An ideal retirement portfolio should (1) generate an income that will keep pace with inflation and (2) have some buffer in the corpus to handle unexpected expenses (recurring or one-time). Here are the elements of an ideal retirement portfolio. 1. Pension: This is a prominent and important component. Also known as income flooring. This will…
Continue reading →There is a lot of interest in “high-interest bonds”. Unless you need a regular income (because you are retired or on a break, etc.), you don’t need bonds. Even if you need a regular income, it is important to exercise extreme caution before buying non-central government/RBI bonds. A bond typically pays out interest once or…
Continue reading →The freefincal low volatility and momentum stock screener (based on BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks published since Jan 2020) has just received major upgrades. In this article, we list the major changes. What is low-volatility investing? Low-volatility investing refers to identifying stocks with low price volatility and investing in them. Again, this is based on…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (also known as tracking difference). 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 →I argue why we should use a personal inflation rate while planning for retirement. My family’s inflation rate was about 8% some years back – Inflation in India: Some Real Numbers. So, that was the rate I started with when planning for retirement. Eight per cent before and after retirement. Then, as our economy grew,…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story … It all started in 2010. I wanted to pursue engineering. I had scored around 90%, yet I joined a tier-3 college for my B.E. in Computer Science. Even today, I don’t fully know why — whether I failed to filter colleges well, or whether competition was already that…
Continue reading →This ETF screener is based on tracking 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…
Continue reading →Ever wonder why index investing or passive investing should work? In this article, SEBI registered fee-only advisor Swapnil Kendhe explains the basics of indexing and why it is effective. About the author: Swapnil is a SEBI Registered Investment Advisor and part of my fee-only financial planners’ list. You can learn more about him and his service…
Continue reading →On Feb 26th 2026, SEBI updated its Categorisation and Rationalisation of Mutual Fund Schemes, introducing a new category -life cycle funds. We discuss whether it makes sense for investors to consider these funds. The formal definition of life cycle funds is, “An open-ended fund with attributes of predetermined maturity and glide path for goal-based investing”. …
Continue reading →Here is how you can be a successful equity mutual fund investor. This also applies to the long-term direct equity (stock) investing. Understand the true nature of the stock market: All those stories of “compounding” that you have been fed do not pan out in real life. See: Don’t get fooled: Mutual funds have no…
Continue reading →The latest freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener is now available. Use it to screen for equity mutual funds that consistently perform. 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…
Continue reading →Whenever I talk/write about the stock market and mutual funds, I get a lot of flak about how “discouraging” or “negative” I am. Even after all these years, I find it bizarre that despite the disclaimers and the warnings, people believe that simply staying invested in the markets will guarantee good returns. And I am…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we have a personal financial audit in three parts. (1) A reader’s investing journey and how his thinking evolved, (2) a factual audit of his current financial position, and (3) how he is approaching the road ahead. About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, SEBI RIA Ajay Pruthi’s client shares a story. As regular readers may know, Ajay Pruthi is a regular contributor at freefincal. A few years ago, my financial awareness was limited. Like many people, I trusted my bank representatives to guide me toward products that would genuinely benefit me. When…
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…
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