Investing Insights

Hybrid Mutual Funds - Decoded

SEBI’s recent recategorization move has resulted in the creation of 36 “categories” of Mutual Funds, each with iron-tight definitions that are impossible to manipulate. In the long run, this stands to benefit investors as they will know exactly what they’re getting into while investing their hard-earned money! Here are the 6 sub-categories of “Hybrid” Mutual Funds, along with a short note on who exactly this category of Mutual Fund is “Sahi” for!

3 things you didn’t know about Mutual Fund SIP investments

Mutual Fund SIPs are gaining immense popularity, with investments crossing the ?7,000 crore mark. But before you dive in, there are key aspects to understand. This blog explores why low returns in the early years aren’t necessarily bad, how volatility can work in your favor, and how some SIPs even offer free life insurance. Read on to make the most of your SIP investments!

One-on-one meeting between a client and financial advisor, illustrating essential questions to ask your financial advisor for better financial planning.

3 Questions to ask your Financial Advisor

A good Financial Advisor helps you stay on track with your financial goals, manage risks, and optimize your investments. This blog highlights three essential questions to ask your advisor—ensuring your finances are well-planned, protected, and free from underperforming assets. Read on to make smarter financial decisions and secure your future.

Top-down view of a workspace with financial documents, calculator, laptop, and a person using a smartphone, symbolizing disciplined financial planning habits

5 Financial Planning Habits of Wealthy Investors

Ever wondered how the wealthy approach their day to day Financial Planning? Although the rich are a varied bunch when it comes to their personal traits, there are in fact a few money habits that can be considered fairly common amongst them. Some of them might surprise you.

Graduation cap placed on top of US dollar bills, symbolising the cost of college education and financial planning for a child’s future.

Can you Afford your Child’s College Education?

“Sending ones children to a good college” consistently ranks as one of the top financial goals for most Indian parents. No wonder a plethora of financial products exist that specifically target this goal. However, with rising education costs, a good college degree is unlikely to come cheap in the years to come. Unless one is very wealthy and sitting on large savings, it becomes nearly impossible to have the required money ready in time without having a robust plan in place. Unfortunately, recent research has shown that more than 75% of Indian parents wish they had started saving for their children’s college fund earlier than they did. Given that the quality of your child’s education will make a significant difference to his or her future earnings and career growth prospects, it’s no wonder that this becomes a ‘top of the mind’ priority for all parents.

What is Retirement Planning?

For most of us, Retirement Planning isn’t something we take seriously until we hit our mid-forties. One fine day, we get up realising we’ve got less than a decade and a half left until we hang up our work boots, and panic sets in! Since we no longer have time on our side, we end up making massive lifestyle compromises in order to put together a corpus that’s sizeable enough to help us pull through our non-earning years. Needles to say, this isn’t an enviable position to find yourself in.

Digital graphic with the text save tax and a scissors icon on a blue background, illustrating how to optimize tax-saving mutual fund investments.

3 Ways to Make Your Tax Saving Mutual Funds Work for You

Tax Saving. For most of us, these two words are like music to our ears! In fact, a big part of the unchecked proliferation of Life Insurance Products may be attributed to our collective obsession with financial instruments that lead to tax saving gains.

Low SIP returns? Don’t worry!

AMFI’s impactful and far reaching “Mutual Funds Sahi Hai” successfully drew thousands of first time Mutual Fund investors into the fold in the past three years. Emboldened by healthy past returns, a large number of these investors took the SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) route. Unfortunately for them, SIP returns haven’t quite been hunky dory in the past couple of years. The large majority of Mutual Fund SIP investors who began investing last year are sitting on flat to marginally negative returns and having to wrestle with creeping doubts.

Two professionals in a business meeting reviewing financial charts and a tablet on a desk, with a pen, glasses, and a glass of water in the foreground, representing financial advice and planning.

How to Choose a Great Financial Advisor

Everyone’s a Financial Advisor these days: your Insurance Agent, your Chartered Accountant, your Bank Manager, your Real Estate Agent, and if the markets turn bullish ahead of the general elections, it’s likely that your local ‘paanwalla’ will become a self-style Financial Advisor too!

What are Robo Advisors and How do They Work?

Globally, the market for robo-advisory services is growing rapidly, and experts believe that the Indian market will follow suit in due course. According to a recent Business Insider Intelligence forecast, robo-advisers will manage investment products worth $1 trillion by 2020 globally, which will go up to $4.6 trillion by as early as 2022. That’s a massive degree of acceleration! As an investor, it’s vital that you know what Robo Advisory platforms are, and how they work.

Illustration highlighting common mutual fund misconceptions retirees should avoid, showing a retiree choosing between myths and facts for smarter retirement investment decisions.

Top Mutual Fund Misconceptions Retirees Should Avoid

The cumulative Assets Under Management (AUM) of Indian Mutual Funds may have gone past the 22 Lakh Crore (22 Trillion) rupee mark recently, but anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of Mutual Fund investment related misbeliefs still abound. Here are three common ones to watch out for.

Retirement Planning: Generating Income Through SWP's

New retirees typically face the common dilemma of how best to generate retirement income from their hard-won savings. Should they purchase an annuity, opt for a post office monthly income plan, buy real estate and earn rental incomes, or for that matter – just be content with earning FD interest? But did you know that even for post-retirement income generation, Mutual Funds Sahi Hai? In fact, Mutual Fund SWP’s (Systematic Withdrawal Plans) represent one of the simplest, most tax-efficient and high yielding income generation methods available today.