I have written many articles on term insurance, health insurance, and retirement planning. A few of my readers have previously asked me – Can you create a sample financial plan for a family with a simple example of financial planning for salaried employees in India? So, here we go! About the author: Ajay Pruthi is…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (aka tracking difference). The screener will help users evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help a understand how tracking a midcap index or the Nifty 100, 500 differs from tracking the Sensex or…
Continue reading →On 12th Aug 2023, Sudheer Tammini announced that he had developed a “simple Free & Open source software that I have developed to export Mutual Funds CAMS statement data onto a nice CSV file”. We asked him to share more details with us. Cams2CSV could be helpful to users of the freefincal MF portfolio tracker…
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. Update: 76 ETFs are now covered. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error,…
Continue reading →When it comes to the Public Provident Fund (PPF), investors typically focus on its tax-free, risk-free, and tax-saving benefits. Even those who cannot afford it often scrounge for Rs. 1.5 lakh for PPF investment within the first five days of the financial year. See: Investing Rs. 1.5 lakhs in PPF before April 5th may not…
Continue reading →In this article, we shall discuss how REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and InvITs (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) will be taxed from 1st April 2023 (FY 2023-2024 or AY 2024-2025). REITs and InvITs invest in commercial real estate properties and infrastructure assets via special purpose vehicles (SPV) through equity or debt instruments. This allows investors to…
Continue reading →This article discusses a retirement plan for a 30-year-old who wishes to retire by age 50. We shall use the robo-advisory tool to create this retirement plan. Let us outline the inputs and assumptions employed in this analysis. Kindly note that all the inputs and outputs in this research pertain to a situation (of a…
Continue reading →You probably feel grim and despondent if you have tracked factual climate change articles over the past few years. What was earlier academic debate now seems like a matter of time. Can we financially prepare for this? How? Here are a few articles that remind us of the kind of mess we are in now….
Continue reading →A reader wants to know if he can use P2P lending as a fixed-income instrument in his portfolio. Many portals that facilitate P2P lending flash double-digit returns with slogans like “better return that FDs”. But are they worth your time and money? P2P lending, or peer-to-peer lending, is a method of borrowing and lending money…
Continue reading →Over the years, there have been innumerable discussions in AIFW (Facebook group, Asan Ideas for Wealth) about various aspects of mutual funds – their kinds, where to use them, what to buy, when to sell, how much returns to expect, SIP or not, active vs passive, etc. Yet one topic does not seem to get…
Continue reading →The following is an account of an ordeal to redeem from mutual funds in demat form. As mentioned several times earlier, holding mutual funds (except ETFs) in demat form makes no sense. Mutual fund units are already in electronic form! Unless an investor wants to (or rather tries to) sell closed-ended mutual funds before maturity,…
Continue reading →After the debt mutual fund taxation change from 1st April 2023, many readers have asked us if they can use NPS Tier 2 as an alternative—a discussion. We had previously discussed a related idea: Can I use NPS Tier II as a low-cost index fund? All NPS pension fund managers provide portfolio details under “statutory disclosures”…
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 reader asks, “Sir, What return should I use while planning for retirement? I wish to retire by age 55. I am currently 35 years of age”. Many people make two mistakes while planning their finances. The first common mistake is presuming that equity mutual funds provide a 12% (or more!) return and utilizing that…
Continue reading →I purchased two endowment policies last year and currently pay an annual premium of 2 Lakhs for these policies. Renewal for these policies is due next month, and I’ve heard that insurance policies are not ideal for investment due to their relatively low returns. So, should I consider surrendering these policies? About the author: Ajay…
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