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…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and return differences wrt benchmarks (also known as tracking differences). It will help users evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help them understand how tracking a midcap index, such as the Nifty 100 or 500, differs from tracking…
Continue reading →NaviPlan is a privacy-focused multi-asset portfolio and financial goal tracker developed by Gokul of Naviran Technologies in association with freefincal. In this article, we list some frequently asked questions about NaviPlan. Presentation: The tool can be used on your PC, tablet, or mobile browser. If the tool is updated with new features, a simple browser…
Continue reading →Every parent wants the best for their children. We work hard to give them a good education, a comfortable life, and opportunities that we may never have had ourselves. We worry about their health, safety, career, and future. But let me ask you a simple question: Are you preparing your children to manage money? Most…
Continue reading →Retirement Was Never Supposed to Feel This Urgent. But Here We Are. Our parents had a version of retirement that mostly worked. You joined a company young, stayed long enough, built a provident fund or pension, and retired around 60 with some stability behind you. The system was not glamorous, but it was understandable. You…
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