One of the common retirement planning mistakes is to underestimate monthly expenses. If someone asks me about my monthly expenses, I list the usual big-ticket items, like groceries, vegetables, petrol, medicines, etc. If pushed a little harder, I recognise that it is better to consider annual expenses and compute an “average monthly expense.” The most…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Consider a mutual fund that is expected to hold more than 35% equity. If the monthly fact sheet of the fund reports an equity allocation of 35% or lower for one month alone, should I pay tax as per slab if I redeem that financial year?” Background: The govt has amended the…
Continue reading →I recently pointed out in a video that combining active and passive investing represents a lack of conviction and is a scattergun approach. I cited the example of holding the Parag Parikh Flexi Cap fund + Nifty/Sensex Index fund. A reader holding Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund plus UTI Nifty 50 Index fund wrote in…
Continue reading →We compare the rolling returns of Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, Nifty Midcap 150 and Nifty Smallcap 250. We publish this comparison from time to time. This is the April 2024 edition. Returns for a financial instrument that fluctuates can be calculated in two ways: Point-to-point returns: The effective annual compounded growth rate (CAGR) is…
Continue reading →I recently spoke to a group of employees about retirement planning. I was told that the group would mostly comprise young people in the 30-45 age bracket, but as always, there was a good chunk of older people in the audience. They were left shell-shocked to see some sample retirement plans – the corpus required…
Continue reading →Readers often ask, “What debt fund should I add to a long term investment portfolio?” After gains from debt mutual funds became taxable as per slab (applicable to units purchased from 1st April 2023), more readers have sought tax-efficient options. So here is an updated list of debt & hybrid mutual funds suitable for a…
Continue reading →We compare the portfolios of Parag Parikh Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund (PPDAAF) and Parag Parikh Conservative Hybrid Fund (PPCHF) to appreciate when each fund can be used. As noted earlier – Parag Parikh Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund: Who should invest? – the AMC wishes to maintain a debt-oriented allocation, making PPDAAF more tax-efficient than the PPCHF….
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 →Many investors rush to invest Rs. 1.5 Lakh between April 1st and April 5th or as early as possible in the financial year to “maximize” the interest advantages of PPF. Is this wise? What are the factors to consider? If you invest Rs. 1.5 lakh during the initial five days of April, the entire amount…
Continue reading →you may have heard this in many personal finance forum: It is hard to get to a net worth of Rs. one crore. After that things become easier. In my experience, this is not an universal truth. Going from Rs. 10K to 20K networth and going from Rs. 1 Crore to 2 Crore could have…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I understand that the new tax regime is better than the old one because it does away with tax-deductible investments or purchases (80C, 80D, home loan interest, etc). However, I am used to investing in such instruments, and since I will continue to use them, is there any way to find out…
Continue reading →A reader wants to know, “Can I find out how much I need to invest for retirement without a calculator? Is there any thumb rule for this? Similarly, can I determine how much equity exposure I can have after retirement without a calculator?” We will discuss the first part of his question in this article…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “We have a retirement corpus of over Rs. Ten Crores. While we agree that having fewer funds is more manageable, we are nervous about stacking one cr in each fund, debt or equity. Do you think that fear is unfounded?” The number one goal in portfolio management is a peaceful sleep. So…
Continue reading →Many are drawn to the concept of generating passive income, yet few can achieve substantial results. This piece will explore the reasons behind such shortcomings and provide a passive income framework that can lead to a consistent income stream. Our focus will be on cultivating passive income online. Many of us struggle to build passive…
Continue reading →This article presents an outperformance consistency report of active mutual funds. This analysis was done for a SEBI-sponsored talk given to Tamil Nadu Investors Association Members on March 24th, 2024. Disclaimer: Fund performance reports present return and risk analysis of a fund with representative benchmarks and not investment recommendations. It must be expressly understood that the data…
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