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Ans: You can look at a mix of Large, Mid & Small-cap funds and decide on the mix based on your risk appetite. You can also park the funds in a debt fund and do a systematic transfer into an equity fund. Some Large-cap funds to mention are Nippon India Largecap fund & Mirae largecap fund. In the mid-cap category one may look at HDFC Mid-cap and SBI mid-cap funds. In the small-cap category one may look at ICICI Small-cap and Kotak small-cap funds.

Ans: The whole income will get added up. However, the freelancing income can be treated as income from business and profession and accordingly you can show relevant expenses that are attributable to this income or to run the freelancing business. Probably you are referring to the Tax deducted at Source (TDS). Note that TDS only only the deduction at source.. you would need to compute the tax while filing your return, show the TDS paid and arrive at the balance tax payable.

Ans: It is better to reinvest your FD into MF’s since you have 10 Years to retirement. You can look at a mix of Large, Mid & Small-cap funds with a higher ratio to Large & Midcap funds with a systematic transfer plan(STP) mode or one time. Some Large-cap funds to mention are Nippon India Largecap fund, ICICI Bluechip fund & Mirae Largecap fund. In the mid-cap category one may look at HDFC Mid-cap and SBI mid-cap funds. In the small-cap category one may look at ICICI Small-cap and Kotak small-cap funds. Small-cap funds can be through STPs through manage risk better. You are likely to build up a corpus of around Rs 4 cr.

Ans: You can have your SIPs into various categories- Large, Multi, Mid and Small Cap funds. You can have a higher allocation to Large-cap & mid-cap funds since you have a moderate risk profile. Some Large-cap funds to mention are ICICI Bluechip Fund & Mirae Asset Largecap Fund. In the Multicap/Flexicap category we can look at Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund/Nippon India Multicap. In the mid-cap category one may look at HDFC Mid-cap and SBI mid-cap Funds. In the Small Cap category, you can use Nippon India Small Cap Fund.

Ans: I am not clear on your risk profile. You can look to divide your investment between Large, Multi & Mid Cap funds with the mix depending on your risk profile. You can have a higher allocation to Large-cap & mid-cap funds if you have a moderate risk profile. Some Large-cap funds to mention are ICICI Bluechip Fund & Mirae Asset Largecap Fund. In the Multicap category we can look at Nippon India Multicap Fund. In the mid-cap category one may look at HDFC Mid-cap and SBI mid-cap Funds. If you have a higher risk appetite, you can add a Small Cap Fund, through a systematic transfer route.

Ans: You can relook at your investments in ICICI Commodities fund - sectoral funds are ones to be looked at only if you are able to track the industry cycles. Quant Small-cap fund is a high-risk fund style investing and one would need to keep it for the long term. You may look at adding a few Large-cap funds to your portfolio which is missing in your segment mix.

Ans: I hope that your job loss has not affected you emotionally. I see that you are close to your retirement age! One good thing to know is that you do not have any loans outstanding. On the other hand, you still have some responsibilities in your kid’s education apart from taking care of monthly expenses. Ideally, your investments should have covered your kid’s education expense annually given you have 1.30 cr in FD’s. However, if you continue to significantly depend on FDs, you may not be able to achieve your goals- as your returns would not beat inflation on a post tax basis.
At the same time, you are nearing retirement age, which makes you ideally risk conservative. As a first step, I would suggest you move some of your FDs to dynamic asset allocation funds like ICICI Balanced Advantage Fund. Part of your portfolio you can use Large Cap and Flexicap/Multicap funds. Second step is if you can look at some sources of earning to at least cover household expenses for a few years. Your can get it reviewed and see if it is delivering returns in line with managed funds. If not, you can move some of this also to managed funds.
A combination of looking for sources of income, and improving your returns will help you in this journey. One backup you have is that of a reverse mortgage on your house to take care of your expenses.

Ans: It is good to diversify your investments. Especially for long term requirements like retirement, PMS could be an option for you to consider.

Ans: This would depend on whether your company has a company car policy.

Ans: The benefits of investing through a Distributor are you get advice and handholding, you can leverage the experience of the distributor and their research which could also result in higher performance for a good distributor. The negatives of investing through a distributor are higher costs and potential conflict of interest where the distributor could choose a higher remunerative product for him.
You also have the option of using direct funds and appointing a Registered Investment Advisor which would take out conflict of interest.
You may find that a good distributor/advisor could add value beyond the lower cost that direct funds offer.

Ans: PF withdrawals in cases where contribution is not made for a continuous period of 5 years is subject to tax. If there was a previous organization you worked for, you can consolidate the same and if the period crosses 5 years, it will be tax free.

Ans: You can check your bank account details, IFSC code, etc for its accuracy at the time of filing your returns. If it is correct, you can go to the e-filing portal and raise a service request for a refund re-issue by submitting necessary information required by the portal.

Ans: First, of all it is good to know that capital intensive goals like fixed assets and loans are completed. You have planned your finances well. My responses are below:
• The Funds listed by you have performed reasonably well
• Currently, most of your portfolio is Equity oriented and are high risk. This is ok, but it is good to have some money on debt options. This has not been provided by you, so cannot comment.
• An assumption of 12% annualized returns over a period of 14 Years looks a little overstretched if one considers having a good mix of Equity, Debt and Gold in the portfolio. Your current SIP’s fall a little short of achieving INR 7 crore over 14 Years with 12% annualized returns. You could increase this on a yearly basis as your income goes up and you should be fine. Over the years, you can also increase the mix of Debt and Gold.
• Another question one needs to ask is whether the Corpus of INR 7 crore is enough assuming that one is planning for retirement. Our retirement models show that this kind of Corpus might be sufficient to cover monthly expenses of approximately INR 1.5-1.6 lacs in today’s scenario. The standard of living varies from person to person, so you can assess based on these inputs.

Ans: Typically, you can have about 6-8 active funds. Too many funds do not help in diversification as each fund is already diversified.

Ans: There is a process to rematerialize your MF units that are in demat. You need to submit the rematerialization request form to your DP with required documents.

Ans: Markets do provide a good compounding in the long term. Removing your profits would mean you would miss out on the compounding. However, profit booking to manage risk, can be a good strategy, but may not be easy for most investors to be able to identify such points. A profit booking linked to valuations (like the P/E ratio) can be more effective.

Ans: Tax saver funds are the schemes that helps investor save tax under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961, but have a lock-in period of 3 years. Hence, you can reduce your contributions to tax savings fund to the extent you need the deduction. It is also suggested to change the option from IDCW to Growth from a taxation standpoint. You can continue to invest in HDFC TOP 100 Fund and it is also suggested to change the option from IDCW to Growth module. Further, you can evaluate adding a midcap fund if you have the risk appetite.

Ans: It is very difficult to generalise, without understanding your risk profile. You can use a combination of large, mid and small cap funds. Large cap funds like Nippon India Largecap/HDFC Top 100, Midcap funds like HDFC Midcap and SBI Magnum Midcap and small cap funds like Sundaram Small Cap

Ans: As a retired individual looking to invest a substantial amount in mutual funds, it's important to consider your risk tolerance, investment goals, and time horizon. While mutual funds can offer potentially higher returns compared to fixed deposits (FDs), they also carry a certain level of risk based on the category of funds you choose. We suggest a combination of equity, hybrid and debt funds based on your risk appetite. For a 9-10% pre tax return, you can have about 25%-30% in equity, 30-35% in hybrid funds and 35-45% in debt. Within the hybrid category, you can use dynamic asset allocation funds significantly. Within equity, you can use a combination of large cap, flexicap and micap fund.

Ans: It’s a great that you’re planning for your financial future by investing SIPs and aiming for a sustainable corpus. To reach your goal of Rs. 1 crore you might need to consider increasing monthly SIP contributions. You would need to move your contributions to about 30K per month to start with and make an annual increase of about 10%. You can recaliberate the amounts based on your comfort.
You have mentioned only the fund house name and not the scheme name and hence I cannot comment on the same.

Ans: Yes, you can very much do the same. You can look for a Registered Investment Advisor. As per regulations also, such advisors need to advice on direct funds. You can mutually fix a fee with the advisor.

Ans: Not clear what your query is.

Ans: You can raise a request online for the same on the EPFO website.

Ans: If you do not need the money, you can keep it for the long term. While there maybe intermediate corrections, in the long term the equity markets will continue to do well if the economy does well. You can use an advisor to help you through the journey.

Ans: On demise, the nominee will get the mutual fund investments. However, the nominee only holds it "in trust" till the legal heir claims it. You can discuss with a lawyer and take this up accordingly.

Ans: Firstly, aggressive hybrid funds are an option to use for child's education if one wants to be conservative Vs investing in a pure equity fund. There are better funds in the category to consider including ICICI Pru Equity and Debt Fund. HDFC Children's growth is also an option.
However, I think keeping in mind the tenure, one can set aside part of the money into Large Cap, Large & Midcap Funds and even Multicap Funds. This will potentially increase the return. As one comes closer to the requirement, one can start moving out of these funds including more conservative dynamic asset allocation funds.

Ans: Nippon India Tax Saver has not been a very consistent performer. It has done well considering a 3 year period, but on a 5 year basis and 1 year there are better performing funds in the ELSS segment like SBI LT Equity, HDFC Tax Saver and Kotak Tax Saver that you can choose from if you want to diversify.
If you are in the higher tax bracket, dividend may not be a good option due to the taxability of dividends.

Ans: The following deductions remain under the new tax regime: standard deduction, Interest on Home Loan for a let out property, employer's contribution to NPS, contributions to Agniveer Corpus Fund.
Exemption of leave encashment is also available under the New Regime.

Ans: This means that this has been cancelled and extinguished based on the CIRP Resolution. Typically, in such resolutions, the creditors itself end up taking a hair cut (partial write off of loan). Thus there is nothing left for equity shareholders.

Ans: Yes.. one needs to have a demat account to sell/transfer the shares.

Ans: This will completely differ from person to person. One way of doing it is to look at you current monthly expenses and index that for inflation.
You can arrive at the capital required by computing the present value of the future cash flows (monthly income needed).

Ans: You can approach the registrar of the bond. They may also find it difficult without being able to provide any details of your investment to them.

Ans: While both are MNC companies and have done well in the past, I prefer you instead gift a diversified equity mutual fund. The fund would manage the underlying stocks and provide better diversification than a 2 stock portfolio.

Ans: You can consider a home loan. I am assuming that this house will help you save Rs 18,700 in rent. (Rs 2.24Lpa). Vs this on the Rs 40L downpayment you will lose FD interest of Rs 3.2L pre tax (FD at 7% and Equity at 15% assumed) which works out to only Rs 2.29L post tax on the FD interest. Further you would now get tax deduction on your home loan of Rs 2L pa. You would lose HRA benefit. (You need to compute this based on various HRA conditions). You tax saving on home loan is definitely going to be higher.
Thus, the home loan is beneficial to you from a tax saving basis and based on your current circumstances. However, you need to consider other factors like your repayment capacity of your EMI on home loan and also its impact on your savings into stocks, MF, etc. for the future.

Ans: I would believe this is very difficult to transfer onto your name as you have lost the original transfer deed. The only way that I can think is for you to work with the legal heirs of the seller and get a fresh transfer deed done.

Ans: A rent agreement is required to avail of HRA. Please work with your landlord to get this agreement executed.

Ans: Your mother can register herself as a legal heir on the income tax website and then file the returns and pay the required tax as a representative of your father. You can invest in capital gains bonds (of REC, NHAI, etc) upto Rs 50L before 6 months from the date of sale of the property.

Ans: You can continue the PRAN under the All Citizen of India sector. You need to submit the Inter Sector Shifting (ISS-1) Form to the POP-SP of your choice. Subsequently if you change your job and join an organization registered under NPS, you can continue the PRAN by submitting the CS-S3 form by the Corporate which you join.

Ans: This is a fund focused on the Technology Sector which has been weak due to the steep correction in Nasdaq. One needs to understand the risks associated with sectoral funds. Ideally, investors who are able to make active calls of entry and exit of sectors only should invest in such funds. Now that you have invested, I would suggest you can wait for a rally in the sector and then exit and move to a diversified equity fund.

Ans: You can check if you are receiving the NSDL Common Account Statement (CAS) or you can trigger a CAS statement from CAMS or Karvy. However, this would be only if your PAN Number was updated for the MF schemes.

Ans: Your query is not very clear. To create a wealth value of Rs 25 lakh, it would depend on the return that you get. At a 6% return, you need to invest Rs 15,255 per month. Similarly, at 8% return, you need 13,665 per month. At 10%: Rs 12,204 per month; and at 12%: Rs 10,867 per month.
I suggest you use an SIP in a children's gift fund or a dynamic asset allocation fund like ICICI Pru Balanced Advantage Fund

Ans: You would need to register for GST if you cross the threshold.
Today, technology makes it easier for govt agencies to get this information. You run a larger risk of penalties in case non compliance is discovered by the department. Anyways you can raise bills with GST and collect it from your clients.

Ans: It is always better to get the property transmitted in your name with registration at the registrar's office. This will avoid difficulties for your family.

Ans: I suggest you start an SIP in a children's gift fund or a dynamic asset allocation fund like ICIC Pru Balanced Advantage Fund. If you are ok with taking a higher risk, you can also use an equity fund for the SIP.

Ans: If your wife is the sole holder in both, there is no implication. However, if you are the first holder in the joint account- you can transfer the shares, but it can be considered to be a gift or sale for consideration based on how you want to execute it.

Ans: The registration duty is typically at a minimum of the guidance value/circle rate. The entire payment can be carried out through a bank transfer/cheque or by Demand Draft. You should take the opinion of an expert on property matters.

Ans: The data you have given is not sufficient. Hence a generic response to you:
- Ideally, you should do a financial plan to map all your needs including that of your daughters education/marriage and your retirement at least.
- Invest as much as you can on a monthly basis. Your retirement is not really far away and needs are also likely to overlap with your retirement age.
- Do take sufficient life cover since you have dependents.
- SIPs are a good way to invest. You can invest in a combination of large and midcap funds. As you come closer to retirement or your needs, you can derisk your investments.
- Take care of your tax planning and make investments that will both optimise your tax and grow your wealth.

Ans: If the property was registered in joint names, then you can take the same equally in both account. However, keep in mind that if the source of funds at the time of investment was not out of your wife's earnings, it can trigger the provisions of clubbing income with you.

Ans: Ideally one can invest about 20% of your income. You dont need tax saving investments now, and hence you can start investing in SIPs. A more conservative way to start since this would be your first time is to invest into a dynamic asset allocation fund like ICICI Pru Balanced Advantage Fund.

Ans: You can get it from the nearest EPFO office. The online link on the EPFO portal was not working when I tried.