Choosing an appropriate benchmark for balanced mutual funds has always been a problem for the retail investor. In this post, I propose a new and more importantly accessible benchmark for equity-oriented balanced mutual funds – ones that do not use arbitrage opportunities or derivatives. As always, I make no claim about the superiority of my…
Continue reading →There are many who believe that cashless hospitalization facility available with medical insurance policies can be misused by hospitals and that it is better to pay cash and the reimburse it via the policy later. A discussion on should I use cashless hospitalization facility or pay and then reimburse? What does misuse mean? Attempting to exhaust the…
Continue reading →Here is a list of lessons I have learnt from eight plus years of mutual fund investing and countless hours spent studying and making analytical tools for the blog. Perhaps many of these may seem trivial to regular readers, but for the record here goes. 1 Past performance matters, but not as much: Before choosing a…
Continue reading →Dynamic equity funds or dynamic asset allocation funds change their equity:fixed income allocation depending on market conditions. Here is why those who wish to chase returns should not invest in such funds. Dynamic equity funds could either invest directly in a mix of stocks, arbitrage opportunities and bonds (in which case they will be classified as…
Continue reading →Given a lump sum, how do we invest it in order to create a reliable income stream that is risk-free and has the ability to keep pace with inflation? This is the most crucial question that concerns every person who is retired, nearing retirement, or planning for someone else’s retirement (a client or a parent…
Continue reading →Many investors appear confused between investing in gold and buying gold. Here is a discussion on when to invest in gold and when to buy it. Everything starts with the need. If we can clearly state our requirement, the solution often presents itself. Here is an example how to clearly define a goal: Financial Goal Planning:…
Continue reading →Here is a list of personal finance calculators and tools available for Mac Excel 2011. The screener.in stock analyzer is now available in Mac. Converting the Windows Excel tools to be Mac compatible is an ongoing effort and I shall update this page from time to time. I request the support of the Mac Excel…
Continue reading →I often wonder about who is a teacher? Or what defines a good teacher. People often expect a teacher to inspire and motivate. How exactly does a teacher do that? A teacher without passion can suck out the soul and spirit of eager young minds much like a dementor in the Harry Potter stories. Unfortunately, many join up as teachers because…
Continue reading →A financial instrument that lets you defer paying taxes until maturity is way superior to one where you need to report and pay tax on the income generated each year of investment. That is the single most important reason why debt mutual funds are superior to fixed deposits. This is an illustration of the power of…
Continue reading →There seems to be a common perception that those who invest via SIPs are expected to do nothing else but invest systematically. Thanks to certain “advisors” many investors believe that all one has to do to get “good returns” from equity is to continue a SIP through market ups and downs. Then it will all…
Continue reading →I have received repeated request to write about investment options available for NRIs. However, since it is an area that I know little about, I requested fee-only financial planner Melvin Joseph‘s help to list the best NRI investment options in India. -=-=-=-=-=-=- India has the largest population of people living abroad in the world. As…
Continue reading →Investing requires a target. The future needs of our family or financial goals serve as natural targets. Goal-based investing is a process in which invest according to the needs of the goals. The amount to be invested and where it will be invested will depend on the nature of the goal. Once the goal based…
Continue reading →Dear young earner, what do you wish to optimise? Your money? Or your time? Would you rather dig deeper and deeper into money management and learn “best” ways to “optimise” money management? Or would you rather spend some mandatory time in getting your finances in order and let it run in auto-pilot with periodic maintenance…
Continue reading →Here is a discussion on various types of insurance cover, like term insurance, health insurance, accident insurance and critical illness discussion. This is the video of Ashal’s forenoon talk at the 6th Bangalore Investing Workshop. For the first 1.5 hours of the workshop, the audience kept asking questions to Ashal about the above-mentioned insurance cover. The…
Continue reading →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 income or debt exposure? Let us try and discuss this and use a calculator to see how different asset allocations will affect the future corpus intended for a financial…
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