Original analysis, reports, reviews and insights on developments in the mutual fund space and in-depth reviews
We discuss whether you should invest in a debt index fund and also list debt index funds in India as of November 2025. There are two types of debt-based passive funds in India. (1) Target Maturity Funds, which would buy and hold an index portfolio and hold it until maturity, thereby reducing interest rate risk…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “My name is Joy. Age 40. IT employee. My expected retirement is by 50. My current retirement portfolio is at 30X. Equity: Debt ratio is 45:55 ( don’t plan to increase equity more than 50%). I already have health insurance and an emergency fund (in FD)”. “Within Debt, I’m investing monthly in…
Continue reading →A subscriber to our YouTube channel asks, “Assuming we retire at the age of 60 and live up to 85 years. I have been investing in the NIFTY 50 Index since age 30. Can I not hold NIFTY 50 even in retirement for a consistent passive income through SWP? Seasoned investors in the USA do…
Continue reading →This article discusses how a debt mutual fund works in simple language. The ELI5 in the title stands for “explain like I am 5”. We all know how a fixed deposit works. The bank borrows money from us and pays interest regularly or upon maturity. This is also how a bond works. Now consider three…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I have been reading Subramoney and Freefincal for a few years. My father thought the stock market was like a lottery and never invested in it. After a few missed opportunities and very low savings at age 30 (<1x my annual expenses), I got my first decent job and realized I had…
Continue reading →From October, our popular equity mutual fund screener (thousands of our readers use it) will include the Ulcer Index as a parameter along with rolling returns, downside capture, upside capture, trailing returns and standard deviation. The Ulcer Index is a measure of downside risk in actively managed mutual funds. It is a simple way to…
Continue reading →A reader wants to know how he should invest Rs. 10 lakhs in equity mutual funds. A discussion. There are some questions an investor needs to ask himself before proceeding. 1: Will this amount be associated with a single goal or multiple goals? If it is the latter, for each goal what is the current…
Continue reading →Many international funds/ETFs, such as Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund or Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund, are domestic mutual funds that invest solely in foreign equity shares. Some other funds, like Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, invest a certain portion of their AUM in foreign equity shares. The question now is whether an Indian…
Continue reading →Section 54F gives an exemption from long-term capital gains arising from the transfer of a long-term capital asset that is not a residential house if the proceeds are used to purchase or construct a residential house in India. The key is that the gain must be a long-term capital gain for Section 54F to be…
Continue reading →In October 2022, we explained why we badly need an aggressive hybrid index fund! The situation remains the same ten months after SEBI announced a Mutual Funds Lite (MF Lite) framework for passively managed schemes of Mutual Funds, which includes passive Hybrid Funds. We determine how easy/hard it is to beat the CRISIL Hybrid 35+65…
Continue reading →In response to our recent articles on the performance of active mid-cap and small-cap funds versus the Nifty Midcap 150*, a viewer on YouTube suggested that 5-year rolling returns are insufficient to judge these funds, as they are typically recommended for longer periods. We should look at longer periods. These are the articles: Active Small…
Continue reading →“Dividends are unethical. They give you the impression that you are getting something extra from the fund. However, you are not. The dividend is just your returns being given back to you.” – Parag Parikh, in the first unitholder meet held in Chennai and Mumbai, Nov 2014. Sources: this author, who attended the Chennai meet…
Continue reading →The Ulcer Index is a measure of downside risk in actively managed mutual funds. It is a simple way to find out how stressful it is to hold a fund compared to a benchmark. Investors can make the analysis shown using the tools in the freefincal investor circle (details below). Context: The standard deviation (volatility)…
Continue reading →I was recently asked what tools and platforms you use for investing. I never stopped to think about it before. So, I did it in the hope that it may be of some interest to the reader. As older readers would know, I invest in NPS (mandatory), PPF (just enough to keep it alive and…
Continue reading →Specialized Investment Funds (SIFs) and information about them are popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. Thankfully, they are not a retail product, as the minimum investment is Rs. 10 lakhs (that many investors with Crores of net worth consider themselves “retail” and “middle class” is another matter!). SIFs are supposed to fill the “gap”…
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