Motilal Oswal MSCI EAFE Top 100 Select Index Fund is an open-ended scheme tracking the MSCI EAFE Top 100 Select Index. The fund is currently in its NFO period (15th to 25th Nov 2021). This review discusses if investing in this fund makes sense when one can derive international exposure from existing options. The MSCI…
Continue reading →The Nifty Total Market Index consists of 750 stocks covering large, mid, small and microcap segments with stock weights determined by free-float market capitalization. The NSE launched this index in Oct 2021 with a backtested history up to April 2005. This article compares the rolling returns of the Nifty Total Market Index and Nifty 50…
Continue reading →In this article, Vishal discusses why he decided against buying a house and how his mindset towards owning property changed over the years. Note: The following is a point of view and not a recommendation against buying property. It is worth sharing it with the freefincal community as it is a well-thought-out view suitable for…
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 →RBI Retail Direct – a facility that allows retail investors to open gilt security account with the RBI and purchase government securities (gilt bonds or gilts) in the primary and secondary market without a fee – was launched on Nov 12th 2021. In this article, we discuss who should use it and who should not….
Continue reading →Suresh asks, “I would like to consult with one of the SEBI registered fee-only financial advisors on your list. However, I am not able to decide how much fee is reasonable. Can you please write an article on this?”. For those who are new to our community, close to a thousand readers have been working…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we meet Mr H (name withheld on request), who explains that it is better later than never to get your finances back on track and start goal-based investing. About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives for the benefit of readers. …
Continue reading →In this article, we analyze the performance of multi-asset mutual funds and discuss when and how to choose them. This is a new MF category introduced when the SEBI mutual fund categorization rules came into force. Thus the existing funds in this category are about three years old or less, barring exceptions like Axis Triple…
Continue reading →Avijit asks, ” I am in my early forties now (completed 42 this July) and have some ad-hoc investments in MF and stocks so far. I took your goal-based planning course last year. However, since then, I have been only reading one article after the other without making up my mind. I call this analysis…
Continue reading →Aakash, who is 24, asks, “My goal is Financial Independence in 20-25yrs from now. I am rooting for lazy investing and rebalancing. Monthly expenses will be 40k/p.m. and I will be able to invest 40-45k p.m. My request is to take my case and please explain whether it is too late to retire early at…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (November 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 →We discuss three changes that can make the NPS an attractive retirement solution. Let us face a simple fact: The only reason many investors use the NPS is because of the “extra Rs. 50,000” tax saving or reduction in taxable income to be exact. The biggest drawback of the NPS is its rigid exit rule….
Continue reading →Swaroop asks, “I am 30 years old and have recently started investing in NPS. Can you please explain how to calculate the pension that we would receive from NPS?”. The short answer is, it is not possible to accurately calculate NPS pension. Yes, we can make an estimate, but the result is likely to be…
Continue reading →Only nine out of 87 thematic or sectoral mutual funds have consistently beaten the Nifty 100 Total Returns Index. Nifty 100 was used because, if these funds cannot consistently beat a simple large cap index (equivalent to Nifty 50 or Sensex), it makes the entire category unsuitable for retail investors who might make the mistake…
Continue reading →In this article, let us determine what percentage of mutual fund AUM is in passive funds (index funds and ETFs). We shall consider four dates to consider the AUM growth. 1: Sep 2021 (latest at the time of writing); 2: March 2020, when the mark fell due to the pandemic/lockdown. 3: Jan 2018 – Before…
Continue reading →