Debt mutual funds are advertised as tax-efficient alternatives to fixed deposits. There is more to investing than tax-efficiency. Investors must be aware of the associated volatility and how it can impact returns depending on the duration. Post-tax debt fund returns may or may not be higher than post-tax fixed deposit returns. The answer to the…
Continue reading →My family has had more than its fair share of interaction with the medical community. In this post, I list some of our most important learnings. Trust is the most important ingredient in the doctor-patient relationship and in spite of all that has happened to us, we still manage to trust our doctors, but not blindly….
Continue reading →Rolling returns calculators provide a simple, easy to understand visual representation of how consistently a mutual fund has outperformed its benchmark. The freefincal mutual fund lump sum and SIP rolling returns calculators now include six nifty strategy indices (smart beta) for analysing mutual fund performance. As seen in a recent series of posts, Nifty strategic indices…
Continue reading →I have been holding an individual health insurance cover for my family for the last 10 years. In this post, I look at how the insurance premium has increased during this period. I hold a United India Platinum policy for self, wife and son and a Gold policy for my mother. Each year, I have…
Continue reading →The Motilal Oswal Value Index (MOVI) allows the investor to change equity and fixed income levels as per MOVI values. In this post, I try to understand how the MOVI is calculated. This is only an academic post about the MOVI and is neither a recommendation to use MOVI or Motilal Oswal Mutual Funds. MOVI-based indexing…
Continue reading →All of us have to deal with various types of recurring expenses – ones that knock on our doors, once a month, a quarter or a year. In this post, I would like to discuss some simple ways to handle these on auto-pilot with minimal maintenance. Perhaps this post maybe a bit too simple for experienced…
Continue reading →The NSE maintains 15 strategy indices, each of which are based on a unique quantitative method. Collectively, they are referred to as a smart beta strategies. In this post, I would like to present a short introduction to six of them which I believe could be more stringent alternative benchmarks for mutual funds. They could (and are)…
Continue reading →The Nifty Low Volatility 50 Index (NLV50) is a portfolio of 50 stocks that has the least volatility among all the stocks listed at the NSE. This is referred to as a smart beta strategy. Considering the way it is constructed, its performance (much of which is backdated) has been quite interesting and I think…
Continue reading →With the government having approved the 7th pay commission pay hike for government employees, there is a furore and anger that the hike is not large enough. As with each pay commission, non-government employees grumble about how the govt servant is overpaid and not accountable enough. Next month I complete 10 years of contiguous govt employment….
Continue reading →The 11th version of the freefincal automated stock analyzer now has an easy-to-understand graphical analysis of the factors that are used to calculate the Altman Z-score. The Z-score is a measure of financial health and in particular, how close the business is to bankruptcy. If this is your first encounter with the freefincal stock analyzer, you can…
Continue reading →Here are ten steps that could aid successful Investing. I strongly recommend going over these steps before considering any investment. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” It is disputed whether Abraham Lincoln actually said those words. Nevertheless, it is a great quote. Too many investors…
Continue reading →Financial health refers to ‘where we stand today’ with respect to our finances and what we need to do in the coming years to handle future expenses and financial goals. In this post, I would like to describe a simple exercise to assess our personal financial health. This process can be automated with the integrated financial…
Continue reading →This post showcases a presentation by Aparna C K to her office colleagues. I am delighted that she kindly consented to let me share this here. Regular readers may be aware that Aparna has written two guest posts for freefincal which became instant hits: Guide to efile Income Tax Return For AY 2014-15 Guide to efile Income Tax Return:…
Continue reading →Arbitrage mutual funds suddenly came into the spotlight after the recommendations of Budget 2014, which adversely affected investors in debt mutual funds. They would now have to wait 3 years to apply indexation benefits to their capital gains from debt funds. For durations below or equal to three years, gains will be added to income…
Continue reading →The government has announced premature closure norms for PPF accounts. This includes a rather harsh retrospective penalty which is illustrated in this post. The order was passed on 18th June 2016. Thanks to Basu(nivesh.com) for pointing this out. When can a PPF account be closed prematurely? In Feb. 2016, a circular said, “Premature closure of…
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