Portfolio Audit 2025: The annual review of my goal-based investments

I evaluate the performance of my retirement portfolio and my son’s future portfolio each year in a personal finance audit. This is the 13th edition. Published from 2013 onwards, these audits provide a sense of accountability and ensure I do not fall prey to fear of missing out, preventing bad investment decisions. They also point out the fruits of systematic goal-based investing.

I am proud and delighted that several readers have also published their audits at freefincal, inspiring the next generation of DIY investors. We now have close to 50 such articles from readers. See, for example, going from a net worth of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing. The full archive is here: reader story archives. Some select articles are available at the end of this audit.

Archive:  This is the archive of personal finance audits published before: 2013 audit,  2014 audit, 2015 audit,  2016 audit,  2017 audit, 2018 audit, 2019 audit, 2020 audit, 2021 audit, 2022 audit, 2023 audit and 2024 audit.

To perform a similar audit, refer to this guide: How to perform a portfolio audit? – and use the freefincal robo advisor tool. Then, you can review and track your goal-based investment portfolio with this auditing tool.

Disclaimer: This is a personalised financial audit. No part of this audit should be considered investment advice. My current portfolio is the residue of past mistakes, and my asset allocation reflects my changing goal-based risk appetite.

Overview: 2025 (like 2023 and 2024) was a quiet year on the portfolio front. The focus has been on systematic investing and systematic increases in investments. See:  Why increasing investments each year is crucial for financial freedom.

These yearly audits took quite a bit of time to publish, but since I shifted from Excel to the freefincal Google Sheets stock and mutual fund portfolio tracker, the entire process has been automated. One can compare the portfolio at any time with identical investments in benchmark or passive funds (see the graphs below).

Retirement

Asset Allocation: Equity: 65.38%; Rest is in fixed income.

• Stocks: 5.59%  XIRR 7.48% Analysis of the stock portfolio is available each month.
• Equity MF 59.79%  (86.24% of equity) XIRR 16.24%
• NPS 20.11% XIRR 8.92%
• PPF 3.78% (Wife + self) (this is approximate as I cannot track it online, and I don’t want to visit banks unless I have to)
• Debt MF 9.54% XIRR 7.16%
• Cash 1.17%

• Details of the debt MF holdings

• Note: The NPS has 15% equity + long-term gilts (majority). I treat it as debt. The reader, particularly those with the default govt NPS allocation,  is cautioned that long-term gilts are highly volatile. My NPS corpus returns dropped almost in half after the July 2013 bond crash. See 13 years of investing in the NPS. This prompted the NPS regulator to allow staggered withdrawals and delayed annuities.

Equity mutual funds

• Overall XIRR since June 2008: 16.24% as of Dec 11th 2025 (This was 18.13% in Dec 2024; 16.99% in Dec 2023; 14.64% in Dec 2022; 19.57% in Dec 2021).
• This should not be taken seriously: On March 23rd 2020, after the biggest intraday fall, my retirement equity MF portfolio return was 2.75%. If, after 12 years, the returns could crash to that level, we must learn to evaluate our portfolio by different metrics. This is why goal-based investing is crucial. You cannot buy groceries or a college education with impressive XIRR data!

• If you are wondering about the list above and the graph below, see: Why are you recommending index funds when your portfolio has beaten the market?
• Financial independence status: If I retire now, I could live off my corpus for the rest of my insipid life and draw an income that increases with inflation at a rate equal to the portfolio return rate (zero real return).
• My current initial withdrawal rate is less than 2%. For an explanation, see: I plan to retire in 25 years; what should be my safe withdrawal rate?
• Those interested in early retirement can use the freefincal robo advisor tool to create a detailed plan.

This is the normalised evolution of my MF retirement portfolio since its inception (Jun 2008), along with an equivalent investment in Nifty 50 TRI. This was plotted with the freefincal portfolio tracker.

Please do not read too much into the outperformance compared to the Nifty 50 TRI. Sometimes it has, and sometimes it has not. It depends on when you look. See: Why are you recommending index funds when your portfolio has beaten the market?

Child’s Education

I have been investing to fund my son’s future since December 2009 (a month before his birth). Then it was an 18-year-old goal, and now it’s a 2-year-old goal.

Asset allocation

• Equity: 56.1%; the rest in fixed income. Overall portfolio return:  16.10% as of 10th Dec 2025, (16.93% in Dec 2024; 16.46% in Dec 2023)

•  A recent addition with a small exposure. See: My 13-year-old begins his investing journey with an index fund.
• Debt holdings

I decided not to reduce the equity allocation because the fixed-income allocation is large enough to cover my son’s college fees.

This is the normalised portfolio evolution since its inception (Jan 2010), along with an equivalent investment in Nifty 50 TRI. This was plotted with the freefincal portfolio tracker.

Again, the outperformance should not be taken too seriously.  “Chinchu” is one of the many nicknames for our son, and the inspiration behind it is: Teach your kids financial decision-making with our book, Chinchu Gets a Superpower!”

Outlook & Summary

The key advantages I have had are time (starting early) and starting on a clean slate. Time allows you the luxury of handling market downturns, and it also changes your risk outlook.

Ten years ago, I would have said ~ 65% equity at age 48 is a bit much. However, I am comfortable with it today and wonder what I should do to leave it at 50-60% even after retirement. Remember, it is all about what the remaining 50-40% in fixed income is worth and building a diversified retirement portfolio. See: How to build the ideal retirement portfolio. So, time changes the way we view market risk. Not starting early can be a severe handicap regarding how much risk we can take and how we handle it later.

If there is one takeaway from my journey, it is to invest like a machine regularly as much as you can without worrying about market movements. If you have the time and mental strength to wait*  for two bull runs, your life can change, provided you keep investing regularly as much as possible.  * Wait here means wait = stay invested with the right asset allocation and regular goal-based risk management.

The rate at which I have increased my investments was often higher than its XIRR. See: Why increasing investments each year is crucial for financial freedom and Dec 20205 update: How 14 years of tracking investments helped me build wealth (the investing rate dropped below the XIRR due to too many unexpected expenses in 2025).

A lavish lifestyle or servicing too much debt can hamper our ability to pay for future goals or maintain our lifestyle. Finding a balance is crucial. I am still trying to find mine.

I urge readers to take advantage of the holiday season and any vacation (if applicable) to evaluate how much they need to invest toward their goals, tag their existing investments to their goals, and plan their 2025 investment schedule. The freefincal robo advisor tool can help you create a full financial plan. Then, you can review and track your goal-based investment portfolio with this auditing tool.

Reader audits published

This year, so many have become first-time crorepatis or well-established crorepatis and have come forward to share their journey on freefincal in the reader story section. This is another such account.

Also see:

• Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
• How I doubled my retirement corpus and became a Crorepati
• Analyzing the growth of my 15 Crores portfolio
• My 15 Crore Portfolio: Answering reader questions.