Let us discuss a question received a few days ago: “What return should a 30-year-old investor aim for their retirement portfolio?” Retirement is assumed to be a good 25 years away. The first step of having a clear goal: Why the money is needed and when it is needed is already part of the question….
Continue reading →We evaluate the performance of 28 active large cap mutual funds by comparing their 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 year SIP returns with Nifty 50 TRI. Investors would be aware of the explicit underperformance of large cap funds from early 2018, while the actual underperformance began well before that: Active mutual funds struggle to beat Nifty 50 for last seven…
Continue reading →A few days ago, a discussion led to an interesting question in the freefincal goal-based investing Facebook group: Can we buy mutual funds in the name of my minor child; wait until she becomes a major to redeem? She will then have to pay tax on capital gains. We discuss the rules in this regard…
Continue reading →Direct mutual fund plans were introduced from Jan 1st 2013. In this article, we list the return difference between an 8-year SIP in a direct plan and a regular plan mutual fund. Scared that it would disrupt sales, SEBI has still not renamed “regular plans” for what they really are: “commission plans” – nothing “regular”…
Continue reading →In this stock analysis episode, we consider Dr Lal PathLabs Limited, an international diagnostic and healthcare test service provider. Its IPO opened in Dec 2015. In Oct 2020, the company was in the news for the wrong reasons: a data breach About the author: Ashish Tekwani has done his Masters in Finance from NMIMS, Mumbai….
Continue reading →Every time the market hits an all-time high, many investors get jittery. Questions like “should I book profits now?” “Should I stop investing now?” start doing the rounds in social media. This article discusses a simple way to handle our emotions when investing in mutual funds or any capital market-linked product. The adage, “show me…
Continue reading →Many of us start managing money and investing late. In this article, Jayashree Francis explains from experience how you can quickly get your finances on track. About the author: Jayashree is a content manager and learning professional, with over two decades of experience in a career spread over academics and the industry. She is a late…
Continue reading →The public bond sale of Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Non-convertible debentures (NCD) starts today (Jan 15th) and will close on Jan 29th 2021. We look at who consider buying these bonds and who should not! A non-convertible debenture is a bond that cannot be converted to equity at a later date. The interest from these…
Continue reading →In the next edition of personal finance audits by readers, we feature an account of why Mr Tailor had to postpone his financial independence & early retirement plans by four years. As regular readers may be aware, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2020 edition: How my retirement portfolio performed…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (January 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 got a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get ~ 40% discounted links…
Continue reading →In this article, Sarthak Parikh explains the importance of an emergency fund; how much is necessary; where to park it and how the pandemic has increased the need for a robust emergency fund. COVID-19 has hit us all hard in ways that we had never envisaged. The fear of losing a job if you are…
Continue reading →In this article, Pranav gives an account of his lesson from repaying credit card debt. Regular credit card users who excel in reward point accumulation or those who do not like debt, in general, might ridicule such accounts with a, “isn’t it obvious one must pay all dues in full, before the due date”. We…
Continue reading →In this article, we study historical Sensex data to determine if investors should stop or pause their mutual fund SIPs when the markets hit an all-time high. We also consider lump sum investments and systematic transfer of a lump sum (STP) during all-time market highs. Every time the market hits an all-time high, new investors…
Continue reading →I compare the returns of my stock portfolio as on 8th Jan 2021 with that of the Nifty. The portfolio is relatively young, and therefore the returns numbers you see would mellow down with age. The critical point of this is exercise is to see how my version of lazy investing fares against the Nifty….
Continue reading →I have been tracking the amount invested for my goals in the same Excel sheet for the last ten years (2011 to 2020). These are some lessons from the journey. This sheet is only for tracking the amount invested and not its current market value. Between 2010-11, my retirement planning cash flow projection was in…
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