Many readers have asked me this common question: “Where do I enter the value of my second house in the calculator while planning for retirement?”. The answer to this “depends” on one’s circumstances. Most people who have second property get rental income from it and would like such an income to continue into retirement. We…
Continue reading →Most of us invest in equity (mutual funds or stocks) only for one reason – to beat inflation over the long term. Unfortunately, just because equity beats inflation does not mean we will be able to beat inflation! Let us start from “Is there evidence that equity investments beat inflation over the long term?”. Yes,…
Continue reading →The absence of fund manager risk and lower fees are the two main reasons for choosing passive funds (index funds or ETFs). However, beyond the “normal” Sensex and Nifty passive funds, the remaining choices in this segment are quite expensive and comparable to the costs of active funds. Investors must be wary of this or…
Continue reading →This article compares my stock portfolio with an equivalent investment in a Nifty index fund and the Nifty 100 Low Volatility 30 TR index. 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…
Continue reading →We study 39 ELSS funds to find out which of them have consistently outperformed the NIfty 200 Total Return Index (dividends included) using the Jan 2022 equity mutual fund screener. Nifty 200 is a representative benchmark of the ELSS category in which funds are typically large cap oriented. since it is market capitalization-weighted, the index…
Continue reading →DSP Global Innovation Fund of Fund is an open-ended fund of fund scheme investing in an “Innovation theme” via global mutual funds and ETFs. The AMC claims this will provide the investor with exposure to “companies with innovation theme having potential for higher revenue and earnings growth”. The structure of this fund of fund is…
Continue reading →Suman asks, “Sir, What return should I use while planning for retirement? I wish to retire by age 50. I am currently 30 years of age”. Many people make two mistakes while planning their finances. The most common mistake is to assume equity mutual funds offer a 12% return and use that to compute the…
Continue reading →HourlyFee.org is the new initiative by SEBI Registered Investment Advisor, Avinash Luthria for US-based NRIs to find a financial planner free from conflict of interest. Avinash is the first Indian hourly fee financial planner (explained below). In this article, he explains in detail about the new website. About the author: Avinash Luthria is Founder, Hourly-Fee Financial…
Continue reading →In this edition of the reader story, we meet a young couple who prefers anonymity. They share their money management journey and how they wish to achieve a retirement corpus 50 times annual expenses. About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives for the benefit of readers….
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, “Dear sir, thank you for the helpful insights on Life Insurance Claim Settlement Ratio for FY 2020-21. Can we get similar data for health insurers?” Life insurance claims are binary. Either insurer pays in full (one) or not (zero). So you can define a claim settlement ratio as the number of claims…
Continue reading →Aparna asks, “Dear Sir, short term fixed deposit interest rates have started to increase. Can you please write an article on which type of mutual funds we can invest in to benefit from interest rate increase?” Since May 2020, the Repo Rate has remained constant at 4%. So this has many observers jumpy and expecting…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Dear sir, can you please let us know the list of mutual funds that invest 50% in equity and 50% in bonds? I ask this after reading your article – Will Benjamin Graham’s 50% Stocks 50% Bonds strategy work for India?” Such a fund can serve as an efficient one-fund portfolio option…
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 →Last year in our reader story series, we met 30-year old Rohit, whose early struggles led him, to start investing early in a goal-based manner. He has been kind enough to share an update on his finances – how he handled short term goals last year and why he feels confident about his retirement planning. About…
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