Blog about Financial Education, Advisory & Planning
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified two income tax return (ITR) forms for AY20-21 (FY19-20). Forms ITR-1 (Sahaj) and ITR-4 (Sugam) – the simplest of the lot – were notified recently. Usually, the Income-tax department notifies the ITR forms in the first week of April but it has been done earlier this …
Disclosures in the new income tax return (ITR) forms for AY 20-21 Read More »
The widening spread between accrual funds’ YTM and repo rate offer an attractive entry at the moment. Based on valuations, sentiments and industry flows, accrual schemes make a good buy at this juncture. Historically we have seen that whenever the spread between YTM and repo rate has been high, accrual schemes have given good risk-adjusted returns …
Whenever we select a mutual fund to invest in or decide to continue with a certain fund we always give a lot of weight to the past performance of returns. In fact, most decisions are always made on the basis of returns. In order to enable investors to make accurate comparisons of schemes, SEBI introduced …
Past returns are irrelevant after re-categorization of mutual funds Read More »
The total return index (TRI) is a type of equity index that tracks both the capital gains and assumes that any cash distributions, such as dividends, are reinvested back into the index. Looking at an index’s total return displays a more accurate representation of the index’s performance. By assuming dividends are reinvested, you effectively account for stocks in an index that do …
Fidelity Investments has just launched a couple of new mutual fund schemes with zero expenses for retail investors in the US. These are the first ever zero expense ratio self-indexed funds for retail investors available in the market -Fidelity zero total market index fund (FZROX) and Fidelity zero international index fund (FZILX). In India, SEBI has been making …
Can zero expense mutual fund schemes work in India? Read More »
Direct Plan in mutual funds were introduced on 1st January 2013 & since then within five years their share has grown to 40% of the industry’s total AUM. With consistent push from various stakeholders, direct plans contribute 14% of the total AUM held by individual investors. Product awareness campaigns by various market participants have consistently increased …
The myth is equity investing is risky business. Find below a chart to show how it makes sense to stay invested in stocks in the long run. Holding stocks for a year or so may give negative returns but if held for more than 5 years returns have always been positive. (Even in 2008 when …
What is Capital? Capital is our hard-earned money which we save over the years. The next question thus is Why do we save? We save to meet our needs or goals in the future, or perhaps for contingency. Thus we invest the money we have with us instead of spending it, and wait for consumption for …
How does it matter that most of the debt products give similar return of 8-10%, and then why not invest in only one product i.e. Bank FD for 10 years for which bank is offering about 9.5% for 10 years. However a product needs to be understood from the point of view of the investment …
There is no harm in maximizing returns, keeping safety and liquidity intact. The idea of keeping one’s emergency fund somewhere other than a savings account may not strike many, but it is an option worth exploring. A portion of our surplus money is often kept in a savings account to meet emergency expenses. While building an emergency …