Skip to main content

Mutual Fund: Systematic investment plan (SIP)

Take SIP route for better long-term returns

A systematic investment plan (SIP) is an investment option that involves investments on a systematic basis over a period of time. Under a SIP option, an investor commits making a regular investment in a particular mutual fund or deposit. Investing in mutual funds through this route is much easier, more efficient, and is one of the best ways to see your investments grow over time.

In a SIP, the investor invests a specific amount of money for a continuous period, at regular intervals. By doing this, you can compulsorily save a fixed amount each month. Further, you can avail the advantage of rupee cost averaging. This is because you automatically participate in the market swings. The amount of investment remaining the same, you buy more units in a declining market and less in a rising market.

By consistently investing the same amount at regular intervals, your average cost per unit will be lower than the average market price, irrespective of whether the market is rising, falling or fluctuating. The advantage of rupee cost averaging is that the net asset value (NAV) is averaged out, as you will be entering the fund at different NAVs, which may be higher or lower depending on the market condition. As such, the returns are enhanced under the SIP schemes.

When you invest the same amount in a fund at regular intervals over time, you buy more units when the price is lower. You reduce your average cost per share over time. Thus, rupee cost averaging helps make market fluctuations work for you, and reduces the risk when you invest all your money just before a market downturn.

Rupee cost averaging offers its greatest benefit with investments that tend to regularly fluctuate in price. So SIPs can be especially effective while buying equity funds. The NAVs of these funds can vary widely. However, rupee cost averaging may not work well if the market rises continuously.

SIP options

The SIP option is available with all types of funds like equity, income or gilt. SIP is a long-term investment plan. You need to set aside some amount of money every month for investing in a fund like a diversified equity fund or balanced fund. You have to give post-dated cheques to the fund house. You can invest a higher amount also in some cases.

You can change a SIP structure only in the multiples of the SIP amount. In case you are investing in two different schemes of the same fund, you can fill in a common SIP form for all the schemes.

SIP offers more flexibility and helps identify funds that suit your risk-return profile. In case of SIPs, the asset allocation keeps pace with the investor's changing risk return profile. Besides, investing this way offers instant liquidity whenever required. An investor who is not having a lump-sum amount to invest and also does not want to take much risk on his investments should always select a SIP option. This will enable him to invest regularly and improve investing discipline.

Because it's systematic, a SIP ensures you plan for your long-term goals along with the short-term ones. It is a disciplined investment plan and helps reduce your susceptibility to market fluctuations. It is a powerful tool that helps preserve capital and also creates wealth in the long run.

These are ideally suited for investors who wish to sail smoothly in turbulent times. The investor is at a liberty to enter or exit from the scheme whenever he wishes to, depending on the market conditions. He can redeem his units any time irrespective of whether he has completed his minimum investment in that scheme.

Popular posts from this blog

Tata Mutual Fund

Being a part of the Tata group, the fund has the backing of a very trusted brand name with strong retail connect. While the current CEO has done an excellent job in leveraging the Tata brand name to AMC's advantage, it is ironic that this was just not capitalised on at the start. Incorporated in 1995, Tata Mutual Fund remained an 'also-ran' fund house for around eight years. Till March 2003, it had a little over Rs 1,000 crore in assets and 19 AMCs were ahead of it. But soon after that the equation changed. It was the fastest growing fund house in 2004 and 2005. During these two years, it aggressively launched six equity funds, two debt funds and one MIP. The fund house as of now stands at No. 8 in terms of asset size. This fund house has a lot to offer by way of choice. And, it also has a number of well performing schemes. Tata Pure Equity, Tata Equity PE and Tata Infrastructure are all good funds. It also has quite a few good debt funds. The funds of Tata AMC are known to...

UTI Mutual Fund

Even though only a few of UTI’s funds are great performers, this public sector fund house has many advantages that its rivals do not. It has a huge base of retail equity investors and a vast distribution network. As a business, it looks stronger than ever, especially in the aftermath of credit crunch. UTI is, by a large margin, the most profitable fund company in the country. This is not surprising, since managing equity funds is more profitable than debt. Its conservative approach and stable parentage is likely to make it look more attractive to investors in times to come. UTI’s big problem is the dragging performance that many of its equity funds suffer from. In recent times, the management has made a concerted effort to improve performance. However, these moves have coincided with a disastrous phase in the stock markets and that has made it impossible to judge whether the overhaul will eventually be a success. UTI’s top performers are a few index funds, some hybrid funds and its inf...

Salary planning Article

1. The salary (basic + DA) should be low. The rest should come by way of such allowances on which the employer pays FBT and you don't pay any tax thereon. 2. Interest paid on housing loan is deductible u/s 24 up to Rs 1.5 lakh (Rs 150,000) on self-occupied property and without any limit on a commercial or rented house. 3. The repayment of housing loan from specified sources is also deductible irrespective of whether the house is self-occupied or given on rent within the overall ceiling of Rs 1 lakh of Sec. 80C. 4. Where the accommodation provided to the employee is taken on lease by the employer, the perk value is the actual amount of lease rental or 20 per cent of the salary, whichever is lower. Understandably, if the house belongs to a family member who is at a low or nil tax zone the family benefits. Yes, the maximum benefit accrues when the rent is over 20 per cent of the salary. 5. A chauffeur driven motor car provided by the employer has no perk value. True, the company would...

8 Investing Strategy

The stock market ‘meltdown’ witnessed since the start of 2005 (notwithstanding the recent marginal recovery) has once again brought to the forefront an inherent weakness existent in our markets. This is the fact that FIIs, indisputably and almost entirely, dominate the Indian stock market sentiments and consequently the market movements. In this article, we make an attempt to list down a few points that would aid an investor in mitigating the risks and curtailing the losses during times of volatility as large investors (read FIIs) enter and exit stocks. Read on Manage greed/fear: This is an important point, which every investor must keep in mind owing to its great influencing ability in equity investment decisions. This point simply means that in a bull run - control the greed factor, which could entice you, the investor, to compromise with your investment principles. By this we mean that while an investor could get lured into investing in penny and small-cap stocks owing to their eye-...

Debt Funds - Check The Expiry Date

This time we give you an insight into something that most debt fund investors would be unaware of, the Average Portfolio Maturity. As we all know, debt funds invest in bonds and securities. These instruments mature over a certain period of time, which is called maturity. The maturity is the length of time till the principal amount is returned to the security-holder or bond-holder. A debt fund invests in a number of such instruments and each of these instruments would be having different maturity times. Hence, the fund calculates a weighted average maturity, which would give a fair idea of the fund's maturity period. For example, if a fund owns three bonds of 2-year (Rs 30,000), 3-year (Rs 10,000) and 5-year (Rs 20,000) maturities, its weighted average maturity would be 3.17 years. What is the big deal about average maturity then, you may ask. Well, knowing a fund's average maturity is important because it tells you how sensitive a fund is to the change in interest rates. It is ...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now