In this edition of the reader story, “Like most engineering graduates in India, I pursued a non-IT engineering major but ended up joining an IT services company as a campus recruit. Unfortunately, the 2008 recession delayed my joining by almost a year. Even today, I regret wasting that precious year. With some additional effort, I could…
Continue reading →Momentum investing has become one of the most talked-about factor strategies in India. The headline numbers are attractive — Nifty 200 Momentum 30 backtests often show 14–15% CAGR, and AMC momentum funds have seen rapid AUM growth. But a 19-year NSE backtest raises an uncomfortable question: is the momentum premium real, or is it simply…
Continue reading →A frequent criticism by those who encounter freefincal articles or videos is, “This guy is very pessimistic about equity investing”. I also often get asked why that is the case. Please allow me to explain. There is a difference between lack of faith and pessimism. If I lack belief in equity, I will not go…
Continue reading →These are the freefincal handpicked list of mutual funds. New and old investors can use it according to their specific needs. The list, titled “PlumbLine,” has been published since September 2017 to help beginners use the freefincal robo advisor tool. Most importantly, Plumbline is a mix of my opinions, skin in the game (where I…
Continue reading →Chandran is 30 and salaried and hopes to retire by 55. In this case study, we shall find out how he can plan for financial freedom in retirement. That is, we shall find out how Chandran can derive an inflation-protected income and be financially free after retirement. What is inflation-protected income? A retirement income that…
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 understand the context of these investments. Update: We recently added a new tool to the freefincal investor circle…
Continue reading →I have been a follower of Freefincal for 3+ years now and have immensely benefited from Pattu sir’s articles and fellow reader stories. I wish to share my journey, which I hope will help someone just starting their financial journey. About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives,…
Continue reading →Edelweiss Nifty Large Midcap 250 Plus 8–13 yr G-Sec 70:30 Index Fund will be India’s first aggressive hybrid index fund. Long-term readers may know that we have discussed the need for such hybrid index funds for a while now. The question is: does this new offering (currently in its NFO period) meet investors’ needs? Does…
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 seeking to invest in money market funds, banking PSU funds, and similar instruments. The credit quality of the portfolio’s bonds and the bond maturity profile can be tracked. Instead…
Continue reading →An ideal retirement portfolio should (1) generate an income that will keep pace with inflation and (2) have some buffer in the corpus to handle unexpected expenses (recurring or one-time). Here are the elements of an ideal retirement portfolio. 1. Pension: This is a prominent and important component. Also known as income flooring. This will…
Continue reading →There is a lot of interest in “high-interest bonds”. Unless you need a regular income (because you are retired or on a break, etc.), you don’t need bonds. Even if you need a regular income, it is important to exercise extreme caution before buying non-central government/RBI bonds. A bond typically pays out interest once or…
Continue reading →The freefincal low volatility and momentum stock screener (based on BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks published since Jan 2020) has just received major upgrades. In this article, we list the major changes. What is low-volatility investing? Low-volatility investing refers to identifying stocks with low price volatility and investing in them. Again, this is based on…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (also known as tracking difference). It will help users evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help them understand how tracking a midcap index, such as the Nifty 100 or 500, differs from tracking…
Continue reading →I argue why we should use a personal inflation rate while planning for retirement. My family’s inflation rate was about 8% some years back – Inflation in India: Some Real Numbers. So, that was the rate I started with when planning for retirement. Eight per cent before and after retirement. Then, as our economy grew,…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story … It all started in 2010. I wanted to pursue engineering. I had scored around 90%, yet I joined a tier-3 college for my B.E. in Computer Science. Even today, I don’t fully know why — whether I failed to filter colleges well, or whether competition was already that…
Continue reading →