HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund needs no introduction to most fund investors. This 11+-year-old fund is one of the most consistent performers in the mid-cap category. In spite of its AUM almost doubling in the last couple of years, it has managed to stay afloat comfortably. Will it last? In this detailed performance review, let us…
Continue reading →Here is a personal financial self-evaluation checklist that can be used by beginners and veterans alike. It will help you organise your finances systematically and you go can well beyond these Five changes It has been developed from how to Conduct a Personal Financial Audit and my own audits which are done each December (see last years for…
Continue reading →November is the best time to make resolutions, not January. If you keep at it regularly, it will become a habit that you cannot shake off by January. So what better day to start than Diwali?! Here are five important money steps that you can consider working on from today and perfect by Jan 2019….
Continue reading →When I start asking my audience, is it possible to get higher returns at lower risk? Many respond that it is not possible. I enjoy the surprise on their faces when they see evidence that low volatility stock investing works quite well and that it is possible to get higher returns at lower risk. I had earlier…
Continue reading →In this post, I discuss how balanced advantage funds are different from aggressive hybrid funds and when and how investors should choose from these categories. One of the wrong questions that investors ask is, “how much return can I expect from this fund or this category of funds?”. Well, they should first be asking, “how…
Continue reading →I discuss how the power of compounding can be explained to children with an example. The video of an experiment with my 8Y old son is also included. For children under ten, the essential point to be conveyed is that if we do not touch the money invested and let it grow and give it…
Continue reading →In this open-letter to mutual fund AMCs, I ask why they not pushing risk-free debt mutual funds when it is so easy to do so?! Yes, a mutual fund with essentially no interest rate or credit risk. In spite of disclaimers and clear wordings in the scheme documents, investors like to assume that the NAV…
Continue reading →One of the most common investor mistakes is to assume that the alpha of a fund or stock or portfolio represents the excess return over a market index or relevant benchmark. This is technically and factually wrong and especially important when someone compares funds or stocks based on alpha or any one of standard metrics…
Continue reading →Yes, that is right! After 10 years of investing, my equity return is 9%, well 9.46% to be exact. But I am not worried, and I hope you are not too. Here are some takeaways from this journey and a comparison of my retirement equity portfolio with Nifty Next 50 and the Nifty Blend Index…
Continue reading →I occasionally talk to my son about money, inflation and investing. So I decided to test how much he has understood. Here is the video. Also, the video version of Can I start Index investing with 50% Nifty 50 and 50% Nifty Next 50? is now available. Note to Tamil speakers: I am creating Tamil videos of…
Continue reading →Here is why I think this market “correction” is a great opportunity to rebalance our portfolios and increase equity exposure (video version included below). However, this opportunity is available only for this who have a clear target asset allocation. That is how much of the portfolio should be in equity and how much should be…
Continue reading →Somethings never change! When the markets are moving up, everyone wants a piece of the action. When it starts to move down, they get restless and start complaining about lack of returns. The problem is (1) lack of a clear purpose behind the investment and (2) wrong expectations. I have Rs. 500 SIP running in…
Continue reading →As readers may be aware, over the last few months I have presented evidence that the Nifty Next 50, Nifty 100 and Nifty 100 Equal Weight indices are hard to beat and only about half the funds in any given category manage to do so. However, the Nifty Next 50 is extremely volatile; there are…
Continue reading →Here is a list of mutual funds that have outperformed Nifty 200 & Nifty Midcap 150 Total Return Indices as on October 2018. The data is sourced from the October 2018 Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener. The Nifty 200 is a common benchmark in the ELSS, large and midcap, and multi-cap categories. Nifty 200 consists of…
Continue reading →This is a performance review (with video) of ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund ( I Pru Bal Adv) against broad market benchmarks like Nifty, Nifty 100 and 200 and composite benchmarks. I Pru Bal Adv is one of the finest dynamic asset allocation funds and here is why. I thank Ravikiran Suryanarayana for this post idea….
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