In Part 1, I wrote about the assumption embedded in almost every retirement plan: that the person managing the corpus at seventy-five will think and decide the way the person who built it did at forty-five. The research suggests that is not a safe assumption. And yet almost no retirement planning framework addresses it directly….
Continue reading →PPFAS Gift City announced yesterday that they have slashed the minimum investment required to invest in its outbound funds – Parag Parikh IFSC S&P 500 FOF and Parag Parikh IFSC Nasdaq 100 FOF – from 5000 USD to 500 USD. This 500 USD minimum also applies to subsequent investments. Given how hard it is to…
Continue reading →“How Much Should You Save Monthly Based on Your Age and Income?” I was asked this question in an interview—a discussion. We shall save and invest together here. I think the short but unpleasant answer is: as much as possible! This does not mean you resign yourself to saying, “I can only invest this much…
Continue reading →We discuss the performance consistency of actively managed mid cap funds by comparing them with the Nifty Midcap 150 index. This is the Aug 2026 report. The freefincal active equity mutual fund screener, published monthly, uses the Midcap 150 to compare small cap funds. This is the link to the latest screener. If you read…
Continue reading →We compare the rolling returns of Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, Nifty Midcap 150 and Nifty Smallcap 250. We publish this comparison periodically. This is the August 2026 edition. Returns for a financial instrument that fluctuates can be calculated in two ways: Point-to-point returns: Calculate the effective annual compounded growth rate (CAGR) between two dates….
Continue reading →“Which mutual fund should a beginner choose?” Someone recently asked me this question after a talk. A discussion. Let us assume that the person is a young earner who has subscribed to the EPF via her employer. If she is a freelancer or entrepreneur, the PPF is a good substitute. That will be the fixed-income…
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 →If you go to any Indian wedding or office party when the stock market is high, you will hear the same story. Someone will say, India is the next superpower! The market will only go up! Buy this small company share; it will double by Diwali. It feels good to think positive. But in the…
Continue reading →This article addresses frequently asked questions about early retirement and the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. 1 What is the definition of financial independence? When a person has enough income from her investments or net worth to not only replace existing gainful employment but also combat inflation in essential expenses and lifestyle changes for…
Continue reading →When investors discover the impact of distributor commissions embedded in Regular mutual fund plans, the urge to switch to Direct plans is immediate. The math seems obvious: saving 0.75% to 1.00% every year in expense ratios compounds into a massive difference over decades. Yet when long-term investors consult an advisor or open an Excel sheet…
Continue reading →This index fund screener is based on tracking error and return differences wrt benchmarks (also known as tracking differences). 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 →The cost inflation index for the financial year 2026-2027 is 384, representing a 2.13% increase. We compile 46 years of cost inflation index data to understand the devastating consequences of inflation and why our singular focus should be on beating inflation for our long term goals. The cost inflation index (CII) is not a measure…
Continue reading →In Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the protagonist Arjun had a number. We wanted to hit the target corpus by 40, retire, and finally start living. It’s one of the most seductive ideas Bollywood ever put on screen, and it has quietly become the blueprint for an entire generation of Indian professionals. I meet Arjuns every…
Continue reading →This ETF screener tracks errors and differences (ETF return minus index return). It will help users evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus the index’s monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficiently the ETF tracks the index. Unlike returns,…
Continue reading →We plan for inflation, longevity, and market crashes. We rarely plan for our own decline. For the last five years, I have spent a significant amount of time thinking about retirement planning. Not just the numbers, but the assumptions underneath them. Like most DIY investors, I started with the obvious questions. How much corpus would…
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