Which is the best date for SIP in mutual funds? I get this question often from my investors. My two usual reactions are: What is your lucky date?Toss a coin. It doesn’t matter. Last week, an investor asked me, “Have you done any analysis for this?” I hadn’t. I thought of giving this a shot. Data and Assumptions I have used Nifty TRI data from January … [Read more...] about Which is the best date for SIP in mutual funds?
Financial Planning
Performance Comparison: Investing on 52-week Highs vs. Investing on 52-week Lows
You want to invest in equity markets for the long term. You are given a choice of 3 strategies. Invest every month by way of SIPsInvest only when the market hits 52-week highs.Invest only when the market hits 52-week lows. Which approach do you think will give the best results? Intuitively, investing on 52-week lows look like the winner. Because, well, you are … [Read more...] about Performance Comparison: Investing on 52-week Highs vs. Investing on 52-week Lows
How Retirees can generate high income without taking much risk?
The interest rates have been going down over the last year. If you are an investor who relies on interest income to meet expenses, this is not a happy scenario. In this post, I will demonstrate how you can smartly use annuity plans to increase your income without risk even in this low-interest rate regime. This is more applicable to retirement portfolios. Before we move … [Read more...] about How Retirees can generate high income without taking much risk?
LIC New Jeevan Shanti (Plan 858): A New Deferred Annuity plan from LIC: Review
LIC has launched a new deferred annuity plan, LIC New Jeevan Shanti (Plan 858). This replaces their existing deferred annuity plan, LIC Jeevan Shanti (Plan 850). A brief background. LIC Jeevan Shanti had started as both immediate and deferred annuity plan in 2018. Its immediate annuity variant was withdrawn in August 2020 with the launch of LIC Jeevan Akshay VII. Now, … [Read more...] about LIC New Jeevan Shanti (Plan 858): A New Deferred Annuity plan from LIC: Review
Nifty Alpha Low Volatility 30: Review and Performance Comparison
In an earlier post, we discussed factor-investing and compared the performance of various factor indices (Value, Momentum, Quality, Low Volatility, and Alpha). The performance of some of the factors especially, Quality, Low Volatility, and Momentum was impressive, both on risk and return front. What if we combine two factors? Or what if we pick those stocks that … [Read more...] about Nifty Alpha Low Volatility 30: Review and Performance Comparison
SEBI Mutual Fund Risk Ratings: Is Risk-o-Meter useful?
How risky is your mutual fund scheme? How do you answer the above question? If you ask an investor, the answer will vary depending on, among other things, investor risk profile, investor mood, market sentiment and market outlook. If you ask a mutual fund house, an underappreciation of risk in the investment is guaranteed. As an investor, what should you do? What … [Read more...] about SEBI Mutual Fund Risk Ratings: Is Risk-o-Meter useful?
Nifty Factor Indices (Value, Momentum, Quality, Low Volatility, Alpha): Performance Comparison
In some of the earlier posts, I have written about momentum and low volatility investing. In this post, I compare the performance of various factor-based indices. What is Factor Investing? This blog post from S&P gives an interesting analogy. Consider Factors as nutrients and food items as stock returns. Now, different food items (pulses, milk, bread, vegetables, … [Read more...] about Nifty Factor Indices (Value, Momentum, Quality, Low Volatility, Alpha): Performance Comparison
Tax-Free ULIPs vs. Mutual Funds with LTCG tax: Which is better?
In Budget 2018, Long term capital gains tax on equity mutual funds was introduced. Prior to the change, the LTCG on sale of equity mutual funds was exempt from tax. This change brought an interesting taxation arbitrage. Taxation of maturity proceeds from Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs), offered by insurance companies, was left untouched and the maturity amount from ULIPs … [Read more...] about Tax-Free ULIPs vs. Mutual Funds with LTCG tax: Which is better?
Nifty 200 Momentum 30 Index: Review & Performance Comparison
I have written about momentum investing before. I compared the performance of S&P BSE Momentum Index TRI with Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50 and Nifty Midcap 150 indices in an earlier post (Does momentum investing work in India?). The findings were in favour of S&P BSE Momentum Index, which outperformed all 3 indices by a wide margin at only slightly higher … [Read more...] about Nifty 200 Momentum 30 Index: Review & Performance Comparison
The Bank offers to reduce Home Loan Interest Rate for a fee. How to figure out if the offer is good?
Interest rates have been going down for over 18 months now. If you have taken a home loan, your bank would have passed some of this benefit to you in the form of lower interest rates. Usually, the banks are reluctant to pass on the lower interest to the borrowers. However, regulations allow borrowers to move to a different benchmark (base rate to MCLR to Repo rate linked … [Read more...] about The Bank offers to reduce Home Loan Interest Rate for a fee. How to figure out if the offer is good?
