So gold and silver prices are zooming up, and everyone wants a slice of the metals in their portfolio. Here is a checklist before you buy gold and silver for “diversification”. 1. Did you know that the worst time to buy an asset or commodity for the first time is when everyone is talking about…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I am 30 years old and currently invest in the HDFC Sensex Index Fund for my equity allocation and the Parag Parikh Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund for my debt portion. Articles from freefincal have been very helpful in understanding and making investment decisions for myself. While I must not seek financial advice…
Continue reading →The latest freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener is now available. Use it to screen for consistently performing equity mutual funds. You can screen based on fund category & benchmark to identify mutual funds that offer higher returns than the benchmark while maintaining lower risk. Inside, you get discounted links to our robo advisory tool…
Continue reading →Many international funds/ETFs, such as Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund or Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund, are domestic mutual funds that invest solely in foreign equity shares. Some other funds, like Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, invest a certain portion of their AUM in foreign equity shares. The question now is whether an Indian…
Continue reading →In response to our article, NPS Multiple Scheme Framework – What you need to know, wherein we have written, “we still do not have any clarity on how Tier 2 funds are taxed! Readers point me to various articles discussing tier 2 taxation, but there is no official statement from the finance ministry on this, as…
Continue reading →The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has recently announced a Multiple Scheme Framework in the National Pension Scheme for all non-government subscribers. In this article, we explain the features of this framework. First things first, there is no change in the current schemes and their rules (as of now). The current schemes will…
Continue reading →A reader (age: 41, spouse, 36, wants to retire asap) wants to know, “What should be my retirement corpus if my current monthly expenses are Rs 1 lakh?” We shall use the freefincal Robo Advisor tool to consider some scenarios. 1. Current monthly expenses that will persist in retirement: Rs. 1,00,000. We can exclude expenses…
Continue reading →Home loan borrowers make this common mistake. For a Rs. 50 Lakh home loan payable over 20 years at 8% interest, the EMI is Rs. 41,822. As is well known, much of the EMI initially is interest. It is incorrect to sum the total interest paid (Rs. 50,37,281 in this case) and claim that as…
Continue reading →Section 54F gives an exemption from long-term capital gains arising from the transfer of a long-term capital asset that is not a residential house if the proceeds are used to purchase or construct a residential house in India. The key is that the gain must be a long-term capital gain for Section 54F to be…
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 asks, “I will be earning around ₹10 lakh as business income in FY 2025–26. Additionally, if I earn ₹2 lakh as gains from debt mutual funds. I’m confused about how these debt fund gains will be taxed this financial year.” “Here are two versions of what I’ve come across online: Some sources claim…
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 →Over the past few weeks, many readers have asked us, “Can I invest in Zerodha Multi Asset Passive FoF?” – A discussion. Before we begin, it is worth noting that many investors appear to lack an understanding of the distinction between a passive fund and a passive fund of funds. A passive fund tracks a…
Continue reading →In October 2022, we explained why we badly need an aggressive hybrid index fund! The situation remains the same ten months after SEBI announced a Mutual Funds Lite (MF Lite) framework for passively managed schemes of Mutual Funds, which includes passive Hybrid Funds. We determine how easy/hard it is to beat the CRISIL Hybrid 35+65…
Continue reading →In response to our recent articles on the performance of active mid-cap and small-cap funds versus the Nifty Midcap 150*, a viewer on YouTube suggested that 5-year rolling returns are insufficient to judge these funds, as they are typically recommended for longer periods. We should look at longer periods. These are the articles: Active Small…
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