Skip to main content

Best Practices for Mutual Funds

 

  • Understand your risk profile, read the offer documents to see if the fund objectives match your needs

 

  • Build a strong foundation of funds as the basis of your portfolio before you diversify within growth or sectoral fund

Sectoral funds in India will give you a concentrated exposure to a particular sector, e.g., infrastructure, IT etc. If this kind of fund is the only fund you own, then that can be risky. You should add a sectoral fund in your mutual funds portfolio only if the portfolio is well diversified based on the investor's risk profile and time horizon.

  • Buy and hold equity funds, don't churn

Do not sell funds just because your agent asks you to sell one fund and invest in another fund. Ask them for reasons why you should switch. Churning will make you poor and your agent rich! And you might incur tax consequences as well

  • Avoid NFOs

NFOs or new fund offerings become very popular because they get a lot of marketing publicity when a new fund is launched. NFOs should be avoided for a few reasons:

    • Often you will end up paying higher fees in an NFO
    • NFOs have no track record, so you have no way knowing how well the fund will perform across market cycles, how good the risk management systems are or how good the back office and administration of the fund house is. For instance, if you have to go to a doctor for some trouble in your kidney, would you rather go to a new doctor with no track record, or would you go to a 10 year veteran who has experience and track record in dealing with patients like you.

 

  • Revisit your asset allocation periodically

Due to market movements, you might end up having a higher or lower exposure to certain industries or assets than what you had set out for. Therefore, just like you go for a regular health check, review your asset allocation across your mutual funds periodically. Once every 6-12 months is good period.

  • Avoid investing in too many different funds - preferably not more than 5-7 funds

Over diversification can also be bad for you. So do not duplicate by buying two different infrastructure funds or have too many balanced funds. If you have more than 10 funds, after a while you will realize that you do not have time to manage all the paperwork related to all the funds and you will need a full time assistant just to manage your accounts

 

Popular posts from this blog

IDFC - Long term infrastructure bonds - Tranche 2

IDFC - Long term infrastructure bonds What are infrastructure bonds? In 2010, the government introduced a new section 80CCF under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (" Income Tax Act ") to provide for income tax deductions for subscription to long-term infrastructure bonds and pursuant to that the Central Board of Direct Taxes passed Notification No. 48/2010/F.No.149/84/2010-SO(TPL) dated July 9, 2010. These long term infrastructure bonds offer an additional window of tax deduction of investments up to Rs. 20,000 for the financial year 2010-11. This deduction is over and above the Rs 1 lakh deduction available under sections 80C, 80CCC and 80CCD read with section 80CCE of the Income Tax Act. Infrastructure bonds help in intermediating the retail investor's savings into infrastructure sector directly. Long term infrastructure Bonds by IDFC IDFC issued an earlier tranche of these long term infrastructure bonds on November 12, 2010. This is the second public issue of long-te...
Read more

Mutual Fund Review: HDFC Index Sensex Plus

  In terms of size, HDFC Index Sensex Plus may be one of the smallest offerings from the HDFC stable. But that has not dampened its show, which has beaten the Sensex by a mile in overall returns   HDFC Index Sensex Plus is a passively managed diversified equity scheme with Sensex as its benchmark index. The fund also invests a small proportion of its equity portfolio in non-Sensex scrips. The scheme cannot boast of an impressive size and is one of the smallest in the HDFC basket with assets under management (AUM) of less than 60 crore. PERFORMANCE: Being passively managed and portfolio aligned to that of the benchmark, the performance of the index fund is expected to follow that of the benchmark and in this respect, it has not disappointed investors. Since its launch in July 2002, the fund has outperformed Sensex in overall returns by good margins.    While every 1,000 invested in HDFC Index Sensex Plus in July 2002 is worth 6,130 now, a similar amount invested in Sensex then wo...
Read more

Am you Required to E-file Tax Return?

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300   Am I Required to 'E-file' My Return? Yes, under the law you are required to e-file your return if your income for the year is Rs. 500,000 or more. Even if you are not required to e-file your return, it is advisable to do so for the following benefits: i) E-filing is environment friendly. ii) E-filing ensures certain validations before the return is filed. Therefore, e-returns are more accurate than the paper returns. iii) E-returns are processed faster than the paper returns. iv) E-filing can be done from the comfort of home/office and you do not have to stand in queue to e-file. v) E-returns can be accessed anytime from the tax department's e-filing portal. For further information contact Prajna Capit...
Read more

National Savings Certificate

National Savings Certificate Here's everything you need to know about the 5-year savings scheme offered by the Government This is a 5-year small savings scheme of the government. From 1 July 2016, a National Savings Certificate (NSC) can be held in the electronic mode too. Physical pre-printed NSC certificates have been discontinued and replaced with Public Provident Fund-like passbooks. What's on offer The minimum amount you can invest in them is Rs100 and there is no upper limit. Under this scheme, all deposits up to Rs1.5 lakh qualify for deduction under section 80C of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The interest earned is taxable. You can invest in multiples of Rs 100. These certificates can be owned individually, jointly and also on behalf of minors. The interest rates for all small savings schemes are released on a quarterly basis. The effective rate for NSC from 1 October to 31 December is 8%. The interest is calculated on an annual compounding basis and is given along w...
Read more

Different types of Mutual Funds

You may not be comfortable investing in the stock market. It might not seem like your cup of tea. But you can start by investing in Mutual Funds. Many first-time investors invest in Mutual Funds. This is because they do not know how to invest in individual securities. Basic information on Mutual Funds People invest their money in stocks, bonds, and other securities through Mutual Funds. Each Fund has different schemes with specific objectives. Professional Fund Managers look after these schemes. Your Fund Manager could help you invest in a scheme that suits your financial goal. Functioning of Mutual Funds You could make money through Mutual Funds in different ways. A single Mutual Fund could hold many different stocks, bonds, and debentures. This minimizes the risk by spreading out your investment. You could earn dividends from stocks and interest from bonds. You could also earn capital by selling securities when their price increases. Usually, you could choose to sell your share any t...
Read more
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