To be fair, we have now seen a healthy correction in the market on the back of global as well as domestic concerns. There are also talks about recession in developed nations with even the developing ones not remaining untouched. But one thing is clear, India seems to be a better place (than many others) to remain invested in based on multiple factors.

There is no denying that the last few months have been extremely volatile and full of uncertainties. It has been tough for all investors, both small and large, you and me.

The markets have been falling like anything. Will it stop now that we are close to 15-20% down? Or can they fall more?

No one knows, to be honest. It might fall more if things go south. But remember one thing… Markets always recover. Sooner or later. Sharply or gradually. But they always do move up again.

So if markets have fallen quite a bit, then at least for the long-term investors, it should have become a lot more attractive than it was just a few months back.

Also, the more you can invest during a falling market, the more wealth you will create when things eventually turn around. It is as simple as that. Though easier said than done, it is the truth no doubt.

Be reminded that equity investing (direct or via equity mutual funds) should be done for the long term only. And in the long term, there will always be short phases when the markets will be volatile and give negative returns. This is completely normal. And you should accept it.

Because… if you want to benefit from the UPs later, then you will have to face the DOWNs every now and then. That is a fair deal, I think.

That said, if your goals are long-term and still several years away, then you can go ahead and invest more as markets have fallen now (and maybe, fall more in near future) and you get better investment prices. Or you can stagger your investment surplus going forward and not invest it in one go. That way, you can go gradual and have better peace of mind.

You can even rebalance the existing portfolio a bit if you don’t have a fresh surplus to invest.

Say at the peak of the market (around Nifty 26,373), your Equity:Debt allocation was 70:30 in favour of equity. Now with Nifty hovering around 22,000s, your asset allocation might have come down to 65-35 or near abouts. So go ahead and rebalance it back a bit. If not back to full 70:30, then a bit less if it makes you comfortable. Remember, you will never be able to perfectly time the markets. So do it in phases as that’s more practical for you.

That is about long-term investments. But if your goals are just a few years away, then ideally you shouldn’t be investing in equity funds even if it seems tempting to do so (with the potential to make a quick profit in case there is a rebound).

I know you might not feel great at this time with markets falling, negative news flowing around, and your mutual fund portfolio suffering losses. But this is exactly the time to stick to your financial plan. Also, don’t stop investing for your financial goals. When markets fall, you may feel that they should stop investing fresh money to contain your losses. But that’s exactly what you shouldn’t be doing. Instead of fearing a falling market, view it as an opportunity to invest at lower levels so that your future profits increase. Invest during good as well as bad times.

The post My mutual funds are falling. I am Worried. What should I do now… (April 2026)? appeared first on Stable Investor.

Disc. – This is not investment advice, please. You are smart enough and, so, always act in line with your risk appetite and investment horizons. And if in doubt, please talk to your investment advisor.

The post Uncertainity > Negatives appeared first on Stable Investor.

• PPF interest rates – No Change (remains at 7.10%) – Possible reason – I wrote this a while back. May still be applicable – Why did the PPF rate not increase?
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana rates – No Change (remains at 8.20%)
• Senior Citizen Savings Scheme or SCSS – No Change (remains at 8.20%)
• National Savings Certificate or NSC – No Change (remains at 7.70%)
• Monthly Income Scheme or MIS – No Change (remains at 7.40%)

You can check the historical interest rates for a few of these using the following links – PPF Interest Rate History and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana Interest Rate History

The EPF rates remain at 8.25%.

Note – Since the interest rates of RBI Floating Rate Savings Bonds 2020 (Taxable) are pegged to NSC rates, i.e. the RBI Floating Bond rates are always 0.35% above NSC rates. So with NSC rates at 7.70%, the RBI Floating Rate bond rates will also remain at 8.05% per annum for the period of Jan-Jun 2026. Read more about RBI Floating Rate Bonds interest rates Jan-Jun 2026.

The post PPF 7.1% | SCSS 8.2% | NSC 7.7% | Sukanya 8.2% | No Changes for Apr-Jun 2026 appeared first on Stable Investor.

If the markets have delivered little to nothing over the past two years or so, the first instinct for most investors (and specifically new ones) is to worry, and wonder if something is broken in the markets. But that is not true. Nothing is broken. Markets always move in cycles. If there are good days, then there will be bad days. If there are good years, then there will be bad years. And the very periods which feel most disappointing, i.e. when the returns are flat-to-negative, and when your patience is being tested and is on the brink, are exactly after which the stage is being set for the next upcycle. Whether it happens tomorrow, next week, next month or next year, no one can predict that. But eventually, the pendulum of the market will oscillate to the other side. Every bust lays the groundwork for the next recovery, just as every boom carries within itself the seeds of decline. A market that has gone sideways for 1–2 years is not a market that has stopped working. Rather, it is a market that is quietly doing the most important work: rebalancing the risk-reward equation in favour of the investor. Historically, buying after a period of stagnation or negative returns, dramatically improves the odds of strong future returns. There is data to prove it if you look for it.

You can think of a flat market as a pendulum resting near the centre, or even swinging back toward value. Howard Marks refers to patience as a “time arbitrage”. And that is what you need to show now. Patience. And the willingness to wait longer. The investors who will compound wealth meaningfully over the next decade and get rich will not be the ones who sold during these down years in frustration. They will be those who put their head down, accept these down periods, and keep investing as and when possible throughout this painful period. It is always like that.

And when you think on these lines, then a consolidating/falling market is not a disappointment but precisely the setup that long-term investors should welcome. Act accordingly, please.

The post No-Return, Flat Markets Are Not a Warning. It’s an Invitation. appeared first on Stable Investor.

The post PPF Interest Rate Chart (2003 to 2026 Heat Map) appeared first on Stable Investor.

But here’s the thing. When everyone is scared, and sentiment is at its worst, that is usually when the risk-reward equation becomes hugely favourable for the long-term investors. And that is the maths that long-term investors need to hold onto.

That said, and to be fair, adding money when markets are falling feels deeply uncomfortable, and almost irrational, if not scary. You will always wonder what if markets fall a little more? And if the market falls another 5-10% after you have invested, that pain aggravates enormously, more so if you are already sitting on a 15-20% correction from the top. When you have come to equity markets with expectations of getting better-than-debt and inflation-beating returns, times like the current ones can really be testing. And remember markets don’t do what you want them to do on your demand. But from whatever small experience I have in markets, it pays to stay calm and remain objective.

And it makes sense to believe things like Remember God in Good Times & Equities in Bad Times and also, that Cash + Courage + Crisis makes real Wealth, to keep yourself motivated. Easier said than done, but that is how it is.

So if your goals are long-term and still several years away, then ideally, you should be investing more as markets fall. But if your goals are just a few years away, then ideally you shouldn’t be investing in markets even if it seems tempting (to make a quick profit from a rebound). Don’t be greedy just because others are fearful. Be greedy when others are fearful, and if you don’t need the money for several more years.

Keep pushing

The post Stay Calm. And Remember God in Good Times & Equities in Bad Times. appeared first on Stable Investor.

And while you really cannot control whether you retire in a good (bull) market or a bad (bear) market, it is important to understand how ‘Sequence Of Return Risk’, can derail the retirement of overconfident retirees.

Most people don’t discuss it, or for that matter, know about it. But it is one risk that you should not ignore. More so if you are planning to retire in the next few years.

My views on – Bad Market timing Near Retirement can Derail Corpus Fast & Sequence Risk, were published in a column in Economic Times Wealth (Edition 16-22 March 2026). You can read the same via this link or in the image below:

The post Bad Market timing Near Retirement can Derail Corpus Fast – Economic Times Wealth (16-Mar-2026) appeared first on Stable Investor.

And that is the introduction of a brand new mutual fund category called Life Cycle Funds.

So what exactly are Life Cycle Funds?

In simple terms, these are goal-oriented mutual funds that come with a pre-defined maturity date. Like Life Cycle Fund 2045 or Life Cycle Fund 2055. The year in the name tells you when the fund is designed to “mature.”

These funds follow what is called a glide path strategy. This means:

• When the maturity is far away (say 25-30 years), the fund can maintain high equity exposure, somewhere between 65% to 95%.
• As the maturity date gets closer, the equity allocation is gradually and automatically reduced as per a pre-decided and set schedule (check image below)
• In the final 1-3 years before maturity, equity may be as low as 5-20%, with the bulk shifted to debt (AA+ and above rated instruments).

Apart from equity, these funds can also invest in a mix of other assets like debt, gold ETFs, silver ETFs, InvITs, etc. So, no doubt it’s genuinely multi-asset in nature. The tenure for these funds can range from 5 years to 30 years, in multiples of five years. And each AMC can run a maximum of 6 such funds at any given time. And to discourage people from bailing out early (given these are to serve long-term goal-based investing purposes), SEBI has prescribed graded exit loads. It will be 3% exit load if you redeem in Year 1, then 2% in Year 2, and finally 1% in Year 3.

So, no doubt a very interesting idea.

But this concept isn’t unique or new globally.

It is pretty similar to target-date funds in the US (also called lifecycle funds). In the US, these have been a popular retirement planning vehicle for decades, especially for the 401(k) retirement investors who don’t want to actively manage their own asset allocation. The appeal is simple – you don’t have to do much. You pick a fund based on when you need the money, and the fund does the rebalancing for you. Set it and forget it. So the regulator is essentially trying to bring a version of this same concept now for the Indian investors.

Interestingly, this idea of a glide path-based fund isn’t entirely new, even in the Indian context. NPS (National Pension System) has had its own version of this for years. It’s called the Auto Choice or Life Cycle Fund option within NPS. If you don’t want to actively decide how much to put in equity (Tier-1 E scheme) vs. debt vs. government securities, you can simply opt for the Auto Choice. NPS then automatically reduces your equity allocation as you get older – starting from as high as 75% equity in your younger years and gradually bringing it down to 15% as you approach 60. There are actually three variants of this within NPS – Aggressive, Moderate, and Conservative Life Cycle Funds – depending on how much equity exposure you are comfortable with in the early years.

So in a way, SEBI’s proposed Life Cycle Funds for mutual funds are doing something conceptually very similar to what NPS Auto Choice has been doing quietly for years. The key difference, of course, is that NPS is locked in till retirement (with limited exit options), while mutual fund Life Cycle Funds will offer more flexibility – albeit with exit loads in the initial years to discourage premature exits. So if you’ve already been using NPS Auto Choice, the concept of a glide path won’t be new to you at all. The mutual fund version is just a more flexible (and likely more expensive) cousin of the same idea.

There are definitely a few things I like about the concept –

• First, the discipline angle. One of the biggest problems in Indian investing is that people panic-sell equity during market falls. A glide path structure forces automatic movement to lower-risk assets as the goal nears, without requiring the investor to make any decisions under emotional pressure. That’s actually a big deal.
• Second, the naming convention is smart. Calling it “Life Cycle Fund 2045” or “Life Cycle Fund 2050” makes the maturity year a central feature of the scheme. An investor can immediately identify whether the fund matches their timeline. Compare that to random fund names like “XYZ Dynamic Advantage Growth Fund”, which tells you almost nothing.
• Third, automatic rebalancing means the investor doesn’t have to worry about whether to shift from equity to debt as their goal approaches. For the vast majority of investors who don’t review their portfolios regularly (and that is most people, honestly), this is a meaningful benefit.

Since this is just a But I also have some concerns, if I can call it that:

• While the concept sounds clean on paper, when 20-30 AMCs each launch 5-6 Life Cycle Funds, you will suddenly have 100+ schemes to choose from. The investor then has to figure out – which AMC’s Life Cycle Fund 2045 is better? Which has a better glide path design? Which has lower costs? I am not sure this will be simpler than it sounds.
• Another concern I have is how AMCs will go about it. India has already seen what happens when regulators introduce new categories. The fund houses rush to launch schemes just to grab early AUM. The quality and design of the glide path can vary significantly depending on how seriously each AMC approaches it. SEBI has prescribed a broad framework for the glide path, but individual AMC implementation matters a lot. So not all glide paths will be equal.
• Unlike target-date funds in the US, which are often passive and index-based, the proposed concept of Indian Life Cycle Funds isn’t exactly passive and is rather like active multi-asset funds with a glide path overlay. Which means higher expense ratios are likely. They should have some passive options too.

Should you invest in Life Cycle Funds?

SEBI has just come out with the concept, and AMCs haven’t launched these yet. So the question is a bit premature. But I still like this development. I feel financial innovation is necessary as India evolves and transitions from a developing to a developed economy.

But as always with financial products, the devil is always in the details. Design, cost, and how honestly AMCs implement the glide path will determine whether Life Cycle Funds truly serve the investor’s interest or end up as just another category on the shelf. Let’s wait and watch till then.

The post SEBI Announced New MF Category – Life Cycle Funds appeared first on Stable Investor.

But, is having health insurance enough as you approach retirement? With age, and generally beyond one’s 50s, the once-in-a-few years visit to the doctor and health expenses start becoming a regular and, sadly, recurring part of expenses. And even though most such visits/expenses would not require
hospitalisation (and trigger health insurance claims), they still start costing a lot.

My views on – Why a Medical Contingency Fund/Corpus for retirement medical needs is Important, were published in a column in Economic Times Wealth (Edition 9-15 February 2026). You can read the same via this link or in the image below:

The post Why Everyone Needs a Medical Contingency Fund for Later Decades of Life? – Economic Times Wealth (9-Feb-2026) appeared first on Stable Investor.

As per the new SGB Taxation Rule Change (2026), effective from 1st April 2026 – the Capital Gains at Maturity will be Tax Free ONLY if you had subscribed to the Gold Bonds at the time of the original issue (i.e. via primary issue by RBI), AND also held the bond throughout 8 years until redemption at maturity.

But if, instead of the above, you had purchased SGB in the secondary market, then even if you hold it until maturity, your capital gains on maturity will no longer be tax-free and instead be taxed. So going forward, those who purchase SGBs in the secondary market must pay capital gains tax even if they then hold it till maturity.

So if you purchased the bonds in the secondary market, then here is how much tax you will pay:

• If sold before maturity but within 12 months – It will be STCG and taxed at slab rates.
• If sold before maturity but after 12 months – It will be LTCG and taxed at 12.5 % (no indexation).
• If held until maturity, then, as per the new SGB taxation rule change in Budget 2026, you will pay 12.5% LTCG tax on long-term gains at maturity.

My guess is that the reason for this change is multi-fold.

One is to ‘only’ allow a tax-free benefit to real long-term investors who hold it from start to end (8 years). Also, this is to cut down on the tax arbitrage that existed, as some investors in recent times had started buying SGBs in the secondary market (with a much lower residual period of less than 8 years for soon-to-mature SGBs) to benefit from tax exemption. Another plausible reason for this new taxation change may be to help the government absorb or mitigate the fiscal impact of exceptionally high gold prices on SGB redemptions. With gold prices surging significantly in recent years, the government faces substantially larger payout obligations at maturity or premature redemption for older tranches, as redemption values are linked to prevailing gold prices. By limiting the full tax-free benefit primarily to original long-term subscribers (encouraging direct participation in new issuances and long-term holding), the move may indirectly discourage speculative secondary trading, stabilise demand dynamics, and reduce the overall attractiveness of SGBs for short-term or secondary buyers amid these elevated redemption costs – thereby easing some pressure on government finances without directly altering the redemption mechanics themselves.

The post SGB Taxation Change (Budget 2026) – Returns Tax-Free Only if Original Subscribers Hold Till Maturity appeared first on Stable Investor.