In this article, we discuss what investors should do if they have already achieved their target corpus years before when they actually need the money. Today this may seem like an unlikely scenario for most young investors reading this, but over the years we have encountered so many people who are in this situation. Investing…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “I notice that many large cap mutual funds have five-star ratings now. This was not the situation before the March 2020 crash. Can you please do a study on this?” Results of active large cap funds vs benchmark study will depend on the duration of the returns considered and when the return…
Continue reading →This is a passive fund screener based on tracking error and return difference wrt benchmarks. The screener will help a user 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 is quite different from tracking the Sensex…
Continue reading →Somnath 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 Somnath can derive an inflation-protected income and be financially free after retirement. What is inflation-protected income? A retirement income that…
Continue reading →Days after we predicted (for once rightly!) “Parag Parikh AMC might rethink their foreign equity investment strategy. After all, the flexicap is their flagship fund and main profit source. They would not like prolonged or repeated disruption to their income”, the fund house has announced that Parag Parikh Flexicap will reopen for investment from March…
Continue reading →In this article, we discuss the difference between risk and volatility and why one must not misinterpret the difference! What is risk? Risk can be defined as any factor that can result in a loss of value. For example, if you buy something for Rs. 10 and after a year its market value is Rs….
Continue reading →The emergency fund or a stash of money that is meant to handle unexpected expenses is one of the building blocks of personal money management. Yet, many aspects of it are not obvious unless we have first-hand experience. A discussion. First the basics: We recommend putting away 20% of your take-home pay until you have…
Continue reading →In this article, we trace the growth of passive fund AUM in India over the last 10 years. Since 2015, the EPFO is a major investor in the Nifty and Sensex ETFs run by SBI and UTI. So we shall exclude these funds from the study. The total AUM of ETFs and Index funds (excluding…
Continue reading →In this article, we discuss how to set up a guide for our life partner or spouse to help them manage money in our absence. Let us call this the continuity kit. Absence here not only refers to the death of the main money manager but also refers to situations like job transfers, promotions (with less…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (Mar 2022) 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 two courses:…
Continue reading →The top three personal finance blunders are, not saving enough for retirement; making too high an allocation to equity; and using high-fee financial products/services. Case studies help to illustrate how difficult these decisions are. About the author: Avinash Luthria is Founder, Hourly-Fee Financial Planner & SEBI Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) at Fiduciaries. He was previously a Private…
Continue reading →Abhijit asks, “Sir, I have been investing in ICICI Nifty Next 50 Index fund for the past three years. I am shocked to learn that the index has failed to beat Nifty for the past 6 years. The higher expense ratio for these funds makes the underperformance even worse. As you have pointed out many…
Continue reading →As readers may be aware, other than existing SIPs, Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund is closed for subscriptions from Feb 1st 2022, to avoid breaching the overseas investment limit set by RBI. This restriction is for all mutual funds invested in foreign equity except ETFs. Many investors (who do not use SIPs) would like to…
Continue reading →A reader wanted a simple explanation for why the INR (Indian Rupee) fluctuates in value with respect to the USD (US Dollar). A discussion. It may seem strange but just like there is an equity market, bond market, commodities market (gold, silver, oil, cotton, etc.), money market, there is also a forex market. That is,…
Continue reading →Each month, we publish a list of stocks with low volatility and momentum. From this month onwards, we shall provide data for BSE 500 and BSE 100 stocks. There are now three different screener files available. (1) We shall use the BSE 100 instead of the Nifty 100 to define the large cap universe. This…
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