In this article, Vishal Kataria explains how to become an effective remote worker, be it an employee, freelancer, or entrepreneur. He has more than seven years of experience as a remote worker and has taken the trouble to interview friends with the same lifestyle to get their insights. The idea for this article came to…
Continue reading →In the ten-plus years that I have been making retirement calculators, I have received several questions on the inputs: what inflation rate should I take after retirement? What return should I assume before/after retirement? How should I account for current expenses? What should be life expectancy? And so on. One question that has never been…
Continue reading →Kotak Global Innovation Fund of Fund is an open-ended fund of fund investing in Wellington Global Innovation Fund (or any other similar overseas mutual fund schemes/ETFs). The fund of fund is currently in its NFO period (closing 22n July 2021). The scheme mandate of the underlying fund – Wellington Global Innovation Fund – seeks long-term capital…
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 →DSP US Flexible Equity Fund is an open-ended fund of fund scheme investing in BlackRock Global Funds – US Flexible Equity Fund (the underlying fund). The scheme was launched in Aug 2012 and now has an AUM of about Rs. 474 crores. BlackRock Global Funds – US Flexible Equity Fund has a mandate to invest…
Continue reading →As I opened my investment tracker spreadsheet for this month, I realised that I have been at it for the last ten years. This is how tracking investments have changed my life and why I strongly recommend it. Today I can invest more for retirement than my target investment. That was not the case when…
Continue reading →The cost inflation index for the financial year 2021-2022 was recently announced. We compile 40 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 of true price…
Continue reading →The cost inflation index in India is currently published with 2001-02 as the base year. It was earlier published with 1981-82 as the base year. You can find both data sets here. That is from 2001-02 to the current financial year – this is the list to be used for income tax computation – and…
Continue reading →I get this kind of question a lot: There is a 30-40% overlap in the portfolios of my mutual funds. Is this okay, or should I change my funds? How much of a portfolio overlap is OK, and how much is not? A discussion. The reasoning presented here is similar to the one discussed before: Can…
Continue reading →I am writing this after learning of two incidents where credit card payments for emergencies resulted in more expenses (interest payment). What is discussed is quite basic and should sound trivial for experienced money managers. You could then share the article with someone younger. Let start by appeasing children from the reward point gang that…
Continue reading →With the Sovereign Gold Bonds, 2021-22 (Series IV) open for purchase from July 12-16, 2021, a reader asks, “how much return can I get from these bonds”? The only honest answer one can offer is, we do not know. Gold is too risky an asset class to make a prediction. Here is why we have…
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 →DSP Value Fund is an open-ended equity scheme following a value investment strategy. That is, it will try to buy “equity and equity-related or fixed income securities which are currently undervalued”. The fund was launched on Dec 10th 2020. So it only about seven months old and has an AUM of Rs. 476.23 crores as…
Continue reading →This is a list of free data sources that can be used for DIY investing and analysis. It is the culmination of years of searching – the fun and frustration of hunting for reliable information online far exceed that of using a readymade list, but it might hasten better analysis. So here we go. This…
Continue reading →Let us discuss a question from a reader who prefers anonymity: “Is it ok to invest in 50% index funds (passive funds) and 50% active funds for the equity portfolio in my retirement portfolio?” The answer depends on what the motives behind such an allocation are. This discussion applies to any mix of active funds…
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