The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) published a report on transforming India’s gold market in February 2018 and proposed the introduction of a new financial product: Gold Savings Account (GSA). Let us look at its main features, benefits and discuss how and when to use the GSA. As on date, the scheme is only a…
Continue reading →At some point, after you started investing in mutual funds or stocks, you might have heard the words “annualized returns” or “CAGR” or “XIRR”. If you are interested to know what these mean, how they are calculated and how to interpret them, read on. But first, do check out My Handpicked Mutual Funds September 2018 (PlumbLine)….
Continue reading →PlumbLine is my list of handpicked mutual fund started in last Sep for beginners to accompany the freefincal robo advisory template. After a gap of four months, here is the September 2018 edition with three new additions. This marks one year of the robo template. If you are seeing this for the first time, please…
Continue reading →As pointed out yesterday, many investors get nervous when the market hits all-time highs on a daily basis and start asking “should I book profits now and re-enter later?”. Sadly, they only talk about the exit mark and have no idea when they would re-enter. It amounts to a random thought often influenced by what…
Continue reading →Each time the markets move up for a few sessions, it makes many investors uncomfortable. Is it a bubble? Is it euphoria? They wonder and if the movement results in an all-time time, the worry machines are turning in full swing. In this post, I discuss some reasons for this investor behaviour and how one…
Continue reading →In the 6th part on the series on tactical asset allocation techniques based on market timing, we evaluate the Motilal Oswal Value Index (MOVI) over five-year vs ten-year periods. The MOVI index data is available at the Motilal Oswal website used a combination of Nifty price to earnings ratio (PE), price to book value (PB) and dividend yield…
Continue reading →“I started investing Late, Can I Catch Up?” I am often asked this question. The catching up here refers to being able to create an adequate retirement corpus. The answer depends on the age of the person. For someone in the 30s (even late 30s), I think it is quite possible if they put their head down…
Continue reading →Change in any sphere of life is inevitable. In the last decade or so, change has been so rapid in the Indian financial industry space – especially that concerning mutual funds and investment advise – that it is scary to watch even from the sidelines. A couple of years ago, PV Subra(money.com) asked a gathering…
Continue reading →Using the August 2018 Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener published yesterday, we find out how large-cap and value-oriented mutual funds have fared against the Nifty 100 Equal Weight Index. This index has equal exposure to the top 100 stocks by free-float market capitalization. Sundaram and Principal AMC have index funds based on this. So like the Nifty…
Continue reading →Here is a list of equity mutual funds with low risk and good returns. There are 53 such funds across ten fund categories. How and why I compiled this list: Parag Parikh Long-Term Equity Fund (PPLTE) turned five last May (I am an NFO investor). So I wanted to review this funds performance for a post…
Continue reading →One of my favourite quotes about goals is by Harvey Mackay: “A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” That just about sums it up!! In this post, let us look at how to define a financial goal with the Audi as a dream car. It…
Continue reading →An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is one in which each unit of the fund (a basket of stocks or bonds) is traded among other unitholders via a demat account. How easily one is able to buy and sell these ETF units is referred to as liquidity. A common complaint is that Indian ETFs are not liquid enough….
Continue reading →Skin in the game refers to a situation where the major decision makers (in any field) have a personal stake in the decisions that they make. In finance, one example is a fund manager and/or fund management (the fund house) investing their own money in the funds that they manage. I argue that demanding such a…
Continue reading →Readers may be well aware that I am no fan of mutual fund star ratings. Star ratings and past performance if not understood with the right perspective can result in mistakes. In this post, let me give you an example – of my laziness that lead to a mistake in the July 2018 Equity Mutual Fund…
Continue reading →Diversification is a word that many investors use rather loosely. Whenever they seem something “offer good returns” I have seen many investors want a piece of that action and say “I have added it for diversification”. Again that classic mistake. Choosing a product/security/asset class by looking at its (recent) returns and not its risk. People who…
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