This article explains how international mutual funds are taxed with an example. All mutual funds not holding a minimum of 65% of Indian stocks or Indian stock-based ETFs are known as “non-equity” mutual funds by the income tax department. They are taxed at a rate of 20% with indexation. In the case of non-equity mutual…
Continue reading →Here are five free resources (two ebooks, two webinars and a policy comparison spreadsheet) to help you choose a suitable health insurance policy. 1. Ebook on Health Insurance by Venkatesh Jayaraman. Author Bio: I was brought up in Chennai and moved around Bengaluru, Chennai, Mysuru and Pune to cater for my career requirements. But primarily…
Continue reading →The Mutual Fund space in India is reasonably large and growing. At the time of writing, there are 52 Asset Management Companies (AMCs) offering more than 1,000 – and counting – schemes. The choice can be overwhelming at times. There are literally thousands of places that list the ‘best funds’ to invest in. This article…
Continue reading →A young reader writes, “I am a recent graduate, who used to dump his money all on a Nifty fund I picked at random. But with your videos and articles, I now have an idea about choosing funds. But I still am confused about asset allocation. Other than an Index fund, I have no idea…
Continue reading →This is a debt mutual fund screener for fund selection, fund portfolio tracking and learning. It also includes hybrid funds that invest in bonds. It will satisfy investors who wish to invest in money market funds, banking and PSU funds etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Sir, can we use Sensex or Nifty ETFs for long term goals instead of index funds? If so, which is better, Sensex or Nifty ETFs?” We recommend not using any ETF for investing because of possible price-NAV swings during times of crisis and their persistence for weeks. This can happen in any ETF…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Sir, My wife and I are both working in the same company and do wish to have children. We are both aged 27. We have just started working in well-paid jobs, so our networth is essentially zero. Our dream is to put an end to salaried existence in at least 13 years’…
Continue reading →This is an index fund screener based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (aka tracking difference). 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…
Continue reading →On 19th June 2008, I started investing in mutual funds. These 14 years have changed my view of risk and day-to-day money management. This is my story and the lessons I have learned. The broad trajectory should be well known to regular/old readers. This is an account of how I went from spendthrift to debt-bearer…
Continue reading →On the 10th of August 2022, the Ministry of Finance announced, ” any citizen who is or has been an income-tax payer, shall not be eligible to join APY from 1st October 2022″. Further, “In case a subscriber, who joined on or after 1st October 2022, is subsequently found to have been an income-tax payer…
Continue reading →Here is a simple way to select mutual funds that have beat the category benchmark in terms of both return and risk over the last one, two, three, four and five years simultaneously! That is higher than the benchmark return and lower than the benchmark risk. This option is available in our monthly MF fund…
Continue reading →This is an ETF screener based on tracking errors and tracking differences (ETF return minus index return). The screener will help a user evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. The tracking error is simply the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficient…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “You usually recommend money market funds for short-term goals. Can we also consider Ultra Short Duration Funds for this purpose?’ The definition of money market funds is simple: “Investment in Money Market instruments having maturity up to 1 year”.Ultra-short duration funds are defined as “investment in Debt & Money Market instruments such…
Continue reading →In this article, we explain why conventional ways of measuring ETF tracking errors can be misleading and present an alternative. The efficiency of a passive fund (index fund or ETF) is measured by the tracking error or tracking difference. The tracking difference is simply the fund return minus benchmark return. This must be a small…
Continue reading →Axis Nifty 100 Index Fund is an open-ended index that aims to achieve a return close to Nifty 100 subject to tracking error. The Fund was launched in Oct 2019 and currently has an AUM of about 760 Crores. When the fund launched, we reviewed the underlying index in detail and mentioned that we needed…
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