Tax-free bonds are purchased in the secondary market via a Demat account when either new ones are not available or not attractive. How does one decide between buying existing tax-free bonds and new ones? Should we just look at the coupon rate and choose the one which is higher? It depends on the purpose of the…
Continue reading →Anyone who has used a retirement calculator would tell you the primary input is current expenses that are likely to persist in retirement. I have always maintained that one should not assume expenses will decrease after retirement! Therefore, I will only exclude cash outgo like EMI and expenses related to children from current expenses. This is all that one can do…
Continue reading →Mutual fund investing is not like investing in an insurance scheme or buying term life insurance or health insurance. You cannot choose a fund based on past performance and assume that all you need to do is to invest in it from time to time. As mentioned several times before, one should not get married…
Continue reading →A little too much is made of the importance of investing in PPF before the 5th of the month. How important is this? What if I fail to invest before 5th for a few months? Should I beat myself up about it? Let us find out using the PPF tracker/calculator. Assumptions: Annual investment limit: Rs….
Continue reading →I am a ‘zero’ when it comes to personal finance! Where do I start? I would like to change my attitude towards money and my financial status. If these statements reflects the state of your mind or if you know people who feel that way, here is a list of personal finance essentials to work…
Continue reading →The mutual fund industry has done a mighty propaganda job of ‘educating’ investors about ‘systematic investing’. So much so that many investors believe (not just new ones) that SIP is a financial instrument in of itself! 1. SIP is not different from lump sum when you invest Every time you make a mutual fund purchase,…
Continue reading →This is a guest post by Butun Mohapatra. When he posted his experience with a SEBI registered fee-only financial planner at FB group, Asan Ideas for Wealth, Vivek Vishwanathan suggest that it be published here. Butun immediately agreed and turned in a draft in just a few hours! Let us find out what Butun wants us…
Continue reading →A little while ago, I was invited to participate in an informal gathering of humanities students from various institutes. We watched the movie, Hector and the search for happiness and there was a presentation by a student who was studying the movie for a mini-project and a discussion on ‘what makes us happy’. The title, Side effects…
Continue reading →The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has announced guidelines regarding partial withdrawal from the National Pension System (NPS). (1) A subscriber whose NPS account is at least 10 years old will be eligible for withdrawing 25% of his/her contributions alone. Employer contributions (if any) cannot be withdrawn. Notice the similarity with the recently…
Continue reading →A simple way to screen mutual funds using downside capture and upside capture ratios is discussed. The capture ratio data obtained for equity-cap funds is used as an example. With such a batach analyzer, it is a simple task to get the data for other fund categories. However, it is also boring – one needs…
Continue reading →Here is a step-by-step to guide, plus calculator, to begin and track long-term goal based investing. Most goal planning calculators tell you how much you should invest. This sheets asks you, how much you can invest and goes about calculating the portfolio return. With that you can calculate the asset allocation required (equity to fixed income ratio)….
Continue reading →Risk represents the probability of loss and volatility a measure of fluctuation. The loss here refers to a loss of capital and fluctuation the ups and downs in the movement of an asset. Now these are textbook definitions. When applied to real-life new dimensions get added on, as with everything else. Let us start with the…
Continue reading →Last week I had written a post about exams: Do marks determine the future of our children? and received many insightful comments (as always). Two comments rang a few bells in my head. Hence this post. Context: I wrote, Marks represent effort. Marks do not represent knowledge or intelligence. Mr. Arvind wrote: there is a difference between ”…
Continue reading →Use this sheet to calculate the downside protection offered by a mutual fund for different investment durations (last 1-9 years). It also includes an ulcer index calculator. The present version has been updated with multiple indices from the Mutual Fund SIP XIRR Tracker This tool has been specifically designed to aid investors who would like to…
Continue reading →Every March, thousands of households are stressed out because of school board exams. The 12th standard exam is considered as the make or break exam in determining the future of a child. How important are marks/grades in determining the future of our children? Do board exams represent a do-or-die situation? It is very easy to say…
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