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The 4% rule

4-percent-rule-retirement-planning

One of the retirement strategies; comes from a paper written in 1998 by three finance professors at Trinity University. Idea was to study & identify, as to what rate of withdrawal is an ideal rate per year, which is sustainable to the retirement corpus, and can last 30 years.

How the 4% rule works?

To figure out how much money you need for your retirement corpus, multiple 25 with the annual retirement income (you wish that point of time). Let’s say you need 10 lacs per year.

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August 15, 2018 Retirement, , , 0 Read more >

Sensex at 38000 … do we need to cheer, or worry?

sensex-38000-all-time-high

In just one-month, Sensex has climbed 3000 points, or jumped straight 8.5%. Till June end, everyone was worried, as market has had a very volatile phase (since last six months). As usual, question is, whether one has missed the bus? or the rally has just started?

Let me highlight on the macro trends:

Crude Oil: 70% of the demand for crude oil comes from transport. Alternative for crude oil is Electronic cars, which will become accessible in another 10-15 years (crude reserves are expected to last 50-80 years). Average crude oil price (for India) should range between USD 55-65, because this price doesn’t affect our foreign reserves.

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August 9, 2018 Market, , , , , , , , , 0 Read more >

Insights about Moneyfrog.in Mobile App and App users

Mobile-app-insights

We were recently contacted for answering fin-tech questions related to Mobile apps. Below are questions answered by our  Founder & CEO- Manoj Chahar.

1) How many of your users (percentage terms) use the app?

Moneyfrog Mobile-App is used by all our customers (100% usage), averaging once a week, with count going higher per week, whenever the market is volatile.

2) Do you see the app usage increasing in coming times?

YES. With changing lifestyle and increased smartphone penetration, the Mobile-App’s will take precedence over web& human-touch. And with smart functionalities like alerts, reviews, notifications, advisory chat & many more new-age features, usage will only multiply. For instance, chat-bots will supplement human-touch for mundane tasks.

3) What are the benefits of investing through the app as against on the web?

None. Investing (execution – buy/sell) thru Mobile-App is a fad or just a marketing gimmick. One needs to understand, investing is unlike buying a smartphone thru e-commerce sites, or even need based financial products, like insurance (term/car) or loans.

Mobile-App complements (or adds value) to the investment account, thru the value-adds like funds tracking, alerts, notifications, advisory chat, reviews etc. Also investing in Mutual funds (buy or even sell) is a one-off process, which is like once (or few times) in a year. Therefore, execution services thru Mobile-App is just not an attraction, it’s one of the features. (more…)

August 8, 2018 FAQ, , , , 0 Read more >

Mid-cap & Small-cap downfall – What do I do now?

midcap downfall

Mid-cap & Small-cap stocks (& mutual funds) are witnessing a major correction since budget in Jan-18. One of the reason is the SEBI’s new guideline on stock categorization, resulting in Mutual funds correcting & realigning based on new guideline.

On the other hand, NIFTY is close to an all-time high now, but what one needs to understand is that, historically we have witnessed these scenarios again and again, i.e.a surge in the market over a period of years, after a massive plunge.

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July 24, 2018 Mutual Funds, , , , , 0 Read more >

Can You Analyze My Mutual Fund Portfolio? Is it Right Time to Opt for Large-cap Funds for 3-4 Years?

What should I do when market is down
These are questions we receive daily, thru various mediums (like Quora). Is this right time to invest in Mutual funds? Which Mutual funds are best? What is the correct time frame to invest in Mutual Funds? and many more…
So today I am sharing summary of the answers I have already posted on Quora.
It’s great to see that you are clear on your investment objective. But what is not logical, is the fact that; you want “Advisory Services”, which is free of cost, and that too, thru an open forum like Quora. That’s the biggest mistake you are undertaking, for your savings.
First, Direct plans are only meant for people, who can do independent research on their own, i.e. don’t need any guidance or help whatsoever, whereas you are seeking help.

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July 19, 2018 Mutual Funds, , , , , 0 Read more >

My 1st Home – When & How do I plan?

Buying House-How to plan

Amit and Neha are a perfect love story. They met in a college and it was love at first sight. The college years went by dreaming about their life together, getting married and having their dream home. They used to spend hours imagining how they would decorate their sweet home. After completing their studies and starting their careers, they decided to take the plunge and get married. As their parents happily agreed, the next step was to own a dream home. But they realised that having their dream home was not easy. All these years they dreamed about house but never did the homework of buying a house. They consulted a financial planner who guided them about buying a new home.

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July 16, 2018 Property Planning & Loan, 0 Read more >

My MAIL-box is cluttered with Mutual fund mails – What do I do?

cluttered-inbox

Mailbox once a boon for instant communication has become a pain today. Due to lots of promotional and unwanted mails, it becomes difficult to find the relevant mails. As I have invested in mutual funds, it becomes necessary to see these mails. But nowadays the mailbox is flooded with so many mails from the mutual funds that it has become time consuming. Recently SEBI introduced standardisation of various schemes so that investor can understand them. All mutual funds are supposed to communicate the change in fund to investors. There has been a surge in mails mutual fund due to this reason. Another change has been the computation of Expense ratio. With so many mails and technical explanations, common investor is bound to be confused. What is one to do?

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July 9, 2018 Financial Planning, , , 0 Read more >

My SIP is showing a lower return? What to do?

My SIP is showing a lower return? What to do?

India is going thru one of the most uncertain times; as national elections are due in a year’s time to decide on current incumbent or the new stakeholders, US trade war has intensified with Trumps unrelenting signature, Crude surge is unstoppable with OPEC targeting USD 100 per barrel, and many more related events.

All these events are resulting into stock markets behaving badly. This is where one gets to see a difference between the Matured & Panic state of mind.

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July 4, 2018 Mutual Funds, , , , 0 Read more >

Sabbatical – 1 year freedom from hectic work-life; but how do I plan my finances?

are you prepared for Sabbatical

Exhausted and tired from long day at office and travel, Amit Kumar went to sleep wondering if this is life that he will live all through. He dreamt of his childhood days and all that he could enjoy doing it. He remembered how he was good at telling jokes and doing performances in school and village programs. His wild imagination saw him doing what he loved and making name for himself. Though he earned decent enough he was happy doing it. He liked living in serene countryside in the beauty and solitude of nature. But suddenly his dream was broken to reality as his wife woke him for sleeping late. Fortunately, it was week-end and he kept wondering if he could live his dreams.

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June 30, 2018 Financial Planning, , , 0 Read more >

Mutual Funds = 2-minute Maggi Noddle

Is mutual funds selection as easy as instant noodles?

Sounds exciting! This is the story of Mutual funds today.

We all are looking at Mutual Funds like a 2-minute Maggi noddle. Maggi is promoted as an instant noddle, i.e. it can be cooked in flat 2 minutes, without any hassle & help, compared to Chinese noodles, which requires time & effort.

Mutual Funds on a similar note, are projected as the best investment avenue, where one can easily shortlist funds (with diverse options), and execution (buy) takes not more than 10 minutes effort (as claimed by many).

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June 25, 2018 Mutual Funds, , 0 Read more >