In a previous article, I discussed building a portfolio and backtesting against the Nifty 100 or Nifty 500. Investors don’t own just one fund—they own a portfolio. The real question isn’t whether Fund A beat Fund B, but whether your portfolio is actually delivering better outcomes than a simple benchmark like the Nifty 500. The…
Continue reading →One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that whenever I talk about managing money, someone eventually labels me a miser. Apparently, if you speak about budgeting, investing, avoiding unnecessary debt, or controlling expenses, you must be someone who doesn’t know how to enjoy life. I disagree. There is a huge difference between being miserly…
Continue reading →A reader recently asked, “Do Bond Markets Crash the Same Way Stocks Do?” We discuss the last time this happened in India. After the 2008 economic crisis, the Federal Reserve (the central bank of the US) started buying long-term government bonds and increased the money supply in the market. This increase in money supply led…
Continue reading →I have been investing for my son’s future (college and other expenses) since Dec 2009 – a month before he was born (He is 16 now). A portfolio review and lessons from this journey. When I started investing for this goal, money management basics were almost in place, except for term insurance, which I got…
Continue reading →We spend Rs. 80,000 on a phone without losing much sleep over it. We pay a premium for a good school, a good doctor, and a good lawyer. But suggest paying Rs. 15,000 a year to a financial advisor and something shifts. The questions come up: what exactly are you charging for? Can’t I look…
Continue reading →This article discusses how often an actively managed mutual fund should beat its chosen or category-representative index. The answer depends on who you ask. If you ask the investor, they should say, “as often as possible, if not always.” They should say “Should” because although investors pay a high management fee for active management, they often…
Continue reading →Last month we launched 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 risk via…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “All these years, you have taught us how to save and invest. I have saved and invested for the last 8 years, and I am truly scared when I hear about all the new types of scams. How do we safeguard our savings and investments in this era of Cyber scammers and…
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 →Every time I talk about retirement planning – on stage, in interviews, etc.- I hear this line: “If we need a few crores* to retire, then most Indians will fall short”. * Sometimes the target corpus is seven crores, sometimes ten crores, sometimes 13-14 crores, depending on the question I am asked. There is nothing…
Continue reading →I have invested in the National Pension Scheme (NPS) since 8 March 2010. This is a performance report showing how the NPS has fared over the last 16+ years. We also compare the returns with the EPF. Note 1: Kindly do not assume that I am recommending NPS instruments. My situation is quite different from…
Continue reading →When investors compare mutual funds, they usually look at trailing returns—1-year, 3-year or 5-year returns displayed on fund factsheets and research portals. While these figures are easy to understand, they represent returns over just one investment period and can be significantly influenced by the choice of start and end dates. This is why experienced investors…
Continue reading →This is a debt mutual fund screener for portfolio selection, tracking, and learning. It also includes hybrid funds that invest in bonds. It will satisfy investors seeking to invest in money market funds, banking PSU funds, and similar instruments. The credit quality of the portfolio’s bonds and the bond maturity profile can be tracked. Instead…
Continue reading →I still remember the silence at the dinner table. I had just told my parents that I was going to keep renting for a few more years instead of buying a flat. I wanted to build my emergency fund first, let my investments compound, and stay flexible while my career was still finding its shape….
Continue reading →In India, parenting is often treated less like a responsibility and more like a long-term investment scheme. We pour everything we have—our savings, our gold, and our youth—into our children’s education and marriages. We tell ourselves it is out of love. But deep down, for many Indian parents, there is an unspoken contract: I sacrificed…
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