Regular readers may recall that I described my experience with cashless mediclaim when I underwent a thymectomy last march. A couple of Wednesdays ago my mother fell and broke her femur bone. While mine was a planned hospitalization, this was an emergency hospitalization. I am no stranger to emergency hospitalizations (unfortunately). This is the 5th…
Continue reading →While investing periodically for long-term goals, an investor should be aware of two factors: The power of compounding oh-hum, boring! I am sure most people reading this are tired of see how a small investment grows to an unimaginably large value … after several decades! Volatility Most of us must invest in volatile instruments like…
Continue reading →I understand the need for life insuranceand I understand that it is best to buy a term life insurance policy. However, how much should I be insured for? When should I buy such policies? How many policies should I buy? I am sure you would agree that these are common enough questions … among those…
Continue reading →Last week I wrote about an inflation protected income can be generated by dividing a corpus into 4/5 portions and investing each into financial instruments of varying risk and tenure, while setting up an income ladder for the first few years. As the investment in each bucket matures a new income ladder will be set up…
Continue reading →Recently I had posted an analysis of Franklin Indian Blue Chip fund (FIBCF). In response, Swapnil suggested that I compare the fund with Sensex or Nifty including dividends. In the same post, I was able to include a comparison with the Nifty total returns index, as the data is conveniently available (as Swapnil pointed out)….
Continue reading →Retirement planning is the single most important financial goal common to every individual. It is the only financial goal in which a corpus would get spent over the course of decades! Retirement planning is simply non-negotiable. The cost of postponing systematic retirement planning is more dangerous than inflation. Regular readers would be aware of that…
Continue reading →You might be wondering why the title refers to mutual fund ‘categories’. Would it not be more enticing and perhaps more useful had it read, ‘how to select mutual funds suitable for your financial goals’? Perhaps so. However, I choose to focus on how to select mutual fund categories first, for two reasons I am…
Continue reading →To me, personal finance is nothing more than common sense. Commonsense is simply nothing but mathematics expressed in a spoken language. Before I started the blog, I knew nothing about investor behaviour and aspects of behavioural finance. It was irrelevant to me. Now I find myself learning about the different ways in which people handle…
Continue reading →I have always been cynical of new-year resolutions. The way I see it, a man who waits until the dawn of the new year to bring about a positive change in his life is unlikely to follow through with his resolutions. While I continue to hold that sentiment, I have decided with immediate effect to…
Continue reading →Each December, I conduct a personal financial audit. That is, I take stock of , financial goals what is the value of my investments for each goal. What is their worth? have I invested what I resolved to invest last December? Will I have enough to invest for all my goals in the year ahead? Review calculations…
Continue reading →Use this real returns calculator to check how effective a financial instruments is in protecting the purchasing power of a lumpsum from inflation. The reserve bank of India has announced the issue of inflation linked bonds in which a lumpsum invested for 10 years will receive an interest equal to 1.5% + ‘change’ in the…
Continue reading →Mutual fund investments are subject to market risk! Haven’t we heard that one before?! If we wish to analyze the performance of a mutual fund, we should know how to evaluate returns and how to evaluate volatility. Volatility, not risk. Risk pertains to your financial goal. Volatility pertains to the instrument. There are many ways to…
Continue reading →Many investors would like to park their lump sum in tax-free bonds, and invest the interest paid out each year in mutual funds, stocks or PPF. What if the lump sum was invested in a mutual fund/stocks instead of these bonds? Which option would fetch the investor more returns? Here is a calculator to evaluate…
Continue reading →Do not invest in tax free bonds if your retirement is a long way off. Even if are retiring soon, do not invest in these unless you have thoroughly evaluated your options. There, I said it. That is the message of this post. I have been wanting to say that for a long time. Ever…
Continue reading →The importance of a solid retirement plan cannot be stressed enough. The importance of ‘stress testing’ a retirement plan also cannot be stressed enough! Here is an Excel Monte Carlo Retirement Calculator that allows you to do just that! If you wish to plan for your retirement, recognise its importance: The cost of postponing your…
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