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Wiring Solar Panels, Solar Management Unit and UPS
If you have been following my solar panel project story, you know what parts I needed to get started on the project. I ordered them from Amazon and they started arriving at my door step in due course. Once I had everything delivered, we carried the panel to the roof. I made some basic electrical measurements to make sure everything was in order. Next we ran the solar cables from the terrace to the ground floor. According to the manual, the wiring has to be done in a certain order. I will explain the connections in that order.
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Mid Year Portfolio Review
I don't normally do mid year portfolio review but this time I made a exception. There were a couple of reasons for this. First I made a mistake in the way I calculated my XIRR because of which my return numbers were skewed. Second, the markets have gone crazy and I thought I should share my portfolio when the going is good :).
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Three Years Into Early Retirement
It is now exactly three years into early retirement! I can't believe how time flies. I can now officially say that I have lived through retired life, although three years is still a short time. These years have been quite eventful to say the least. Stock market crash, a new virus that affects the whole world, lockdown for several months, raging bull market while in pandemic. I've seen things in a few years than I have never seen my whole life :).
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DIY Solar Panel Project - The Ingredients
As I mentioned in the previous post, I decided to go with a hybrid charge controller solution for my solar panel setup. What that basically means is that I will need to buy some solar panels and a hybrid charge controller, since I have a UPS and batteries. I will then have to connect them all together. I wanted to start with something simple, so I decided to just buy one solar panel. At the same time I was intending to build it in such a way that it can be extensible to 3 panels in the future. The goal has always been to have a 1 KW setup.
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Solar Panel Project - Do It Yourself
I was finally ready to install solar panels. After having made all the calculations, I arrived at the fact that I could get the return on investment in 5 years. But I had an even better idea. I decided do build it myself. What better way to learn about solar power except by doing it yourself! I always prefer to do things myself rather than letting some one else do the job for me. My work will be subpar at best, but it not only gives me a great opportunity to learn something new, but is also a lot of fun.
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Solar Panel Project - Inception
I have been wanting to setup solar panels for several years now. It all started way back in August 2015 when for the first time the electricity bill touched Rs. 2,000. We don't even have air conditioner so what gives? At this point I started looking at the past bills and noticed the slow rise in unit rates. If you are interested, I already wrote a post on the inflation of electricity bill. That got me thinking if it is time for some solar panels.
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Fixing My XIRR Calculations
For the longest time I was debating whether to consider dividend reinvestment as a transaction in my XIRR calculations or not. Until now I never used dividend reinvestment in my XIRR. The reason was simple. If I did not sell and buy something (dividend reinvestment), then why should it be a transaction? But finally after some thought and a nudge from Value Research I decided to fix it.
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Exit Load In Mutual Funds
If you have been investing in mutual funds for any amount of time, you most likely know about exit load. Some mutual funds, typically the equity kind will charge the investors some fees if they exit the fund (redeem investments), before a certain time period. This is done to discourage investors from prematurely exiting the fund.
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My Daily Routine: 2021 Edition
Every weekend, I call some two to four of my friends, relatives or ex-colleagues thanks to my Friends Roster project. And invariably at least one of them ask me what I do on a daily basis after retirement. They are curious as to how I spend my day. I have posted my daily routine more than two years ago including a complete time table. But I thought may be I should do a 2021 edition in case some things have changed since then. So here goes.
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Mistakes To Avoid If You Plan To Retire Early
There is no one straightforward way to reach the goal of early retirement. Although many people have attempted to streamline the process. And that includes me (see my 5 steps to early retirement) :). There are several other small things that you need to take care of before the grand picture emerges. One of them is expenses.
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