A reader says, “I read your blog on financial planning where you mentioned that it’s better to invest in mutual funds through a joint account as the transfer of units is easier than via nomination. But there is a lot of confusion regarding its taxation”. “I read about a couple online who handle their mutual…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Can I invest a lump sum in equity MFs to increase my equity allocation from 45% to 65%?” A 65% equity exposure is not that high, but what matters is, do you have a strategy to reduce risk progressively as you head towards the goal deadline? As we have shown, this can…
Continue reading →Recently, someone on X referenced a trailing 5,7,10Y SIP returns comparison of direct plan large cap funds vs the Nifty 100 TRI and concluded that most active funds beat the index. They also noted that using SIP returns avoids the bias introduced by trailing returns. I responded that using a 5Y or 10Y SIP is…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I am part of a private forum of FIRE (financially independent early retirement) seekers. We share each other’s FIRE journeys from time to time. I recently achieved a 40X corpus (= 40 times annual expenses) and stated that I continue my job as I like what I do”. “Many members disparaged me,…
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 understand the context of these investments. Update: We recently added a new tool to the freefincal investor circle…
Continue reading →After reading the details of our family’s health insurance policy – Why we purchased the United India Super Top Up Policy with 95 lakhs sum insured – a reader wanted to know, “if it makes sense for him to buy a 25 Lakh base health insurance policy?” We have a Rs. 25 lakh individual cover from…
Continue reading →“How do I invest a lump sum I don’t need for the next 5-7 years?” is a question most often asked to us or other social media forums. The best way to eliminate this confusion is to rephrase the problem statement. Better still, if one has a proper goal-based financial plan, the answer to this…
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 →We discuss the role of income laddering (annuity laddering) in retirement planning and how to implement it. There are two extreme options in retirement planning: one where the corpus is managed in a diversified portfolio, and an increasing income is withdrawn from it as required. This is known as the bucket strategy. We had earlier…
Continue reading →A reader says, “Is having all my net worth in digital assets (equity MF/Demat or debt PF/PPF, etc.) safe? What may happen if some hacker hacks my digital life or, worst case, hacks into the government or AMC database and deletes our holdings? What will happen if our CDSL accounts are hacked or erased, or…
Continue reading →Many investors cannot stop themselves from buying mutual fund NFOs and clutter up their portfolios. This guide may help you think rationally and focus on the right priorities. 9.99 out of 10 mutual fund NFOs are not necessary. Hundreds of existing mutual fund options can be used to build a good MF portfolio. Investors often…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (also known as 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…
Continue reading →Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services has filed an NFO document for Parag Parikh Large Cap Fund with SEBI. I was initially reluctant to opine on it, but since we received several requests, I thought I would throw in my two cents. Note: this is only at the filing stage. Post-approval, the launch (if the AMC…
Continue reading →We discuss how retirement products like the employee provident fund (EPF), the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) can be incorporated into a retirement plan. Over the years, many readers have doubts about how to go about this, hence this article. At the time of writing, the UPS is not yet…
Continue reading →This ETF screener is based on tracking errors and differences (ETF return minus index return). It will help users evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus the index’s monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficiently the ETF tracks the…
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