In the recent past, three mutual funds houses (Reliance, DSP Black Rock and SBI) have launched a facility in which it buys back units from its investors and instantly credits the equivalent value into a registered bank account. At first sight, this seems like a wonderful idea. However, on closer inspection, we begin to understand…
Continue reading →In this guest post, Anish Mohan presents a step-by-step guide to applying online for an MF Utility account. MF Utility is the transaction aggregation portal run jointly by a consortium of 26 mutual fund houses. It offers investors way to invest in direct mutual fund plans (and switch from regular) via a single portal. It has…
Continue reading →In the second part of the introductory series on debt mutual funds, a non-technical discussion of the aspects to consider before buying units of a debt mutual fund. You will be surprised as to how many people buy and then worry about these aspects. The first part is here: What is a Debt Mutual Fund? -meant for absolute beginners. If…
Continue reading →Last week I had published FU Money Calculator. This is android app version which you can download for free at the Google Play Store. Also, I discuss freefincal plans in 2017. FU Money is internet slang for saying goodbye to your employer when you have enough money saved. Here F stands for a popular four-letter…
Continue reading →In this post, I discuss the basic ideas necessary for a beginner interested in debt mutual funds to get started. I shall keep it short, sticking to the essentials. Many of you may know that I have a separate category for debt mutual funds. My Book, You Can Be Rich Too For Goal-Based Investing has a…
Continue reading →Jan 1st, 2017, marked the fourth anniversary of direct mutual funds plans. These are mutual funds you can buy without any commission, directly from the AMC, its aggregation portal MF Utility or one of the many new direct mutual fund + robo advisory portals. This is the fourth anniversary report. If you are already a…
Continue reading →Use this calculator to check the benefits (if any) associated with switching your home loan. Either from one bank to another or from base rate to MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate). This is an updated version of the Home Loan Transfer Calculator (Mortgage Refinance) with an ability to check benefits for (a) same EMI, lower…
Continue reading →An ultra short term mutual fund is a type of fixed income or debt mutual fund that invests in short-term bonds issued by banks, PSUs, corporate, cash and govt bonds. In this post, I discuss how and when to select ultra short term (UST) funds. First, wish you all a happy new. Second, Amazon has…
Continue reading →As 2016 draws to a close, a look at some of the personal finance developments that made a difference and the lessons from them. Before we begin, allow me to wish you a happy new year and pray for the ability to make informed decisions. If we get that right, the rest should take care of…
Continue reading →“FU Money” represents the amount required for a person to stop being employed. She is then free to follow her passion and wait for it to generate an income without having to worry about expenses for at least a few years. Or the corpus could be large enough to generate an inflation-protected income for the rest…
Continue reading →There has been a lot of confusion regarding the exit and withdrawals rules of the National Pension System (NPS). I apologise if I have contributed to it. In this post, I shall attempt to get rid of my own confusion and clarify my understanding. Until today I have incorrectly believed that 40% of the NPS corpus…
Continue reading →An interval income mutual fund or more generally, interval funds is a lesser known class of mutual funds that are open for subscription and redemption only at specified time intervals. A discussion about their main features and how to use them. An open-ended mutual fund allows purchase and redemptions on all business days. A closed-ended…
Continue reading →Each December, I conduct a personal financial audit. I take stock of my financial goals and other aspects of personal finance relevant to me. For the last three years, I have been sharing the gist of such audits at freefincal. The idea behind doing is this to put some context into the several goal based…
Continue reading →A mutual fund Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP) is a closed-ended debt mutual fund. A discussion on how and when to choose FMPs. A closed-ended mutual fund is one in which no purchase or redemption can be made after the new fund offer (NFO) period. The scheme has a fixed maturity date and unitholder can redeem…
Continue reading →One advice about investing in debt mutual funds that never made any kind of sense to me is: “pick a debt mutual fund whose maturity profile matches your investment horizon”. You will find this in many articles online and here is why I think it is plain wrong. Say you wanted to invest in a…
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