Over the last few weeks, many readers have asked if they can sell their mutual funds or other investments to partially pre-pay their home loans due to steep loan interest rates after the RBI Repo rate hike. One reader wanted to liquidate his entire MF holdings to part-pre-pay and decrease investments to increase the EMI…
Continue reading →Many of us convert the salary received by Indians going abroad in local currency (USD, Euro etc.) into INR and assume that “they” are doing much better than us. This is, however, incorrect. The exchange rate does not help us compare the cost of living in the two countries. That is, it does not help…
Continue reading →The cost inflation index for the financial year 2023-2024 was recently announced. The index increased from 331 in the previous financial year to 348 – an increase of 5.14%. We compile 42 years of cost inflation index data to understand the devastating consequences of inflation and why our singular focus should be on beating inflation…
Continue reading →On April 12th 2023, The Business Standard reported the Nifty criteria may be tweaked before RIL’s financial services arm demerger as the current rule could lead to the firm’s exclusion from the index. On Feb 24th 2022, the NSE announced that the “Minimum listing history requirement in case of a new listing and companies traded subsequent…
Continue reading →A reader wants to know if investing in an ESG-themed mutual fund is worth it. So some numbers and some discussion. In general, all thematic funds are unnecessary. The same logic applies to ESG, which gives off a “saving the planet vibe”! What is the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment theme? It involves choosing…
Continue reading →A reader says, “Please advise which small cap mutual fund I should include in my portfolio?” The short answer: There is no need for small cap funds in any investment portfolio! Regular readers are maybe aware of our stance on small cap mutual funds: Why a SIP in Small Cap Mutual Funds is a waste…
Continue reading →Hi, this is Abhineeth. I am a 30-year-old working as an Engineer in the state government service. I joined this position in 2016, and this is my 7th year. This is how I aim to achieve financial independence and buy/construct a decent house for my family. About this series: I am grateful to readers for…
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 →An angry reader writes, “I searched all your articles on gold and found that you have repeatedly recommended against using Sovereign Gold Bonds in an investment portfolio. Why is this so? They are tax-free when held to maturity, and you get extra interest. No other gold instrument has these features, yet you are against this….
Continue reading →It is widely recognized that stock market returns tend to be clustered, with significant gains followed by years of disappointment. In this article, we examine the yearly and monthly returns of the Sensex from April 1979 and demonstrate that the annualized return after 44 years is primarily determined by just a handful of successful years/months….
Continue reading →In this article, I expound my opinion that a single robo advisor exclusively built for a single advisor or trained with a single advisor (in the case of machine learning) can assist that advisor given enough time, input and practice. A few weeks back, SEBI RIA Swapnil Kende wrote an eloquent piece on Why good quality…
Continue reading →The amendment to the finance bill 2023 modifying the tax status of debt funds seems to have rendered many investors in turmoil. They seem desperate to invest in debt funds before 1st April – we recommend that you don’t: Should I invest a lump sum in debt mutual funds before 1st April 2023? They seem…
Continue reading →A new reader took exception to our view of the Nasdaq 100, leading to an interesting conversation, parts of which are reproduced. “Why do you keep saying not to invest in the Nasdaq 100?” As discussed earlier, the main reason for our recommendation is “Not many investors appreciate that the NASDAQ 100 is a highly…
Continue reading →We publish a list of stocks with low volatility and momentum each month. We provide data for BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks. There are now three different screener files available. (1) Stocks with low volatility and momentum from the BSE 100 large cap universe are available as a separate file (2) Stocks with low…
Continue reading →In this edition of the FAQ, we discuss the features of the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate, 2023, a new small savings scheme announced in Budget 2023 Who can invest? Women and minor girls via their guardians. Where can we open the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate account? At post offices or notified banks. What is the…
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