My friend thought I had just told him to commit financial suicide. “You want me to… cancel it?” he asked, clutching his premium receipt like a holy relic. I nodded. For the last 15 years, this guy has been dutifully paying for a massive life insurance policy, convinced that stopping would be a betrayal of…
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 →We discuss thumb rules to judge retirement corpus health using safe withdrawal rates (SWR). This discussion also answers broader questions like, ‘When can a retiree take risks after retirement?’ and ‘How much equity exposure can I have after retirement?’ Note: In this day and age, using a proper retirement calculator only takes a few minutes. So,…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we meet a tax professional who started investing late but has admirably caught up. 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…
Continue reading →Many friends have expressed interest in becoming SEBI-registered investment advisors (RIAs), offering unbiased advice to clients and earning a decent income. Several DIY investors are keen on helping others manage their finances. For them, it can be a second career. About the author: Melvin Joseph is one of the first RIAs in the country. He…
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 →A reader asked, “How will you define a comfortable retirement?” A discussion. The answer is subjective and subject to significant change, especially if we are far from retirement. Perhaps only those investing for at least a decade will likely ask this question. ‘Comfort’ implies something well above an essential requirement. So, let us first define…
Continue reading →If you open YouTube or Instagram today, the financial verdict is unanimous: Don’t buy a house. Rent it. The logic is seductive. Why pay an EMI of ₹60,000 for an apartment that rents for ₹25,000? The math says you should rent, invest the difference (the ₹35,000 surplus) in a mutual fund, and retire rich. Mathematically,…
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. There are now three different screener files available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100 large cap universe are available as a separate file (2) Stocks with low…
Continue reading →Every week, a new financial freedom story shows up on YouTube. A new video. A new podcast. A new educator who has “achieved financial freedom” and now wants to teach others how to do the same. Platforms like YouTube, podcasts, and finance apps are full of such stories, many with lakhs of views. And that…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I have invested in equity mutual funds for the last four years. Can I now start buying stocks?” Here are some guidelines to decide. Why do you want to invest in stocks? Is it because you heard multibagger stories on social media and feel you are missing out on something? Or did…
Continue reading →Budget 2026 has clarified the tax treatment of sovereign gold bonds. They are tax-free only for original subscribers who purchase from banks or the RBI, not from the secondary market and hold them to maturity (8 years). Those who purchase SGBs in the secondary market must pay capital gains tax. This shall take effect from “1st…
Continue reading →Budget 2026 has proposed that ” no deduction shall be allowed in respect of any interest expenditure incurred for earning dividend income or income from units of mutual funds, applicable for the Financial Year 2025-26 onwards. If one borrows money to buy shares or MFs and receives dividends or income from units (IDCW), the income…
Continue reading →An investor in an SDI (securitised debt instrument) recently shared with us his experience following a default on interest payments. Before we get to the story, a quick (simplified) primer on SDIs (it will remind you of The Big Short if you have seen it; if you have not, you should!). Suppose A, B and C…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we encounter a 12-year transformative personal finance journey. 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…
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