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Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS)

Senior Citizen Savings Scheme(SCSS) is a scheme run by the Government of India keeping in mind the requirement of Senior Citizens for regular income from safe investment. Eligibility: Any individual, who has attained the age of 60 years or above on the date of opening of the account can open an account under the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme(SCSS). An individual, who has attained the age 55 years or more but less than 60 years and has retired under a Voluntary Retirement Scheme(VRS) or a Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme can open an account provided it is done within one month from the date of retirement.\ There is no age limit for retired personnel of Defence services provided they fulfill other specified conditions. The account can be held singly or jointly with one's spouse. Multiple accounts can be held subject to the overall investment limit. Non-residents and HUFs are not eligible to open an account under this scheme. Investment Limits:  The minimum amount of deposit required under this Scheme is INR 1,000 and the maximum amount that can be held under this account is INR 15,00,000 (total across multiple accounts). Time Period: This account has a maturity of 5 years. It can be then extended for periods of 3 year each. Withdrawal: If the account is closed after one year but before two years from the date of opening of the years, an amount equal to 1.5% of the deposit will be deducted. If it is closed after two years, then an amount equal to 1% of the deposit will be deducted and the balance paid to the investor. An extended account can be closed after a period of one year from the date of extension. No deduction will be made if the account is closed on the death of the depositor. Tax Treatment: Amount deposited under this scheme is deductible under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. However, the interest earned is taxable. TDS is deducted at source on interest if the interest amount is more than Rs.10,000 p.a. Others: The interest earned on the account can be transferred to another savings account every quarter. All transactions (account opening date, deposits, interest paid, nominations etc.) with respect to the account are maintained in the passbook provided to each depositor. FinPlan Café Note: Positives: SCSS is the safest Investment Avenue for Senior Citizens looking for regular income. Negatives: The interest earned on the deposit is taxable. The maximum amount a person can deposit is Rs. 15,00,000 translating into a monthly income of Rs. 11,250(pre tax) which may not be sufficient. Conclusion: When planning for retirement, funds must first be allocated towards SCSS and then towards other avenues like PO Monthly Income Scheme, Mutual Fund Monthly Income Plans(MIPs), etc. Having the quarterly interest transferred to a regular savings accounts enables you to earn interest on the unutilised amount in the savings account.
Alternative Assets / Tax - 08/16/2018
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Types of Mutual Funds

In the last few years, mutual fund companies were releasing various mutual fund scheme and there was a lot of confusion amongst retailers on the definition of the same and how are the classified. To avoid this, SEBI released a notification to classify mutual fund schemes into 5 broad categories:
  1. Equity Schemes
  2. Debt Schemes
  3. Hybrid Schemes
  4. Solution Oriented Schemes
  5. Other Schemes
An understanding of the classifications of the various categories of schemes will help sort clear the confusion to a certain extent.
All the listed Equity Stocks are divided into large cap, mid cap, and small cap equity stocks based on the ranking on the stock exchange as per their market capitalization. Accordingly, AMFI, in consultation with SEBI and Stock Exchanges, has prepared the list of stocks, based on the data provided by Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSEI).
  • Large Cap Equity Stocks - 1st - the 100th company in terms of full market capitalization.
  • Mid Cap Equity Stocks are - 101st - the 250th company in terms of full market capitalization.
  • Small Cap Equity Stocks are - 251st company onwards in terms of full market capitalization

EQUITY MUTUAL FUNDS

Any fund which invests not less than 65% of its corpus in equities is known as an equity fund. 
  1. Multi-Cap Funds: An Open-ended equity scheme which invests a minimum of 65% of its total assets in equity related instruments. These funds invest across large-cap, small-cap and mid-cap stocks.  
  2. Large Cap Funds: An open-ended equity scheme which invests a minimum of 80% of its total assets in large-cap equity stocks.
  3. Large & Mid Cap Funds: An open-ended equity scheme which invests in both large-cap and mid-cap stocks with a minimum of 35 % of its total assets in large-cap equity stocks and a minimum of 35% of. its total assets in mid-cap stocks.
  4. Mid Cap Funds - An Open-ended equity scheme which invests a minimum of 65% of its total assets in mid-cap equity stocks.
  5. Small Cap Funds - An Open-ended equity scheme which invests a minimum of 65% of its total assets in small-cap equity stocks. 
  6. Dividend Yield Funds - An open-ended scheme which predominately invests in dividend yielding stocks and has a minimum of 65% of its total assets invested in Equity.
  7. Value Funds - An open-ended scheme following a value investment strategy and invests a minimum of 65% in equity and equity related instruments.
  8. Contra Funds - An open-ended scheme should follow a contrarian investment strategy with a minimum of 65% in equity and equity related instruments.
  9. Focussed Fund - An open-ended scheme focussed on the number of stocks (maximum 30) and has a minimum investment of 65% of its total assets in Equity and equity related instruments.
  10. Thematic Funds: These funds are also known as Sectoral Funds. An open-ended scheme which invests a minimum of 80% of its assets in equity stocks of a particular sector/theme. Such funds can be focused on Infrastructure, Power, Banking sector, Pharma companies, only Public Sector Undertakings(PSUs), etc. 
  11. ELSS - Equity linked savings scheme - An open-ended scheme with a statutory lock-in of 3 years for the purpose of tax deduction. It has a minimum investment in equity and equity related instruments of a minimum of 80%.

DEBT FUNDS

Debt Funds are funds that invest in debt securities like debentures, commercial paper(CP), certificate of deposit(CD), government securities, etc.
  1. Overnight Funds - Investment in overnight securities having a maturity of 1 day.
  2. Liquid Funds - Investment in debt and money market securities with a maturity of up to 91 days only.
  3. Ultrashort Duration Funds - Investment in Debt & Money Market instruments such that the Macaulay duration of the portfolio is between 3 months - 6 months.
  4. Low Duration Funds - Investment in Debt & Money Market instruments such that the Macaulay duration of the portfolio is between 6 months- 12 months.
  5. Money Market Funds -Investment in Money Market instruments having maturity up to 1 year
  6.  Short Duration Funds - Investment in Debt & Money Market instruments such that the Macaulay duration of the portfolio is between 1 year – 3 years
  7. Medium Duration Funds - Investment in Debt & Money Market instruments such that the Macaulay duration of the portfolio is between 3 years – 4 years
  8. Medium to Long-Duration Funds - Investment in Debt & Money Market instruments such that the Macaulay duration of the portfolio is between 4 – 7 years
  9. Long Duration Funds - Investment in Debt & Money Market Instruments such that the Macaulay duration of the portfolio is greater than 7 years
  10. Dynamic bond - An open-ended dynamic debt scheme investing across the duration
  11. Corporate bond Funds - An open-ended debt scheme  with a minimum investment of 80% in the highest rated corporate bonds
  12. Credit Risk Funds - An open-ended debt scheme with a minimum investment of 65% in the highest rated corporate bonds.
  13. Banking and PSU Fund - An open-ended debt scheme with a minimum investment of 80% of total assets in Debt instruments of banks, Public Sector Undertakings, Public Financial Institutions
  14. Gilt Fund - An open-ended debt scheme with a minimum investment of 80% of its total assets in government securities across the maturity
  15. Gild Fund with a 10-year constant period - An open-ended debt scheme with a minimum investment of 80% of its total assets in government securities having a constant maturity of 10 years
  16. Floater Fund - An open-ended debt scheme with a minimum investment of 65% of its total assets in floating rate instruments.

HYBRID FUNDS

Hybrid funds are funds that invest in a mix of debt and equity based on their investment mandate.

  1. Conservative Hybrid Funds - An open-ended scheme investing 10%-25% of its total assets in Equity and 75% -90% in debt instruments.
  2. Balanced Hybrid Funds - An open-ended balanced scheme investing up to 40%-60% of its total assets in both debt and equity. No arbitrage is permitted in this scheme.
  3. Aggressive Hybrid Funds - An open-ended hybrid scheme investing 65%-80% of total assets in Equity and Equity related instruments and 20%-35% in debt and debt related instruments.
  4. Dynamic Asset allocation or balanced advantage - Investment in equity/debt that is managed dynamically.  (0% to 100% in equity & equity related instruments; and 0% to 100% in Debt instruments)
  5. Multi-Asset Allocation - An open-ended scheme which invests in at least three asset classes with a minimum of 10% in each of the three asset classes.
  6. Arbitrage Funds - An open-ended Scheme following arbitrage strategy. Minimum investment in equity and equity related instruments of 65 of total assets.
  7. Equity Savings - An open-ended scheme investing in equity, arbitrage and debt with a minimum investment of 65% of its total assets in equity or equity-related instruments and a minimum of 10% in debt instruments.

SOLUTION ORIENTED FUNDS

  1. Retirement Fund - An open-ended retirement solution oriented scheme having a lock-in of 5 years or till retirement age (whichever is earlier)
  2. Children's Fund - An open-ended fund for investment for children having a lock-in for at least 5 years or till the child attains the age of majority (whichever is earlier)
  3. Index Funds/ETFs -An index fund is a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund(ETF) that aims to replicate the returns of a specific index. The fund manager does not have a major role as he has to only replicate the composition of the index.
  4. FOFs (Overseas Funds) - An open-ended fund of fund scheme investing 95% of its total assets in the underlying funds.
Investments / Mutual Funds - 04/12/2018
SIP

Why a Systematic Investment Plan(SIP)?

SIPs have become the most favoured route of investments for not only the investors but also Financial Advisors in India. That is not surprising since they come with considerable benefits.

Become a Disciplined Investor

A SIP helps you discipline yourself. You can commit a fixed amount each month to investments, and the amount gets invested at the predetermined date. This ensures that money does not lie in your savings account @ a meagre 3.5% and there is no temptation to spend that amount as it is not there to spend.

Rupee Cost Averaging

Enormous sums of money have been lost by investors in a bid to time the market. But no one has been able to do it consistently. When experts have failed, what about a rookie investor. It is useless, even attempting to time the increasingly volatile markets. SIPs ensure that a fixed amount is invested irrespective of the ups and downs in the market and hence the cost of acquisition of investments is averaged out.

The timeless principle is "Buy Low Sell High". However, investors tend to sell out when there is a fall in the markets due to panic. A rising market tempts them to enter the markets at high levels. SIPs help to overcome this problem. 

Achieve your Financial Goals

Your future financial goals like buying a car, buying a house, child's education can be converted into the required monthly SIPs. For example, if you need INR 6 lakhs after 4 years to purchase a car. Assuming that your investments earn 15% per annum, you will need to save INR 9,198 per month to achieve a corpus of INR 6 lakhs. By converting your goals into monthly investments, you can view the achievability of your goals clearly and this also motivates you to stay on track with your investments.

Compounding Benefits

The biggest advantage of regular long term investments, Compounding Benefit. The investments made continue to grow year on year and the invested profits participate in growth in future years.

Effortless Investments

Once initiated an SIP can go on for as long as you want it to run with no further intervention required from your side. With a simple instruction, the SIP can be stopped at anytime.

Investments / Mutual Funds - 01/02/2018

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