In my previous article, I asked a very basic question: what exactly is money? This time, I want to ask another apparently simple question: what exactly is saving, and why do we do it? To understand saving, we may have to go much further back than banks, salaries and bank balances. Long before human beings…
Continue reading →Another hidden risk in buying property is something many buyers may never consider. You may carefully examine the title deed, obtain an Encumbrance Certificate (EC), check the revenue records and verify the previous sale deeds, and still miss an arrangement that has created rights in the property outside the usual chain of registered property transactions….
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 →A reader says, ” I have used the freefincal robo advisor tool to create my financial plan. You have an option to include one or more annuities or pension plans. I was wondering, why do that? Would it not be more tax-efficient to have a simple bucket strategy without any pension product or bond interest?”…
Continue reading →We received this message via our contact form: “Can I retire with a corpus of Rs. 3 Crores?” How could I reply yes or no when there is no other information? Rs. 3 crores could be anywhere between ample, to a grey area, to inadequate. It all depends on the lifestyle of the retiree and…
Continue reading →I recently mentioned in a talk that many three-letter acronyms introduced by the MF industry are unnecessary. Allow me to expound. The three-letter acronyms (TLAs), aka initialisms, I mean, are SIP, STP, SWP and SIF. We can also include the associated products – PMS and AIFs. SIP: You need a system to start investing. You…
Continue reading →A very common assumption among property buyers is that obtaining an Encumbrance Certificate, or EC, is enough to establish that a property is free from encumbrances. But an EC does not certify that the property has a perfectly clear title. It is essentially the result of a search of the transactions and instruments recorded in…
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 →My health insurance with United India usually renews in September each year, well before the renewal date. I thought I would document the costs. I don’t claim my insurer is the best or that my policy choices are prudent. It is what it is. Note: The premium depends on age, personal health history (which my…
Continue reading →We were recently asked some questions on mutual fund systematic withdrawal plans (SWPs). I thought it best to prepare for the interview by writing an article answering the questions. The essentials of an SWP have already been covered in a previous FAQ. So we will dive right into the questions. What is your opinion on…
Continue reading →I was recently asked in an interview if one can replace fixed income in a portfolio with gold. The answer is a BIG NO! Gold is a commodity and a separate asset class. It is not a replacement for equity or fixed income in an investment portfolio. To understand this, we should first appreciate how…
Continue reading →AI can already do many things remarkably well when it comes to money. It can explain concepts, calculate scenarios, compare alternatives, and help us understand investments much faster than before. That is enormously useful. But a money decision is not simply a question-answer exercise. We may be deciding what to do with money built over…
Continue reading →These are the freefincal handpicked list of mutual funds. New and experienced investors can use it based on 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 mixes my opinions, skin in the game (where I invest), and quantitative picks…
Continue reading →This composite case is built from patterns I see repeatedly in practice. Names and numbers are fictional. I show every calculation so you can check it and reuse the method. This is Part 2 of a four-part case study. Read Part 1 here: Retirement Planning Case Study Part 1. About the author: Ajay Pruthi is a…
Continue reading →Can we build generational wealth with mutual funds? Ms Sonia Shenoy asked me this interesting question in a podcast. My answer was that it would be extremely hard. Let me expand on my answer in this article. To build generational wealth, returns from an asset class alone are not enough. Each generation must earn more…
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