I am a 19-year-old college student. I am a freelance writer, and I make small amounts of money. I’m thinking of investing it in mutual funds. I am thinking of investing through Kuvera. I have come across funds like ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Fund, Parag Parikh Long Term Equity Fund, Franklin Feeder US, etc. I am not sure which mutual fund to choose, I’d like you to give me some suggestions. Also, I’m looking for long term investment and have no plans to stop investing within the next 10 years or so.
If there is no need for urgent money, I can keep investing until my retirement age. Right now, I can invest Rs 1,000, but I’ll increase that amount in a few years when I get a stable job. Since I cannot afford a financial advisor, your expert advice will be very beneficial for me.
– Apoorv Mishra
I do not encourage new investors to invest on their own. I believe that only investors with sound knowledge about investment basics should take care of their investments themselves.
New investors like you should find a mutual fund advisor near you to help you with your investments. It is not easy to take care of your investments on your own, especially if you do not understand much about investments or mutual funds. You must invest through a mutual fund advisor/distributor, gain some confidence and experience before thinking of investing on your own. You should also educate yourself about mutual funds and the basics of investments before doing it. Often new investors get confused and lose the motivation to continue with their investments. Remember, it is extremely important to continue with your investments if you want to create wealth over a long period.
Here are some pointers that can help you in your investment journey. One, adopt a goal-based investment approach. Try to identify your various financial goals. Try to identify a few important short-term or long-term goals and start investing to achieve them. You can put a number to each goal. This will make it easy to find out how much you need to invest to achieve the target. You can also include annual inflation to calculate a realistic target for your long-term goal.
Once you know your target, you can find out how much you can invest to achieve it and how much return you need to make to achieve your target. This will help you to identify the right asset class for you. Then you can check whether you have the necessary risk appetite to invest in the asset class.
For example, the current value of your future goal is Rs 10 lakh. Assuming an annual inflation of 6%, you would need around Rs 33,10,000to achieve the goal after 20 years. You need to invest around Rs 3,400every month to achieve the target after 20 years. We have assumed an annual return of 12% which only an equity mutual fund may offer you. Do you have the risk appetite to invest in equity? If not, you have to invest in debt instruments to achieve your target. That means, you have to take a lower return for your calculation.
Further, within the equity mutual fund universe, what category should you choose? If you have a conservative profile, you should invest mostly in large cap mutual funds. You can opt for multi cap funds if you have a moderate risk profile. We do not think new investors should try to be aggressive and invest in mid cap and small cap schemes, as these schemes can be extremely risky and volatile. New investors may not have the necessary risk to remain invested for a very long period in these schemes.