Hi Manish,
Just now finished your book “5 things you should know before investing”
I need some suggestion and also would like to get some direction in my investment planning. although I think I am careful about it but the fruit is always sour.
I am 25 and work for an MNC.
I have 7 MF plans which are all equity based and totally I am investing 15K in them each month. All these are from diverse companies like BirlaSunlife,DSP Black Rock,Reliance and SBI. average they are of 2K each and out of all 4 of them are of DSP coz the consultant who helped me pushed me in going with them. 2×2500/pm of these are for tax saving and rest all are equity based.
Here is a Breakup
| DSP BLR |
Top 100 Equity Growth |
2000 |
| DSP BLR |
Small & Mid cap Growth |
2000 |
| DSP BLR |
Tax saver fund Dividend po |
2500 |
| Birla |
Tax relife 96 Dividend po |
2500 |
| Birla |
Frontline Equity Growth |
2000 |
| SBI |
Emerging Business Fund |
2000 |
| Reliance |
Equity Opportunity fund |
2000 |
Even after doing a diversified investment none of them have given me 10-12% since past year infact few are in negative. the maximum i have got is 6%.(I have taken all these in Jan2013)
Apart from these I am running an RD of 5K through my salaried account of Citi which is just going fine.
I also have an ESPP from my office which gives me 15%discount from current marked rate of my companies stocks. Here I am investing maximum which I can .(The maximum I can invest is 15% of my base salary)
I have 1.55lacs in stocks which is running 24% Negative
I also purchase some gold time to time. (This year is got 2x10gm on different occasions). Lastly I am putting 2K in my sarkari SBi account for any unforeseen issues That amount is above 50K now.(liquid Cash)
I know its a big list above and I am really sorry to put this in an email however all of the above I am doing is to make a down payment for an 2BHK APT which i wish to purchase in coming Diwali 2014.
Please can you suggest something to get me on track atleast. Is there something which I have missed which I could have. I am desperately in need to correct my finances to reach my goal.
I would really appreciate your guidance here and also would like to thank you for book which has blown my mind especially the understanding of investing more in initial years.
Thank You Manish!
Dear Mamta, for emergency funding, start keeping money in your Sb account. Please try to have a corpus of 6-9 months’ expenses. Once the corpus is there, 50% amount can be parked in liquid fund and another 50% in Sweeping FDs.
For other goals, start after creating emergency fund.
Thanks
Ashal
I am a salaried employee.My monthly income is 18000. I can invest monthly 8000. i want the following investments to be done. please suggest where and how much and how long should i need to invest.
1. emergency funding 2. need a little cash by next year to house renovation 3. retirement planning 4. wealth accumulation
5. tax saving plan 6. gold accumulation
My husband is a freelancer.Also my husbands monthly income is 50000-60000 (variable). i want him to do following investments. kindly suggest how much and where and tenure for this invetsments.
1. tax saving 2. retirement planning 3.emergrncy funding 4.buying a new house by next year 5.wealth accumulation
many thanks in advance,
mamta
Dear Raxy77,
Point 1. If you are thinking investing in 7 different MF scheme means diversification – you are WRONG. There is a possibility that most of these schemes are investing in the same stocks hence you are not diversifying your money but merely investing in same stocks through different sources (read scheme).
Point 2. If you think MF will give you more 10-12% return year on year, you are WRONG again. You may get -15% one year and then you may get +27% next year and so on… so please do not look at MF as the best investment that will give you +ve returns whenever you invest and that too very fast.
You have 1.55 lakhs in stocks and are sitting at -ve 24%, possibly you are investing just because you are getting the stocks at discount and not considering the company financials and its future growth avenues. Don’t just invest in your company stock, because you are getting them at a discount.
Regards,
Ashish Garg
Hi Ashish,
Thanks for your reply.
The 7 MF which I have invested in out of which 2 of them are Tax saver ones,which I invested with a view to get something out of Section 80C. My definition of diverse was different investment products and not only MF.
Secondly, now I have understood the volatility of MF hence I would keep tap on investing in them.
Lastly, The Stocks which you have considered are not of my companies. The companies stocks are different arena of investment and it gives sure shot 12%+ returns. 🙂
The 1.55lacs stocks are of general companies in India which I have invested after little research but since past 8 months, market is very volatile.
I would like to know, if there are any other ares of investment which i should have considered.
Thanks in advance.
Rax
Dear Rahul, thanks for your inputs.
Thanks
Ashal
Dear Rahul,
Why are you so against Equity MF?
Are you an insurance agent?
Thanks,
Swapnil
Dear Swapnil,
I am not against any of the investment product. One should invest in known product to meet his/her goals.
After achieving some financial stability and generating some surplus cash, one should think about equity/MF. Till that time it is strictly NO.
If one knows that he require money 2 year down the line for buying house, then the importance should be given to preserve the money. And Equity is certainly not an option for this.
Thanks,
Rahul
Hi Rahul
Thanks for your insight,
If you have read my complete post, you should have noticed that my investments are diversified. Apart from MF and Stocks rest all of my investments are giving substantial returns.
I was aware of the risk involved in the equity based schemes however 10%+ return factor was the Goal, the performance if these MF’s were good in the past.(I mean after recession recovery performance).
There was a slow down in last year and I was OK if my money didn’t multiply however recognized MF’s going in Negative is what worries me the most.
Thanks
Rax
FYI…I am not an insurance agent.
Thanks,
Rahul
Ashal,
This is a nice example of how people take MF returns for granted! And why salaried people should avoid it.
Raxy77,
You are doing fine with your other investments. I personally believe you made mistake by putting your money in MF (other expert in this forum may differ on this).
Equity/MF is not a options if you have to use the proceeding for a goal where cash out flow is certain.
Investment in MF/Equity is very risky, people who advise others to invest in MF/equity underestimate the risk in it. They will justify their advise by saying words like – “Long term”, “only way to beat inflation”, “12-15% return” etc..
Salaried people who requires money at certain interval to meet their goal should not invest in it, unless they have built a significant protection/corpus (by choosing debt products).
Thanks,
Rahul
Hi Rahul,
Thanks for you reply!
I completely understand your statement however I didn’t wanted to make a pile of liquid cash and also didn’t wanted to invest all in RD to get around 7 to 8% returns. My goal was to rotate the money in market and to see if I could get 10%+ returns. Unfortunately this was the only option and yet again it went wrong.
PS: I have burned my hands in past when i purchase SBI Unit Plus II and the results were same. The only difference was the SBI plan was sold to me by an SBI agent and this time all these MF plans were sold by a good investment consultant.
Results are same!!!
Dear Raxy, you mean, you are investing in Eq. funds to redeem the mopney in 2014 to purchase a house? How ‘ll you redeem from your Eq. Tax saver funds? why are you investing in so many funds? Why are you not asking the same question for non performance of your portfolio to the person who guided you in the first place?
Thanks
Ashal
Hi Anshu,
Thanks for your reply, my goal was to get maximum gains with lesser risk. Also since I am a salaried person, I don’t get money in a chunk. In such situation, the only way to get good returns is left with MF (I am not considering Bank RD’s here as the return requirement is more than 10% annually)
Do you know of any other products which can provide me 10%+ return in a years time?
Thanks,
Rax