Often ‘the more the merrier’, but sometimes ‘the lesser the better’. This holds true while investing in Mutual Funds too. Although Mutual Funds are popular for offering diversification, there is a type of scheme that adopts a focused and concentrated approach too.
Independence Day opens up a flood of emotions in every Indian. While the Indian freedom struggle teaches patriotism, grit and sacrifice, you can also learn valuable investment lessons. Following are some valuable lessons that we Indians can learn from the country's freedom struggle and its leaders.
"Swaraj is my birth right, and I shall have it."
Not all asset classes have been winners consistently in the investing world since different asset classes may react differently to macroeconomic events. As such, asset classes like equities, debt, gold, real estate etc., tend to perform in their respective economic cycles.
While equities may perform better during periods of high economic growth, debt may perform better during periods of decreasing interest rate scenario. Similarly, gold may be a better performer when asset classes like equity and debt seem volatile and uncertain, as gold is considered a safer investment option.
Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a facility offered by the mutual funds to investors. Here one can opt to invest in a mutual fund scheme on regular basis by registering a standing instruction, wherein mandated amount by the investor is deducted automatically from the bank account and invested in the mutual fund scheme as specified in the registration process.
It is always advised, "one should not have all eggs in the same basket." This advice works well in the investment world too, as no single asset class has always been a winner for investors. As such, the investors tend to prefer having a diversified investment portfolio across different asset classes.
It is always advisable to hold an emergency fund corpus to meet any life contingencies. Such emergency fund should be equal to at least six months' regular expenses one needs to incur, for it provides sufficient financial cushion for any unforeseen situation in life. While maintaining an emergency fund is often on the agenda of many households, many savers keep such funds in the traditional savings accounts.
Covid-19 outbreak had led to the persistence of a low-interest rate regime, thanks to the accommodative stance adopted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and pumping liquidity into the system.
One of the expectations from fixed income asset managers this time of the year is their annual forecasts on inflation, repo rate or government bond benchmarks. Forecasting typically involves answering the following question: “Given the data we see today, what will be the value of a variable at a period”. It is often said that forecasting exists to make astrology look good.
Green shoots in investor preference seen
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy committee voted unanimously to keep the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged while voting 5-1 to continue with the accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive and sustain growth on a durable basis and continue to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
Below are the key RBI’s estimates on evolution of growth/inflation trajectory into the next year compared to their previous forecasts:
