Good Question. Divide your investment amount in 2 or 3 portions and invest each portion in large cap, midcap and small cap fund and then select one good performing fund in each category. From our Scoreboard, you can select best performing fund for each category.
SIPs has been advantageous for investors.
Beginners in the field of investing and people who ever even thought of investing must have come across the term ‘SIP’. This term is so popular that it has over 1.3 lakh average monthly searches on Google.
So what is an SIP and how do SIPs in mutual funds work? We will explain you in some detail.
The full form of an SIP is systematic investment plan. Chanakya always insists on the importance of investing regularly and staggering your investments in equities.
Investing in mutual funds through the SIP route helps investors to average their cost of investments. Also, it helps in inculcating a habit of investing as each month, a portion of your salary/income is deducted from your account and invested. It also goes well with your money cycle – you earn every month, you spend every month and you invest every month.
An investor can choose a particular fund to invest in and set a particular amount that shall be deducted from the bank account on a specific date each month.
The investors have the option to choose the tenure of the SIPs while enrolling. What remains noteworthy is that each fund has a mandate of minimum number of instalments to be paid while enrolling for an SIP. This is generally six months for majority of funds.
Let us explain, How do SIPs work?
When an investor enrols for an SIP, a fixed amount is deducted from their bank account at a specified date each month. From this money, the units of the funds are purchased at the applicable NAV (net asset value) which then earn returns based on the portfolio of stocks that the funds hold. In case your SIP instalment is due on the days when the market is down, you are able to purchase more units of the fund. Likewise, if the market is on a rise, you buy lesser units. Hence, the cost of your investment is averaged out by investing through SIPs. It also helps you avoid capturing the market at a high.
Even when your SIPs stop, your investments continue to move in tandem with the market and the performance of the underlying securities. This continues until you decide to redeem your investments.
The gains on mutual fund investments are taxed only on redemption. One must note that for the purpose of calculating capital gains, the holding period is calculated separately for each unit on the basis of their SIP date. For the same, FIFO (first in first out) method is followed. As per this method, the units purchased first are deemed to be sold first.
For SIPs in equity funds, for each instalment that is held for more than 12 months, the capital gains beyond Rs 1 lakh are taxed at 10 per cent. For the ones sold within a year, they are taxed at 15 per cent.
STP can be a good way to mitigate market risks, help cap losses and increase investors’ portfolio returns in the long term. The period of the STP will depend on the investor’s financial goals. However, investors should ideally go for a longer-duration STP into an equity scheme as it would give higher returns in the long run if invested systematically.
How to choose STP ?
Asset management companies offer various types of STPs such as capital appreciation, variable and fixed. In capital appreciation, only the capital returns generated from the source fund are transferred to the destination fund. This type is gaining popularity as the markets were very volatile, especially since January this year. Alternatively, an investor can set up an STP mandate to book profits regularly from an equity fund and transfer the amount to a debt fund to mitigate the market volatility. It can even work well for retirement planning, where a fixed amount of money can be transferred from an equity fund to a debt fund over a period of time, say five years.
In a variable type, an investor can transfer different amounts from the source fund to the target fund depending on the market volatility. For example, if the net asset value (NAV) of the target fund drops due to market correction, then the amount can be increased. On the other hand, if the NAV gains because of the rise in markets, then the amount of investment can be lowered. In a fixed type, a predefined amount is transferred at the given frequency.
Do understand Tax implications
In case of STP, every transfer from a debt fund will be a redemption and attract capital gains tax. So, a redemption before three years will attract short term capital gains tax at the investor’s marginal rate. If the redemption is done after three years, the long-term capital gains tax will be 20% after indexation. Redemption from equity funds before one year will be taxed at 15%, and redemptions after one year will be taxed at 10% for gains over Rs 1 lakh in a financial year. So, evaluate the tax implications before setting the STP mandate.
In a step-up SIP, the investor can increase the contribution at periodic intervals as these are the best way to invest irrespective of the market conditions.The individuals should be wary about making lumpsum investments & they should look at step-up SIPs to gain from the rupee cost averaging and higher compounded returns in the long run.
Increasing the SIP is a good strategy where one can increase investments at regular intervals without disturbing present finances. It also helps you to target a higher corpus in a planned manner and invest more as your income grows over the years. This can be done in any form, by adding a new SIP or increasing the SIP amount. The idea should be to increase investment in funds that are working well for you from a long term perspective.
Nice Question. Most of the investors donot understand the difference between Global Funds and International funds.
International funds invest exclusively in outside of the country of origin. For example , if you are investor in India, then for you, International fund invests outside of India. Some international fund invest exclusively in USA, Some in ASEAN countries, like that. Some invest outside of Japan in other countries.
In Contrast, Global funds are permitted to invest anywhere in the world, including the country of origin eg even in India.
So with your investment in Global fund, you may find, your fund manager might have invested in Indian shares.and in your other investments also , you have invested in Indian stocks.
If you wish to invest in out of country, then international funds are best vehicle, because they offer a pure play on foreign stocks.
Mutual Fund Ratings are just Bakwas. When you donot want to do any research or study while doing your own investment, you take easy way to pick up a mutual funds only based on some ratings, by a website or by a magazine or by a newspapers.
With this , you are eliminating all the funds except one or two top performing funds. Before few years, we had no tools or systems to compare apple to apple comparison of funds, as we can do now.
While these ratings seem to be very useful, they cannot reflect various aspects of fund-performance. More over they are backward looking, measuring something which has already happened. However in financial investments, future trends are also important. Without such estimation Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala would not have picked up Titan Shares at just Rs. 20/30. Take recent examples of Quant Mutual fund. Look at their ratings they go a year before and look at their performance during last one year.
So Ratings are excuse, which many investors use not to do any study prior to their investments.
Sir, Thanks for question. We donot know about your age, other investments , other incomes etc, so precise answer to your quenstion is not possible and cannot suggest any fund now.
Nice question. Many of the mutual funds investors also would like to study our Guidance.
When you buy a mutual fund, you probably hope that its share price will increase over time,because that means your money is growing. But for many funds, it is the reinvestment of earnings that is the real power house. Mutual Fund earnings come from the dividends paid by the stocks . Funds also generate Capital gains and losses when a fund manager sells securities in the portfolio.
In a growth fund, the ability to reinvest income and capital gains automatically by buying additional shares is one of the clear advantage a growth fund offers. The bulk of the long term growth in the stock market comes from this reinvestment rather than from the stock-price appreciation.
Example : lets discuss HDFC Focused 30 Fund. The fund has earned 22.28 % pa returns during last3 years.If you reinvest the amount in this fund, then your reinvested incomes may also earn 22.28% returns in the future, which otherwise would have earned less amounts in FDRs or money market.
Nice and Interesting Question, Mr. Mehta
Last week, we had explained why you should not priorities a fund which has given impressive returns in last one year.Being an investor, you always want a fund that does what you expect it to do and do it repeatedly finishing among the top half among the funds in its category at least 4 years out of 5 years.
Do avoid a fund which perform erratically ( top in one year and bottom in the next) among its peers,even if the average performance is above average.
Your fund investment is just like a cricket team, which you will like to perform in top rank. erratic performance also indicate a fluke performance by the Fund manager,where higher earnings may just by luck. If the fund manager has real edge, then he would consistently pick good stocks.
for example : Axis Bluechip Direct-G
3 Yr Returns 16.78 %,
5 Yr Returns 15.06%,
7 Yr Returns 13.38%,
Returns since launch 15.70%
So here you find a fund which shows consistency in its performance , inspite of Rs. 35915 Cr managed by it.
You should Go for such funds.
Thanks Mr. Parmar for your interest. Soon, in just a week, we shall be starting YouTube sessions and simple questions and answers on Mutual funds. Do subscribe our Youtube channel
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