The union cabinet today has cleared five changes to the national pension scheme (NPS). The most important of which is that the NPS now has EEE status and the corpus that you can withdraw is tax-free. EEE means, that the money you invest in the scheme (up to a limit) is exempt income tax (1st…
Continue reading →This is a performance review of HDFC Hybrid Equity Fund and its old avatar HDFC Balanced. As we did last week with ICICI Prudential Equity & Debt Fund (ICICI Balanced), we shall use Nifty 100 TRI as the benchmark. We shall also use both ICICI Equity & Debt and ICICI Balanced Advantage as additional benchmarks. The idea…
Continue reading →“Should I use the same mutual funds for all my goals, or should I have separate funds?” is a question that investors often ask. The answer you can either go with the same funds for all goals or have separate portfolios. I discuss how to use the same funds for all financial goals. What are…
Continue reading →As announced earlier, I will be publishing market analysis using long-term technical indicators from the time to time. In the Oct. 2018 edition, we discussed if we are in a bear market. Have things changed now? Let us find out using the Bollinger Bands. They are easy to use and understand for investors to spot long-term…
Continue reading →Are you interested in timing the market? Then here is how you can do it right. Please do not assume that buying on dips is market timing. It is delusional. In June 2018 I started a market timing aka tactical asset allocation series, and I was surprised by the reactions to it. Most people who…
Continue reading →Ever wondered which are the most popular direct plan mutual funds? This is a list of the largest (AUM wise) equity and debt direct plan funds. The data is sourced from AMFI and is as on Sep 2018. The post is inspired by a series of questions by Anath at Facebook group, Asan Ideas for…
Continue reading →This is a performance review of ICICI Prudential Equity & Debt Fund (previously called ICICI Balanced) and a comparison with ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund. Let us find out how these funds have fared against equity benchmarks and discuss when to choose which fund. Let us start with the basics. What is the difference between…
Continue reading →It should now be reasonably apparent to the regular freefincal reader that Index funds are becoming harder and harder to beat and that one have easily constructed a minimalist index fund portfolio suitable for all risk appetites and ages. So the question now in many active mutual fund investor is, should I now shift current active funds…
Continue reading →Many young mutual fund investors assume that their portfolios should have more of mid cap and small cap stocks or mutual funds because these will outperform large caps over the long run. As usual, such assumptions are based on “intuition” without rigorous data support. In this post, let us compare large cap, mid cap and…
Continue reading →Here is why you should not buy G-secs (Government Securities) from retail platforms like Zerodha and NSE goBID and keep it simple with fixed deposits or debt mutual funds. Even if you wish to buy G-secs at the very least give several months for the platforms and the process to evolve before committing money. So…
Continue reading →This is a performance review of Mirae Asset Tax Saver Fund and a comparison with the most popular ELSS fund Axis Long Term Equity. If you are looking for an ELSS fund, rather if your portfolio needs an ELSS fund then Mirae Tax Saver might fit the bill. Sometimes, you need to choose mutual funds…
Continue reading →Let us face it! Most of us hold too many mutual funds! Either we started with Rs. 1000 SIP in five funds or we saw new “good funds” and decided to “have some exposure to it”, or we stopped investing in underperformers but left the investment in the old fund untouched. After a few years, our…
Continue reading →Are you an NRI worried about managing your money? Perhaps you are going to become one soon? Perhaps you kn0w of NRI friends who may require some help? In this guest post, SEBI registered fee-only investment advisor Vikram Krishnamoorthy discusses money management factors that NRIs should consider and the questions they should ask. About the…
Continue reading →For God’s sake or at least for the sake your family and hard-earned money stay away from bank relationship managers (RM). They mis-sell expensive and unsuitable products to customers who feel self-important and flattered by their attention. This is how and why they do it. You may be well aware of this, but please do share this…
Continue reading →Stock momentum investing is a fascinating and counterintuitive concept like low-volatility stock investing. Momentum investing is essentially chasing stocks with good past performance! In this post, we find out if momentum investing in India works by analysing the S&P BSE Momentum Index. That is, we find out if the strategy can yield better returns than a…
Continue reading →