The state of being Financially Independent Retired Early (FIRE) is something that individuals the world over aspire towards. And it is a perfectly reasonable aspiration to have. But most people aspiring to attain FIRE today are doing so with a number of misconceptions about the concept. This invariably leads to individuals approaching the goal the wrong way. This invariably leads to people feeling unfulfilled even after attaining FIRE. Therefore I will be addressing some of t

Traditional asset allocation principles typically recommend having a balanced allocation to equity and debt prior to retirement. The focus then shifts to having an outsized allocation to debt post retirement. But the 2025 edition of a 2023 American research paper titled Beyond The Status Quo : A Critical Assessment Of Lifecycle Investment Advice advocates a 100% equity portfolio for retirement. It is recommended for both the accumulation and distribution phases in retirement.

There are a variety of mistakes that we can make when managing our money. Most of them are easily discernable. Their consequences are usually easily apparent. But there are some mistakes that are hard to notice and guard against. And it usually ends up being too late to change course by the time we wake up to them. But the silver lining is that it is largely or entirely in our control to not commit them. Therefore today I am going to talk about such mistakes and how we can ge

Making decisions related to money is at the heart of financial planning. It is aimed at making decisions that facilitate and optimise lasting satisfaction. It is an exercise that is meant to be centred around rationality. But it is carried out by human beings. And we are predominantly emotional by nature. Psychology and behaviour therefore pervasively impact money decisions and financial planning. These factors give rise to three major behavioural blind spots. They inhibit ou

The first sentence of the title of this article may seem scary or discouraging. But the harsh truth is that this is a fact. And there are a number of reasons why this is so. But the silver lining is that most of these reasons are tied to our general approach to retirement planning. So it is very much in our hands to tackle this challenge. Therefore in today's article I will be highlighting the major reasons why a comfortable retirement would be a challenge for most individual

A few months ago I wrote an article titled Responsible (And Therefore Unpopular) Answers To Frequently Asked Questions From Clients. It essentially offered my answers to some of the most common queries I receive from my clients. But my answers are always responsible and pragmatic. They are therefore typically unpopular with most clients. The article has since received a reasonably good response. I am therefore doing a similar article today. I will be offering responsible answ

A few years ago I wrote an article on this blog titled The Financial Planner's Role In Retirement Planning. It essentially laid out the role that financial planners play when helping individuals plan for retirement. Most of what I said in that article continues to remain true. But there have also been a number of pervasive changes in the ground realities within which today's individuals plan for retirement. Therefore it would only be fair to throw light on those changes. And

Retirement planning is the one financial goal that has the greatest number of unknowns attached to it. We have no way of knowing how long we will live, how much we would spend, what inflation would look like, the kind of return our portfolios would generate and what our income streams would look like post retirement. This is just the tip of the iceberg. And yet planning for retirement is the one goal that most of us tend to put off for the future. This is mostly true regardle

Leaving an inheritance for our loved ones is a common aspiration for most of us. But any inheritance brings with it a unique set of challenges. They crop up at every stage of creating, handing down and handling an inheritance. But we seldom recognise these challenges. As a result, most inheritances or any other form of generational wealth do not last long. Therefore it is important for us to recognise these challenges are. We also need to know how to tackle them. Only then ca

Most of us today realise the importance of creating wealth and passing it on effectively. But if there is one area where most of us are still severely lacking, it is that of talking to our families about our wealth openly. And this is even more true in the Indian context, where money management is almost always handled by a single member in the household. In most cases, our lawyers, chartered accountants and financial planners would know more about our wealth than our familie

Over the course of our financial journeys there are a number of aspects that are important. How prudently we save, invest, handle and behave around our finances are all aspects that are important. But there is one aspect that is more important than the others. And it is one that is often overlooked. It is the awareness to realise how much money is enough given our needs and circumstances. We humans are mostly wired to be part of a lifelong rat race. It could be one of having

Within the universe of debt mutual funds there are a variety of options available to investors. The nature and behaviour of each category of debt funds is heavily dependent on the tenure of individual securities held within the fund. Variants of debt funds such as liquid funds, ultra short term bond funds, corporate bond funds and gilt funds are well known to investors. But there is another category of debt funds which are relatively lesser known and therefore not clearly und

With regard to advice on money matters, there are two terms that are widely used. These are financial advice and investment advice. They are used liberally and often interchangeably. This creates the perception that financial advice and investment advice are the same. But there is a significant difference between the two. Understanding the essential differences between these two terms is vital. It would help us understand what kind of advice we need. It would help us identif

We all have our own approach to making financial decisions. Our methods are born out of our perceptions and experiences. So they are almost always likely not be well rounded and holistic. Most of our money decisions are likely to focus heavily on some aspects of each decision. Other aspects are likely to be ignored. Naturally, most of our financial decisions would lack complete effectiveness. So today I am going to talk about the process we usually follow when making decisi

Most investors typically aim to generate alpha on their portfolios. They usually strive to save every possible rupee in taxes. And they tend to focus most of their attention on the rate of returns their portfolios generate. But investors who are genuinely mature typically tend to view these aspects differently. This is what is likely to help them stand out against most other investors around them. I will therefore throw light on these views in today's post. The Mature View On

Managing money is one of the most important jobs for any couple. In India most households have traditionally been single income households. The husband was typically the one who would earn money for the household. And the wife was simply expected to manage the household with whatever money she was given by the husband. But times have changed today. Most households today are double income households, where both spouses work and earn. It is also a lot more common to see partner

When we plan our finances we do a lot of groundwork to supplement our efforts. But there is still one essential aspect of financial planning that we ignore. I'm talking about the preparation and maintenance of relevant documents pertaining to our finances. Proper financial documentation seems unimportant at first glance. But the absence of the right financial documents could have serious negative implications. A lack of sound financial documentation could bring the ownership

When planning for retirement, we may make certain unfounded assumptions. These may seem logical in theory. But in practice they are often falsified. Planning our retirement based on such assumptions can irreversibly derail our chances at a comfortable retirement. Therefore today I am going to look at each of these assumptions in detail. I will delve into the reasons why we make them. I will also show why each of them are poorly founded. My Expenses Will Drastically Reduce Pos

Some questions in portfolio management are easier to answer than others. It is simple enough for anyone to calculate how much money we have made or lost on their portfolios. Calculating the portfolio's annualised return would also not be a challenge. But ask someone how diversified their portfolio is, and they would struggle for an intelligent answer. Most investors equate diversification to the number of asset classes in their portfolios. Greater the number of asset classes,

A risk profiling exercise can offer a number of insights into the investment behaviour of an individual. Their inherent personalities can also do the same. The Bailard, Biehl and Kaiser (BB&K) investor personality model is quite helpful in this regard. And in today's blog post I'm going to focus on the various aspects of the BB&K model. I'm going to list out the various types of investor personalities and the peculiar nuances of each group of investors. I will end by showing