Financial products get mis-sold every minute of every day. Interpretations of what constitutes miss-selling depend on who you ask. They range from persuasion (bending the rules) to outright fraud (breaking them). In this case, the victim is the buyer. There is yet another form of miss-selling where both the buyer and seller are victims. In this…
Continue reading →This is an update to the fantastic Nifty One-stop shop created by Pranav Date. Now you can download historical total returns index (TRI) data (dividends assumed to be reinvested) of 52 NSE Indices. You can also download the price history, from 59 Indices, PE, PB and Div Yield data of 51 NSE Indices and the…
Continue reading →Shall we try out the following experiment? Pick a fund that you invest in. Say Quantum Long Term Equity or PPFAS LTVF or HDFC Balanced. Enter all the transactions in that fund(s) in a portfolio tracker. Then add a couple of index mutual funds like Franklin Nifty Fund or ICICI Nifty Next 50 fund. Use the same…
Continue reading →The media is blaring at full blast about the number of jobs (not just IT) that could be lost in 2017 and beyond and how it could be “bigger” than 2008. Whether there is merit in such speculation remains to be seen. What should be clear to anyone working in a non-government establishment is that…
Continue reading →In this post, my GameChanger co-author, Pranav Surya offers a sneak peak into the book. The hard copy is now available for pre-order for just Rs. 180 (offer closes Sunday 21st midnight) before it retails at Amazon Rs. 249 from Monday. We also have two exciting add-ons at a small additional cost. This will be announced…
Continue reading →It was when my seven-year-old son declared that he wanted to be a fruit seller that I realised that the …. er … apple has not fallen far from the tree! Yes, I too had similar aspirations and I nurtured it for years until I heard the plight of a pharmacist. In this post, I…
Continue reading →I am a typical middle-class Indian in terms of birth, upbringing and manner. My interest in money management and investing stems from despair and anguish and not interest or passion. In this post, I discuss my failures, shocks and how they acted as a catalyst to seek financial independence. Although driven my specific events, my…
Continue reading →I am often asked this question. The catching up here refers to being able to create an adequate retirement corpus. The answer depends on the age of the person. For someone in the 30s (even late 30s), I think it is quite possible if they put their head down and invest enough for the next 15 years….
Continue reading →Here is a list of lessons I have learnt from eight plus years of mutual fund investing and countless hours spent studying and making analytical tools for the blog. Perhaps many of these may seem trivial to regular readers, but for the record here goes. 1 Past performance matters, but not as much: Before choosing a…
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Continue reading →“Why should I invest in equity if it comes with no guarantees?!” A mighty fine question wouldn’t you say? In this post, I discuss the nature of stock market returns and why despite the lack of guarantees, it still a necessary investment avenue for some. First of all, let me make it clear that I am…
Continue reading →One of my favourite quotes about goals is by Harvey Mackay: “A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” That just about sums it up!! In this post, let us look at how to define a financial goal with the Audi as a dream car. It…
Continue reading →In a two-part series, I would like to discuss how to spot (I) and how to handle (II) mutual fund underperformers. I write this after suggestions on twitter and by Kunal Lal. The first step is to define underperformance. This is possible only if the right category of mutual funds is first selected for investment….
Continue reading →Anyone who has used a retirement calculator would tell you the primary input is current expenses that are likely to persist in retirement. I have always maintained that one should not assume expenses will decrease after retirement! Therefore, I will only exclude cash outgo like EMI and expenses related to children from current expenses. This is all that one can do…
Continue reading →A simple method to review your mutual fund SIP investments by tracking the month-on-month returns is discussed. In a previous post, the data presented for 10-year SIPs had a huge spread. Analysis: 10-year Lump sum vs 10-year SIP returns That alone should be clear to you that one cannot simply let the SIPs continue hoping for…
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