How to select an equity mutual fund in 30 minutes!

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal / 17 Comments

Published: May 22, 2016 at 8:25 am

Here is a video description of how to select an equity mutual fund in under 30 minutes using the freefincal mutual fund screener (now in Mac!) and if necessary with the rolling returns calculator.

The 5th version of the mutual fund screener was posted yesterday. I noticed a couple of bugs later. So I request that you redownload the file.

Download the freefincal mutual fund screener (May 2016 windows Excel)

Download the Mac Excel freefincal mutual fund screener (May 2016 Mac Excel)

A google sheets edition without some features is also available Mutual Fund Screener- Google Sheets Edition

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    Download the Mutual Fund SIP and Lump Sum Rolling Returns Calculators

     Instructions to log into Value Research

    1. Open blank excel
    2. Select Data in the menu
    3. Click get external data and then from web
    4. Excel will open an internet browser-like window (basically a box where you enter an url)  and there will be annoying script error messages. Dismiss them.
    5. Then Go to VR online in that window and go to  the main page. There will be annoying messages. Dismiss them.
    6. Click on login. If you are not able to do so. Stop the page from downloading and then click login
    7. Login with your email (preferable) and click on remember me.
    8. Now you can exit the browser window and start using the screener. It should work fine now.

    Before heading to the video, it is important to recognise that this is a simple, (some might call) crude way to shortlist funds and pick one from them. It is more important to pick a fund and start investing rather than suffer from analysis paralysis.

    It always important to remember that Selecting the right equity mutual fund scheme is not possible!

    Note: In addition to these steps, once you have selected 1/2 funds, do spend some time reading about the investment style of the fund from the AMC website.

    More details about the sheet can be found here: Mutual Fund Screener Version 5.0

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      Pattabiraman editor freefincalDr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over nine years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter or Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.
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      Most investor problems can be traced to a lack of informed decision-making. We have all made bad decisions and money mistakes when we started earning and spent years undoing these mistakes. Why should our children go through the same pain? What is this book about? As parents, what would it be if we had to groom one ability in our children that is key not only to money management and investing but to any aspect of life? My answer: Sound Decision Making. So in this book, we meet Chinchu, who is about to turn 10. What he wants for his birthday and how his parents plan for it and teach him several key ideas of decision making and money management is the narrative. What readers say!
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