On this version of the reader story, “Right here we’re once more with our fifth yearly audit. Should you missed the sooner ones, you may learn our earlier audits on freefincal under. An enormous thanks, Pattu sir, freefincal group and AIFW group on Fb, which has been the fixed supply of steering.”
A really temporary background: we obtained married in 2020, simply earlier than the pandemic. I’m Arka, at the moment 38, and I work in IT Consulting. Rupali is in Tax Consulting. We began severe monetary planning solely post-marriage in 2020 — a late begin, however we’re making up for it.
Our earlier audits
- How a younger couple is making an attempt to steadiness travelling and investing
- How a younger couple tries to steadiness their private and monetary aspirations
- How a pair reached their desired asset allocation after beginning late
- How a pair navigate their funds by means of journey, life and long-term plans
Opinions expressed in reader tales don’t essentially characterize the views of freefincal or its editors. We should respect a number of options to the cash administration puzzle and empathise with numerous views. Articles are sometimes not checked for grammar until it’s essential to convey the precise that means and protect the tone and feelings of the writers.
If you want to contribute to the DIY group on this method, ship your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. You may publish them anonymously if you want.
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FY 2025-26 has been a 12 months of contrasts. Earnings grew, financial savings self-discipline remained robust, and we continued constructing towards the home purpose — however the fairness markets delivered a pointy actuality examine. Additionally, our retirement corpus shrank for the very first time since we began monitoring.
Extra on that under.
Fundamentals – as of March 2026
Emergency Fund
We proceed to keep up roughly 4 months of necessary bills (within the state of affairs the place each of us cease incomes) as an emergency fund, held completely in financial savings accounts and stuck deposits. This fund isn’t touched for another goal.
Well being Insurance coverage
- 10L base + 50L Tremendous High-Up (Self & Spouse) — taken independently, exterior workplace cowl
- 10L base + 15L Tremendous High-Up (Dad and mom – either side individually)
All insurance policies are maintained exterior employer medical health insurance, guaranteeing continuity no matter job adjustments.
Time period Insurance coverage
- 10 years of present annual earnings (separate insurance policies for each)
Earnings Distribution
Beneath is our month-to-month earnings cut up throughout totally different buckets — expressed as a proportion of mixed earnings, together with PF – and the way it has developed through the years.
| Bucket | Mar 2022 | Mar 2023 | Mar 2024 | Mar 2025 | Mar 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Training / Residence Mortgage EMI | 13.65% | 11.50% | 0% | 0% | 21.8% |
| Automotive Mortgage EMI & Upkeep | 4.00% | 3.30% | 2.84% | 2.3% | 1.8% |
| Different EMIs | 2.50% | 1.10% | 1.25% | 1.0% | 0.8% |
| Household Commitments | 8.50% | 9.00% | 7.70% | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Private Month-to-month Bills | 21.60% | 18.70% | 17.62% | 16.2% | 13.4 |
| Insurance coverage Premium | 3.28% | 2.80% | 2.39% | 3.8% | 3.3% |
| Investments | 32.00% | 35.20% | 50.18% | 50.75% | 43.4% |
| Journey | 14.50% | 15.50% | 14.93% | 14.0% | 6% |
| Financial savings: Medical Bills | 0.00% | 2.90% | 3.00% | 3.6% | 3% |
Key Observations for 2025-26
- Journey allocation dropped sharply from 14% to six %. This was intentional — we consciously dialled again discretionary journey as we focus aggressively on compensating for the dip in funding because of the home buy purpose
- Investments dropped by 7% in comparison with final 12 months. A major share of earnings is being channelled into the home downpayment/EMI
- Private month-to-month bills continued their regular decline -largely pushed by earnings development somewhat than way of life cuts, as our day-to-day life has stayed largely the identical.
- Household commitments eased barely (8.5% → 6.5%) at the same time as we proceed supporting each households, together with repairs of the native house at Kolkata.
- Insurance coverage premiums held regular, overlaying complete medical and time period insurance coverage for self, spouse, and oldsters throughout each households
- Automotive Mortgage is meant to recover from within the coming couple of months – which can then be used for investments
- Sustaining a separate medical fund which helps preventive exams, physician visits and earmarked for any undesirable occasions
Targets — Standing Replace
1. Retirement
Our retirement purpose stays focusing on monetary independence, with a corpus goal of 40 years of post-retirement bills. Retirement is nominally 17 years away (mid-50s), however we intention to succeed in FI earlier if attainable.
That is the primary 12 months our retirement corpus has declined. Two major causes
- Deliberate redemptions from the fairness portfolio to speed up the home downpayment fund, and
- The broader Indian fairness market correction, which weighed on unredeemed fairness values. The fairness share of the corpus fell from 65.7% to 45.1% over the 12 months.
By way of years of retirement bills coated, the corpus represents roughly 4.8 years — barely decrease than final 12 months’s ~5.5 years — partly due to the decreased corpus and partly due to an upward revision to our retirement expense estimates.
Whereas this momentary dip is deliberate and defined, it’s a helpful reminder to remain disciplined on retirement contributions going ahead.
2. Home Buy
This remained our most vital purpose final 12 months. We now have now locked within the buy, and EMIs have began. We needed to promote some fairness investments and stopped recent investments for a couple of months for it – we now have clear visibility going ahead. It was a giant resolution, and having a monetary planner (fee-only), proved to be the perfect resolution we made final 12 months
Investments
Emergency Fund
100% in financial savings accounts and stuck deposits. No change from earlier years.
Retirement Portfolio — Asset Allocation
Probably the most notable shift this 12 months is in asset allocation. We moved from 65.7% fairness in March 2025 to 45.1% fairness in March 2026 — probably the most important reallocation since we began investing. This was pushed by (a) redemptions of fairness mutual funds to fund the home downpayment, and (b) continued PF/VPF contributions rising the debt aspect organically. Debt now kinds 54.9% of the retirement corpus.
We now have additionally initiated a small liquid debt MF place (SBI Liquid) this 12 months as a short-term parking automobile. We plan to rebalance again towards 60-65% fairness publish the home buy.
| Element | % of Corpus | Class |
|---|---|---|
| PF + VPF | 49.5% | Debt |
| PPF | 4.5% | Debt |
| Debt MF (SBI Liquid) | 0.9% | Debt |
| Fairness Mutual Funds | 37.5% | Fairness |
| Direct Shares | 7.6% | Fairness |
| Whole Retirement Corpus | 100% | Debt 54.9% | Fairness 45.1% |
Mutual Fund Portfolio
The desk under exhibits the allocation of every fund throughout the fairness MF portfolio (as % of whole fairness MF present worth) together with the general XIRR from inception.
| Fund | % of Fairness MF | XIRR | Investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motilal Oswal S&P 500 | 22.1% | 19.00% | Rupali |
| Parag Parikh Flexi Cap | 26.4% | 16.70% | Rupali |
| UTI Nifty Subsequent 50 | 25.8% | 12.97% | Arka |
| ICICI Pru Nifty 50 | 20.9% | 2.00% | Arka |
| IndMoney Vanguard VOO | 4.8% | 11.80% | Arka |
| Whole — Fairness MF (CAGR) | 100% | 12.93% | Mixed |
| Debt MF — SBI Liquid | — | 6.11% | Rupali |
Spouse’s Worldwide-oriented funds — Motilal Oswal S&P 500 (19.00% XIRR) and Parag Parikh Flexi Cap (16.70% XIRR) — proceed to outperform. These benefited from greenback appreciation and comparatively resilient US/international fairness efficiency at the same time as Indian markets corrected. Collectively, they represent ~48.5% of the fairness MF e book.
Arka’s India-focused portfolio (UTI Nifty Subsequent 50, ICICI Nifty 50) bore the brunt of the home market selloff. The UTI NN50 nonetheless holds a wholesome 12.97% XIRR given the longer holding interval. The ICICI Nifty 50 XIRR of two% displays comparatively latest SIPs that obtained hit by the correction — anticipated to get well over time.
General mixed fairness MF CAGR stands at 12.93% — a satisfying quantity given the market backdrop.
Direct Fairness Portfolio
The desk under exhibits every inventory’s weight throughout the direct fairness portfolio, together with absolute return and CAGR. Recent investments on this had been stopped since final 12 months after discussing with our monetary planner. Solely dividends are reinvested, and a small alternative fund was used (which has been put aside for a couple of years now).
| Inventory | Wt. in Portfolio | Abs. Return | CAGR | Path |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HUL | 8.8% | -12.10% | -3.62% | ▼ |
| ITC | 8.1% | +17.76% | +4.78% | ▲ |
| Infosys | 11.7% | -12.67% | -3.80% | ▼ |
| Bajaj Finance | 12.4% | +38.56% | +9.77% | ▲ |
| HDFC Financial institution | 10.7% | +8.37% | +2.32% | ▲ |
| Asian Paints | 8.0% | -21.39% | -6.64% | ▼ |
| Deepak Nitrite | 7.1% | -19.97% | -6.17% | ▼ |
| TCS | 7.4% | -30.94% | -10.04% | ▼ |
| Pidilite | 7.8% | -1.54% | -0.44% | ▼ |
| Fantastic Organics | 7.8% | -4.63% | -1.35% | ▼ |
| Titan | 10.3% | +23.23% | +6.15% | ▲ |
| Portfolio Whole | 100% | -3.14% | — | ▼ |
The long-term mandate for direct fairness stays dividend earnings and capital appreciation. We’re not seeking to exit based mostly on short-term efficiency, as the general weight of this part stays lower than 10% of your complete portfolio
The Retirement Corpus Journey
The desk under exhibits how our retirement portfolio has developed through the years — when it comes to allocation combine and year-on-year development (or decline). All figures are in proportion phrases.
| Interval | Debt % | Fairness MF % | Shares % | Whole Fairness % | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2021 | 69.3% | 22.9% | 7.8% | 30.7% | — |
| Mar 2022 | 55.5% | 34.2% | 10.3% | 44.5% | +95.5% |
| Mar 2023 | 44.4% | 43.5% | 12.1% | 55.6% | +67.9% |
| Mar 2024 | 34.8% | 53.1% | 12.1% | 65.2% | +79.5% |
| Mar 2025 | 34.3% | 53.4% | 12.3% | 65.7% | +33.3% |
| Mar 2026 | 54.9% | 37.5% | 7.6% | 45.1% | -19.0% |
That is the primary 12 months the corpus has moved backwards. The fairness market correction added to the decline. The online wealth place hasn’t essentially deteriorated – property have moved to a special bucket (if we contemplate the home) – however the retirement corpus in isolation did shrink by about 19%.
We intend to renew aggressive fairness accumulation and rebalance again towards the 60-65% fairness vary.
Plan for 2026-27
- Resume full retirement SIP ranges and start rebalancing fairness allocation again towards 60-65% of the retirement corpus.
- Maintain the non-financial targets in focus too — common train, consuming proper, and sufficient sleep
- With a rise in earnings and with any further payout, pulling again the journey fund to its previous stage. Journey is one in every of our main expense buckets, as each of us wish to journey, so we maintain a big quantity to fulfil our journey goals. To compensate for that, we minimise discretionary spending, reminiscent of procuring and consuming out, all year long and deal with this journey corpus as our prolonged emergency bucket. We doc our travels on our web site and YouTube. Would adore it when you have a glance.
We need to thank Pattu sir and the AIFW Fb group as soon as once more. The standard of dialogue in that group — even for a quiet observer like me — is unmatched. The yearly audit custom you all have constructed is one thing I genuinely look ahead to. Right here’s to persevering with it for a lot of extra years.
Reader tales revealed earlier:
As common readers might know, we publish a private monetary audit every December – that is the 2024 version: Portfolio Audit 2024: The Annual Evaluation of My Purpose-Based mostly Investments. We requested common readers to share how they evaluation their investments and monitor monetary targets.
- First audit: How Suhas tracks his MF investments and critiques monetary targets.
- Second audit: How Avadhoot Joshi evaluates his funding portfolio.
- Third audit: How a single mother is on monitor to monetary freedom
- Fourth audit: How Gowtham began goal-based investing & took management of his cash
- Fifth audit: Why my monetary independence & early retirement plans had been postponed by 4 years
- Sixth audit: How Abhisek funded his marriage & is on monitor to monetary freedom.
- Seventh audit: How Rohit’s early struggles outlined his funding journey
- Eighth audit: Why my investments are nonetheless on monitor regardless of job loss and decrease earnings.
- Ninth audit: How a retirement planning calculation scared me to take motion
- Tenth audit: I made a number of funding errors, however I’ve turned my life round.
- Eleventh audit: My web price doubled within the final monetary 12 months, because of affected person investing!
- Twelfth audit: My monetary journey: from novice to goal-based investor.
- Thirteenth audit: My journey: from a unfavorable web price to goal-based investing.
- Fourteenth audit: From Mounted Deposits to Purpose-based investing in MFs.
- Fifteenth audit: My 10-year monetary journey – errors made and classes learnt.
- Sixteenth audit (half 1): How I achieved monetary independence with out mutual funds or shares.
- Sixteenth audit (half 2): Classes from my monetary independence journey and future funding plans.
- Seventeenth audit: How I plan to attain monetary independence and transfer to my native place
- Eighteenth audit: I used the present bull run to scale back my mutual funds from 14 to 4!
- Nineteenth audit: How a conservative investor created his monetary plan
- Twentieth audit: I plan to attain monetary independence by 46; that is my grasp plan
- Twenty-first audit: I’ve made many funding errors however am on target to monetary independence by 45.
- Twenty-second audit: I felt nugatory six years in the past however have achieved monetary stability at present
- Twenty-third audit: My monetary journey was directionless till age 40: that is how I made up for misplaced time
- Twenty-fourth audit: Why I elevated fairness MF investments by 275% and decreased PPF contributions.
- Twenty-fifth audit: How I monitor monetary targets with out worrying about returns
- Twenty-sixth audit: I’m 24 and began investing 1Y in the past, however what am I investing for?
- Twenty-seventh audit: How we plan to attain a retirement corpus 50 instances our annual bills.
- Twenty-eighth audit: I believed fairness investing was a big gamble, however now I intention to carry 60% fairness for retirement
- Twenty-ninth audit: My journey: From 5 lakhs in debt to constructing a corpus price six years in retirement
- Thirtieth audit: My funding journey: From random purchases to a goal-based portfolio
- Thirty-first audit: My funding journey: from product-driven to process-driven
- Thirty-second audit: How a younger couple is making an attempt to steadiness travelling and investing
- Thirty-third audit: My journey: From Rs. 30 financial institution steadiness to monetary independence
- Thirty-fourth audit: Our journey: From scratch to a web price of 18 instances annual bills.
- Thirty-fifth audit: From a web price of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing
- Thirty-sixth audit: How I retired from company bondage at 46, two years in the past!
- Thirty-seventh audit: How I learnt to maintain it easy and construct a web price 19 instances my annual bills
- Thirty-eighth audit: How Abhineeth plans to attain monetary independence and construct a home.
- Thirty-ninth audit: How Sahil plans to attain monetary independence by environment friendly monitoring
- Fortieth audit: My Journey to a Ten Crore Portfolio
- Forty-first audit: Burdened with debt for a number of years, I’m now aggressively investing in fairness
- Forty-second audit: From Engineer to Librarian after Monetary Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE)
- Forty-third audit: I misplaced six months’ earnings in F&O and ditched it for systematic investing
- Forty-fourth audit: My retirement plan to deal with the cruel realities of the IT trade
- Forty-fifth audit: My funding journey: errors, 10 years of MF investing and restoration
- Forty-sixth audit: My MF portfolio is price six crores regardless of a number of errors
- Forty-seventh audit: Saving, Investing, and Working Marathons: My 25-year Journey to Monetary Independence
- Forty-eighth audit: By no means Too Late to Begin: How I Grew to become Financially Savvy at 40
- Forty-ninth audit: My Funding Journey to a web price 29 instances my annual bills
- Fiftieth audit: How I audit my portfolio with out monitoring returns
- Fifty-first audit: Monetary Classes Discovered Throughout and After a PhD
- Fifty-second audit: Funding & Monetary journey of a 23 12 months previous
- Fifty-third audit: The system I take advantage of to attract earnings and spend after retirement securely
- Fifty-fourth audit: From Begin-Up Worker to Millionaire: A Success Story of Resilience and Sensible Investing
- Fifty-fifth audit: 25-Yr-Outdated Software program Engineer’s Funding Journey: From Shares to Mutual Funds and Past
- Fifty-sixth audit: Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
- Fifty-seventh audit: Navigating Market Volatility: How an IT Skilled Reworked His Funding Strategy for Retirement
- Fifty-eighth audit: How Sahil achieved a 10X retirement corpus by environment friendly portfolio monitoring
- Fifty-ninth audit: How I achieved monetary freedom by 45 with out onsite assignments or ESOPs
- Sixtieth audit: Constructing Wealth on a Authorities Wage: Classes Discovered
- Sixty-first audit: Minimalism, Index Funds, and Staying Calm: My Investing Journey at 28
- Sixty-second audit: Constructing Wealth and Breaking Boundaries: How Swati Took Management of Her Monetary Future
- Sixty-third audit: My monetary journey: How I missed the Compounding Bus!
- Sixty-fourth audit: My MF funding journey: From thematic funds to a 3-fund portfolio
- Sixty-fifth audit: From Debt to ₹1 Crore Liquid Internet Value: My Journey of Monetary Consciousness.
These revealed audits have had a compounding impact on readers. If you want to contribute to the DIY group on this method, ship your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. You can even publish them anonymously.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman (PhD) is the founder, managing editor and first creator of freefincal. He’s an affiliate professor on the Indian Institute of Expertise, Madras. He has over 13 years of expertise publishing information evaluation, analysis and monetary product improvement. Join with him by way of Twitter(X), LinkedIn, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You will be wealthy too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY traders. (2) Gamechanger for younger earners. (3) Chinchu Will get a Superpower! for teenagers. He has additionally written seven different free e-books on numerous cash administration matters. He’s a patron and co-founder of “Price-only India,” an organisation selling unbiased, commission-free, AUM-independent funding recommendation.
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Most investor issues will be traced to a scarcity of knowledgeable decision-making. We made dangerous selections and cash errors once we began incomes and spent years undoing these errors. Why ought to our kids undergo the identical ache? What is that this e book about? As mother and father, what would it not be if we needed to groom one capacity in our kids that’s key not solely to cash administration and investing however to any side of life? My reply: Sound Determination Making. So, on this e book, we meet Chinchu, who’s about to show 10. The narrative revolves round what he needs for his birthday and the way his mother and father plan for it, in addition to instructing him a number of key concepts of decision-making and cash administration. What readers say!
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