I compare the features of Apollo Munich Optima Restore Benefit and Max Bupa Health Companion Re-fill Benefit. This is the second module of step 4, ₹e-Assemble, “how to choose a suitable health insurance policy”. The main idea is to highlight the importance of reading policy wordings. We will compare two key features: the no claim…
Continue reading →₹e-assemble is a video series covering the basics of money management and goal-based investing for absolute beginners. Step 1 was listing Goals, Dreams and Nightmares. Step 2, laying the foundation of wealth with an emergency fund step 3, buying a term life insurance policy and this week in step 4, we shall consider choosing a suitable health insurance policy. Buying…
Continue reading →The employee pension scheme (EPS) is a component of the employee provident fund that provides a pension to its subscribers. Yesterday, news about how Mr. Praveen Kohli got a 1200% hike in pension created a stir. This was because, in October 2016, the Supreme Court directed the EPFO to increase the pension of 12 petitioners as…
Continue reading →How would you invest if you suddenly got one crore? That is a nice thought is it not? In this weeks Q & A, we consider what should a sudden crorepati do, along with other questions. Perhaps you may have seen it already, this is my article in the Economic Times: Mutual fund advisers earning commission…
Continue reading →₹e-assemble is a video series covering the basics of money management and goal-based investing for absolute beginners. Step 1 was listing Goals, Dreams and Nightmares. Step 2, laying the foundation of wealth with an emergency fund and in this week, we shall move on to step 3, buying life insurance policy. If you already have such a policy,…
Continue reading →Would you prefer a fund that beats the index whenever the index moves up or would you prefer a fund that falls lower than the index? Our first response would be, why not both? Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. Very few funds manage to do both. In this post, I discuss why downside…
Continue reading →₹e-assemble is a video series covering the basics of money management and goal-based investing for absolute beginners. Last week, in step 1 we consider the need to list our Goals, Dreams and Nightmares. In part 2, we will consider the essential foundations for getting rich and staying rich. When we talk about getting rich or building…
Continue reading →Readers may be aware that in September 2017 I had introduced a handpicked list of mutual funds and called it PlumbLine to accompany the freefincal robo advisory template. While we are still waiting for AMCs to fall in line after SEBI announced its mutual fund classification rules, this month, I focus on simple ways to review a…
Continue reading →Each week, I try and answer generic questions from readers. Here is this week’s edition. You can use the form below to ask your question. The tougher the question, the more I learn and hopefully more the benefit for readers. This week we consider questions on the PE of a mutual fund, health insurance for…
Continue reading →Dear reader, starting this week I would like to cover the basics of money management and goal-based investing for absolute beginners in the form a video series: ₹e-assemble. Each week I will discuss one step. The first step covered in this post is: goals, dreams and nightmares. Each step will take between 30 minutes to a…
Continue reading →“If I have a lump sum, what is the best way to invest it in an equity mutual fund?”, is a question that I am asked repeatedly. In this post, let us discuss simple ways to invest a lump sum in an equity mutual fund. Lump sum in a debt mutual fund Let us first get…
Continue reading →Each financial year, we do our best to reduce as much income tax as possible. I am only referring to legal means (!)- the most common of which is investing in tax-saving instruments. We do this because income tax hurts. The thought of losing a significant chunk of our salary fills us with a sense of loss*….
Continue reading →Buying a house is often an emotional decision and as I have argued before, it makes no sense to use buy vs rent calculators. In this post, I discuss the pros and cons of buying a house as soon as possible vs later vs never. Regardless of what decision we make (or have made) it…
Continue reading →Deciding where to invest, when and how much in each instrument for a given financial goal is known as asset allocation – it is the key to successful money management. For a given financial goal, how do I determine the asset allocation? That is, how do I decide the amount of equity exposure and therefore, fixed…
Continue reading →You would be surprised as to how many people believe that by investing an additional 50,000 in NPS, they “instantly” get a return equal to their tax slab! This is a case of mis-accounting or innumeracy. In this post, I discuss what exactly is the implication of “saving tax” via investing in 80C and with…
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