is overpaid and not accountable enough. Next month I complete 10 years of contiguous govt employment….
Continue reading →Financial health refers to ‘where we stand today’ with respect to our finances and what we need to do in the coming years to handle future expenses and financial goals. In this post, I would like to describe a simple exercise to assess our personal financial health. This process can be automated with the integrated financial…
Continue reading →The charges associated with a Unit linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) can significantly impact the returns from the policy. A two-part discussion on ULIPS: first how charges reduce returns and then a category-wise study of ULIP returns and how to compare them with mutual funds. This post is entirely due to an interesting thread started by Guru…
Continue reading →Tracking gold-price movements in terms of USD and INR is a simple, but intuitive way to understand the strength of our economy. Here are some observations from staring at the historical gold price movement in USD and INR. The domestic price of gold, that is INR is the equivalent price in USD times the exchange rate….
Continue reading →Here is what you should know before buying sovereign gold bonds either in the primary market (when the next tranche is released) or secondary market (1st tranche issued in Nov 2015). In my opinion, there is only one thing that someone buying paper gold should know: just how volatile returns can be!! The fin min says They…
Continue reading →It amuses me no end when financial advisors say, “do not do-it-yourself (DIY), find an advisor”. Simply because if I choose to delegate my money management to an advisor then I will have to find one first. Repeat, I will have to find one first! Meaning it requires DIY skills to search for an advisor. It requires…
Continue reading →The basic ideas behind how to manage a personal portfolio are discussed with a focus on the appropriate benchmarks for taking action. Reactions to yesterday’s post, A Mutual Fund SIP is Hope, Not a Strategy!, revealed a disturbing aspect of how many investors approach mutual funds. They are not interested in the inconvenient truth that a…
Continue reading →Too many investors believe that keeping their SIP alive and running over the ‘long-term’ is all that is needed to get ‘good returns’ from equity and achieve all their financial goals. Now that might happen in a fairy tale, but not in real life. In real life, the SIP is a method of buying mutual…
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