Often, readers email us saying, “I do not have enough to invest for my long-term goals. What should I do?” This is a common situation; most of us start our investment journey this way. Don’t despair. Here are some options to consider. 1. Consider clubbing all long-term goals together (greater than 10Y away) and investing…
Continue reading →It has been one of my favourite topics – Finance! Specifically, Personal Finance. You might think that I belong to Wall Street or was an investment banker, but I am not. I am a Pharmacologist and work for a hospital. I was brought up to think that one should save and that the only investment…
Continue reading →If you are interested in building a second income source immediately or wish to lay the foundation for it to bloom after you retire, here are some practical tips. In our opinion, every business should be guided by these two brilliant quotes by Rand Fishkin and Chris Do. Best way to sell something – don’t…
Continue reading →We grow up believing one thing about wealth: Buy property. It’s almost cultural. A house means stability. A second property means ‘real’ success. Rental income means security, guaranteed income for life. But somewhere along the way, the dream became heavy. Heavy EMIs. Heavy loans. Heavy responsibility. Heavy dependence on interest rates we cannot control. And…
Continue reading →‘Money cannot buy happiness, ‘money is the root of all evil’; Marriage is just a union of two souls. Isn’t it? Why bring money into the picture and spoil the sanctity of the union? Right? Many similar statements sound cool, but we all know the cost associated with survival. Marriage can change your financial life…
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 →In the world of personal finance, there is a silent disease that kills more wealth than market crashes or recessions. It isn’t ignorance. It isn’t inflation. It is Hyper-Optimisation. It is the irresistible urge to shift your money from an instrument giving 12% to one that might give 14%. We call this the 2% Itch….
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we have a 25K salary-to-25X corpus growth story. About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives, which benefits us all. Some of the previous editions are linked at the bottom of this article. You can also access the full reader story archive. Opinions…
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. Update: Starting March 2026, the screening metrics have been significantly updated (details below). There are now three different screener files available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100…
Continue reading →Should you drop everything and rush to invest Rs. 1.5 Lakhs in PPF before the 5th of April every financial year? No, that never made sense even before the advent of the new tax regime. Now that most taxpayers have chosen the new tax regime, no 80C instrument makes sense anymore (unless it is part…
Continue reading →As I write this, the Sensex is back where it was a little over two years ago. For most young people who started investing in the last few years, this could be their longest “bear market”. Congratulations. As expected, doubt has begun to creep into several investors’ minds. Should I exit? Should I pause investing?…
Continue reading →Building wealth is not a static event; it’s an evolution. As your income grows and your experience deepens, the “one-size-fits-all” advice of your early 20s starts to feel restrictive. To help you navigate this journey, we’ve developed the Wealth Evolution Framework. By identifying which quadrant you currently inhabit, you can move away from guesswork and…
Continue reading →A reader says he is 52 and wants to retire in three years and “needs a minimum of 1.5 Lakhs per month for the next 15 years”. He needs to know the total corpus required. There are a couple of issues here that need to be addressed. We shall assume that the current expenses are…
Continue reading →Readers often ask us if there is any ideal or optimal equity exposure after retirement. This question is tricky to answer as it depends on the individual, but some general guidelines or thumb rules are possible. Asking this question on the verge of retirement without prior market experience can be harmful. It is essential to…
Continue reading →We discuss how to create a resilient investment strategy for retirement. This requires the following: (1) A large cash buffer for emergencies, (2) A guaranteed income source that handles partial expenses for the entire duration of retirement (also known as an income floor) or guaranteed income that increases at a rate close to inflation for the…
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