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 1 of a four-part case study. About the author: Ajay Pruthi is a fee-only SEBI-registered investment advisor. He can be contacted via his…
Continue reading →In Aug 2026, we published a report comparing Active Mid-Cap Mutual Funds with the Nifty Midcap 150. We used 5-year, 4-year and 3-year rolling returns. What about the performance over longer time frames? Is it worth staying invested in an active mid-cap fund, paying a high management fee in the hope that it will beat…
Continue reading →Over the past few months, I’ve found myself asking AI more and more financial questions. Sometimes I already knew the answer. Other times I simply wanted to see how it reasoned. Can it calculate a retirement corpus? Compare the old and new tax regimes? Explain sequence of returns risk? Build an asset allocation? Review an…
Continue reading →This ETF screener tracks errors and differences (ETF return minus index return). It will help users evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus the index’s monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficiently the ETF tracks the index. Unlike returns,…
Continue reading →When we talk about financial freedom, we usually think about income, savings, investments, debt, and returns. But there is another factor that can quietly influence our financial decisions: Trust. Yes, Trust. We trust our bank relationship manager. We trust the insurance agent who has been visiting our family for years. We trust the neighbour who…
Continue reading →When I speak to clients during financial planning, a few questions come up again and again. I thought it might be useful to share how we can approach these questions, because many investors may be wondering the same thing. “I am investing ₹50,000 every month. Is that enough?” Another common question I hear is: “I…
Continue reading →The latest freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener is now available. Use it to screen for equity mutual funds that consistently deliver strong performance. You can screen by fund category & benchmark to identify mutual funds that deliver higher returns than the benchmark while maintaining lower risk. Inside, you get discounted links to our robo…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we feature a 38-year-old who started his career as a hotel helper at the age of 10! About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives, which benefits us all. Some of the previous editions are linked at the bottom of this…
Continue reading →The quiet financial dependence hiding inside India’s dual-income households. Every weekend, another Financial Independence story appears on YouTube. Someone retired at forty-five. Another left corporate life to move back to their hometown. Another now spends their mornings trekking or gardening in the mountains instead of attending project meetings on mute. Yes, some of these stories…
Continue reading →Although the Indian Succession Act, 1925 does not prescribe a standard form or specific terminology for drafting Wills, careful drafting is essential to avoid ambiguity and potential disputes. Word choice can have significant legal consequences. For the importance of clear communication while drafting a Will, please read our previous article, “Why clear communication is extremely…
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 →Use this simple spreadsheet to review and audit your goal-based investment portfolios. Over the years, we recognised the need for a tool beyond financial planning and portfolio value/return tracking. A financial planning calculator tells you the target corpus for a goal and the investment amount required. A portfolio tracker only tells you the current corpus…
Continue reading →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,…
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