Should gold be part of your long-term portfolio? Does it help to have some exposure for the sake of diversification? This is the second part of “asset allocation for long-term goals”. The first part which considered only equity and debt, can be found here This post was made possible, thank to Balaji Swaminathan. He got…
Continue reading →This is a step by step guide to e-file AY 2020-2120 (FY 2019-20) income tax returns using forms ITR2, ITR3 and ITR5. This is an updated version of the second part of a guest post by Aparna C K. She describes LTCG, STCG, carry forward and income from other sources sections of ITR-2 and…
Continue reading →Here is a step by step guide to file income tax return (ITR1) for AY 2019-20. Please consider forwarding this to a person who is going to file returns for this first time. This is an updated version of a guest post by Aparna C K. You can also consult Guide to efile Income Tax…
Continue reading →Use this calculator to analyze if you should pre-pay your home loan asap or invest instead. This is now republished after correcting a bug pointed out by Ankush. I had posted an illustration of prepay vs invest in June but did not post the associated sheet. I have now modified the sheet to include new…
Continue reading →Those who attended the second Chennai investor workshop had the privilege to listen to R. Balakrishnan – Crisil co-founder; former head of equity research at DSP Merrill Lynch, former executive VP of Edelweiss, Money Life columnist and blogger (to name a few!) He spoke about “investing for keeps: in equities I trust”. The video was shot by my friend,…
Continue reading →Nearly three years ago, I was introduced to an interesting idea in goal-based investing by Chenthil Iyer, Horus financials. You invest a monthly sum of X in a single portfolio for all financial goals. The portfolio is allowed to grow and when the time for each goal arrives, the necessary sum is withdrawn. The final…
Continue reading →I have fond memories of my BSc days. From the pressure cooker situation of 12th standard, we found ourselves suddenly having a lot of time in hand. A LOT of it Thankfully, cable tv was at its infancy and there was no internet. So I had the most creative and productive years of my life…
Continue reading →How many stocks does an equity mutual fund hold? It is related to the assets it is managing? It is related to performance relative to peers (aka star rating)? Let use see if we can get some insights into these questions. I started digging around in this direction because I would like to do (yet…
Continue reading →While recommending equity as an asset class or equity mutual funds as an instrument suitable for newbies, illustrations about the power of compounding, past returns and how they have comfortably beat inflation are typically used. This is followed by caveats (besides past performance disclaimers) that the investor must be ready to stomach the ups and…
Continue reading →The automated stock analyzer now pulls annual (standalone/consolidated) and quarterly financials from Value Research online. It also pulls financials from morningstar, adjusted stock price from money control and calculates intrinsic value five different ways! Note: If you are not familiar with valuation techniques, I suggest that you download the tool, and read the references provided…
Continue reading →Should a subscriber be given the option to make partial withdrawals from a pension plan? The EPFO always allowed it. That is how mom and dad funded my education! Which, many argue is the main reason why retirees do not have much of a corpus to speak of! Now the pension fund regulatory and development…
Continue reading →A newspaper knows how to get your attention! The economic times carried an article yesterday titled, “EPFO may have ruined your retirement plans. Here’s how”. For its standards, the article makes the sensible conclusion that young people should invest enough in equity. The subject of the article is the following: EPFO will now invest 5%…
Continue reading →So social media is abuzz* that someone called Kenneth Andrade is quitting IDFC amc (update: now official). To be frank, I had no clue who he was, until I saw an AIFW post. When I googled his name, I then remembered seeing his interview at VR and that he is the manager of IDFC premier equity. Perhaps I…
Continue reading →Asset allocation refers to the proportion of different asset classes in a portfolio. For example, percentage allocation to equity and debt. The allocation is (or rather should be) decided with an aim to balance risk and reward. The adage, “do not put all your eggs in the same basket” is usually used to explain this…
Continue reading →“who is a financial adviser? What do they do?”, are, for me, surprisingly difficult questions to answer. Perhaps if I did not know anything about advisory regulations, I might have said something naive like, ‘a financial advisor is a money-management doctor’ Unfortunately, since I know a bit about these regulations, I take it upon myself to irritate…
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