We are back again with our fourth yearly audit of our financial health (the first three parts are linked below). A huge thanks to the numerous yearly audits posted on freefincal – we were also motivated to document ours, at least once a year. Thankfully, we are doing this for the fourth year in a…
Continue reading →Central government employees must decide between the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and the National Pension Scheme (NPS) before June. We have already published calculators and opinions on the subject, as regular readers may know. Here are some articles from the full UPS archive. Why I will not opt for the unified pension scheme UPS vs…
Continue reading →Life has a strange way of teaching us lessons: through wisdom, for some, and through heartbreak. Today, I’m sharing a deeply personal story. It’s not fiction. It’s not borrowed. It’s real. This story continues to haunt me because I witnessed it unfold before my eyes—and I wish it had had a different ending. About the…
Continue reading →A reader says, “Thank you for being a source of financial wisdom in my journey. Your articles have given me the needed direction and ideas to plan my finances. My situation might be a bit different from that of most of your readers, but I think there might be some lessons in my story”. After…
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 →A reader asks, “I am 38 years old, currently have a corpus of 2.25 Cr. 70% is in debt { SCSS (30), EPF (25), PPF (25), Arbitrage Funds (70), Debt MF (rest) } and 30% in equity MF. I invested in arbitrage funds as they provide good returns (vs FD) and a means to balance…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (aka tracking difference). It will help users evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help them understand how tracking a midcap index or the Nifty 100 or 500 differs from tracking the Sensex or…
Continue reading →I was recently asked in an interview, “What mutual fund would you recommend for investors with FOMO (fear of missing out)?” A discussion. The short answer is that investors with FOMO can never be satisfied. They will always clutter their portfolio with the next shiny product they come across. Unless and until they tell themselves,…
Continue reading →All mutual fund investors would have come across the saying that time in the market is better than timing the market. But is this true? Yes, time in the market is 100% better than timing the market for AMCs and distributors. This ensures no break in fees or commissions. But what about investors? There is…
Continue reading →A reader wanted to know if he could invest his entire retirement corpus in mutual funds (of varying risk) and draw an income from them via systematic withdrawal plans — a discussion. Short answer: It is silly to put 100% of a lifetime’s effort, toil and hard work into capital market-linked products. Diversify keeping safety…
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. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficient the ETF is…
Continue reading →A young reader recently asked us, “How much equity should I invest in for a long term goal?” This is a tricky question to answer! On one corner is a technical answer: Using reasonable return expectations for equity and debt (after tax!) and considering the inflation for my goal, I can arrive at an approximate…
Continue reading →Nine years ago, I resigned from my job at a private bank to pursue my MBA. During this time, I came across an online content and community forum called Women’s Web. I started writing content for them to make some pocket money during those two years. About the author: Ayushi Mona Singh is a marketing leader…
Continue reading →Several readers have asked us how to invest as the market reacts to the US tariffs. Regular readers would know what our stance is. The following is for those new here. The short answer is that your investment strategy should be independent of “current market conditions” or events. If it is dependent, you need to…
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…
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