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…
Continue reading →Sunder asks, “We all know that equity returns in the last financial year or last annual year were excellent. Does this mean we should mentally prepare ourselves for poor or even negative returns this year?” The 97% returns mentioned in the title refer to the NIfty 50 TRI movement from 23rd March 2020 to 23rd…
Continue reading →This is my monthly retirement stock portfolio analysis compared with an equivalent investment in a Nifty index fund. Before we begin, investors need to appreciate the context of these investments. I started direct equity investing only after achieving a comfortable level of financial independence and ensuring my son’s future portfolio is in a good place….
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (July 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 that have a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get ~ 40% discounted links to…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Dear Pattu Sir, as pointed out by you several times, active large cap funds have struggled to beat the Nifty/Sensex over the last few years. Although things are a little better after the market recovery in the last few months, will this be the norm in the future too? Does this mean…
Continue reading →We all know the reason for investing in ample amounts of equity for long-term goals. It is to beat inflation. Or, in other words, to get a return higher than what typical fixed income products offer – a good measure of realistic inflation in India for day to day expenses (services tend to have higher…
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