M. Pattabiraman's Blog, page 29

Index fund tracking error screener Dec 2024

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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Building Wealth on a Government Salary: Lessons Learned

I am Alok, 31 years old, a Group A officer in the central government, and this is my journey to financial independence. I have a 3-year-old child. My wife is a housewife. I joined the service in August 2015. While joining, I had 14000 in my account and nothing else. My starting salary was around...

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Can I use PPF as a source of income?

A reader asks, “Is it possible to use PPF as a source of regular income? For example, withdraw 7 per cent per year”. Once a PPF account has completed 15 years, there are two ways to keep it alive: (1) Without further contributions (interest will be paid) and (2) with contributions (Rs. 500  min per...

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ETF tracking error screener Dec 2024

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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Can I invest 50% in PPF and 50% in an index fund?

A reader says, “For a salaried employee contributing to an employee PF, would it be good advice to invest 50% of take-home pay first into PPF and the remainder into an index fund? This would be an investment towards a retirement corpus. The EPF and PPF would be the fixed-income part of the corpus, and...

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Life Insurance Pension Plan vs RBI Retail Direct Bond: Which is better?

Many individuals close to retirement are unfamiliar with buying government bonds vis RBI Retail Direct and how it differs from purchasing a life insurance pension plan*. We discuss the essential differences in this article. In this article, a life insurance pension plan refers to an immediate annuity plan, not a deferred one. Always avoid deferred...

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What does it take to become financially independent?

In 2008, my expenses dropped to ‘normal’ levels after my father passed away (post a prolonged battle with cancer). By then, I  had been in a regular position for less than two years, taking stock of my cash flow and investible surplus (money net of all expenses). Immature me, I remember asking my mom a...

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Equity Mutual Fund Screener Dec 2024: Shortlist consistent performers

The latest freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener 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 with a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get discounted links to our robo advisory tool...

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How did you manage your emotions all those years when you had negative returns?

A reader says, ” How did you manage your emotions for all those years when you had negative or zero returns? I always had this question about your investing journey. How could you keep faith that it will all turn positive one day? I wouldn’t have done it for so many years. Did some sane...

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Misconceptions about the National Pension Scheme

This article addresses common misconceptions about the National Pension Scheme (NPS) by government and private subscribers. Update: This article was conceived before the announcement of the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). The misconceptions remain unchanged. Though I am eligible for the UPS, I am partial to the NPS and quite emotionally attached to my NPS corpus!...

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