We discuss the instruments that can be used to create a retirement bucket strategy. A bucket strategy is a post-retirement investment plan to manage inflation-protected withdrawals (income) and investments for the near and long term. So, we have investments purely for income generation (regular withdrawal), fixed income, and equity investments. Retirement buckets are mental partitions…
Continue reading →We live in the golden age of financial access. With a smartphone and a 4G connection, you can buy a piece of India’s top companies or a global index fund while waiting for your coffee. But there is a dark side to this democratisation. About the author: Ajay Pruthi is a fee-only SEBI-registered investment advisor….
Continue reading →A reader asked me to write about work-life balance and how to achieve it. So here goes. In my opinion, it is hard to define work-life balance. It is always easy to eliminate extreme cases – someone who hardly works and someone who works all the time and misses out on being there for the…
Continue reading →Writing a Will is a crucial aspect of personal finance and life planning. Although it is often presented as a straightforward task, certain nuances must be understood. Under Section 74 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (ISA), which lays down the rules for drafting a Will, it is not mandatory to use technical terms or…
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. There are now three different screener files available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100 large cap universe are available as a separate file (2) Stocks with low…
Continue reading →A reader says, “Could you please consider writing or making a video on how investors can think about allocating across: (a) FD + Liquid Funds for near-term needs/emergency fund (1-2 Years), (b) Medium Duration Funds (2-3 years), and (c)Credit Risk Funds for medium-term goals (3–5 years), particularly for those in the 30% tax slab who…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I’ve read articles on your freefincal website about early retirement, corpus needed, and asset allocation needed. I wish to request you to have a similar study for the case below”. “My wife and I work in the IT industry. Our age is 30 years. Combined, we earn 4L per month. We expect…
Continue reading →It may seem like an odd name for an Excel file, but sometimes you need to create attention. On Saturday, October 4, 2025, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that financial assets worth ₹1.84 lakh crore were lying unclaimed with banks and regulators, and officials need to ensure these reach the rightful owners. About the…
Continue reading →A reader who wishes to be anonymous asks, Hello, I was avidly reading about your answer to a 30-some reader. It was surprising that you need an 8+ crores rupee to sustain a lifestyle with 40000+ monthly expenses. And I am very worried (despite living in my own house-fully paid up, owning another property worth…
Continue reading →A 35-year-old individual is inquiring whether it is feasible to retire comfortably by age 55 and the steps necessary to accomplish this goal. He is married to a 30-year-old homemaker. When he reaches 55, his wife will be 50. So, we shall plan for retirement income until she (the younger spouse) reaches 90. Therefore, he…
Continue reading →In this article, Dhilip Krishna discusses why he became a fixed-fee-only SEBI-registered investment Advisor. He is a member of Fee-only India*. Dhilip can be contacted via his website: Apta Investment Advisors. * Fee-only India is an informal association of SEBI RIA that charges a fixed fee or a flat fee (independent of AUM). Recently, BSE…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I read your blog on financial planning where you mentioned that it’s better to invest in mutual funds through a joint account as the transfer of units is easier than via nomination. But there is a lot of confusion regarding its taxation”. “I read about a couple online who handle their mutual…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Can I invest a lump sum in equity MFs to increase my equity allocation from 45% to 65%?” A 65% equity exposure is not that high, but what matters is, do you have a strategy to reduce risk progressively as you head towards the goal deadline? As we have shown, this can…
Continue reading →Recently, someone on X referenced a trailing 5,7,10Y SIP returns comparison of direct plan large cap funds vs the Nifty 100 TRI and concluded that most active funds beat the index. They also noted that using SIP returns avoids the bias introduced by trailing returns. I responded that using a 5Y or 10Y SIP is…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I am part of a private forum of FIRE (financially independent early retirement) seekers. We share each other’s FIRE journeys from time to time. I recently achieved a 40X corpus (= 40 times annual expenses) and stated that I continue my job as I like what I do”. “Many members disparaged me,…
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