A reader asks, “I noticed that Kotak Arbitrage Fund is holding about 5% of Kotak Liquid Fund. Can you explain why they are doing this?” Kotak is not alone. Many arbitrage funds buy units of their own debt funds. This is done in a bid to bolster returns. Even a few years back, arbitrage funds…

I started an Rs. 500 SIP in Sundaram Midcap Fund (then known as Sundaram Select Midcap) for an extended family member’s higher education in Aug 2009. Here are some lessons on investment risk and reward from the investment. Kindly note that I do not count this investment as part of my net worth and have…

A reader asked, “If we compare the performance of actively managed mutual funds across categories, how many of them have outperformed the Nifty 50 consistently?” Readers may be aware that we publish a monthly equity mutual funds performance consistency screener where each category has its own relevant benchmark. Let us now determine how many funds…

A reader aged 35 asks, “I have stopped all my equity MF investments due to the global recession and poor returns over the last few months. However, reading your articles, I am now in two minds. Can you please advise what I should do?” The market zoomed up after the March 2020 crash much more…

A mutual fund portfolio growth visualiser is now available as an add-on module for our Google sheet-based mutual fund and stock investment tracker. Key features of the portfolio growth visualiser module Requires either the mutual fund or mutual fund + stock investment tracker. (see features below) This is an add-on module to the existing tracker…

A reader writes, “Sir, you have mentioned several times that equity mutual fund investing comes with no guarantees. I find this quite unsettling. Each time the market falls, I feel worried and am in two minds about investing. My mind tells me to stay invested, but my heart is worried. Please advise.” It is true…

“Has anyone ever gotten rich using mutual funds?”. You may have seen this question do the rounds on social media and personal financial forums from time to time. This is asked by two sets of people. (1) Those who wish to push other products: Insurance, stock advisory services or a PMS and (2) young investors…

This article explains how international mutual funds are taxed with an example. All mutual funds not holding a minimum of 65% of Indian stocks or Indian stock-based ETFs are known as “non-equity” mutual funds by the income tax department. They are taxed at a rate of 20% with indexation. In the case of non-equity mutual…

On 19th June 2008, I started investing in mutual funds. These 14 years have changed my view of risk and day-to-day money management. This is my story and the lessons I have learned. The broad trajectory should be well known to regular/old readers. This is an account of how I went from spendthrift to debt-bearer…

Here is a simple way to select mutual funds that have beat the category benchmark in terms of both return and risk over the last one, two, three, four and five years simultaneously! That is higher than the benchmark return and lower than the benchmark risk. This option is available in our monthly MF fund…

My son turned 12 a few months ago. I have been investing for his future since Dec 2009 – a month before he was born. Here are some lessons from this journey. Many years ago, I asked a question in the Jagoinvestor forum, “if anyone has achieved their financial goals using mutual funds, please share…

A friend (who prefers anonymity) was reviewing his AIS (annual income statement) before filing ITR to ensure there is no disparity between the two. He was shocked to see that rental income reported in AIS was twice what he was actually receiving! The tenant was only paying him  Rs. X per year as rent but…