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 →The table below presents the RBI Repo rate history from June 2000 to the present. The repo rate is at which the RBI lends money to banks. It is an inflation and liquidity control measure. What is Repo Rate? When we need money but are short of it, we approach banks for loans, which charge…
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…
Continue reading →One of the most valuable life lessons we learn is the irreversibility of time. The arrow of time moves only in one direction, and every hour that has passed has passed on forever. Here are seven investing mistakes that can cost us money and, worse, time after we start taking personal finance seriously. 1 Trying…
Continue reading →The Nifty Next 50 is a unique index. The index can provide joy and frustration in equal measure to its investors. At the time of writing, it has failed to beat the Nifty 50 for the last five years. We address the question asked by two worried investors: is it time to exit Nifty Next 50…
Continue reading →We received this interesting question from a reader who wishes to be anonymous: “There are too many categories of mutual funds. Is there a way by which we can arrange them in terms of their returns?” In this article, we discuss a simple way to do this. We say that equity, debt, gold, real estate…
Continue reading →Sunder asks, “dear Pattu Sir, I just finished the re-assemble (basics of money management series). You had discussed the importance of an emergency fund. May I know how much I should allocate for an emergency fund?” To answer this, we must first understand both the purpose and limitation of an emergency fund. The answer to this…
Continue reading →In this article, we provide a step-by-step guide to choose a gilt mutual fund. Gilt mutual funds are those that invest a minimum of 80% of their portfolio in government securities (Gsecs or gilts). We have already discussed the basics of gilt mutual funds and when to invest in a two-part FAQ. We recommend newbie…
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