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Investing in Gold Online - Digital Gold

In today's time when we can do every other transaction online then why not invest in Gold. Almost all the wallets and payment portals let you invest in 1 gram 99.99% finesse gold.

What is Digital Gold:

Digital Gold is relatively new in the market. It is a simple way to buy and sell gold instantly. With physical gold one has to save enough, go to the store and buy the same. In physical gold, you either buy it as jewelry or coins. Digital Gold as the name suggests can be bought online in digital form online. The same is in your online account. You will have to sell the same to buy gold jewelry, coins or get cash in return.

How to buy Digital Gold

You can get digital gold via any of the following portals:

  1. GooglePay
  2. Paytm
  3. Phone Pe
  4. HDFC Securities
  5. Motilal Oswal Securities
  6. Stock Holding Corporations of India

Where is your Gold kept?

You gold is stored in vaults of MMTC-PAMP tagged in your name. MMTC - PAMP is a joint venture between Switzerland based bullion brand, PAMP SA, and MMTC Ltd, a Government of India Undertaking.

Features:

  1. A customer using either of the two platforms can buy 24 Karat / 999 fineness gold.
  2. Some of these portals allow you to buy gold with a minimum value of INR ONE.
  3. You can buy & sell gold anytime even on public holidays and weekends.
  4. There is a limit of tenure up to which you can invest in digital gold after that you can either convert it to jewelry or cash.
  5. It is important to keep your account with these portals active - Paytm has a time period of 6 months. Without any transactions for 6 months your account is inactive.
  6. Non-cancellation - Once you have placed a transaction (buy or sell) on these platforms, you cannot cancel the same.

What to do with digital gold

You can use your digital gold to buy gold jewelry with partner jewelers of the portals you are using to buy digital gold, sell and get cash on prevailing rates or get gold coins in return.

However, the price at which a customer can sell the digital gold back to Paytm is slightly less than the price at which he can buy the gold, says Hegde. This is due to various transaction-related costs including taxes, bank charges for processing your payment, technology costs and hedging costs since the market prices may fluctuate between a customer placing an order and MMTC-PAMP buying the gold. Similar costs are involved while selling of gold by MMTC-PAMP, too, when a customer sells gold on the Paytm. The same must be rechecked with other portals as well.

It is important that you check the costs that you have to bear when you sell your digital gold for cash or the making charges for coins and any other charges that may be applicable.

Is digital gold safe?

There has been some debate around it being a safe investment option or what guarantee does an investor have?  One of the biggest risks of investing in digital gold is that it is not regulated yet. All these platforms - Paytm, Phone Pe, Google pay and others act as a platform or payment portals to help you buy gold which is safely kept with MMTC PAMP, it is not with these portals. Hence, it is very important to know where and how you are investing because if tomorrow any of these portals, you as an investor should have a redressal system in place to go to or approach MMTC PAMP directly. There are some grey areas on this right now. The convenience of investing in gold through these portals comes at a cost and you must be aware of the same.

Wealth Cafe actionable - Digital gold is a very interesting new addition to the world of investing in gold and it allows you to invest in smaller proportions in gold. However, there are more regulated means of investing in gold where the risk is relatively less.  

 

Alternative Assets - 09/04/2019
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Sovereign Gold Bonds

Global gold prices have risen 20% in the last one year and are reaching a new high of approximately 39,000 INR.

Gold, typically, flourishes as a safe haven in times of uncertainty, where people are unsure of the movements in the Equity /Debt Markets. India is not immune to these conditions. “A number of global issues have surfaced such as the Iran conflict and trade wars, and gold serves as a store of value in such situations. With investor interest rising in the yellow metal, we tell you about some of the options available for investing.

Instead of going for physical gold investments, there are other ways of investing in gold like the Sovereign Gold Bonds, Golds Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Gold Monetisation Scheme, Indian Gold Coins, and Mutual Funds.

With the intent to provide gold-like returns, along with some interest, the government has launched the Sovereign GoldBond Scheme. Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) were
introduced in tranches. The first tranche was offered in November 2015. In the financial year 2019-20, four tranches of SGBs will be issued every month from June 2019 to September 2019.

Price of SGB - The price of the Gold Bond is linked to Gold Prices. If the gold prices go up, then your bond value will increase and if not, then another way around. Gold Bonds are issued in multiples of 1 gram of gold. You can hold these bonds in paper physical form. The risks and costs of storage are eliminated. The risks and costs of storage are eliminated.SGBs bonds are free from issues like making charges and purity. These bonds are held in the Demat form, eliminating the risk of loss of scrip.

Interest Payments - Given that these are bonds i.e paper form of gold investments, an interest of 2.5% is paid semi-annually on the initial amount of investment. This Interest is taxable.

Eligibility - Restricted for sale to resident Indian entities, including individuals, HUFs (Hindu undivided families), trusts, universities, charitable institutions.

Investment Amount - Investors are required to buy a minimum of one gm of gold. The maximum limit that can be subscribed is four KG of gold for an individual in a financial year.

Tenure - The bond is of eight-year with an option to exit after the fifth year onwards. However, gold bonds can be transferred to the stock market.

Taxation - Capital gain tax arising on the redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted. The indexation benefit will be provided to LTCG arising to any person on the transfer of bonds.

Where & How to Buy - Gold bonds can be bought through banks, post offices and the Stock Holding Corporation of India. They are available both in Demat and paper forms. Know-your-customer (KYC) norms are the same as those for the purchase of physical gold.

The main objective of the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme is to reduce the demand for gold in the physical form by encouraging people to buy it in the paper form. The rate of interest for 2019–20 is fixed at 2.50 percent per year, payable on a halfyearly basis.

Wealth Cafe Actionable - Gold Bonds are a great form of Investments for individuals who want to make long term 'Investment' in gold for a period of more than 5 years and do not want to go through the hassle of purity, safety, and other risks.

Alternative Assets - 09/04/2019
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Public Provident Fund (PPF) - Things to note

Public provident fund (PPF) is a tax-free investment product that comes with a tenure of 15 years. You need to make the periodic investment to PPF every year and the minimum you can invest is ₹500 going up to ₹1.5 lakh a year. You can choose to invest a lump sum amount in the year or invest a sum every month. You can hold a PPF account in your name or even open one in the name of a minor but together the contributions can’t exceed ₹1.5 lakh.

PPF’s returns are pegged to the average government securities (G-secs) yield and are declared every quarter. Currently, it offers a rate of 8% per annum.

You can maximize your return by investing early in the year as then your money will earn interest for the entire year.

Being a tax-free product, the contributions up to ₹1.5 lakh qualify for a tax deduction under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. A deduction reduces your overall tax liability.

PPF accounts can be opened in banks or post offices, but you need to be a resident Indian.

Things to Note (lesser known facts of PPF)

1. Opening PPF accounts in joint names: Everybody knows that opening PPF accounts in joint names is not allowed. However, parents are allowed to open a PPF account on behalf of a minor child. In case both parents are not alive or a living parent is incapable of acting, then a court-appointed guardian is eligible to open an account on behalf of a minor. But while parents are allowed to open accounts on behalf of minors, both parents can’t open two separate accounts on behalf of the same minor. When the minor attains majority, then they will be treated as the account holder of PPF and not the legal guardian.

2. A PPF account cannot be attached: The money in the PPF account is yours and nobody can take it away. Yes, a PPF account cannot be attached by a person or entity to pay off any debt or liability. This is the gold standard of safety of an asset. Do remember our homes, if taken on a mortgage, can be taken away if we fail to pay the EMIs. But in case of PPF money, even a court order or decree cannot make a person liable to pay off her/his debts using the money from her/his PPF account. This is great protection for millions of PPF account holders. There is one caveat though — the Income Tax authority is free to attach and recover the dues of an account holder.

3. Nomination of nominees: PPF allows you to nominate more than one person. You can nominate one or more nominees to your PPF account if you so wish. The nomination is not allowed to an account opened on behalf of minors. You can change or cancel the nomination at any point of time during the PPF account period, but do note that you cannot nominate a trust to your PPF account. But being the nominee does not mean you will be allowed to continue the account. All the nominee gets is the right of ownership in terms of an authority to collect the money on the death of the subscriber and retain the money as a trustee for the benefit of the persons who are entitled to it under the law.

4. Misunderstanding about lock-in period:  As per the PPF scheme rules, the date of calculation of maturity is taken from the end of the financial year in which the deposit was made. So, it does not matter in which month or date the account was opened. If your first contribution was made on June 1, 2018. The lock-in period of 15 years will be calculated from March 31, 2019, and the year of maturity, in this case, will be April 1, 2034. Do remember this technicality if you are counting on your PPF account maturity sum for an important time-sensitive financial event, like retirement or buying a house or repaying an important loan.

5. Discontinuation of PPF account: Some investors often forget their PPF account. Lack of minimum deposit can lead to discontinuation. If your PPF account is discontinued, you will still get the amount along with interest, but only at maturity. Such a discontinued account will earn interest every year till maturity is reached on the balance available for each year. Even withdrawal or loan facility is not allowed on such a discontinued account. If you want to avail loan or withdrawal facility, you will have to continue the account by paying the prescribed penalty and minimum subscription for the discontinued period. These rules tell you that you should do everything in your power not to let your PPF account become a discontinue done. Keep a note of the account and invest the minimum amount every year.

Wealth Cafe tip - If you do not have an Employee provident fund or not using your EPF for retirement goals and are looking to invest for long term goals like retirement, PPF is a great option. It gives tax savings, security, and good interest rates.

 

Investments / Tax - 08/05/2019
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Overnight Funds - What, When and Why to Invest in them

Overnight Funds are the least risky mutual funds. They are less risky than the Liquid Mutual Funds as well.

This is a type of debt fund with practically no interest rate fluctuation risk and credit rating risk and low credit default risk. Overnight Funds are like investing in your savings bank account with slightly higher returns. This money can be part of your emergency fund or just money that you want to keep aside for a while for whatever reason without worrying about gains.

What is an overnight Mutual Fund work?

It is a debt mutual fund that invests in bonds that mature in one day! So at the start of each business day, the entire AUM would be in cash, overnight bonds would be purchased, they will mature the next business day, the fund manager would take the cash and buy more overnight bonds and so on. So each the NAV increase just a little bit due to the interest income.

Interest Rate Risk - If a bond matures the next business day, its price will not be affected if RBI changes the (overnight) interest rate. Next day, your bonds mature and you will buy new overnight bonds at the new rate.

Credit Rating Risk - If the credit rating of the bond issuer changes, the bond price will not be affected as your bond will mature the next day.

Default Risk -  There is a risk only if the issuer of the bond absconds with your money or refuses to pay up: credit default risk.  To manage this risk, there is collateral from the bond issuer. However, not fully covered, it still offers some protection for this risk.

In what product do these funds invest in?

Overnight funds invest in debt instruments with one day to maturity. When the bonds mature, the fund reinvests the proceeds in the next set of one-day instruments. The risk from default or fall in value within a day is negligible. Typically, the funds invest in collateralized borrowing and lending agreements (CBLO), a short term borrowing facility backed by securities of the central government through which mutual funds lend to banks and others, and reverse repos. Both of these are protected from credit risk since they are backed by collateral securities. The schemes may also invest in money market instruments such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial papers with residual maturity of not more than a day. If the interest rate for the day is high, the returns from overnight funds are up and vice-versa, with no impact on the value of the securities.

Who should choose overnight funds?

Anyone who wants to park money with the least amount of risk without worrying about returns.

A business owner who has a current account and thus, does not earn any interest on the cash lying in his/her account can invest in overnight funds to make some gains on their working capital.

Liquid Funds or Overnight Funds

Liquid funds holding securities with the highest credit quality will still earn better returns than overnight funds given that they hold securities with 25-30 days to maturity, while overnight funds cater to the need for a liquid investment with negligible risk for investors looking to park their funds for very short periods of time (a day maybe). 

Many liquid funds allow investors to withdraw up to ₹50,000 instantly, and offers useful online features, looking for a steady short-term ride or parking funds for your emergency needs - liquid funds are still preferable.

However, recently SEBI has announced certain changes where they have said there will be an exit load associated with liquid funds. However, the exact % and the impact of it is not yet announced. Once that is there, the investor will have to take an overall call based on the returns and the cost of investment.

Wealth Cafe Actionable - If you can manage a little risk, invest in overnight funds every Friday and withdraw the same on Monday earning gains over the weekend.

Mutual Funds - 07/11/2019
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What is SWP? How it works?

What is a Systematic Withdrawal Plan?

Systematic Withdrawal Plan is used to redeem your investment from a mutual fund scheme in a phased manner. Unlike lump-sum withdrawals, SWP enables you to withdraw money in installments. It can be viewed as the opposite of SIP. In SIP, you channelize your bank account savings into the preferred mutual fund scheme. Whereas in SWP, you channelize your investments from the scheme to the savings bank account. It is one of the strategies to deal with market fluctuations.

With the Systematic Withdrawal Plan, you can customize the cash flow as per your requirement. You can choose to either withdraw just the capital gains on your investment or a fixed amount. This way you will not only have your money still invested in the scheme, but you will also be able to access regular income and returns. The money that you withdraw can be used to reinvest in some other fund or can be retained by you in the form of cash.

Types of SWP -

There are 2 types of SWP

  1. Fixed SWP - where a fixed sum is withdrawn from the mutual fund on the set date, irrespective of the fund's performance, hence, this method can erode your capital when the fund has not performed very well.
  2. Appreciation SWP - where only the gains (appreciation) that have happened in the scheme are redeemed on the set SWP date. Avoiding erosion of capital but can lead to erratic numbers each month.

How does SWP work?

An SWP gives surety of a stable payout to the investors at predetermined intervals. This implies that at some stage the investments will be completely repaid along with the gains in the hand of a mutual fund investor.

Hence, an investor is assured of getting a fixed amount at his/her pre-determined frequency through an SWP.

  • If the fund’s performance is good, the SWP will last longer.
  • If the performance is poor, it’ll finish sooner.
  • If your annual withdrawal is less than what the fund generates every year, you can continue earning from this mutual fund forever.

Why do I need to set up an SWP?

  • Manage the market risk  - SWP like SIP helps you to reduce your market volatility risk by averaging your return over a period of time. If you withdraw/deposit lumpsum amount at a given point of time, you are bearing the risk of markets going up or down after that. Through SWP, you are distributing it over a period of time. Where the markets are up, you make higher gains and vice versa. SWP is automatically doing that for you, you do not have to keep a continuous tab on the market.

Just as Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) avoid market risk at the time of investment, SWPs lower market risk at the time of redemption.

  • Regular Income for your family on retirement or otherwise - For retirees with huge corpus and need for regular income, SWP is a great option. Through this, the retirees can invest in mutual funds and set up SWP  equivalent to the amount they need each month for their regular expenses.
  • The second stream of income - For someone who wants additional income each month and has a large corpus that they have invested. SWP can work as a good option.
  • Reduced Taxation as compared to the dividend option - the redemption from SWP is taxable based on the mutual fund - debt or equity. Each SWP gains are taxable. However, even the dividends that you shall receive from the dividend option mutual funds are taxable. Hence, it is important to consider the tax impact before taking an investment decision.

Spreading investment over the right time period is the key. The STP can be done over a time period of three to four months or across several years. Investors are frequently at a loss as to how many monthly installments to break up the investments into. Since there is no underlying inflow as in the case of a salary that feeds a SIP, this is entirely at the discretion of the investor.

Consider the example of someone who came into R20 lakh in December 2007 and then invested it all in an equity fund. In four months, the money would be reduced to less than R10 lakh. In some cases, funds could have gone down to R5 or 6 lakh. After taking such a big hit, a person may never invest again. It will take about six years for him to break even. However, suppose this investor had invested gradually over 12 months. In that case, only about a tenth of the money would lose a lot of its value. Overall, averaging over a year, the acquisition cost would be such that the investment would hardly ever be in a loss. Of course, I've taken an extreme example to illustrate the concept, one that takes the investor from an all-time high peak to a low point. You could have started a little earlier, say in 2006 and then spread the investment over a longer period.

However, if you actually look back at the markets over the last decade, you will realize that while an STP generally helps one avoid a market peak and average costs, they are not a foolproof device.

Equity is equity and there's no way of doing away all risks. However, based on what has happened over the last two decades in India, stretching an investment over two to three years is likely to capture enough of a market cycle to significantly reduce risk.

An Example of SWP

You have a corpus of INR 3 lakhs that you have decided to invest in a debt mutual fund and set up SWP of INR 10,000 each month. SWP of INR 10,000 will be redeemed from the mutual fund each month on the set date and that money will be transferred to your bank account. After the redemption, the balance amount in the mutual fund will be invested to grow.

Wealth Cafe Actionable - SWP works better when a person has invested and accumulated a significant sum (with respect to the withdrawal one is seeking). In a small investment, if the return generated is less than the regular payouts, it will fast erode capital. Also, when the markets are doing good, SWP will erode your capital and your invested amount will be redeemed. Balanced Funds are a good option to invest in while doing an SWP as it is taxed like a debt mutual fund but has 35% equity to help the corpus grow faster.

 

How to Invest in Mutual Fund guide / Mutual Funds - 07/03/2019
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SIP top-up (Increase your SIP amount)

What is the SIP top-up (step-up) facility?

A systematic investment plan (SIP) allows you to put a fixed sum of money every month in a mutual fund. But most of us get a raise in our salaries every year. This means we can afford to increase our investments. But how do you do that in a SIP that is already going on? Enter top-up or step-up facility. It is important that as your income grows, the quantum of investment should grow too.

How wealth is created under SIP top-up plan?

SIP SIP top-up
Investment Amount 5000 10% increase per annum
Investment Product Equity Equity
ROR 12% 12%
Period years 20 20
The amount at the end 49.46 lakhs 98.45 lakhs

Hence, you can see that by increasing your SIP by 10% each month, you will create wealth which is twice as much as your investment amount. This is how SIP top-up helps you generate wealth faster.

Decide on the amount you want to increase your SIP by, or by the percentage of increase. You can also cap your amount in case you think you won't be able to afford a monthly investment beyond a point. For instance, in our example above, a 5% annual increase would mean you would need to invest Rs11,790 every month in the 10th year and Rs30,580 in the 20th (final) year. Once your monthly installment hits the ceiling, your top-up facility stops and then you keep investing that same amount for the rest of your SIP tenure.

Wealth Cafe Actionable - Where you are a salaried individual, ensure that you do a SIP  top-up based on your regular increment in your salary amount.

 

Uncategorized - 07/02/2019
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What is an STP and how does it work?

What is STP?

Now almost every investor is familiar with the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP).  While SIP is the transfer of money from savings to a mutual fund plan, STP means transferring money from one mutual fund to another.

STP is a smart strategy to stagger your investment over a specific term to reduce risks and balance returns. For instance, if you invest ‘systematically’ in equity, you can earn risk-free returns even during volatile market scenarios. Here, an AMC permits you to put a lump sum in one fund, and transfer a fixed amount to another scheme regularly. The former fund is called source scheme or transferor scheme, and the latter is called the target scheme or destination scheme.

How does STP work?

One opts for an STP when there is a lump sum to invest and want to spread the risk of investing in one go over a period of time. Like a SIP, an STP helps spread out investments over a period of time to average the purchase cost and rule out the risk of getting into the market at its peak.

While Investing

However, with an STP, you invest a lump sum in one scheme (mostly a debt scheme) and transfer a fixed amount from this scheme regularly to another scheme (mostly an equity scheme).

The basic idea behind an STP is to earn a little extra on the lump sum while it is being deployed in equity since debt funds provide better returns than a normal savings bank account.

While Redemption

STP is also done from an Equity Fund to a debt Fund when you are approaching your long term goals for which you had invested in Equity Funds, you do not wait till the last day to redeem your investments. You start transferring your funds 2-3 years before the goal date to your debt fund. Now, where the markets are not at its best, you can do an STP from equity to debt. Where the market is very good, you could opt for a lumpsum transfer.

How to make the most of your STP investments?

As we had discussed in the Article - Why you should avoid timing the markets for your SIP and SIP's automatically make the most of the market changes and help you average the cost of making mutual fund investments.  STP's work on similar lines. STPs are also a method of making regular investments in mutual funds.

In STPs, you transfer funds from one mutual fund scheme to another, periodically.

Every month, a fixed sum flows into the investment, leading to cost averaging and eventual high returns. However, when it comes to investing a lump sum amount, you are faced with the challenge of how to manage the market risk. For anyone who has understood the efficacy of SIP, the right way to go about this kind of an investment is to put it into a liquid fund, and then do a monthly transfer from there.

Taxation of an STP

When you transfer from one mutual fund scheme to another, it is considered as sale and the same is taxable as per Mutual Fund taxation provisions.

In case of debt funds, if your holding period is less than 36 months, then the amount that you withdraw will form a part of your income. It will then be taxed according to your income slab. On the other hand, if the holding period is more than 36 months, then the long-term capital gains will be taxed at 20% with indexation.

In case of equity funds, if your holding period is less than 1 year, then the withdrawn amount will be taxed at the rate of 15%. On the other hand, if the holding period is more than 1 year, then the long-term capital gains will be taxed at 10% without indexation.

Wealth Cafe Actionable: Where you are a regular SIP investor and want to distribute your market risk and make use of cost averaging, Invest your lumpsum gains such as bonus, wedding gifts, etc into a liquid fund and set up an STP into an equity Fund

How to Invest in Mutual Fund guide / Mutual Funds - 07/01/2019
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When is the right time to start your investments?

In our workshops, we have discussed with so many people who say that they are waiting for the markets to go down to start their investments or they are waiting to have enough before they start. Some may even argue to say that they want to enjoy life today and will invest tomorrow (in spite of having enough savings in their bank account). Some feel they are just waiting for the right time to start investing.

The RIGHT time to start your Investments is NOW

The best time was yesterday, but now that is gone right time is today. With every day you push to invest your money, you are reducing your money from growing and making wealth for you.

If you are following the basic rules, you will definitely get it right. It is quite usual for you to feel a bit nervous when you are investing in unfamiliar instruments for the first time. But you will learn on the way. So, don't let your nervousness delay your investments further.

To help you understand what you are missing every time you are delaying your investment choice, we have tabulated below an example:

Priya Shreya
Sip 5000 5000
SIP start Age 25 30
SIP Stop Age 30 60
Investment till Age 60 60
SIP done for how long (in years) 5 30
Amount Invested  25,000 1,50,000
At the age of 60, returns they got 22,32,125 21,73,726

In the above example, Priya started at the age of 25 and invested for only 5 years, until she was 30. However, she did not withdraw her investment out until she was 60.

On the other, Shreya started her investment only at the age of 30 and continued to invest until she was 60. She invested around INR 150,000 and Priya invested around INR 25,000.

You would obviously expect Shreya to make more money than Priya. But, it is Priya who has made great returns from just an investment of INR 25,000. This is the power of starting early.

When you start your investments today, you have to invest less and you will reach your goals sooner.

START NOW !!

It is possible that some of you may be anxious as to how should you start your investment and where to put your money. For all of you do not worry, doing a SIP for your mutual fund is a great start and we have written many blogs on how should you invest and are writing more.

Always try to match your goals with your investment choice. This will help you eliminate unwanted choices, and identify the right ones. It will also save you a lot of headaches later. As a rule, avoid risky investments like stocks, equity mutual funds for short-term goals (3 years and less than 3 years). This is because equity can be extremely risky and volatile in the short-term. You should try to preserve your capital and try to secure stable returns for short-term needs. However, if you have time in hand, you can be a little adventurous and invest in equity. It will help you earn a few extra percentages. This is because equity has the potential to give higher returns than any other asset class over a long period of time.

Don't forget to review your investments periodically. Investing and forgetting all about it is not a great strategy. You should regularly check how your investments have done over a period of time.

Wealth Cafe Actionable - Where you are investing in Equity for long term goals, do not forget to sell your risky investments at least three years before your goal and park the proceeds in a safe avenue. This is to ensure that you have the money safely parked somewhere when you need it and the market risk will not hamper your goals. Start your investments now!!

 

 

How to Invest in Mutual Fund guide / Mutual Funds - 06/28/2019
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Timing the market for your SIP investments?

Many of us keep waiting for that right time to invest.

A popular stock-market adage is 'Time in the market is more important than timing the market'. It may be a popular principle but unfortunately not many observe it in practice. Many people based on the basic discussions, newspaper articles or just their basic reading believe that they understand the trends of the market and start timing the market to make investments.

The curious thing about market timing is that the market almost unfailingly moves in the opposite direction to what you would expect. If you buy shares in a company thinking that 'this' is the right time, you are appalled by the fact that the stock starts to fall just after you buy it. Similarly, if you sell out your shares in a company because you have a strong gut feeling that it's going to collapse, you find it racing ahead of just about everything. It must have happened to the smartest of us.

Timing the investment in Mutual Funds

If you think you are immune to this behavior just because you invest in mutual funds rather than directly in stocks, you are mistaken. Mutual funds investors frequently try to time their systematic investments in response to the market's ups and downs. When the market is falling, they stop their SIPs. When it is rising, they increase their SIP amounts. This invariably backfires.

SIPs work best when the markets are volatile. When the markets are high, you buy fewer units of your mutual funds through SIPs. When the markets are down, you buy more units for the same amount. This enables you to average your investment cost over time. But if you stop SIPs when the markets are down, you miss out on lowering your total investment cost. And if you increase your SIP amounts when the markets are on the rise, you keep averaging your overall cost upwards.

Now you may say that the solution to this problem is to do just the opposite: stop with SIPs when the markets are rising and increase the SIP amounts when they are falling. Unfortunately, timing the market in this manner is just as unfruitful. First, it is counter-intuitive. Many investors will have difficulty in carrying through their decision to invest when the markets are down and sell when they are up. And second, you can never really know how long the market may keep going up or falling. All in all, it's quite unproductive to time the market.

How SIP Works to make the most of the market trend

When the market goes down - you get more Mutual Fund units
When the market goes up- you get lesser Mutual Fund units
Hence, the SIP helps to average the cost over a period of time and makes the most of our money. We may not always know that the market is down now, we should buy more or otherwise, SIP is automatically taking care of that for us.

The beauty of SIPs is that by definition they prevent you from timing the market. SIPs are about discipline. You decide an amount and a frequency, which in most cases is monthly. Then you keep investing in the mutual fund of your choice, irrespective of where the market is. Of course, you can increase your SIP amount yearly as your pay increases but then invest it evenly till the next revision. Since the markets are volatile, you will naturally benefit from the power of rupee cost averaging, which will increase your returns.

Wealth Cafe Actionable - As we have said, SIPs is an easy way to invest your money and it on its own makes the most of the market trend. Once you have started SIP, just keep reviewing your asset allocation occasionally and let them be.

How to Invest in Mutual Fund guide / Mutual Funds / Uncategorized - 06/28/2019

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