In this edition of the reader-story, “I believe many people in this group, especially those who are still learning about personal finance, may relate to my financial journey. This is not a story about extraordinary investment returns or a perfect financial plan. It is a story about financial mistakes, poor decisions, learning, recovery, and starting again.”…
Continue reading →We publish a monthly list of low-volatility, momentum stocks. We provide data for BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks. Update: Starting March 2026, we have significantly updated the screening metrics (details below). Three different screener files are now available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100 large cap universe are available…
Continue reading →I was recently asked the titular question at an event. The person has a target asset allocation of 20% international equity, 40% Indian equity, and 40% fixed income (the international equity allocation is 33.3% of the overall equity allocation). He wants to know how to rebalance and manage this portfolio in future. First of all,…
Continue reading →When I review investment portfolios, I often see two very different kinds of investors. Some have most of their money in fixed deposits, savings accounts and other very safe investments. Others have gone almost entirely the other way, with most of their wealth in equity mutual funds, stocks or other growth-oriented investments. These approaches look…
Continue reading →Imagine sitting at a dinner table with your close friends. The conversation turns to the future, and you honestly say, I want to build a business that makes a lot of money so I can buy a big house and leave a large inheritance for my kids. Instead of cheering you on, the room gets…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I am investing next month with a corpus of Rs. 6 Crores. Please guide me on how to invest this for a peaceful retirement. My wife and I are both 55 years old. Our annual expenses are Rs. 12 lakhs (including Rs. 25 lakh health insurance cover).” We shall punch this scenario…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader-story, “I’m 38 years old today, working a private sector job, and living in a Tier 1 city on rent with my spouse and our 4-year-old kid. Around 2021, I stumbled upon Pattu Sir’s videos. Luckily, I had a light workload at the time and binged his entire YouTube channel —…
Continue reading →This article compares my stock portfolio with an equivalent investment in a Nifty index fund and the Nifty 100 Low Volatility 30 TR index. We post this comparison each month. Before we begin, new readers need to understand the context of these investments. Update: We recently added a new tool to the freefincal investor circle…
Continue reading →In June, we launched NaviPlan: a privacy-focused multi-asset tracker and Goal Planner. Developed by Gokul of Naviran Technologies in association with freefincal, this tool lets users track mutual funds*, stocks*, FDs, global assets, NPS, pension funds, and insurance policies! The user can tag these to financial goals and track their progress. The tool also offers options…
Continue reading →In Part 1, I wrote about the assumption embedded in almost every retirement plan: that the person managing the corpus at seventy-five will think and decide the way the person who built it did at forty-five. The research suggests that is not a safe assumption. And yet almost no retirement planning framework addresses it directly….
Continue reading →PPFAS Gift City announced yesterday that they have slashed the minimum investment required to invest in its outbound funds – Parag Parikh IFSC S&P 500 FOF and Parag Parikh IFSC Nasdaq 100 FOF – from 5000 USD to 500 USD. This 500 USD minimum also applies to subsequent investments. Given how hard it is to…
Continue reading →“How Much Should You Save Monthly Based on Your Age and Income?” I was asked this question in an interview—a discussion. We shall save and invest together here. I think the short but unpleasant answer is: as much as possible! This does not mean you resign yourself to saying, “I can only invest this much…
Continue reading →We discuss the performance consistency of actively managed mid cap funds by comparing them with the Nifty Midcap 150 index. This is the Aug 2026 report. The freefincal active equity mutual fund screener, published monthly, uses the Midcap 150 to compare small cap funds. This is the link to the latest screener. If you read…
Continue reading →We compare the rolling returns of Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, Nifty Midcap 150 and Nifty Smallcap 250. We publish this comparison periodically. This is the August 2026 edition. Returns for a financial instrument that fluctuates can be calculated in two ways: Point-to-point returns: Calculate the effective annual compounded growth rate (CAGR) between two dates….
Continue reading →“Which mutual fund should a beginner choose?” Someone recently asked me this question after a talk. A discussion. Let us assume that the person is a young earner who has subscribed to the EPF via her employer. If she is a freelancer or entrepreneur, the PPF is a good substitute. That will be the fixed-income…
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