A reader says, “I am a regular reader of freefincal. I am wondering whether I will be able to be financially independent in the next 20 years. My Background: I am 34 years old and working for an MNC. My wife is a homemaker; she is 31 years old. We have a three-year-old daughter”. Expense…
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 →This article discusses two questions readers often ask about health insurance. (1) After buying a health insurance policy, should I inform the insurer if I am diagnosed with a new health condition? There is no need to inform the insurer immediately. At the time of renewal, if you don’t wish to increase your coverage and…
Continue reading →A reader says, ” I am a long-time admirer and follower of your blog. I started investing in 2010 after getting a job and am continuing. I am 37 years old, and my portfolio allocation is 72% equity (80% direct equity and 20% MF) and 28% fixed income”. “I wanted to invest for my newborn…
Continue reading →UTI S&P BSE Housing Index Fund is an open-ended scheme tracking S&P BSE Housing TR. The NFO period ends June 5th 2023. Does it make sense to invest in it? The S&P BSE Housing index chooses stocks from the S&P BSE 250 LargeMidCap Index classified in housing-related industries. Constituents are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization,…
Continue reading →This is a debt mutual fund screener for fund selection, fund portfolio 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 and PSU funds etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile…
Continue reading →In Oct 2022, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the NPS regulator, released a draft proposal on implementing Systematic Lump sum Withdrawal (SLW) in the national pension scheme and sought public feedback. We had earlier discussed the withdrawal rules, the proposed change and our feedback on the same: NPS Systematic Lump Sum Withdrawal…
Continue reading →In this article, SEBI registered fee-only advisor Akshay Nayak – the newest member of fee-only India* – explains why simple portfolios make sense and how to build them. About the author: Akshay holds an MBA in Finance from Great Eastern Management School, Bangalore. His website is akshaynayakria.com. His articles on personal finance and investing can…
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 →As you may know, freefincal has maintained a curated list of fee-only SEBI-registered advisors since 2014. In Sep 2017, many of those advisors formed an informal association – fee-only India (FOI), which has now grown bigger. A fee-only advisor does not get any commission or remuneration from any product manufacturer (insurers, mutual funds etc.). They work…
Continue reading →Dr Rajesh Mevada writes, “What are debt fund / fixed income options for non-salaried, self-employed professionals and businessmen? For salaried investors, it is compulsory to contribute to EPF/ VPF, or NPS, which automatically takes care of its debt component. But for non-salaried investors, choosing debt fund investment is a bit difficult. So another relevant question…
Continue reading →In a circular dated 10th May 2023, NPS regulator PFRDA announced that retirees can now buy multiple annuities for “Retirement Income Optimization”. However, there are still considerable limitations and much more flexibility is required. The circular says (1) In the interest of optimising subscribers’ retirement income and providing them with a wider range of annuity…
Continue reading →This is an ETF screener 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. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficient the ETF…
Continue reading →A reader says, “I get the rebalancing and how the backtests prove how it works for most market conditions. But what about the quality of the assets we have chosen for investment?” “For example, if an Adani like situation arises for a fund house? How do we handle that? Well, one may say we must…
Continue reading →A member of the freefincal investor circle asks, Can we use the information ratio to analyze index funds? What is the information ratio? It is a measure of outperformance per unit risk associated with the outperformance. In other words, the information ratio is a risk-adjusted measure of the fund manager’s effectiveness in beating the benchmark. How…
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