- Where can you purchase mutual funds - banks, brokerage houses, third party distributors
- Fill out form - you will need your PAN number for that
- Get receipt/acknowledgment as proof that you have invested in the fund
- Fund House will send you regular statements on your status and NAV of your units
- You can choose to invest through a SIP scheme - Systematic Investment Plan. Allows you to invest small amounts of money at regular intervals. Helps you avoid market timing and you can enter the market with a small amount of capital rather than a lump sum. You can also set up an electronic transfer directly from your bank through the ECS transfer facility, so you don't have to write a cheque every month
- How can you educate yourself about MF's - read personal finance magazines like Outlook Money or Money Today or the personal finance sections of business newspapers; may newspapers like Hindu or Business Standard also carry weekly reports on the mutual funds
ICICI Pru LifeTime and ICICI Pru Lifestage are Unit Linked Pension Plans. Such insurance linked retirement plans are neither good investments nor do they offer sufficient insurance cover. As you can see, these have turned out to be bad deals. In the Lifetime plan, the fund value is not even equal to the total premiums that you have paid and in the Lifestage plan your return is just about 6% which is quite low. The mortality charges are as per your age which is why they have increased. Moreover, once these plans matures, you will have to compulsorily opt for annuity (regular income) and the annuity rates are generally modest. Assuming these plans mature in the next one year, it will be wise to surrender the plan now and curb your future commitments. Before you choose to buy a term plan, you have to consider a few points. You need to insure yourself, only during the time you are working and your family is financially dependent on you. At the age of 59, not all insurance companies w...
