A reader says, “Dear Pattu Sir, I am 28 and wish to retire by 50. What is the retirement corpus I require?” We shall compute this using the freefincal robo advisory tool with the following modifications (remaining assumptions stay the same): Monthly expenses Rs. 50,000; The current corpus is practically zero Post-tax return expected from…
Continue reading →I was recently asked in an interview to list personal finance milestones in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Since personal finance is deeply personal, listing such milestones may cause anxiety in many who, due to personal circumstances, have had difficulty investing or saving like the rest of us. I liked three questions on a related…
Continue reading →This is a National Pension Scheme Fund Screener to shortlist consistently performing NPS schemes. You can also identify NPS schemes that offer a higher return than the benchmark while maintaining lower risk. This is similar in design to the freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener. Inside, you get discounted links to our robo advisory tool…
Continue reading →There’s a moment in the movie “Life in a … Metro” where one character asks a simple question: “If you sat in your car and waited for every single traffic signal on your route to turn green before you left home, would you ever actually go anywhere?” You wouldn’t. Because that’s not how a journey…
Continue reading →In this article, Somaprasad S H, a senior insurance advisor explains with two real-life examples, how temporary total disablement claims in personal accident insurance work. He sent us this article after reading Buying Accident Insurance Policies in India: Must-know facts. Your article “Buying Accident Insurance Policies in India: Must-Know Facts” is a valuable resource — particularly…
Continue reading →DIY investing sounds wonderfully empowering. No commissions. No advisors pushing products. No relationship manager calling every quarter with a recommendation that mysteriously happens to suit your needs. Just you, your money, and complete control. At least that’s the story we tell ourselves. The part nobody talks about is how lonely that control can become. About…
Continue reading →Last month saw the launch of NaviPlan: A Privacy-Focused Multi-asset Tracker and Goal Planner. This tool, developed by Gokul of Naviran Technologies in association with freefincal, can be used to track mutual funds, stocks, and FDs. The user can tag these to financial goals and track their progress. The tool also provides options to lower…
Continue reading →We publish a list of stocks with low volatility and momentum each month. We provide data for BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks. Update: Starting March 2026, the screening metrics have been significantly updated (details below). There are now three different screener files available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “What Is the Safe Spending Limit for a ₹1 Crore Retirement Corpus?” In other words, if my retirement corpus is Rs. one Crore, what should be the maximum (initial) expenses so that I can draw an inflation-indexed income? Naturally, there is no universal answer as it depends on years in retirement, inflation…
Continue reading →I was recently asked in an interview, “How can I emotionally handle long periods of poor returns in the equity markets?” – a discussion. Many readers accuse us of scaring them by stating the factually obvious: Long-term equity investment comes with no guarantees of success! So, we discuss how to stay invested in equity without worrying…
Continue reading →“Don’t burn your house to smoke out a rat.” It is an old proverb, but its relevance has never faded. Literally, it means destroying something valuable in an attempt to solve a relatively small problem. In practice, it describes situations in which the solution causes far more damage than the original issue. Recently, I was…
Continue reading →Every strong house needs a foundation before you decorate the rooms. In money, that foundation is just two things: term insurance and health insurance. They quietly hold up everything else. But here is the strange part. Nearly half of Indians still do not have term insurance, and most who have health cover have too little….
Continue reading →These are the freefincal handpicked list of mutual funds. New and old investors can use it according to their specific needs. The list, titled “PlumbLine,” has been published since September 2017 to help beginners use the freefincal robo advisor tool. Most importantly, Plumbline is a mix of my opinions, skin in the game (where I…
Continue reading →Many assume that their expenses will decrease after retirement and that they do not need as large a corpus as computed using our current lifestyle. This is a mistake. A 35-year-old once told me, “My expenses will be lower when I turn 60 because I will travel less, eat out less, etc.” There could be…
Continue reading →A friend recently asked me to review her father’s finances. He’s 75, with a liquid net worth of ₹3.5 crore, but every rupee is quietly held for the generation that comes after him. Meeting him reminded me of a story. About the author: Abhishek Kumar is part of a freefincal’s curated list of fee-only financial advisors and a fee-only…
Continue reading →