M. Pattabiraman's Blog, page 19

How do you know if your portfolio is diversified?

Investors often add 10% of this and 10% of that and claim they do it for “portfolio diversification”. This and that refer to asset classes or products that have recently done well. My favourite response is, now that you have added this/that, how do you know if your portfolio is diversified? What is the impact of...

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Empowering Your Spouse to Take Charge of Finances When You’re Not Around

There are many households (including mine) where the other partner knows nothing about investing, paying bills, taxes, etc and is not interested in learning. How can we set up instructions so they can manage our money in case we become too busy with work (or go abroad) or, worse, die? Instruction Sheet: Considerations It should...

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How much corpus should I allocate for buying Gilt bonds after retirement?

A reader says, “I have modelled my retirement plan using the freefincal robo advisor. The option to secure a part of retirement expenses with income flooring is particularly appealing after reading reader journeys like How I used RBI Retail Direct to buy government bonds and create an income source and The system I use to draw...

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Index fund tracking error screener Mar 2025

This index fund screener is based on tracking error and returns difference wrt benchmarks (aka tracking difference). The screener will help users evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help to understand how tracking a midcap index or the Nifty 100, 500 differs from tracking the Sensex or...

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What is a retirement bucket strategy? How to implement it?

In this article, we explain the nuances of a retirement bucket strategy and discuss a method to implement it. What is a retirement bucket strategy? We have seen how our parents and grandparents manage their money after retirement. For most of them, a pension would be the main component. The remaining corpus would be distributed...

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How to financially prepare for parenthood

A reader wants to know, “How do you prepare for parenthood financially?” — a  discussion. I admire this line of thinking. I would recommend every wannabe parent to ask themselves this question. Previous generations considered childbirth a gift and believed it should not be hampered by too much planning. Perhaps they are right, but there...

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ETF tracking error screener Mar 2025

This ETF screener is based on tracking errors and tracking differences (ETF return minus index return). The screener will help users evaluate how efficiently an ETF has tracked its underlying benchmark. The tracking error is the ETF’s standard deviation minus index monthly return differences. The lower the tracking error, the more efficient the ETF is...

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Should I buy health insurance even if I am part of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS)

A reader asks, “I am 35 years old and presently have a Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) cover for myself and my family (wife and daughter) on account of my Central Government job. Considering that the possibility of switching jobs is negligible and that CGHS can be extended to cover me and my wife post-retirement...

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What is the ideal base health insurance plus super top-up combination?

A reader wishes to know, “What is the ideal base health insurance plus super top-up combination?” If you are confused about which health insurance policy to buy, check out the free resources at the end of this article. There is no ideal base + super top-up combo. We will have to decide what is suitable...

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How to create a robust post-retirement investment strategy

A robust post-retirement investment strategy requires the following: (1) A large cash buffer for emergencies, (2) A guaranteed income source that handles partial expenses for the entire duration of retirement (also known as an income floor) or guaranteed income that increases at a rate close to inflation for the first 10-15 years of retirement. (3)...

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