Regardless of market levels, invest in stocks and equity mutual funds in a staggered manner.
rediffGURU Dev Ashish answers your personal finance and mutual fund queries.
'Then select those that are well-aligned with your risk-return profile and investment time horizon.'
While financial planning is good for you, the process which a planner can put you through is not so great, observes financial planner P V Subramanyam.
'If rate cuts happen, bond yields will come down and investors will make mark-to-market capital gains on them.'
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
Multi-asset funds offer exposure to gold, which tends to do well in times of geopolitical tensions and inflationary pressures, suggests Sanjay Kumar Singh.
Do you have financial planning queries? Ask rediffGURU Anil Rego.
The bulk of an investor's portfolio should be in shorter-duration funds of up to one year portfolio duration.
Water projects firm Vishnu Prakash R Punglia, the 20th company to launch its IPO in the current year, saw its shares closing at a 47 per cent gain over its issue price on Tuesday. Such a huge one-day pop is considered rare; however, it has become the norm this year. The average listing-day gain for these 20 IPOs in 2023 is 34 per cent, and their average gain to date stands at 46 per cent.
One common mistake investors commit during profit booking is not having a plan for the redeployment of the money that comes into their account.
Fund houses are exploring ways to differentiate themselves in the hybrid space. A relatively unknown hybrid fund variant, Balanced Hybrid, is about to see its first launch since the introduction of mutual fund (MF) scheme categorisation norms in 2017. WhiteOak Capital MF has filed papers with the regulator for this scheme, which comes amid increasing interest in the hybrid space. MFs anticipate that hybrids will become the preferred category for investors with a lower risk appetite following changes in debt fund taxation.
Rebalance your portfolio in case it has become overweight on equities vis-a-vis your strategic asset allocation.
When the subscriber reaches superannuation or the age of 60, 60 per cent of the total corpus accumulated in NPS can be withdrawn as a lump sum.
Do you have financial planning queries? Ask rediffGURU Anil Rego.
Mutual funds focused on small-caps have emerged as the winner with a net inflow of close to Rs 11,000 crore in April-June quarter, as fund managers struggle to create alpha in the large-cap space, and the trend is expected to continue for some time. On the other hand, large-cap space, which is yet to pick up momentum, witnessed an outflow of Rs 3,360 crore during the quarter under review, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed. Apart from the June quarter, small-cap funds logged an inflow of Rs 6,932 crore in three months that ended in March.
rediffGURU Dev Ashish answers your personal finance and mutual fund queries.
Investors who cannot manage an asset-allocated portfolio or rebalance regularly, or do not have an advisor, may opt for these funds, but only after a detailed study of their strategy, suggests Sanjay Kumar Singh.
NPS is a cost-effective instrument with low fund management and other fees. Unlike in mutual funds, investors get the benefit of tax-free rebalancing here.
'There will be a series of rate hikes, but the pace and quantum will depend on how the economy in the US and the rest of the world behave.'
Avoid discontinuing your SIPs. Persist for at least 7-10 years.
Notwithstanding the risk involved, analysts are upbeat on micro-cap investing as India remains in a firm bull market. Moreover, these stocks are available at relatively cheaper valuations compared to large, mid and small caps, assuring alpha returns. With a market-capitalisation (market-cap) of up to Rs 10,000 crore, micro-cap stocks are outside the purview of Nifty 500 stocks, and are ranked from 501 to 750 in the market-cap ladder.
With an 11% return in 2022, gold was the best-performing asset class, beating equities, debt, real estate etc, by a considerable margin. Rishi Piparaiya explains why gold needs to be a part of our investment portfolio.
While mid-cap and small-cap funds have given category average returns of 73.3 per cent and 89.8 per cent respectively over the past year, large-cap funds' returns have been lower at 53.9 per cent, points out Sarbajeet K Sen.
'Returns can be very variable in equity markets.' 'That is why I tell small investors don't put 100 per cent of your money in equities, even if you are young.'
'Starting an SIP now and continuing with it is likely to translate into high returns over the long term.'
Avoid discontinuing your SIPs. Persist for at least 7-10 years.
Rebalance the portfolio at least once a year to ensure it remains in sync with the target asset allocation.
The 2023 Budget set off a downtrend in the listed life insurance company stocks. The key reason was a proposal to tax income from insurance policies (other than unit-linked insurance plans or ULIPs) with a premium, or aggregate premium, of above Rs 500,000 per annum. This impacted the traditional savings profile since it affected the returns for these products.
Now that bank FD rates have gone up and most BAFs haven't delivered good returns, these investors are likely to be moving back to FDs, observed a senior MF distributor. The performance of BAFs in the past year has been mixed.
'A fair bit should be allocated towards fixed income.'
'Indian equity valuations, although not very expensive, are not cheap either.'
'Investors need to expect steady returns over the next one to two years with bouts of high volatility.'
'They can shift to dynamic asset allocation funds to automatically rebalance their equity exposure.'
'The minimum holding period for equities should be three years.' 'Try goal-based investing.' 'Link your equity portfolios to specific goals such as retirement, purchase of a house or car...'
'In 2022, active management, long-short strategies, multi-asset strategies, and asset allocation strategies need to be considered to meet long-term investment goals.'
'As the Indian economy continues to expand over the next three years, mid- and small-caps should do well as they have higher exposure to the domestic economy than large-caps.'
'In investing, you have to first make sure you don't make big mistakes.' 'I would advise small investors to be systematic, don't be arbitrary; don't be on either end of the risk spectrum.' 'Don't go from fixed deposit to option trading or crypto trading.'
Avoid investing in a new ELSS scheme each year. Stick to one well-chosen scheme to avoid clutter in your portfolio.
'Set aside around six months' monthly expenses for emergencies.' 'Keep this money in safe and liquid options, such as liquid funds and fixed deposits.'