I received this interesting question from R Siva Prasad: “Sir, While selecting/screening a mutual fund, you advise to compare it with benchmarks. But I want to compare with Mutual Funds in the same category. As long as my fund is on top in the category why do I have to think about the benchmark? And if a…

In this post, I discuss a simple way to find out if a certain fund or a certain fund category is suitable for our need. We shall the use often-mentioned idea of standard deviation as a simple measure of volatility. Although not perfect, it is good enough to differentiate type based on daily market risk…

This year marks twenty years of computer and internet usage for me. In a two-part series, I discuss my experience and learnings on managing multiple passwords (part 1) and computer security (part 2).  From spending the whole day in the IIT, Madras library in the mid-90s to rarely entering it in the 2010s, it has…

With each passing day, our parents are growing old and their ability to be independent is gradually diminished. Elder care or senior care is a young, but rapidly evolving business, however, the ground reality is that, even if we are willing to pay, the competence and training levels are nowhere near adequate. If there is…

In this post, I discuss why it is important for investors to not take mutual fund market cap classifications seriously. In particular, your “large cap fund” is probably either a multi-cap fund all the time or now and then. The notion of what is a giant cap, large cap, mid-cap, small-cap or micro-cap stock is not…

Use this tool to calculate the annualized return (XIRR) of your mutual fund SIPs month by month since the date you started it and compare its performance with its benchmark. This now offers a range of about 70+ benchmarks from the BSE and NSE to compare mutual fund performance. What is XIRR? When you invest…

“Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy”. These words by Sandeep keep ringing in my head all through the day. Two days ago I was chatting with a few friends on FB. I stepped out for a bit, and came back to find my less than 2-year old laptop screen say, “ disk not found”. A few…

Update: The scenarios mentioned in this article are no longer applicable as per our understanding from 1st Oct 2024. For details see: New PPF rules apply only to irregular accounts! The maximum amount per pan number is 1.50 Lakhs, including the minor accounts from 1st Oct 2024. If you have 3 PPF accounts (self, spouse, and minor)…

Use this free Mutual Fund Portfolio Overlap Tool to compare five mutual funds and find out the common stocks and percentage portfolio overlap. Update April 2022: This tool is now available on Google Sheets. How to use the mutual fund portfolio overlap comparison tool? If you are trying to build a diversified mutual fund portfolio…

A so -called bull market reveals interesting behavioural traits. The worry about the dip in performance of ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund is part fact and part behavioural (in my opinion, of course). A look at the performance of this fund. One feeling a bull market brings about is, “why is my fund alone not…

Suppose my current annualised return from an equity mutual fund is 25% and my expectation is only 12%, can I book the excess return (13%) as profit into a safe investment? What if I do this from time to time? Reader Prakash Bala wanted me to create a tool for this and in this post, I…

Axis Dynamic Equity Fund is yet another dynamic equity fund that proposes to tactically change its asset allocation to reduce risk (with no guarantee that the backtesting will work in the future). When Anish Mohan sent me the funds KIM*, his description piqued my interest to look deeper. Here is a description of its strategy….

So you think you have become financial literate by starting equity mutual fund SIPs assuming that they will beat inflation in the “long run”? Don’t get too comfortable with equity. Don’t assume those fairytale returns from DSP nanocap fund will last. This is how a real market crash “feels” like. Preparing for a presentation can be…