This is an update on my mutual fund investing journey, which began on 19th June 2008. In the last three decades, I have gone from being a spend-thrift to being in debt to financial independence. New community members can refer to these articles for an account. The Financial Arrow of Time and My Journey: Driven by the…
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 a understand how tracking a midcap index or the Nifty 100, 500 differs from tracking the Sensex or…
Continue reading →A reader says, “Please make a video/article on how an investor should reach an Equity: Debt asset allocation of 60:40 if most of his/her investments are in debt already (almost 90% in debt), especially for investors between 35 to 40 age group”. “I understand that from your rebalancing articles, you mentioned that in such scenarios,…
Continue reading →My son recently won Rs. 2500 in an olympiad contest. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he replied without hesitation, “Let’s invest it!” Many of you might think that the apple has not fallen far from the tree, but sadly that is not true. I never won any prizes in school, and…
Continue reading →If you are interested in achieving financial independence in retirement, especially if you hope to retire early, you’ve likely encountered the concept of the safe withdrawal rate, with the 4% rule being particularly well-known. However, it’s unfortunate that this rule is often misunderstood and misapplied, so it may not be a useful tool for retirement…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I created a financial plan using your robo-advisory tool. It was quite useful to understand where I stand, but I am now scared because I do not have enough to invest for my long-term goals. What should I do?” This is a fairly common situation; most of us start our investment journey…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I am 32, and my wife is 29. We are employed in the same PSU and can take home loans with a combined loan limit of up to INR 1 Cr at a special staff interest rate. We are also eligible to avail company leased accommodation during the course of employment”. “Is…
Continue reading →This ETF screener is based on tracking errors and tracking differences (ETF return minus index return). The screener will help users evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. Update: 76 ETFs are now covered. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error,…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Can I manage with not more than 20% equity mutual funds in my retirement portfolio as I fear the equity market?” Equity or equity mutual funds are certainly not necessary for retirement planning. See, for example: How I achieved financial independence without mutual funds or stocks or How to invest without using mutual…
Continue reading →A reader wants to know which mutual fund he should use for rebalancing – outperformers or underperformers in a portfolio—a discussion. The primary objective of portfolio rebalancing is risk reduction. We remove some funds from an asset class performing well and shift it to another asset class. Typically this is done from equity to fixed…
Continue reading →We recently asked clients of SEBI registered fee-only advisors on our curated list and fee-only India to fill out a feedback form. Articles related to this survey: A fee-only Advisor’s Letter to his clients and Client Survey: The most important factor in choosing a fee-only advisor. One of the questions was: “What were your expectations…
Continue reading →The latest freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener is now available. Use it to screen for consistently performing equity mutual funds. You can screen based on fund category & benchmark and spot mutual funds with a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get discounted links to our robo advisory tool…
Continue reading →A viewer on the freefincal YouTube channel asks, “Is tracking difference better than tracking error to evaluate passive funds?” What is a tracking difference? This is the fund return minus the benchmark total return over a period. This will typically be a small negative number as the fund return will always (well, typically!) be lower…
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