The way UTI Mutual fund handled the DHFL crisis leaves a lot to be desired to say the least highlighting the need for tighter rules on what an AMC should do in the case of a bond default.  In early June 2019,  Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd a housing finance company defaulted on almost 1000…

In the last ten years, online mutual fund investing has been a gamechanger for both the investor and the industry. I think it is time to stop and ask is it unhealthy to buy mutual funds from an investment platform? Just think about the number of mutual fund investment channels available today, it almost seems like…

Yes, that is right! There is no legal obligation for a mutual fund to declare NAV after each business day! SEBI expects them to, yes but the rules are fairly lax in this regard. Let us take a look at what happened after the DHFL crisis. NAV for 3rd June 2019: According to AMFI, For…

How often has the Nifty crashed? Has it crashed once it reaches an all-time high? When has the Nifty crashed in the past? Is it possible to use this information to predict when it will crash in the future? Let us try and find answers to these questions using Nifty closing price history from July…

Here are three simple tips to choose the right financial advisor for you with no conflicts of interest (fee-only registered with SEBI). If you wish to outsource money management, either because you cannot do it yourself for want of time, confidence or expertise or because you prefer outsourcing, a trusted financial advisor is necessary. More…

After 13 years of using a feature phone, I finally decided to get myself a smartphone. Selecting one I realized that many of us have the right approach to buying a smartphone but fail to apply it to managing money and investing. First some blah blah about my new phone, kindly bear with me. Did…

The latest freefincal mutual fund portfolio overlap tool allows you to compare five mutual funds at once to check for common stocks! Since Moneycontrol had changed its layout, this tool has been written from the ground up. Users will now have to select equity or debt as fund type before running the comparison. Update April 2022: This…

This is an update of the rolling return and rolling risk calculator. Download this to check how consistently a fund has beat its benchmark in terms of return and risk. New AMCs, New fund names (open-ended) have been added to this sheet. You can download the sheet from the link below. This tool is now…

Many mutual fund SIP buyers and sellers incorrectly believe that SIP is a disciplined form of investing that reduces market risk because it averages the cost of purchase. In part 2 of “this is how a real market crash “feels” like“, let us travel with a SIP started ten years apart and see for ourselves…

Don’t be fooled by those who stand to profit from your investments!  SIP is NOT systematic investing! Starting a mutual fund SIP and continuing it through market ups and down has nothing to do with systematic investing. Buying mutual fund units on the same of day of each month is automation. It has nothing to…

ETMoney is an app which lets you invest into Mutual Fund Direct Plans without any commission or fees (as on date). To start investing in Mutual Funds you need to complete one time central KYC process as per SEBI guidelines. This KYC is valid across all platforms so even if you don’t want to invest…

In this article, I compare, category-wise, ten-year ULIP returns vs mutual fund returns. ULIPs are currently being sold as a “better alternative” to mutual funds because they are tax free. Investors by looking at the ULIP returns shown below must recognize the huge difference between the best and worst performer in each ULIP category. Since there is…

A new mutual fund investor has to verify ID and address proof. This is known as KYC or Know Your Customer. Here is how you can do online KYC using Paytm money. The facility of online KYC is crucial for direct mutual fund investors who are too busy to visit an AMC office or CAMs…

Here are 18 mutual funds with better than index return & lower than index risk over the last 1,2,3,4 and 5 years! I have calculated this with trailing returns and trailing standard deviation (a measure of volatility) using the freefincal equity mutual fund consistency screener. This is an alternative way of short-listing mutual funds. However,…

One question that new investors ask is, “since the NAV of a direct plan mutual fund is always higher than that of the regular plan, I will get a lesser number of units for the same investment. Is this not bad? Will I not get lower returns and lesser corpus?” In this article, we shall…