Suresh Padmanaban writes, “Dear Pattu, I have been investing in the markets since the mid-90s. I get a feeling that the volatility over these years has gradually come down. Can you please quantitatively verify this?” On 3rdf Feb 2021, the Sensex closed above 50,000 for the first time. We studied the evolution of stock market…
Continue reading →In this article, author Smriti Tuteja discusses how to choose the right school for our children. One aspect of raising children that worries most parents is education. We are always striving to give them the best and ensure that they have a secure future. It begins right after they take birth. I know people who…
Continue reading →We had recently discussed why we need to stop using Safe Withdrawal Rate (4% rule) for retirement planning. Many readers seem to be under the wrong impression that it is possible to fight inflation after retirement while ensuring the principal (nest egg) does not deplete. Here is why this is wrong. Let us reproduce the…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (May 2021) is now available. Use it to screen for consistently performing equity mutual funds. You can screen based on fund category & benchmark and spot mutual funds that have got a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get ~ 40% discounted links…
Continue reading →This is a review of Axis Global Innovation Fund of Fund, an open-ended fund of fund scheme investing in Schroder International Selection Fund Global Disruption (aka underlying fund). The NFO period is between 10th to 21st May 2021. Just eight months ago, the AMC had launched the Axis Global Equity Alpha Fund of Fund that…
Continue reading →Here is how a frugal lifestyle can simplify and enrich our lives. The Merriam-Webster defines “frugal” as – characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources while some of the synonyms include economical, thrifty, provident a stark contrast from the word “Cheap” which is also used to describe people with similar attributes but has a very…
Continue reading →Anyone keen on financial independence after retirement, in particular early retirement, would have come across the safe withdrawal rate, in particular the 4% rule. Unfortunately, the 4% rule is misunderstood and misused that most of us are better off never using it for retirement planning! What is a safe withdrawal rate? The safe withdrawal rate…
Continue reading →This is a review of Parag Parikh Conservative Hybrid Fund, an open-ended hybrid scheme investing predominantly in debt instruments. The scheme NFO period is between 7th to 21st May 2021. Classified as a conservative hybrid fund, the scheme will invest 10% to 25% of its assets in equity and 75% to 90% in bonds. The…
Continue reading →Deepesh asks, “I calculated the term life insurance cover required for me to be close to two crores. However, I doubt if I will get this cover given my current income profile, even if I’m willing to pay the associated premium. In such a case, should one consider buying a term plan with increasing cover?”…
Continue reading →Here is a list of stocks with low volatility and momentum for May 2021 from the Nifty 100. You can also get the historical data from March 2019 to May 2021. We filter Nifty 100 for (1) positive 1-year return, (2) positive six-month return, (3) price > 200-day moving average, (4) 50% of daily positive…
Continue reading →We had recently surveyed clients of SEBI registered fee-only investment advisors and obtained 685 responses. These are the results and a discussion of key learnings. We thank everyone who has participated in this survey. Your contribution will make a big difference in improving fee-only advisor (FOA) services and client-advisor relations. Two types of questions were…
Continue reading →Nearly three years have passed since mutual funds complied with the SEBI recategorization rules. We now have enough data to classify hybrid mutual funds in terms of their risk with respect to equity mutual funds. We shall use the standard deviation of monthly returns over the last three years to classify hybrid mutual funds. Let…
Continue reading →Each time I publish an updated retirement asset allocation, I get asked this question: “At age 46, are you not holding too much equity?” In this article, I discuss a common misconception about asset allocation and how much equity is suitable for a middle-aged person. As we begin investing for retirement, say in our mid-thirties,…
Continue reading →RBI Repo rate history from June 2000 to the present is presented in the table below. The repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends money to banks. It is an inflation and liquidity control measure. A simple explanation with an example is available here: Understanding Repo Rate and Reverse Repo rate. Since the…
Continue reading →All retirement planning discussions focus on beating inflation, investing enough and managing the corpus post-retirement. However, there is more to retirement planning than using calculators and investing right. As regular readers may be aware, I have been creating and using retirement calculators for more than 10 years now and have seen the results change from…
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