We often focus a lot on regular inflation while planning for our goals and cash flows. But a very important aspect which gets missed is ‘Lifestyle Inflation’. This is the concept where a person increases their expenses when there is an increase in their income, in addition to the regular increase in the cost of…
Continue reading →We find out how many equity mutual funds beat category benchmarks in September 2019. We also find out how many did so at lower risk! The category benchmarks are those used in the Sep 2019 Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (see list below). Yesterday we saw only 20 funds managed to beat the index at lower…
Continue reading →This is a review of Axis Small Cap Fund that has recently caught the attention of mutual fund investors. At the time of writing, it is the only fund with a positive one-year trailing return. So immediately investors would like to know if this is worth investing in. How did this fund manage to fall…
Continue reading →This is a step by step guide on equity portfolio construction for retail investors with a listing of options available and pros and cons of each by SEBI Registered Investment Advisor Swapnil Kendhe who is part of my list of fee-only financial planners. Swapnil is a familiar name to regular readers. Swapnil’s website is Vivektaru. You can…
Continue reading →You might have seen financial advisors or bloggers like me chant repeatedly “invest with a goal”, “invest with a goal”. Have you ever wondered why? After all, many people regularly ask in financial forums, “I do not have a goal in mind, I just want to save or invest or build wealth, how should I…
Continue reading →A DIY investor invariably ends up reading a lot of stuff (and fluff). One typically starts with basic finance and business books, one thing leads to another and next thing you know, you end up reading stuff on history, psychology, personal and career development, management, leadership, philosophy and whatnot. This is a guest post by…
Continue reading →Selecting a suitable health insurance policy is one of the most difficult decision in personal finance. Yet it is one of the most important steps that cannot be avoided. It would make a big difference if an experienced expert in the field discussed the basics of health insurance coverage and talked us through how to…
Continue reading →This week let us take review the performance of HDFC Equity Fund. Currently labelled as a multicap mutual fund with assets of 21,622 Crores, the fund has a long and rich history including frustrating investors with long periods of underperformance. However, the fund seems to have recovered a bit when the last 1-3 year window…
Continue reading →Here is how the NPS Tier 1 Equity Schemes (“E”) have performed since inception. Many mistakenly assume NPS equity schemes are index mutual funds tracking Nifty 50. A look at the scheme portfolios would immediately dispel that myth. The NPS E schemes hold close to 100 stocks. Getting the historical NAV history of the NPS…
Continue reading →Let us think about it for a moment: What is the ideal retirement plan? One that guarantees income for our lifetime, one that helps tackle inflation and unexpected expenses after retirement. All this with as low a corpus as possible! Yes, that does sound too good to be true. However, we can get close to…
Continue reading →Happy Teachers Day! There is no greater teacher than life in general and El Mercado – the market – in particular. We often forget its most important lesson: buy an asset class (eg gold or stocks) when it is not doing well and sell when it is doing well. No, I am not suggesting that…
Continue reading →Investors sense the risk of investing a lump sum in stocks in different ways. Here are two dramatically different Facebook poll results on the subject conducted at Asan Ideas For Wealth (AIFW) and what we can learn from it. This should also be of use to investment advisors in understanding how clients perceive risk. After…
Continue reading →Here is how you can buy LIC’s Tech Term online step by step. Kindly note that at the time of writing (2nd Sep 2019), the purchase portal is still new. You may expect them to test it and make some changes in the next few days. Therefore, for now, use it to compute the premium…
Continue reading →LIC’s Tech Term is now available for purchase from its online portal. However, LIC’s Tech Term Premium is still a few thousands more than term policies from private insurers. Waiting for a term plan to launch is the dumbest thing a person can do and now the wait is not worth it IMO. Here are…
Continue reading →Axis Long Term Equity Fund was the darling of first-time mutual fund tax savers a couple of years ago. Has its performance slipped? Is this because of its large AUM? Can existing investors continue? Can new investors consider this for tax saving under section 80C? Let us find out by checking how consistent the fund…
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