I’m Rajkumar, a 40-year-old professional who has been part of the hospitality industry since 2006. My investment journey began the same year, sparked by an early encounter with *Rich Dad Poor Dad* during my college days. Though the book ignited my curiosity, the equity markets truly captured my imagination. I started small, with SIPs of…
Continue reading →In this article, Dr Varunkumar Jayapaul, a faculty member at IIT Mandi, shares his thoughts on who should choose the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and who should choose the Unified Pension Scheme. Our NPS vs UPS coverage Revised UPS vs NPS Calculator after Jan 2025 Gazette Notification Unified Pension Scheme Formula Explained How does the…
Continue reading →“My income is quite low. Is there any hope for me? How do I create a retirement corpus?” is a question we often receive. The rules of personal finance are the same regardless of income and net worth. Those earning less feel like they will never have the experiences or wealth of those who earn…
Continue reading →The unified pension scheme regulations were released as a gazette notification on March 19th 2025. We have extensively covered the UPS earlier: If you have not yet understood how the UPS works, start with the second or third link below. Revised UPS vs NPS Calculator after Jan 2025 Gazette Notification Unified Pension Scheme Formula Explained…
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 appreciate the context of these investments. Update: We recently added a new tool to the freefincal investor circle…
Continue reading →A reader says, “This is about your article ‘Is 87 A Rebate Applicable for Capital Gains after Budget 2025‘ dated 3 February 2025 on your site. Can I avail of the Rs 12,500 rebate for FY 2024-25 on equity LTCG if my taxable income is within Rs 5 Lakhs?” Tax expert Manmohan Sethumadhavan responds. …
Continue reading →The unified pension scheme regulations were released as a gazette notification on March 19th 2025. The scheme rules were earlier announced: Jan 2025 Gazette Notification. This is our coverage of the Unified Pension Scheme. Revised UPS vs NPS Calculator after Jan 2025 Gazette Notification Unified Pension Scheme Formula Explained How does the Unified Pension Scheme work?…
Continue reading →“How would you explain ULIP compared to a direct mutual fund to a layman?” Tax expert Manmohan Sethumadhavan answers. About the author: Manmohan Sethumadhavan is a freelancer, investor, and personal finance enthusiast “in search of the absolute truth.” You can follow Manu on Twitter @ManuTsr. Also, read his articles: Capital Gains Taxation Rules Ready Reckoner for FY…
Continue reading →The usual response to “Can I buy term life insurance if I have no dependents?” is, “No, it is unnecessary. Life insurance is only for those with dependents”. While this is perfectly fine, my view on this – initially aligned with the standard answer – has changed over the years. Often, young, unmarried earners ask…
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 who wish to invest in money market funds, banking PSU funds, etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile can be tracked….
Continue reading →Investors often add 10% of this and 10% of that and claim they do it for “portfolio diversification”. This and that refer to asset classes or products that have recently done well. My favourite response is, now that you have added this/that, how do you know if your portfolio is diversified? What is the impact of…
Continue reading →There are many households (including mine) where the other partner knows nothing about investing, paying bills, taxes, etc and is not interested in learning. How can we set up instructions so they can manage our money in case we become too busy with work (or go abroad) or, worse, die? Instruction Sheet: Considerations It should…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I have modelled my retirement plan using the freefincal robo advisor. The option to secure a part of retirement expenses with income flooring is particularly appealing after reading reader journeys like How I used RBI Retail Direct to buy government bonds and create an income source and The system I use to draw…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (aka tracking difference). The screener will help users evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help to understand how tracking a midcap index or the Nifty 100, 500 differs from tracking the Sensex or…
Continue reading →In this article, we explain the nuances of a retirement bucket strategy and discuss a method to implement it. What is a retirement bucket strategy? We have seen how our parents and grandparents manage their money after retirement. For most of them, a pension would be the main component. The remaining corpus would be distributed…
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