If you are someone who desires early retirement or you just want to save up enough to ensure income for a few years while you get your startup off the ground, then you probably should have come across* terms like frugality, FIRE, safe withdrawal rate = 4%, savings rate etc. These are some of the…
Continue reading →Let us discuss what is a living will, why it is important, how to make one and how it can help our loved ones. On March 9th, 2018, the Supreme court of India allowed passive euthanasia and recognised a directive of a terminally ill patient to withdraw life support. The court also put into place…
Continue reading →I have Rs. 500 SIP running in Sundaram Select Midcap fund since Aug 2009. As readers may recall*, this is not for me, but for a relative, started when she was about one for her college. Here are some lessons from that investment. I was using this to prepare slides for a “basics of money”…
Continue reading →Our elders were right all along! In hindsight, it makes perfect sense to have children as soon as possible. A discussion on the health and wealth benefits of starting and completing a family asap. “It’s so difficult, isn’t it? To see what’s going on when you’re in the absolute middle of something? It’s only with…
Continue reading →SEBI registered investment advisor Shilpa Wagh shares her journey: from IT professional to a fee-only financial planner. Shilpa resides in Mumbai and is part of Fee-only India – movement to serve investors and advisors and the freefincal list of fee-only financial planners. It was Sukhvinder Sidhu (who was featured in the last advisor journey) who…
Continue reading →Many investors are under the impression that to get higher returns, one must take on more risk. This is reasonably true if the investment duration is “long enough” and completely wrong for shorter durations. In a two-part post, I consider the risk and return associated with all mutual fund categories. This is an updated version…
Continue reading →Here is a video description of how to select an equity mutual fund in under 30 minutes using the freefincal mutual fund screener and if necessary with a rolling returns calculator. Before heading to the video, it is important to recognise that this is a simple, (some might call) crude way to shortlist funds and…
Continue reading →SEBI’s Mutual Fund Scheme Categorization requires fund houses to use a term known as Macaulay Duration to differentiate among debt mutual funds. Here is a simple explanation of what is Macaulay Duration and the more important modified duration and why you need to understand their significance if your mutual fund invests in bonds (debt mutual…
Continue reading →The 10% tax on all equity mutual fund dividends is a blow to all those who sold and bought funds that offered monthly dividends. This is a blessing as it would reduce mis-selling and hopefully mis-buying, but begs the question: is it possible to generate tax-free regular income from mutual funds? The answer is yes – but…
Continue reading →It is common knowledge that Gautami and Kamal Hassan split in Oct. 2016 after a 13-year live-in relationship. Yesterday (Feb 24, 2018) she published an eloquently worded article on her blog distancing herself from Kamal. Eloquent because there is much to read between the lines, but that research aside, I would like to focus on the financial…
Continue reading →Although many equity investors like to think that they are saner than crypto-investors, the truth is that there is not much difference in their investment “strategies” (if we can call it that). I am referring to “Hodl to the moon” which for equity investors roughly translates as “don’t sell in fear, equity will be profitable over…
Continue reading →SEBI registered investment advisor Sukhvinder Sidhu shares his journey: from bank branch manager to following his passion and his struggle in establishing himself as a fee-only financial planner. Sukhvinder is a man of unwavering principles who strongly believe in unbiased, affordable and commission-free financial planning advice to families. In spite of his early difficulties and in…
Continue reading →If you have invested in mutual funds, the annualized returns that you see in portfolio trackers are from an XIRR calculation. It is important to understand that XIRR is an “adjustment” and not get carried away with the large numbers that you see. A simple explanation of what is XIRR. XIRR or extended internal rate…
Continue reading →Yesterday, we considered How to start investing in equity Today, let us discuss what should be the first mutual fund for a young earner or for new mutual fund investors. The financial services industry makes a big deal out of risk profiling. You cannot take theoretical answers about market volatility and provide investment advice on that! The…
Continue reading →This weekend, in a two-part re-assemble series posts, let us consider: (1) How to start investing in equity and (2) what should be my first mutual fund?. The transition from the comfort of fixed income to volatile equity can be quite dramatic. I discuss simple getting-started ways for investors new to equity. Investors make two…
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