Is investment in mutual funds good at this point of time when the economic scenario is not looking up?

Ans: I have no doubt they will be. High interest rates tend to roil the equity markets in general, but we have a large number of structural reforms which are bearing fruits now in addition to some new businesses forming up, like defence, which were never any significant part of Indian economy. Add to it the good health of the banks and NBFCs, and we have a good likelihood of Indian equities doing fairly well, compared to rest of the world. And so would the equity mutual funds.

Ans: First of all as an investor and also managing your family finances, you need to answer following questions before deciding on which instrument you want to invest

1) Goal or financial goal or purpose of doing investment.
This will matter a lot as a goal of child education and retirement needs to see with different perspective and also should have asset allocation and market cap exposure accordingly.

2) Time Horizon of your goals- this is very important as it will help you to select the asset class and it's allocation based on your time period of financial goals. This is where investor makes biggest mistake of misalignment of asset time cycle and goals time period. If you allign this properly, your journey will be quite smooth.

3) Optimum Return expectations on your capital invested-
If you are saving and investing for some better future to fulfill your goals offcourse you will ask something in return which should be respectable higher returns than inflation for long term period( more than 7 years). If you are investing in India than equity return assumptions and calculations should be based on 12% return expectations and debt it should be 6.5%. Remember that you should assume practical return assumptions ( not the highest or what your friend says) as you can put any number in the excel sheet for your mental satisfaction😃

4) Risk taken on your capital-
Risk is a very negative word being taken in india but actually it's the risk appetite and risk acceptance of an investor which makes his outcome/ returns favourable. Understand one thing that if you want high returns you have to assume high risk and there is no option for it or an investor has to be happy with sub optimal returns if he is not ready to take risk.

Risk according to me is the capacity of a person until where and when he will not have any palpation in his stomach and he can absorb the downside easily( both realised and majority of time unrealised).

You should remember one thing that after deciding on above parameters, TIME IN THE MARKET IS MORE IMPORTANT RATHER THAN TIMING THE MARKET. As an investor, wealth is created over a period of decade and have your allocation to equity accordingly and enjoy the journey of markets which is going to be up and down.

After looking at all these parameters you can think of taking allocations to equity mutual funds and decide how much allocation to equity mutual funds is comfortable to you. If you dont have any prior expertise in investing in mutual funds or equity markets, its better to hire an advisor to help you do that or start with allocation in Equity Diversified mutual funds which will help you to take exposure in stocks.

And after all that, i would say it's your behaviour and emotions management which will help you create wealth in the equity market.

I hope this helps. Happy investing

Ans: Hello Ramji and thanks for writing to me.

Please provide some details like your investment horizon, risk appetite and goals for me to make a recommendation.

Ans: I understand you're seeing some scary stuff about the stock market lately. It's true, things can get bumpy sometimes. But here's the thing - mutual funds are built for ups and downs!

Think of it like this: if you're on a long road trip, there will be sunshine and maybe some rain showers too. You wouldn't pull over every time it rained, would you? The same goes for investing. Short-term dips are part of the ride.

Here's why pulling out now might not be the best idea:

Missing the rebound: The market has a history of bouncing back after downturns. If you sell when things are low, you might miss out on the good times ahead.
Locking in losses: If you sell your mutual funds now, any decline you've seen becomes a real loss. Holding on gives your investments a chance to recover.
If you're worried, talk to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) like me. We can help you review your investment goals and make sure your mix of funds is right for you. Remember, a bumpy road doesn't mean you're lost, it just means you're on an adventure!

Best Regards,
K. Ramalingam, MBA, CFP,
Chief Financial Planner,
www.holisticinvestment.in