AVFINPAL- Your Financial Pal

When building an investment portfolio, the most feasible way is to put the money in various assets to spread the risk and ensure higher returns ( Refer: all-weather portfolio ). One such popular investment in India is real estate due to its hedge against inflation and significant capital appreciation.  However, it also has its own challenges – no geographical diversification, considerable investment outflow, and limited liquidity. (will be discussed further). It is a common misconception that purchasing a property directly is the easiest way to invest in a real estate asset. Doing so can yield desirable total returns and excellent tax benefits; however, not all real estate investors have the time, expertise, or resources needed for a direct purchase investment.  REITs offer an alternative that allows investors to achieve the benefits of real estate ownership but without the hassle of finding, purchasing, and managing a property. But there are reasons why not to invest in REITs...

Hello Folks, last week I had an interesting conversation with one of my classmates and what a pleasant moment it was to meet one of my close buddies after almost half a decade. Well, the agenda was to understand his current affairs of finance but that became secondary as started to dwell in memory lane. Well, the agenda of this blog isn't to share my catchup meetings but the thought that was provoked after we discussed his finances.  Well as he was about the leave, he greeted me by saying "Wish someone told me about it this simply before" and I realized this wasn't the first time I had heard this from someone seeking help with their finances.  So here I am, trying to initiate a new thread of post, where I will be looking to lay down and explain the nuances of investing and personal finance most crisply and easily for you all. In this post, we will be looking at the basic road map that will help you understand the basic framework of wealth management. I. Understanding ...

  In the dynamic world of finance, creating an all-weather investment portfolio is like constructing a sturdy shelter that can withstand various economic climates. Whether the market is sunny, rainy, or stormy, a well-diversified portfolio can help protect your investments and provide a stable foundation for long-term growth. Indian stock market benchmarks the Nifty 50 and the Sensex fell over 1 percent each. The pandits are debating whether this is led by the cautious message floated by SEBI for the mid and small cap (corrected close to 5 percent today) or due to US inflation prints seeing a mild uptick in February, raising concerns that the US Federal Reserve may postpone rate cuts beyond June and but obvious this is a result of long due value migration from small and mid-caps which are overheated.  Well yes, the indices have corrected and might slide a bit more before they see some sunny days. The agenda today isn't to discuss the market movement or where the market is...

A few months ago, I met a mid-aged man at a family gathering. After having spoken for a while, he confided in me that he would never in his life, waste his money on making investments, even in blue-chip stocks. Trust, me when I say I don't blame him for this notion against the equity investment as indeed equities can be brutal to your financial health if it isn't with proper thought, planning and guidance.  After having a brief discussion with him, I thought to myself that he must definitely be a conservative investor. Cut to a few weeks later when I met approached me for consultation, he very enthusiastically informed me that he had recently experienced a windfall of Rs. 50 Lakh from the sale of a late grandparent’s property.  However, most of that amount had already dwindled down, courtesy of investments in penny stocks, on an exciting holiday to the Maldives and rather surprisingly, on horse race betting. When I commented on the unlikeliness of this occurring the last tim...

The reality of retirement planning isn’t as dramatic as it sounds. It is, in fact, easier if you start early because you never know what befalls in the future. So where do you get started? What could you possibly do effortlessly to save for your post-retirement days and not depend on other family members?  Well, We have talked about retirement planning many times before so in this post, we won't be taking up the details regarding retirement planning. In this article, we are going to be discussing one of the most famous and most ignored retirement planning instruments NPS. Yes, you have read that right I used two contradict words in the last line but apparently, it is true. NPS has become one of the most talked-about and famous investments and retirement tools. Yet a lot of us don't know what it is actually about. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you would be at least able to judge if you took the right decision by investing or ignoring the NPS. But before we start underst...

When I first learned about investing, I thought you could only buy individual company stocks or bank instruments. Subsequently and in an interesting way in my childhood, I was introduced to this new asset class altogether which was paying me a certain amount (higher than bank FDs)  periodically and was much more secured than equities.  Yes, you might have guessed it by now I am talking about "Bonds". Several times during my childhood, my grandparents decided to give me government bonds as part of my birthday present and  I was inquisitive to know more about it but my curiosity was killed by telling me it isn't a thing for kids.  At the time, I definitely didn’t understand what the phrase "face value" or "YTM" or "Cupon" meant or why I couldn’t use these official-looking pieces of paper.  I guess more video games and clothes could be a better option back then.  Cut to few years, as the value of those decades-old bonds has matured, I started re...