A 32-year-old reader asks, “Should I redeem investments and reduce my home loan burden as much as possible?” This is the comparison he sent us. “Cost of land: Rs. 70 Lakhs (including registration). Cash in hand: Rs. 50 lakhs. If I get a home loan for Rs. 50 Lakhs, I would be left with Rs….
Continue reading →Investors get jittery and unsure what to do when the stock market is overheated or when the stock market goes nowhere. Here is a simple market-independent strategy via systematic risk reduction that would be far more productive. Why? We have no control over market returns. Yes, asset allocation with regular rebalancing and diversification within each…
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 15+ years. We also compare the returns with the EPF. Note 1 For government employees: We have extensively written about the Unified Pension Scheme vs the National Pension…
Continue reading →This is the third in the series of my finance audits. Focus is again on how I track my personal finance related metrics. This should be helpful for DIY investors and should help them to focus on what and how to measure. I am using the same format and adding a FY25 v/s FY24 section….
Continue reading →Let’s take the example of 2 Senior Citizen friends who have the same amount of corpus in their retirement kitty. The retirement corpus is around 1.4 Crores. Let us name them Mr. Ram and Mr. Sham for better understanding. Both friends are 60 years old and have retired from their respective professions. Since Mr. Ram…
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 appreciate the context of these investments. Update: We recently added a new tool to the freefincal investor circle…
Continue reading →First, I would like to thank you for sharing your views and guidance with all those who want to achieve a peaceful retirement and financial goals. I have been reading your articles since 2018, especially when you gave an alert on Franklin Templeton Ultra short-duration fund, where you highlighted the risks involved and its NAV…
Continue reading →Many people have insurance policies from nationalised companies or other private companies purchased 5 to 10 years ago or earlier. At that time, insurance policies were very standardised, and the major choice that had to be made was about the insurance coverage amount. Over the past few years, private insurers have developed policies with innovative…
Continue reading →As you may be aware, Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd. was the victim of a cyber attack on April 9th, 2025. At the time of this writing, the restoration is still ongoing. Thankfully, investors can still access their funds via the fund houses registrar and transfer agent (RTA) K-Fintech, MFCentral, MFU or other third-party…
Continue reading →We are back again with our fourth yearly audit of our financial health (the first three parts are linked below). A huge thanks to the numerous yearly audits posted on freefincal – we were also motivated to document ours, at least once a year. Thankfully, we are doing this for the fourth year in a…
Continue reading →Central government employees must decide between the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and the National Pension Scheme (NPS) before June. We have already published calculators and opinions on the subject, as regular readers may know. Here are some articles from the full UPS archive. Why I will not opt for the unified pension scheme UPS vs…
Continue reading →Life has a strange way of teaching us lessons: through wisdom, for some, and through heartbreak. Today, I’m sharing a deeply personal story. It’s not fiction. It’s not borrowed. It’s real. This story continues to haunt me because I witnessed it unfold before my eyes—and I wish it had had a different ending. About the…
Continue reading →A reader says, “Thank you for being a source of financial wisdom in my journey. Your articles have given me the needed direction and ideas to plan my finances. My situation might be a bit different from that of most of your readers, but I think there might be some lessons in my story”. After…
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 who wish to invest in money market funds, banking PSU funds, etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile can be tracked….
Continue reading →A reader asks, “I am 38 years old, currently have a corpus of 2.25 Cr. 70% is in debt { SCSS (30), EPF (25), PPF (25), Arbitrage Funds (70), Debt MF (rest) } and 30% in equity MF. I invested in arbitrage funds as they provide good returns (vs FD) and a means to balance…
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