Ishan Kharat

Absolute Learner.
Finance I Portfolio Building I Wealth Manager I

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Inflation does not feel dramatic month to month. That is why it wins.
₹50,000 of monthly expenses becoming ₹80,000 over 10–12 years does not arrive as one shock. It arrives as school fees, rent, groceries, and hospital bills quietly stepping up. Cash and short FDs feel safe because the balance never falls. The danger is that the same balance buys less every year.
Long term money needs some assets that can grow faster than prices -usually equities, held long enough that one bad year does not force a sale. Gold can help as ballast.
Cash is for the next 12–24 months, not for the next 20 years.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Most people plan retirement as a number- ₹2 crore. ₹5 crore. Whatever the calculator spat out.
The number is only half the problem. The other half is how you take money out. A portfolio can look big at 60 and still fail if the first five years of withdrawals coincide with a bad market. That is sequence risk.
A simple defence: keep 2–3 years of expenses in cash/short debt, withdraw flexibly (a bit more after good years, a bit less after bad ones), and don’t treat 4% as a law.
The plan has to survive a bad decade, not just a good spreadsheet.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Mental accounting causes people to treat money differently based on where it came from or how it is labelled.
A bonus feels easier to spend than salary.
Money in a safe fixed deposit feels different from money in equity, even when the overall risk capacity is the same.
Treating the entire portfolio as one system with clear jobs for each part reduces decisions driven by labels rather than actual needs and time horizons.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Overconfidence shows up quietly.
It appears when someone believes they can consistently time entries and exits, pick the next winning sector, or outperform with frequent changes. The data is unkind to most active timing attempts over long periods.
A useful counter is to write down the reason for any significant portfolio change before making it, and then review those notes a year later with honesty.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Recency bias makes the recent past feel like the new permanent reality.
After a long bull market, high returns start to feel normal, and risk feels low.
After a sharp correction, people assume more pain is coming and become overly cautious. Both reactions are natural. Both tend to hurt long-term results.
Looking at longer histories (15–20 years rather than the last 12–18 months) helps counteract this tendency.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Mad pricing!!!
Most value for money car by Kia in the segment and they have left no stone unturned for sorento.
I guess,only Kia is listening to what Indian customer's actually want.

[Hormazd Sorabjee @hormazdsorabjee]

Boom! Rs 27.99 lakh is the launch price of the base Kia Sorento. Kia has knocked pricing out of the park. Nicely poised to grab Mahindra XUV 7X0 customers below it and Fortuner buyers above.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

While investing, loss aversion is powerful.
Most people feel the pain of a loss roughly twice as strongly as the pleasure of an equivalent gain. This leads to selling after markets fall (to stop the pain) and holding losers too long while booking small winners early.
Awareness alone does not remove the bias, but having pre decided rules for rebalancing and withdrawals reduces the number of emotional decisions you have to make in the moment.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Gold and certain real assets play a different role in investing.
They do not always rise with inflation in the short run, but they have historically helped during periods of high uncertainty, currency pressure, or geopolitical shocks.
A modest allocation (not a dominant one) can act as portfolio insurance.
The mistake is treating gold as a complete replacement for productive assets that generate cash flow and growth.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Correct: C) Equity mutual fund

Reasoning: Emergency money needs high liquidity and low volatility. Equity can fall 20–40% just when you need the cash. Liquid/arbitrage funds or a savings account are far more appropriate.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Q. Which of these is generally the least suitable place for an emergency fund of 6 months' expenses?

A) Liquid mutual fund

B) Savings account

C) Equity mutual fund

D) Arbitrage fund

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

@chiragbarjatya Do share the lab test results

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Equities remain one of the most reliable long term inflation hedges, but only if you can stay invested through the volatility.
Companies can raise prices over time. Earnings and dividends have historically grown faster than inflation across decades.
The catch is the short term pain: equities can fall sharply just when inflation is high, and costs are rising. That is why the equity portion needs a time horizon measured in years, not months.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

For retirement withdrawals, one practical framework that works well is the bucket approach.
-Keep 2–3 years of expenses in cash or short-term debt (the safety bucket).
-Keep the next 5–7 years in a balanced mix.
-Keep the long-term growth portion in equity.
You spend from the safety bucket and refill it during good market years by selling from the growth bucket. This reduces the chance of selling equities in a deep drawdown early in retirement.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

For retirement withdrawal- The classic 4% rule is a useful starting point, not a rigid law.
It came from historical US market data and assumes a balanced portfolio lasting 30 years.
In reality, sequence of returns, longevity, inflation all change the outcome.
A better approach for many is a flexible withdrawal system: start conservatively, increase spending after strong market years, and cut back modestly after weak ones. The goal is sustainability, not a fixed percentage every year.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

A quiet but useful habit: separate your “money for goals” from your “money for learning.”
Most people put every rupee into the serious long term portfolio and then feel restricted. Keeping a small, clearly defined amount for experimentation (a few stocks, a new asset class) reduces the urge to tinker with the core portfolio.
The core stays boring and effective. The small satellite sleeve absorbs curiosity without damaging the main plan.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Debt is not always the enemy, but the wrong kind of debt is expensive.
High interest consumer debt (credit cards, personal loans for lifestyle) compounds against you.
Productive debt (reasonable home loan, education that increases earning power) can be manageable if the numbers work.
The practical test is simple: Does this debt increase your future options or reduce them? That question filters a lot of bad decisions.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

Most investment mistakes are not about choosing the wrong fund.
They are about changing the plan at the wrong time -stopping SIPs in a correction, increasing equity after a big rally, or abandoning a strategy because it underperformed for two years.
A mediocre plan followed with discipline usually beats a brilliant plan that keeps getting abandoned. Consistency remains the highest leverage skill in personal finance.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

B) 12.5%
Reasoning: Equity LTCG is taxed at 12.5% on gains exceeding ₹1.25 lakh per financial year after a 12-month holding period. STCG (under 12 months) is 20%.

[Ishan Kharat @ishaank31]

What is the current long term capital gains (LTCG) tax rate on equity mutual funds in India (gains above ₹1.25 lakh, held for more than 12 months)?

A) 10%

B) 12.5%

C) 15%

D) 20%