Hi, welcome to freefincal.com. I have been publishing free resources for mutual fund selection, review, analysis, understanding of risk and reward for close to five years now. They have been organized here in the following categories. 1. Getting Started 2. Selection Guides 3. Reports 4. Perspective 5. Calculators 6. Analysis Tools If you have suggestions for…
Continue reading →I had a chance to speak to the employees of a Hyderabad based mobile tech company. I wanted to build that talk around the terms of references needed for money management. I could think of three crucial objectives: insurance inflation peace of mind I was able to cover the first two points but could not get…
Continue reading →Here are step-by-step instructions for choosing a liquid mutual fund. This post is inspired from a comment by Firoz Hajiani. I think the following steps might help the reader become familiar with some of the aspects that govern debt fund selection. The first question to answer is, Why choose a liquid fund? Many ‘experts’ suggest that…
Continue reading →Here is a list of investment options available for goals which are less than or equal to 5 years away. This is sourced out of my response to a thread at Facebook group, Asan Ideas for Wealth. I think the first step in goal-based investing is to demarcate short-term, intermediate-term and long-term financial goals. For…
Continue reading →Thanks to the ‘bull run’, ELSS mutual funds are projected as a ‘good’ last minute tax savings instrument. If you are thinking about tax deductions only now, do not use ELSS mutual funds. Last minute tax-savers are not interested in preaching: how you should integrate tax planning with goal planning, plan for it at the start…
Continue reading →If you have used a retirement calculator, you will know exactly what the title refers to! If you have not used a retirement calculator before, you are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to get all stressed up! Freefincal has its origins in retirement calculators. I have a wide range of sheets, the most popular of…
Continue reading →Each December, I conduct a personal financial audit. I take stock of my financial goals and other aspects of personal finance relevant to me. Last years audit can be found here. This year, as a forerunner to this post, I had written about how to conduct a personal financial audit and invited readers to conduct one themselves….
Continue reading →R. Balakrishnan is a person of great renown in the banking and financial services space. He helped set up CRISIL and the Malaysian credit bureau, was head of equity research at DSP Merrill Lynch, executive vice president of Edelweiss, to name just a few. He is now an organic farmer, writes a blog and has a column at MoneyLife….
Continue reading →‘Look before you leap’ is simple commonsense that escapes us Homo sapiens in most of our day-to-day activities. From eating, driving, breeding(!), spending, investing …. When it comes to investing, the following pattern appears to be way too common for comfort: A young earner realises the need to saving tax. A couple of months before March, a pension…
Continue reading →In the third part on portfolio diversification, we shall study the correlation among stock sectors. Part I covered the diversification among asset classes and market caps, and part II covered international equity indices. Regular readers may recall that we already saw how to build a diversified equity portfolio with sector mutual funds. The mutual chosen…
Continue reading →Should disciplined long-term goal based investors use mutual fund systematic investment plans (SIPs) or rupee cost averaging? This question has been bugging me for long and personally, I hate a SIP I think it is a product tailor made for mutual fund distributors and sold to lazy people. Should intelligent investors buy SIPs? Here is…
Continue reading →Here is why I think one should not invest in the National Pension Scheme even if you get tax benefits. This is the updated version of an earlier post. Earlier I had recommended subscribing to the NPS if you get tax benefits via the employer contributions. Tax benefits have actually increased since the govt. announced…
Continue reading →Since the post on, ‘What you need to know before hiring a financial advisor’, I have been bombarded by two kinds of emails/comments. Requests for sharing the list of fee-only financial planners, which is a pleasant and welcome surprise and About how mutual fund distribution is not necessarily a bad thing and how I just…
Continue reading →What is that I hear? Do you wish to engage a financial advisor/planner? Congratulations! A wonderfully positive step that has the potential to change your financial life. Do look before you leap though! Are you aware of what you are getting into? Whether you are planning to engage a planner or are already using their…
Continue reading →Do not invest in tax free bonds if your retirement is a long way off. Even if are retiring soon, do not invest in these unless you have thoroughly evaluated your options. There, I said it. That is the message of this post. I have been wanting to say that for a long time. Ever…
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