About 80% of those who ask us about Sovereign Gold Bonds want to buy them for the wrong reasons. I would wager that the number is about the same in the Facebook group Asan Ideas for Wealth, if not more. When not to buy Sovereign Gold Bonds! Those who want “some returns” from gold or…
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 reader says, “I’m 57 and on the verge of retirement and in IT, can I opt for a higher EPS pension?” As regular readers may be aware, we have discussed this topic at some length: Higher EPS Pension: Should those who retired recently or are about to retire opt for it? Can I opt…
Continue reading →There are 28 actively managed midcap mutual funds available for investment today. Out of these, 23 are older than five years. This article evaluates how these midcap mutual funds have fared against the Nifty Midcap 150 Total Returns Index. We found only three midcap mutual funds have outperformed the index consistently. Therefore it is a…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “How to decide whether to persist with or exit an underperforming equity fund? By switching too frequently, one may catch the bad periods of the funds and end up doing worse than all the funds tried. Persisting too long will, of course, hurt if the fund keeps underperforming”. “It is understood that…
Continue reading →We review the performance consistency of Kotak Pension Fund Scheme E – NPS TIER I measured against Nifty 50 TRI and UTI Nifty 50 TRI. The scheme was launched in June 2009 and currently has an AUM of about Rs. 1,070 crores. In a previous article, we listed the investment policy of NPS equity schemes,…
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 →Your eligibility is the first aspect to consider when discussing higher EPS pension. It is not open to everyone who retired after Sep 2014 or are still in service. See: Are you really eligible for higher EPS pension? EPFO circular clarifies (also see below). Once you have convinced yourself that you are eligible (see conditions below),…
Continue reading →A reader tweeted, “I am working in one of the best PSU of India, current Basic+ DA is 125k with 8% increment/ yr. Natural retirement year is 2046. To choose EPS, i have to deposit 12 lakhs from my PF. Is it good to join EPS?” First, the good news. Subscribers now have up to…
Continue reading →This edition of the fund performance report looks at Tata Large & Mid Cap Fund. Although launched in March 1993 as Tata Equity Opportunities Fund, the fund currently only has an AUM of Rs. 3641 Crores. After the SEBI MF categorization rules kicked in, Tata AMC merged Tata Equity Opportunities Fund with Tata Dividend Yield…
Continue reading →The higher EPS pension proposed for those eligible is approximately 50% of the last drawn pay, as is the norm in government establishments. However is this enough? The short answer is, nope! Here is a set of retirement planning slides that I used at investor workshops. The aim is to convey the importance of retirement…
Continue reading →Many EPFO subscribers who retired after Sep 1st 2014, or are still in service have the incorrect impression that they will automatically be eligible for higher EPS pension. This is incorrect, as clarified by the EPFO circular issued on Feb 20th 2023. According to point no 5 of the circular: “5. Therefore, in compliance of…
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