The current or latest interest rate (2026) on RBI Floating Rate Bonds is 8.05% per annum. This is for the period between July and December 2026.

There is a fixed formula for the calculation of the RBI Floating Savings Rate Bond (FRSB) interest rate. The interest rate is linked/pegged with the prevailing National Saving Certificate (NSC) rate with a spread of (+) 35 basis points or 0.35% over the respective NSC rate.

The current NSC rates have been set at 7.70% for the Jul-Sep 2026 quarter (details here). Adding the +35 basis points spread, we get 8.05%, which will be the interest rate on RBI Floating Rate Savings Bonds. So that is how the RBI Floating interest is calculated.

The interest rates of these bonds are reset every 6 months, and this is the reason why these are called floating-rate bonds. The interest rate floats. You don’t get a fixed interest for the entire duration of the bonds. You don’t lock in the bond rates until maturity. The bond rates will float and can change every 6 months depending on NSC interest rates change.

Read More – RBI on Floating Rate Savings Bonds FRSB 2020(T)

The interest on these bonds is paid half-yearly on 1^st January and 1^st July every year. There is no cumulative option in RBI floating rate bonds that pays out at the end of the tenure.

Is the RBI Floating rate bond tax-free?

No. The interest is fully taxable, and hence the name RBI Floating Rate Savings Bond (Taxable) 2020.

The tenure of RBI Floating Rate bonds is 7 years. So once the 7-year period is over, the bond money shall be paid back to the investor, on expiry of 7 years from the date of the original subscription.

While this is the first time interest rates have actually changed for these bonds, there have been quite a number of reset events in the past 2-3 years.

So if you are looking for the History of RBI Floating Rate Bond Interest Rates, then here it is:

• RBI Floating Rate Bond (January-June 2021) interest rate – 7.15%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (July-December 2021) interest rate – 7.15%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (January-June 2022) interest rate – 7.15%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (July-December 2022) interest rate – 7.15%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (January-June 2023) interest rate – 7.35%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (July-December 2023) interest rate – 8.05%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (January-June 2024) interest rate – 8.05%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (July-December 2024) interest rate – 8.05%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (January-June 2025) interest rate – 8.05%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (July-December 2025) interest rate – 8.05%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (January-June 2026) interest rate – 8.05%
• RBI Floating Rate Bond (July-December 2026) interest rate – 8.05%

In 2020, the Indian Government decided to issue the Floating Rate Savings Bonds (Taxable) 2020 or FRSB-2020, with effect from July 01, 2020, to enable resident Indians/HUF to invest in a taxable bond, without any monetary ceiling. These bonds were launched to replace the Government of India’s erstwhile 7.75% (taxable) bonds, which were commonly known as RBI 7.75% Bonds. The major difference between RBI Floating Rate Savings Bonds (2020) Vs RBI 7.75% taxable Savings Bonds (2018) was that the interest rate is floating and not fixed for the former, and it was fixed for the entire tenure for the erstwhile 7.75% RBI Bond.

If we compare RBI Floating Rate Bonds with SCSS and PMVVY, then here too the difference in changing interest rates. While even SCSS and PMVVY see periodic changes in interest rates, these are still locked in for the full tenure when you invest in them. But in the case of a floating rate bond, the interest rate applicable to you continues to change (float) and is not fixed for the entire tenure. So if rates go up, then it’s good for you. But if it goes down, then it’s not good for the bondholders.

While the minimum investment in these bonds is Rs 1000, there is no maximum limit on the investment you can make in RBI Floating Rate bonds.

Only resident Indians and HUFs can invest in these bonds. NRIs cannot invest in these bonds. But if you become an NRI after you have purchased the bond, then you can continue holding the bonds till maturity like residents/HUFs.

While the tenure of these bonds is pretty long, there is a facility for premature exit available only for senior citizens. Eligible old-age investors can encash the bond prematurely after the lock-in period of 4, 5, and 6 years in the age brackets of 80 years and above, between 70 to 80 years and 60 to 70 years, respectively.

So that was all about the latest interest rate of the RBI Floating Rate Bonds 2026 in India.

The post What is Interest Rate on RBI Floating Rate Bonds (July – December 2026)? 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 Jul-Dec 2026. Read more about RBI Floating Rate Bonds interest rates Jul-Dec 2026.

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

When EPFO recently announced that PF withdrawals would soon be possible via UPI and ATM cards, i.e., you get instant access to your retirement(!) money, it sounded like a welcome move for many. But while this EPFO 3.0 reform does try to solve the problem of access by eliminating the bureaucratic incompetence, between you and your PF corpus, it also leads to another problem. And a big one actually.

The Provident Fund, is fundamentally meant for your retirement. So making PF money hard to access was, in large part (whether intentional or unintentional), was kind of a blessing in disguise. A retirement corpus that is difficult to withdraw from stays intact and compounds. A retirement corpus that is easy to withdraw from becomes just another account, where you can dip into whenever you need money.

The old system’s inefficiency had an unintended benefit – it kept millions of people from impulsively dipping into their retirement corpus and sabotaging their future retirement.

PF, till now, was a kind of untouchable part of your savings. But if this new change (of giving access to PF money via UPI/ATM) gets implemented, your PF money will become available-on-demand, spendable and exposed to impulsive spending. Running short of funds for a foreign vacation? Let’s dip into the PF corpus as you-only-live-once (yolo). Want to purchase a car but don’t want to take a loan? Thanks to the govt, let’s dip into the PF corpus and buy it.

While people will love to get access to money ‘now’, what many of them don’t understand is that compounding of money, which PF accounts beautifully offer, gets severely compromised.

Let’s take a simple example. Suppose you are a 35-year-old with a PF balance of Rs 20 lakh. Under the new rules, you are allowed to withdraw up to 75% of the corpus. So now say you want to purchase a car, but don’t have any savings and also don’t want to take a loan. So you decide to withdraw Rs 10 lakh now. You have your car.

But, if this rule were not in place and you left that Rs 10 lakh remain in PF, then at the current EPF interest rate of 8.25%, that Rs 10 lakh left untouched for 25 years until retirement at 60, would have grown to much more than Rs 75 lakh. So the car didn’t just cost you Rs 10 lakh today. It also cost Rs 75+ lakh in retirement wealth that will now simply not exist!

The car is just an example. It can be anything. Discretionary non-essential spending like vacations, home interior upgrades, or non-negotiable ones like paying for uninsured medical expenses, much-needed house repairs, etc.

And that’s just one withdrawal. A few more of these over several years, and it’s clear what price your retirement corpus pays for it.

The new rules also mandate that at least 25% of your PF balance must remain in your account at all times during employment. This is presented as a safeguard that ensures EPF doesn’t become a complete free-for-all.

But 25% isn’t enough in my view.

Over a long 25-30 year career, a careless person who withdraws every time life throws a financial curveball (but staying just above the 25% floor), will definitely mess up his retirement and arrive at retirement with a fraction of what his corpus could have been. The 25% rule prevents you from emptying the corpus, but it does absolutely nothing to prevent the slow, quiet death of compounding by a thousand withdrawals, over the next few decades. Honestly, if protecting retirement was the genuine intent, the minimum percentage should have been set far higher. At least 75% mandatory retention, and not the current proposed 25%.

Had there been a mature pension system in India, where all citizens had state-guaranteed pensions or employer-funded annuities as backup, then this new rule of easier PF access would have been fine. But sadly, India doesn’t have a mature social security net for everyone.

Your PF money being one ATM or one UPI QR scan away is not what should be happening. PF money is for retirement and should be (largely) untouchable by design and intent. This new development is solving a problem now, but creating a really big one for later decades for the common man.

This so-called EPFO 3.0 reform, really needs to be reconsidered to avoid future retirement disaster. Not sure why there isn’t much noise against this.

The post EPFO 3.0’s Immediate Access to 75% of Provident Fund via ATM & UPI – Real Cost is Retirement Disaster appeared first on Stable Investor.

Also, it may sound repetitive, but having a portfolio made up of reasonably good funds + correct asset allocation will get you further than having great funds + incorrect asset allocation.

Dev Ashish (SEBI RIA No. INA100005241)

Disc. – Investments in the securities market are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing.

The post Investing MORE vs. Chasing Higher Returns – Economic Times Wealth (15-Jun-2026) appeared first on Stable Investor.

How much corpus can you create using Sukanya Samriddhi Account after 21 years?

• Rs 25,000 yearly – Maturity amount is Rs 11.97 lakh
• Rs 50,000 yearly – Maturity amount is Rs 23.94 lakh
• Rs 75,000 yearly – Maturity amount is Rs 35.91 lakh
• Rs 1.00 lakh yearly – Maturity amount is Rs 47.88 lakh
• Rs 1.25 lakh yearly – Maturity amount is Rs 59.85 lakh
• Rs 1.50 lakh yearly – Maturity amount is Rs 71.82 lakh

Would these amounts be enough for your daughter? It depends on each parent’s view. But mind you, these are figures after 21 years.

But even nowadays, good professional courses in India easily cost about Rs 20-25 lakh. And if you inflation-adjust these figures for the next 15-20 years, then the amount required for similar education would be a much bigger number.

So chances are that the amount accumulated via Sukanya may not be enough. Also, there is a debatable Sukanya rule which allows withdrawal up to 50% of this corpus for higher education.

Solution?

It’s actually simple, and many of you already do it.

If your daughter is still young and you still have 10+ years before her higher education expenses begin, then you need to invest some money in equities.

Sukanya, no doubt, is a solid product. But it’s a debt product which currently offers 8.2%. And many educational courses witness much higher inflation, at least in the pre-AI era. So to generate inflation-beating returns, you need to have some allocation to equities.

How much you should allocate between equity funds and Sukanya for your daughter’s future depends on your risk profile. If you aren’t conservative, then a higher allocation to equity is better, assuming your daughter is young and you have several years before her higher education starts.

A few suggestions:

If you are ultra-conservative, then just stick with 100% in Sukanya and PPF.

If you only want to take limited risk, then have 60-75% in Sukanya and/or PPF and the remaining 25-40% in equity funds.

If you are moderately aggressive or more, then 75% or more can be put into equity funds.

The post How much corpus can you create using Sukanya Samriddhi Account after 21 years? appeared first on Stable Investor.

My column in Economic Times Wealth (Edition 18-24 May 2026 edition) titled Passive Investing has a Noise Problem, discusses this and talks about which passive options are worth considering and which ones are best ignored. You can read the same via this link or in the image below:

I also maintain my view (voiced many times earlier) that for most investors, it’s best to take a middle path and build a portfolio with allocation to both passive and active components.

The post Passive Investing Has a Noise Problem – Economic Times Wealth (18-May-2026) appeared first on Stable Investor.

My column in Economic Times Wealth published last month (20 April 2026 edition – link), titled Started investing in your 40s-50s? Compensate for the lost years, discusses the way forward for late starters.

The post Started investing in 40s-50s? Compensate for Lost Years (Economic Times Wealth (20-Apr-2026) appeared first on Stable Investor.

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.