Blog
What the numbers said — fund returns and costs, foreign and domestic flows, index valuations, gold and silver — plus tax, retirement and personal-finance basics, written from the same data the rest of this site shows, with the date on every figure.
How much term insurance cover do you actually need?
02 Oct 2026
A needs-based method for sizing term cover in rupees, compared with the 10-15x income rule, with a worked example and what to subtract.
Personal Finance
How much to save for retirement at every age in India
02 Oct 2026
What a retirement target means in rupees, and how the monthly SIP needed jumps from about ₹34,000 at 25 to ₹1.6 lakh at 40 for the same goal.
RetirementHow to choose a debt fund: a seven-point checklist
02 Oct 2026
Match the category to your holding period, then check duration, credit quality, yield, cost, size and tax. A checklist for picking a debt mutual fund in India.
Debt & Hybrid Funds
How to invest ₹1 lakh: a plan by time horizon
02 Oct 2026
Where to put ₹1 lakh depends on when you need it. Three checks before investing, then options for under a year, one to three years, and five years or more.
Personal FinanceInvesting Strategy
Mutual fund factsheets: what normal looks like in 2026
02 Oct 2026
A factsheet's numbers only mean something next to the fund's peers. Here is what each section shows, with the normal range for flexi-cap funds in 2026.
Investing StrategyCosts & FeesPortfolio Holdings
How to transfer your EPF when you change jobs
02 Oct 2026
Move your provident fund online with Form 13 instead of withdrawing it. The steps, the common snags, and why withdrawing early costs more than it looks.
Retirement
HUF: how a joint family can save tax
02 Oct 2026
A Hindu Undivided Family is a separate taxpayer with its own slabs and deductions. How it saves tax, where its money must come from, and what it costs to undo.
TaxPersonal FinanceA six-month plan to improve your credit score
02 Oct 2026
What can and cannot change in six months: clean up report errors, cut card utilisation, stop new applications. A month-by-month plan with a rupee example.
Personal Finance
Index fund or ETF: which one should you buy?
02 Oct 2026
Same index, two wrappers. Demat, brokerage, tracking error, SIPs and liquidity compared, with the cost of buying an ETF every month worked out.
Investing Strategy
IPO basics for retail investors in India
02 Oct 2026
How an IPO works: price band, lots, the ₹2 lakh retail limit, lottery allotment, T+3 listing and a pre-bid checklist, with a worked lot example.
Investing Strategy
Just retired? A financial checklist for year one
02 Oct 2026
Year one of retirement sets up the next thirty. A month-by-month checklist: park the lump sum, build an income floor, fix tax and insurance, then invest.
RetirementPersonal FinanceLarge & mid-cap funds: a flat year and a wide spread
02 Oct 2026
The median large & mid-cap fund made 0.91% in the year to 1 October 2026; 19 of 33 gained. Three, five and ten-year returns, best, worst and falls.
Fund ReturnsLarge-cap funds: 30 of 33 lost money in the year
02 Oct 2026
Thirty of 33 large-cap funds fell in the year to 1 October 2026; the median lost 4.71%. Their 3, 5 and 10-year returns, with the best and worst funds.
Fund ReturnsLarge, mid or small cap: where should the next rupee go?
02 Oct 2026
Small-cap funds led on 1, 5 and 10 years to 1 October 2026, with the deepest falls. Large caps trade below their usual P/E. How to weigh the three.
Investing StrategyFund ReturnsMarket Valuations
Lean FIRE and Barista FIRE in India, with numbers
02 Oct 2026
What Lean and Barista FIRE need in rupees, how long a corpus lasts at 25x, 30x and 35x spending, and the Indian catches: NPS lock-in, health cover, inflation.
RetirementInvesting Strategy
Beyond 80C: tax deductions salaried people miss
02 Oct 2026
80C is full for most salaried people before they invest a rupee. The smaller deductions that still cut tax in FY 2026-27, and which survive the new regime.
TaxPersonal Finance
Lifestyle inflation: why high earners stay broke
02 Oct 2026
Every raise that turns into spending is a SIP you never started. What ₹10,000 a month did in flexi-cap funds over ten years, and how to keep raises.
Personal FinanceInvesting Strategy
The low NAV myth: why a ₹15 fund isn't cheaper than ₹500
02 Oct 2026
NAV is a unit price, not a bargain tag. Why two funds have different NAVs, what a payout does to NAV, and what to look at instead of the number.
Investing StrategyMulti-cap funds: young category, wide gaps, October 2026
02 Oct 2026
The median multi-cap fund returned 4.28% over the year to 1 October 2026 and 13.28% a year over three. Best and worst funds, spread and falls.
Fund ReturnsFund overlap: are you diversifying or doubling down?
02 Oct 2026
Two large-cap funds shared a median 50.3% of their portfolios on 31 August 2026; a large-cap and a small-cap fund just 3.0%. Overlap by category pair.
Investing StrategyPortfolio Holdings