I evaluate my retirement portfolio’s performance and my son’s future portfolio in a personal finance audit each year. This is the ninth edition. Published since 2013, these audits provide a sense of accountability and ensure I do not fall prey to fear of missing out, preventing bad investment decisions. I am proud and delighted that…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “how can I regularly withdraw every year, say 7 per cent per year, from the corpus in my 18-year-old PPF account towards my yearly expenses”. There are two aspects to consider here: technical feasibility and practical feasibility. Once a PPF account has completed 15 years, there are two ways to keep it…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we start a new series – mutual fund investment journeys. We requested members of the Facebook group Asan Ideas for Wealth with more than ten years of mutual fund investing experience to share their journey. This is the first episode from an investor who prefers anonymity. Let us…
Continue reading →A reader who prefers anonymity asks, “I am planning to buy a house in the next few months. I have narrowed down on the property and locked in a price with the seller. I am using the proceeds of the sale of a property which was owned by my mother”. “I have to arrange around…
Continue reading →A reader who prefers anonymity asks, “Am I on track to achieve Financial Independence (FI) in the next 13 years? I intend to continue working in a corporate setup for as long as my mind, body and employer (current or future) allow. The FI target is more to ensure that money is no longer an…
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 →In this article, we evaluate the performance consistency of Kotak Emerging Equity Fund, a mid cap fund. Launched in March 2007, the fund currently has an AUM of Rs. 16,705 Crores. As we can see from the funds market cap allocation history, it changes from a mid and small cap fund to a mid cap…
Continue reading →The association of mutual funds in India (AMFI) publishes aggregate AUM held by different mutual fund investors across fund categories each quarter. Here are some insights into which type of funds are preferred by high net worth individuals/investors (HNIs) and retail investors. The definition of an HNIs is far from accurate and, in this context,…
Continue reading →A reader who prefers anonymity asks, ” I’m 33 yrs old; salaried; married with 1st kid due in Mar’22; living in Delhi NCR. I bought a house where I intended to live originally, but due to the extreme distance from my workplace (60kms distance one-sided), it does not seem to be feasible for me to…
Continue reading →In this article, we compare the performance of the Nifty 100 Low volatility 30 Total Return Index with the Nifty 50 Total Return Index. The 5-year and 10-year return differences between these indices are currently at an all-time low. The Nifty 100 low volatility 30 index consists of 30 large cap stocks from the Nifty…
Continue reading →While most of us talk about living in the moment or focusing on happiness instead of money, financial freedom is a mandatory goal. It ensures that we have enough in times of need, and we can go without slogging to survive for some years of life. Financial freedom is mostly about saving enough to sustain…
Continue reading →In response to our FAQ on index investing, a viewer on our YouTube channel asks, “I am doing sip for the past one year in nifty50 and nifty next 50. Is frequent(once in a year) rebalancing necessary even for passively managed funds?” While index funds remove the need for frequent fund performance review, they cannot…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (December 2021) 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 →In this article, we evaluate the performance of HDFC Mid Cap Opportunities Fund. Launched in June 2007, the fund has the largest AUM in the mid cap category at Rs. 31,629 Crores. Kotak Emerging Equity is a distant second at almost half the AUM (Rs. 16,485 Crores). We will use three metrics to analyse performance…
Continue reading →A reader who prefers anonymity writes, “I am 50 and have just started thinking seriously about financial planning for retirement. From reading your articles, I see that you recommend keeping it simple – invest in Nifty 50/Next Nifty 50 index funds and a gilt fund”. “I can invest about Rs. 1.5 lakh per month. Is…
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