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…
Continue reading →Longevity risk is the risk of outliving our money in retirement. Take the case of an individual who retires at age 55 and expects to live until 85. At age 55, he has a corpus worth 30 times his annual expenses. If his real return (post-tax portfolio return – inflation rate) post-retirement is zero, his…
Continue reading →Here are a few money managment tips to consider before buying a house. These involve servicing the home loan and investments and are unrelated to the property purchase. Don’t be in a hurry! Buying property is often an emotional decision and even more frequently driven by a fear of missing out. These can result in…
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 →A reader asks, “Can we include our own living property/house in total net worth? I had some discussions with friends about a particular case – where the total net worth will be significantly higher than the required retirement corpus if the living house/property is included”. “It’s an independent house in Chennai (NOT a flat!) And…
Continue reading →When most people use a retirement calculator for the first time, they are shocked to see the corpus required and the amount they need to invest. See, for example, the results of a retirement planning exercise. Then they assume there is no hope for them and a financially independent retirement is out of reach. That…
Continue reading →Owning a home is a cherished dream for many in India. It represents a significant milestone in one’s life, providing a sense of security, stability, and pride. However, the path to homeownership often entails availing of a home loan, which may span several years. While it brings us closer to our dream home, it exposes…
Continue reading →FIRE, an acronym for ‘Financial Independence Retire Early,’ refers to achieving early retirement. In India, the conventional retirement age is typically 60. However, if you aspire to retire significantly earlier than this standard age, around 40 or 45, it is referred to as FIRE. About the author: Ajay Pruthi is a fee-only SEBI registered investment…
Continue reading →It is the dream and responsibility of every parent to guarantee that our children have the freedom and ability to pursue their desired path in life. Additionally, it would be ideal for our children to begin their professional journey without the burden of an educational loan. So it is vital that we strategically plan and…
Continue reading →A viewer on our YouTube channel asks, “Sir, How can I identify my risk appetite? Please let me know the points to consider when deciding asset allocation. Thanks.” Many investors believe their risk appetite falls under three categories: low, medium and risk. They also assume risk appetite refers to “how much risk we can handle”….
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 appreciate the context of these investments. I started direct equity investing only after achieving a comfortable level of…
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