Abhishek asks, “Dear pattu sir, how many mutual funds are necessary to build a portfolio? I would like to build a long-term minimalistic but diversified portfolio”. Ironically, context is often the first casualty in personal finance discussions. If you go to Facebook group Asan Ideas for Wealth and announce, “I am holding ten mutual funds”,…

Anand has an interesting question, “Dear Pattu Sir, I was looking to invest in a mutual fund offering regular dividends* but I can only see the returns of the growth option listed everywhere. Can you please explain why dividend option returns are not published?” * SEBI has mandated that mutual fund dividends be called “Income…

A viewer on our YouTube channel asks, “Sir, at present, my age is 24. For the last 2 years, I have invested in  Sbi small cap Rs. 1200 a month. Recently 4 months back, I started SIP in these funds. Mirae asset emerging Rs.  1100; Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund Rs. 1100; MO Nasdaq 100 Rs….

A viewer on our YouTube channel asks, “What is the benefit of a mutual fund beating the index? How it is going to benefit a common investor?” On the face of it, this seems like the answer is obvious, but that is not true because of how the real cost of investing in a mutual…

We list some of the worst mistakes to be avoided while investing in mutual funds.  This list is sourced from the questions we have received or encountered at Facebook group Asan Ideas for Wealth over the past 9+ years and is equally applicable to any capital market-related investment product or strategy. 1. I want to…

Piyush asks, “Dear Pattu Sir, You have mentioned several times the importance of portfolio rebalancing. Due to the marker recovery, my equity mutual fund portfolio allocation is now 75%. I want to reduce this to 70%. Can I do this by stopping my SIPS for a few months and invest it in fixed income? This…

A viewer on our Youtube Channel asks, ” I have been investing in index funds for the last 3 years in sip mode. Can I book partial profits now?” The answer to this question does not depend on whether you invested in index funds, active funds, or direct equity. It depends on your asset allocation…

In this article, let us address a question received on our Youtube Channel and a question on many investors’ minds: “I’m planning to start my equity investment now (at the age of 26). Now the market seems to be at an all-time high, and most experts are commenting that there will definitely be a crash….

We have often pointed out that the fate of our mutual fund SIPs is decided by “timing luck” and not because of patience or discipline or rupee cost averaging.  We have also presented the solution to this problem: Do not expect returns from mutual fund SIPs! Do this instead! However, this stance confuses new readers of…

This is a question received on our YouTube channel:  “Hi, I am aged 30. New to your videos and blog. I have been hooked to it for the past two days. Can you make a video on “How to invest your 60% equity allocation”? Where, assume I have one crore with me, and I have…

There are a total of 23 actively managed midcap mutual funds available for investment today. Out of these, 20 are older than five years. This article evaluates how these midcap mutual funds have fared against the Nifty Midcap 150 Total Returns Index. We identify four midcap mutual funds that have outperformed the index consistently. We…

I started an Rs. 500 SIP in Sundaram Midcap Fund (then known as Sundaram Select Midcap) for an extended family member 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…

The Sensex closed past 55,000 on Aug 13th for the first time, and usual trumpets from mutual fund guys blared, “stay invested! The stock market always moves up in the long term”. In this article, we present rolling SIP returns data for the Sensex (1979 to 2021)  and the S&P 500  (1900 to 2021) to…

In this article, we consider the tracking errors of Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund (MO-SP500), Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 ETF (MO-N100ETF) and Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund (MO-N100FOF). In a previous article, we saw that most international equity funds fail to beat the S&P 500 TR (INR). So the issue of tracking…