As mentioned earlier, I am running a series of posts on financial independence and early retirement (FIRE). In the first part, we considered a set of thumb rules for FIRE with a calculator and android app. In the second part, we shall consider some of the popular yet incorrect assumptions associated with early retirement. A new and…
Continue reading →A fixed deposit is one of the simplest instruments to understand. However, make the FD tradeable mid duration then all sorts of complications will arise. You will lose money if you try and sell when interests increase or if the bank suffers financial trouble and drops in credit ratings. It is no secret that debt…
Continue reading →Among the very few things that I am satisfied with and am proud of is the fact that freefincal and Ashal’s FB group Asan Ideas for Wealth have played a small role in popularizing commission-free advice from SEBI registered investment advisors or fee-only financial planners. While my list of such advisors and fee-only India (an…
Continue reading →We cannot afford to get rid of income tax, but why can’t we get rid of income tax returns? Difficulty in figuring out which ITR form to use, which rows to fill, delays in processing, delay in refunds, hassles with TDS, irritating notifications to respond to, I could go on. All this makes you want…
Continue reading →Did you receive an email from the income tax department that there is a mismatch or inconsistency between salary income in return and Form 26AS?I did and this is how I responded. I am not a taxation expert, but I thought sharing this might help others and in any case myself. First of all, I think…
Continue reading →“I would like to start investing in stocks, how can I get started?” This is a common question in any forum involving money/finance. If I were to ask this question, I expect to find specific answers that will get me going: “How to choose a stock?”, “how to make a list of stocks never to…
Continue reading →In a major boost to senior citizens, the union cabinet approved the doubling of the investment limit in the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandan Yojana (PMVVY) annuity scheme. Earlier it was Rs. 7.5 Lakh per family and now it is Rs. 15 lakh per senior citizen. A discussion on the pros and cons of this scheme and…
Continue reading →This week on fee-only advisor journey, Chandan Singh Padiyar describes his transition to a SEBI registered investment advisor and how he found fulfillment and inner peace in the process. Chandan is a familiar name and face on FB group, Asan Ideas for Wealth (AIFW). With his pleasant disposition and diplomacy (meaning my exact opposite!), he is…
Continue reading →PLumbline is my list of handpicked mutual fund started in Sep 2017 for beginners to accompany the freefincal robo advisory template. After a gap of two months, here is the revised and updated list after taking into account SEBIs mutual fund classification rules. It is important for investors to recognise that except for a few…
Continue reading →In an earlier post where we saw that the Nifty Next 50 (NN50) is much more riskier than Nifty 50 (N50) and Nifty 100 (N100), we asked, “Is there any index that has offered better returns at lower risk than the NN50?”. Two promising candidates were discovered: nifty 100 equal weight (N100EW) and Nifty Midcap…
Continue reading →In Jue 2013, when freefincal had just completed one, I had written an account of how I came to be interested in money management and finance and my money mistakes. This is a mildly updated version for new readers, especially young earners who think they have “started late”. Trust me, when you look at my life,…
Continue reading →ICICI dynamic fund has now become a mutli-asset fund. Is this a huge change from an equity to a debt fund? Should you now consider exiting or hold on? If you download the ICICI Mutual Fund Notification for changes in its hybrid and its equity scheme you might notice some amusing patterns. For eg. (1) ICICI…
Continue reading →This week on fee-only advisor journey, SEBI registered investment advisor Vikram Krishnamoorthy narrates his journey from MBA student to working as a financial advisor for the Canadian government to running an efficient and successful fee-only advisory service. Vikram is part of my list of fee-only advisors and Fee-only India (FOI): a movement to serve investors and advisors. I use…
Continue reading →Regular readers may be aware that I have repeatedly pointed out how hard it is for mutual funds to beat the NIfty Next 50 (NN50) index in terms of absolute return* and that no active mutual fund uses it as a benchmark! In this post, I classify NSE indices in terms of risk and point…
Continue reading →Here is a simple way to understand how grandfathering works when calculating LTCG tax on equity instruments. Download a free equity LTCG tax calculator to estimate the tax to be paid before you withdraw from an equity mutual fund, You can also use it to calculate STCG, and it will work with debt mutual funds…
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