I have Rs. 500 SIP running in Sundaram Select Midcap fund since Aug 2009. As readers may recall*, this is not for me, but for a relative, started when she was about one for her college. Here are some lessons from that investment. I was using this to prepare slides for a “basics of money”…

Many investors are under the impression that to get higher returns, one must take on more risk. This is reasonably true if the investment duration is “long enough” and completely wrong for shorter durations. In a two-part post, I consider the risk and return associated with all mutual fund categories. This is an updated version…

The 10% tax on all equity mutual fund dividends is a blow to all those who sold and bought funds that offered monthly dividends. This is a blessing as it would reduce mis-selling and hopefully mis-buying, but begs the question: is it possible to generate tax-free regular income from mutual funds? The answer is yes – but…

If you have invested in mutual funds, the annualized returns that you see in portfolio trackers are from an XIRR calculation. It is important to understand that XIRR is an “adjustment” and not get carried away with the large numbers that you see. A simple explanation of what is XIRR. XIRR or extended internal rate…

We are aware that debt mutual funds are subject to a dividend distribution tax (DDT). From April 1st 2018, equity mutual funds will also be subject to DDT. Here some examples as to how DDT affects mutual fund dividends and lowers returns.  This post is in response to Ankit Jain’s comment in Equity Mutual Fund Dividends are…

I discuss simple ways in which a mutual fund portfolio associated with a long-term goal can be reviewed. This is a grey area in personal finance and there is no optimal way to do this. Each individual must necessarily develop their own style of review.  So multiple solutions are the norm here. This post is…

Download a free spreadsheet Mutual Fund Portfolio Growth Visualizer With Index Benchmarking. This will allow you to compare the growth of your mutual fund portfolio with a variety of BSE and NSE benchmark indices. This was to compare my retirement equity portfolio with Sensex and Nifty Next 50. Now it is your turn! Along with the sheet,…

Every time a young investor reads John Bogle or Warren Buffett’s statements on low-cost index funds, they want to know if index investing will work in India? if in the long run index funds will outperform actively managed mutual funds, should I not switch to an index fund? I recently showed how the Nifty Next…

Looks like mutual fund star ratings are useful for something after all! To understand how much you lose via commissions, study the difference between the star rating of the direct plan (no commissions) and regular plan (where commissions are removed from your investment value before NAV is reported – because what you can’t see cannot hurt…

Each December I take stock of how well my goal-based investment is moving along (or is it?) Since 2013, I have been publishing these audits. Here is this years edition with some analysis of my retirement and sons-education goals. The only reason I am sharing this is to advertise the benefits of goal based investing. Kindly do…

Would you prefer a fund that beats the index whenever the index moves up or would you prefer a fund that falls lower than the index? Our first response would be, why not both? Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. Very few funds manage to do both. In this post, I discuss why downside…

“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…

Each financial year, we do our best to reduce as much income tax as possible. I am only referring to legal means (!)- the most common of which is investing in tax-saving instruments. We do this because income tax hurts. The thought of losing a significant chunk of our salary fills us with a sense of loss*….