This is a talk I gave in the bi-monthly meeting of the Tamil Nadu Investors Association (SEBI recognised) on March 24th 2024. I have recorded it separately in two parts. I have already published parts of the talk as articles since then. Active Mutual Funds Outperformance Consistency Report (March 2024) ETF or Index Fund? Look…
Continue reading →I wrote an article on the investment options if a person is moving to the USA. You can read it here – What should I do with my investments if I wish to move to the U.S.? The article gave me the idea of writing an article if the person is moving to Middle Eastern countries….
Continue reading →Many passive investing fans are excited by the 60% reduction in the fee (total expense ratio or TER) of Motilal Oswal Nifty 500 Index Fund. Does investing in the fund now instead of a Nifty 50 or Sensex index fund make sense? On 25th April 2024, Motilal Oswal AMC announced (pdf file) that from 1st…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “What are the current NPS Annuity Rates? How can I find the pension I will get for my corpus if I exit today?” The NPS is a market-linked retirement product. The contributions are defined, but the benefits are not because the final corpus depends on market conditions. The NPS subscriber must buy…
Continue reading →It is quite common to see one partner (either the husband or the wife) utterly uninterested in money management and investing. They take for granted that the other partner will handle everything. Perhaps this contrast is higher in households if one takes an additional interest in personal finance. Although my wife is super-smart and capable…
Continue reading →I have invested in the National Pension Scheme (NPS) since 8th March 2010. This is a performance report of how the NPS invested has fared over the last 14+ years. We also compare the returns with EPF. Note: Kindly do not assume that I am recommending NPS instruments. My situation is quite different from most….
Continue reading →Futures and options trading on Nifty Next 50 commenced on April 24, 2024. Will this impact the index and, therefore, its passive investors (via index funds and ETFs) in any way? In particular, how will F&O trading impact the volatility and liquidity of the underlying index (or its constituent stocks in the spot market)? The…
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…
Continue reading →In this article, we list the different options available for withdrawing from NPS after retirement and discuss which is suitable for whom. Note: The NPS is a mutual fund. Therefore, like any mutual fund, only the NAV on the exit date will apply to existing units to calculate the corpus. So, in the case of…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Our daughter is one month old. How should we start investing for her future?” Starting on a clean slate is always the best way to start. Let’s dive straight into the goal-planning steps. The goal-planning steps We need a target corpus after 17/18 years, depending on when she was born. That is…
Continue reading →Recently, some media reports have claimed that the age limit on health insurance purchases has been removed. Is this true? If yes, will this benefit a large segment of the population? The IRDAI circular dated 20th March 2024, F. No. IRDAI/Reg/8/202/2024 (thanks to Kamlesh Rao for sharing it on the Facebook group Asan Ideas for…
Continue reading →A 30-year-old reader asks, “What MFs should I choose if I can invest Rs 1 Lakh a month?” Here are some model mutual fund portfolios for long-term goals (> 10 years away) independent of the amount to be invested. They are arranged in descending order of preference. We shall also mention relevant fixed-income options. Asset…
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 sent us the following message: “This article – Can I Achieve Financial Independence and Retire Early by 45? – it was, as always, a good read, like most of your articles. I have been a reader of freefincal for quite some time. My rant/question may be long, so please bear with me. I would…
Continue reading →In this article, we discuss the idea of annuity laddering (also known as income laddering) and how it is helpful in retirement planning. Annuity/Income laddering generally means a series of cash flows that become available at different points in the future. Typically, bonds or fixed deposits are used for income laddering. A series of FDs…
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