The Five Dumbest Mistakes Mutual Fund Investors Can Make

The Five Dumbest Mistakes Mutual Fund Investors Can Make

1. Failing to sit tight for an absolute minimum of 10 to 15 years.
2. Worrying about a fund's management fee, turnover rate, or dividends
paid.
3. Being affected by news in the market when you're supposed to be
investing for the long pull.
4. Selling out during bad markets.
5. Being impatient and losing confidence too soon.

Tags: stock market, stocks, stock market useful guide, stocks tips, Earn Money from stock, How to make money in stock market

Why Many People Lose Money in Top-Performing Funds

Why Many People Lose Money in Top-Performing Funds

Believe it or not, half of the people invested in some of the best-performing funds in the country may lose money. How can that happen? Very few people buy during a bear market.

How Many Funds Should You Own?

How Many Funds Should You Own?

As time passes, you may discover a second fund you would also like to begin accumulating in another long-term program. If so, do it. At the end of 10 or 15 years, you might own a worthwhile amount of two or even three funds, but there is no reason to diversify broadly, so don't overdo it. Those rare individuals with multimilliori-dollar portfolios could spread out in more funds which would allow them to

How about Income Funds?

How about Income Funds?

If you need income, you may find it more advantageous not to buy an income fund. Instead, you could select the best possible fund available and set up a withdrawal plan equal to l!x>% per quarter or 6% or 7% per year.

Part of the withdrawal would come from dividend income received and part from your capital, but the fund should generate enough growth over the years to more than offset the withdrawal of capital, if it is limited to 6% or 7% per year.

How to Become a Millionaire the Easy Way In Mutual Funds

How to Become a Millionaire the Easy Way In Mutual Funds

Here is what I regard as the ideal manner for a shrewd mutual fund investor to plan and invest. Pick a diversified domestic growth fund that performed in the top quartile of all mutual funds over the last three to five years. It will probably have averaged an annual rate of return of about 20%. The fund should also have a better-than-average record in the latest 12 months when compared to other domestic growth stock funds.

The fund can be either a no-load, with no commission, or load, or one where a sales commission is charged. If you buy a fund with a sales charge, discounts are offered according to the amount you invest and some funds have back-end loads which you may want to check.

More Reasons To Invest In Mutual Funds

More reasons to invest
There are two more solid reasons to invest in mutual funds. Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has abolished entry load on mutual fund units. This has benefitted the investors as they no longer have to pay any charge while buying units of mutual funds. However, the move has had some negative fall-out as abolition of entry load is a disincentive for MF distributors. “At the aggregate level, the industry was growing at the rate of close to 40 per cent in October on a y-o-y basis. But what concerns us is that there has been no growth in the equity segment. In fact, there has been net outflow both in August, September and October. This may be because people want to book profits and new people are not coming in. Not much incremental money is coming from the retail sector,” says Kurien.

SEBI proposal to allow MF units to be traded on stock exchanges in the near future would also benefit the investors. This move is expected to take mutual funds to all the nooks and corners of the country. “The rationale behind this move is to enhance the reach of mutual fund schemes to cover more towns and cities beyond Tier 2 towns by leveraging the existing infrastructure set-up (1,500 locations, 200,000 terminals) for stock trading.”, says Trivedy.
“SEBI’s new guidelines to enable the brokers to buy and sell mutual funds through the stock exchanges will increase the reach and provide easy facility for investors and distributors to invest in mutual funds,” says Dr. AP Kurian, Chairman, Association of Mutual Funds in India.

But Caution Is The Key
The cardinal truth that mutual funds are subject to market risks needs to be borne in mind by all mutual fund investors at all times. Mutual fund NAVs fluctuate depending on the market movement. However, they should never try to time the market, because mutual fund investing is not about timing the market. Mutual funds are not for the traders because the NAVs don’t fluctuate violently like the stock prices do at times on a single day. The upward or downward movement of NAVs is slow and steady, so mutual funds are for investors with a medium to long-term view. However, the benefits of investing in mutLial funds far outweigh the risks. Hence, one can say without any hesitation that equity mutual funds are the best route to invest in the stock market for retail investors. And the best time to invest in Indian mutual funds is now.

More Reasons To Invest In Mutual Funds

More reasons to invest
There are two more solid reasons to invest in mutual funds. Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has abolished entry load on mutual fund units. This has benefitted the investors as they no longer have to pay any charge while buying units of mutual funds. However, the move has had some negative fall-out as abolition of entry load is a disincentive for MF distributors. “At the aggregate level, the industry was growing at the rate of close to 40 per cent in October on a y-o-y basis. But what concerns us is that there has been no growth in the equity segment. In fact, there has been net outflow both in August, September and October. This may be because people want to book profits and new people are not coming in. Not much incremental money is coming from the retail sector,” says Kurien.

SEBI proposal to allow MF units to be traded on stock exchanges in the near future would also benefit the investors. This move is expected to take mutual funds to all the nooks and corners of the country. “The rationale behind this move is to enhance the reach of mutual fund schemes to cover more towns and cities beyond Tier 2 towns by leveraging the existing infrastructure set-up (1,500 locations, 200,000 terminals) for stock trading.”, says Trivedy.
“SEBI’s new guidelines to enable the brokers to buy and sell mutual funds through the stock exchanges will increase the reach and provide easy facility for investors and distributors to invest in mutual funds,” says Dr. AP Kurian, Chairman, Association of Mutual Funds in India.

But Caution Is The Key
The cardinal truth that mutual funds are subject to market risks needs to be borne in mind by all mutual fund investors at all times. Mutual fund NAVs fluctuate depending on the market movement. However, they should never try to time the market, because mutual fund investing is not about timing the market. Mutual funds are not for the traders because the NAVs don’t fluctuate violently like the stock prices do at times on a single day. The upward or downward movement of NAVs is slow and steady, so mutual funds are for investors with a medium to long-term view. However, the benefits of investing in mutLial funds far outweigh the risks. Hence, one can say without any hesitation that equity mutual funds are the best route to invest in the stock market for retail investors. And the best time to invest in Indian mutual funds is now.

Mutual_Fund_Terminology

Mutual_Fund_Terminology

Net Asset Value (NAV): Net Asset Value is the market value of the assets of the scheme, less liabilities. The per unit NAVis the net asset value of the scheme divided by the number of units outstanding on the date of valuation.

Sale Price: The sale price, or the ‘offer price’ is the price you pay when you invest in a scheme.

Repurchase Price: The price at which units under open-ended schemes are rep urchased by the the mutual fund. Repurchase price is always NAV related

Redemption Price: The price at which close-ended schemes redeem their units on maturity. The redemption price is also NA V-related.

Sales Load: Also called jo nt-end’ load or ‘entry’ load, it is a charge collected by the mutual fund scheme when it sells units. SEBI has abolished entry load for MF schewmes recently.

Repurchase Load: Also called ‘back- end’ load or ‘exit’ load, it is a charge collected by a mutual fund scheme when it buys back the units ftom the unitholders.

Why invest in MFs? | Investing in Mutual Funds

Why invest in MFs?
Mutual funds are ideal investment avenues for retail investors because a single unit of mutual fund provides a bouquet of diverse shares, debt and money market instruments. For a small investor with the limited resources he has at his disposal, this would be a dream. More importantly, the investors does not have to pour through financial results and analyse the ratios to decide which shares to buy and which debt or money market instruments to invest in. The professionally qualified and experienced fund manager does it for him. Also, after investing, the investor does not have to monitor the share prices and decide which share to sell and when and which one to buy in its place — the fund manager does it for him. “With minimal fund management fees and no entry load now, an investor gets access to well -researched, well managed equity portfolios at hardly a cost unlike direct equity where he would do his own research, brokerage costs etc.,” says Angirish. Explaining the crucial role of fund managers, Joshi says “Mutual fund is one of the best investment tools for one who is unable to track the market and manage his stock investments efficiently. Fund managers of mutual fund schemes are expected to invest in the quality stocks with longer horizon and manage it through the highs and lows of markets to generate reasonable returns while managing various risk attached to it.

MFs have a diversified portfolio of investments spanning across cross section of industries and sectors and, therefore, investing in mutual funds automatically provides the necessary diversification to your investments. Diversification reduces the risk because the stocks in the portfolio of the mutual fund may very rarely decline simultaneously or in the same proportion. “You can invest in asset classes like equities, debt, gold, etc. Apart from diversification in various asset class, it also provides large variety of schemes within asset classes, for e.g. in equity category it has schemes across market caps (large, mid and small cap), themes (e.g. infrastructure), sectors (e.g. banking, power), investment philosophies (value or growth), etc.,” says Joshi.

Investing in Mutual Funds
Now, the question is: how should you decide which scheme is suitable for you? This will primarily depend on the objective of your investment. If you are young and have a specific objective in mind such as buying a house, children’s education, etc. and are looking at getting a lump sum amount after a specific period, the growth schemes are ideal for you as they provide capital appreciation over the long term. However, if you are a retired person looking for regular income, the income schemes are right for you. However, if you are looking for both regular income as well as capital appreciation over the long term, the balanced schemes would be the right choice. If you are looking at investing in mutual fund from the limited purpose of tax planning, you should go for the tax saving schemes, while if you are bullish on a particular sector, you should invest in a sector-specific scheme.

One should also take into consideration one’s risk appetite before investing in mutual funds. “Choice of mutual fund scheme completely depends on your risk profile. For a high risk investor, he can choose an aggressive high beta equity or a specific sector fund. For someone who wishes to invest in equity but with lesser risk, he can choose diversified/large cap or index funds. For someone, who does not prefer risks at all, should look for debt schemes,”
More importantly, the choice should be in line with one’s financials goals. “The starting point for a new investor should be to identife his financial goals, both short-term and long-term ones, as well as his risk profile. A good financial planner will be able to help him with this and will also draw up an asset allocation that is in keeping with the goals and the risk profile. Having these building blocks will itself narrow down the universe of funds that would meet an investor’s risk profile and goals.”

It is also important to check out the performance track record of the fund house. “Retail investors should look at the investment objective of the fund and see whether it fits into their asset allocation. They should look at the historical portfolios and check how the fund is managed and how portfolio looks like. They should look at the background of the fund manager and his previous track record, including some basic checks on the investment team of the fund house. Lastly, they should look at historical track record of the fund. Typically, they should invest in funds which have atleast over 2 years of consistent track record.

“The decision to invest in an equity MF by a retail investor should ideally be driven by aspects like investment objective (tax planning, capital protection, wealth creation etc.), expected returns, risk appetite and investment horizon (short term v/s long term) which are bound to vary. These will be key factors in determining the timing for investment in equity MFs,” sums up Ravi Trivedy, Executive Director — Financial Services, KPMG Advisory Services.

Time To Invest In Mutual Funds :Favourable demographics | Best MF players coming to India

Favourable demographics
India has the advantage of highly favourable demographics which is also conducive for the growth of the financial markets. The highly skilled and cheap labour force provides India the edge to march ahead on the path of development at a brisk pace. Besides, the highly skilled and young labour force is a huge asset for the financial markets, as they tend to invest at a young age and are familiar with the diverse financial instruments available in the market for investment. The rising disposable incomes in the hands of the young work force provides tremendous potential for the growth of the financial markets. This bodes well for the mutual fund industry too. Hence, it is important for retail investors to invest in mutual funds at an early stage to reap the full potential of this growing industry.

Best MF players coming to India
India has become a hot investment destination for foreign institutional investors, who are coming in droves and pouring billions of dollars in the stock market. The largest names among FITs and mutual funds are already in India and many more are expected to come in future. Among mutual funds, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Prudential and many other giants have made a successful foray into India. Hence, the financial markets are expected to remain bullish, and with the bullish financial markets, the mutual fund industry will also remain buoyant.

Time To Invest In Mutual Funds :Among Best Asset Classes and Low Penetration

Among Best Asset Classes
Equities as an asset class have outperformed all other asset classes in the long run. Since equity mutual funds invest in equities, these MFs too are among the best performing asset classes. In fact, equity mutual funds most of the time outperform the indices. A look at the returns from equity mutual funds as compared to Sensex reveals that while returns on Sensex were 40.6 per cent during the last six months, average returns provided by all equities mutual funds were much higher at 50.54 per cent. All the more reason to invest in nuitual funds! No wonder, mutual funds are becoming popular avenues of investment and more and more investors are taking the safer MF route to investing in the stock market. This is also evident from the fact that the assets under management with MFs have witnessed a scorching pace of 29 per cent CAGR during 2004-08.

Low Penetration
The mutual fund industry is expected to grow at a break-neck speed in future too because of the fact that mutual funds have not reached beyond metros and Tier-I cities in India yet. As per Invest India and Savings Survey 2007 conducted by IIMS Dataworks, individual wage earners in the age group 18-59, only 1.6 per cent invested in mutual funds. The mutual fund penetration among Indian workforce with annual income less than Rs 90, 000 was a miniscule 0.1 per cent. Also, mutual fund investment in India constituted a meagre 7.7 per cent of the gross household financial savings in FY2008. This gives us an idea of the huge potential for the mutual fund industry in India. Mutual funds too are going in a big way to tap Tier-TI and Tier-Ill cities, which means that more funds would flow into the stock market through the MF route and this will help keep the market buoyant. A buoyant market will ensure that mutual funds would continue to give good returns to the investors.

Time To Invest In Mutual Funds : MFs are for all seasons

Mutual funds are for all seasons and one need not wait for the market to go up to buy mutual funds. Of course, it always helps if the market goes up after one buys equity mutual fund units, because this will result in appreciation of the NAV of the MF units and the investor will stand to gain. Looking at the current market scenario and sentiments, one might expect the market to go up in the near future. The market currently is hovering around 17,000- level and, barring unforeseen circumstances, one can expect the market to again test the 21,000 level in three to six months time and may even cross it. Which means that the market is likely to go up by about 20-25 per cent from the current level in three to six months time. This means investors who buy mutual fund units now are likely to derive good benefit in the near future.

“It is the right time to invest in mutual funds from a long term horizon and with a right mix of funds. One should not worry about the intermediate market fluctuations or the rise in index levels to make investments in mutual funds. Those who are wary can look at investing in a phased manner or through systematic investment plan (SIP) option,” says Hitungshu Debnath, Executive Director — WMS & Distribution, Angel Broking.

However, the buying and selling of mutual funds cannot be timed. “It is always a good time to invest in mutual funds as one cannot time the market. As long as have a 3-5 years view for your investments, it is a good time to invest. MFs are the cheapest way to equity exposure,” says Abhinav Angirish, Managing Director, Abchlor Investment Advisors. Explaining the importance of investing in mutual funds regularly rather than trying to time the market, Ashu Suyash, Managing Director and Country Head — India, Fidelity International, says “At Fidelity, we say that it is time in the market that’s important and not timing the market. And the best way to avoid market timing is through regular investing, or the systematic investment plans. SIPs are attractive because of their affordability as the monthly amounts tend to be low. More importantly, onger-term investors pay an average price for units over time and this helps beat stock market volatility.” Harsh Joshi, VP and Head - Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Securities, sums up thus: “Equity mutual funds are advisable for investment for a longer duration of three years or more and we would advise against timing thc markets for investments held for longer duration.”

Time To Invest In Mutual Funds

It is time in the market that’s important and not timing the market. And the best way to avoid market timing is through regular investing, or the systematic investment plans.

A fret the brisk raliy since March 2009, the stock market currently appears to be in a consolidation phase hovering in the 16,000-17,000 range. Investors are now waiting in the sidelines, hoping to join the party once the market makes its next upmove. The marker in turn is waiting for the next trigger to start on its upward journey. However, no one knows when the rally will happen, but everybody expects the rally to happen sooner rather than later.

But most of these investors may not know which stocks to invest in and, once the rally starts, they may jump on to the bandwagon and invest in some stocks which they feel will be next multibaggers. Their expectation may be on the basis of mere hearsay or their own gut feeling. They may neither have the expertise in selection of quality stocks, nor the time or the inclination to engage in painstaking research for picking up good stocks. Result: most of them end up with losses and dud stocks in their hands at the end of the rally.

So, what’s the way out for these investors? The answer is simple: buy equity mutual funds. If you don’t understand equities market, buying equity mutual funds is probably much better than buying equities themselves. This is because equity MFs mirror the stock market and when the market is going up, the NAVs of the equity MFs also go up. This appreciation in capital comes without any hassles and much lower risk as compared to investing directly in stock market. There are other reasons too why one should go for mutual funds at this point of time. Let’s look at these reasons to understand the rationale of mutual fund investing.

Park 20 Per Cent In Equity MFs

We had predicted in September based on our in-house research that Sensex would touch 21,000 by March 2010. If this materialises, equity mutual funds should do well too as past trend suggests that fund managers do very well when the market is bullish as their returns are much superior to Sensex returns.

India today has near about five crore mutual fund portfolios (but number of investors may be less as one person may hold several portfolios), with high concentration in metros. Today, top 10 cities account for 80 per cent of assets under management (AUM). In fact, mutual fund awareness is not much beyond top 20 cities. This despite the fact that mutual fund products are meant for small investors. Due to this, only 37 per cent of the AUMs in India are owned by retail investors against 82 per cent in US.

One of the reasons for such poor penetration is that there are no concerted efforts done by the industry to spread the concept of mutual fund beyond 20 cities. It’s a beautiful concept that needs nourishment and investment. Today, many ME players are looking at short- term gains and, in the process, hampering long-term growth of the sector. How the industry is focusing on the short-term trend is quite evident from my own experience. Normally, I receive sms on my mobile from schemes as and when these declare dividend, luring me to go for that scheme. But, unlike equities, once the scheme goes ex-dividend, its NAV falls and hence there is no real gain for the investors. Yet the industry keeps doing this kind of trick to lure investors, which is not proving beneficial for the industry.

There are few suggestions that can help mutual fund industry make healthy gains. First and foremost is the need to educate investors in equity mutual funds by giving examples about how equity can help generate wealth for the investors over a longer period of time. Second, there is need to keep investor expectations low as many of schemes harp on returns generated in the last one year or so, which results in building up hype and expectations of getting similar returns. Third, if required, MF should come out with close ended schemes to encourage investors to go for schemes with at least three to five years lock-in as mutual funds are long term products. Fourth, SEBI should ntroduce demat facility for MF Units as early as possible as this could do wonders to MF penetration. Fifth, there should be AGMs of MF investors where they can meet fund managers and understand their investment philosophy. This would increase confidence in mutual funds. Last, but not the least, India needs large number of AMFI certified agents as we have only one lakh agents as against 25 lakh insurance agents. AMFI should take up the task of increasing the number of agents on a war path.

This time our cover story touches upon the equity mutual funds and we feel that the mutual fund segment should give good appreciation, provided one goes for the right MF scheme. It’s a regular feature at DSIJ to recommend one scheme in every issue under the “Fund of the Fortnight” column. I am happy to inform you that our selected schemes’ average annualised returns stand at 91 per cent. As a thumb rule, you should put 20 per cent of your assets in equity mutual fund

HOW TO USE OLM 50: one-stop guide for mutual fund (MF) investments

Thisis your one-stop guide for mutual fund (MF) investments. OLM 50 is Outlook Money’s list of choicest funds that merit your attention, selected after an exhaustive study. It comprises funds from equity debt and mixed categories. You won’t find liquid funds here because this is an investment portfolio. Liquid funds are meant for parking surplus cash for short-term needs, they are not a permanent destination. Each edition of OLM 50 may carry a few new funds in place of some old ones, weeding out consistent non-performers or those where management changes have taken place, which would need to be tested. Only for fresh investments. OLM 50 may or may not cater to your existing investments. If your fund is not a part of OLM 50, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should exit. Also, if you have invested in a fund that was part of OLM 50 earlier, but is no longer in the list, it doesn’t mean you need to churn immediately. There could be many reasons as to why we knocked out a fund: management change, consistently declining performance and so on. Core and Satellite. A ‘core’ fund is more of an evergreen fund whose investment strategy is more long-lasting like plain-vanilla funds. A ‘satellite’ fund is a fair-weather fund, such as thematic or sector funds, that works in only certain market conditions.

Usually, your allocation to core funds should be more than to satellite funds, with the exact ratio depending on your risk profile. If you are risk-averse, your allocation to ‘core’ funds should be more, and vice-versa. Morningstar classifies large-cap and mid-cap schemes as per their portfolios and not their offer documents. Hence, you could find a fund that is, for instance, classified as a mid-cap fund in one quarter and a large-cap in the other. Other schemes. There are many five- or four- star rated funds that may not appear in OLM 50. It doesn’t mean they are not worthy. It could also mean that there are better alternatives. It also doesn’t mean all other schemes, other than OLM 50, merit a sell. With our MF coverage, we will keep you apprised of any investment opportunities that merit a sell, as also buy opportunities. How many. Though OLM 50 has many schemes, you shouldn’t invest in all. Pick seven to eight schemes. You might find many schemes from the same fund house in a category due to a superior track record. It’s best to diversify across fund houses. If you are a conservative, risk-averse investor with a time horizon of a year or two, pick more funds from the debt platter. But if you are in for the long haul, equity funds are your best bet.

Mutual Funds Could Soon Be Traded Online

Tags: MF, Mutual Funds, Online Trading, Sebi,

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is planning to introduce an online mutual fund (MF) platform by March 2010. Implications. The proposed platform will be more like a share trading floor where investors can buy and sell their MF units without a broker, just by accessing the requisite web portal. After the abolition of entry load, brokers are no more interested in selling MFs. Says the marketing chief of a Mumbai-based fund house: “This new move will help fund houses that are incurring losses by paying the distributor out of their own pockets, and investors who are being dumped by their distributor because of no load.” It will also help investors in that they can view their entire portfolio on a single portal and switch between schemes of different fund houses.

Sebi To Curb Institutional Participation in MFs

Tags: Sebi, MF, Mutual Funds, Investors, Investment, MF Industry, 

The 2008 market crash, which hit retail investors hard, has forced the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to plug the system’s loopholes and check the monopoly
large investors in a mutual fund (MF) scheme. Sebi is looking to ensure that redemptions by a few investors do not destabilise the scheme and create a
on the fund, impacting retail investors. Backdrop. In December 2003, Sebi implemented a regulation unique
the Indian MF industry (popularly known as the ‘20-25’ rule), which put a restriction on fund houses to maintain a minimum of 20 investors, with a single investor not holding more than 25 per cent of the scheme’s corpus. The regulator is revisiting the rules, and it is likely increase the minimum number of investors required in a mutual fund scheme from 20 and bring down the maximum holding by a single investor from the current level of 25 per cent. In view of this, MF houses have started restructuring their portfolios by either shifting their corporate clients to broad-based schemes in their stable, or adding new investors.

Is it prudent to fund the deficit via PSU selloffs?

“Strike a balance between social and infrastructure spend”

At times, the intentions and likely policy actions of the government can be better judged by analysing the way in which it presides over the management of public funds. The recent announcement of the government regarding partial disinvestment in profit-making PSUs needs to be seen in this context.

It is pertinent to view the context of the decision. The fiscal stimulus necessary to boost the economy is expected to impact revenues. Further, the failure to control expenditure during the UPA’s first stint and financial profligacy manifested in the many populist schemes, have led to significant imbalance in government finances. The stimulus package only aggravated the situation. As it seems, the withdrawal of fiscal sops may not be feasible immediately, as the economy is yet to take a firm upward path. In this backdrop, the disinvestment decision was inevitable and political stability derived from a fairly decisive mandate helped in speeding up the decision making.Read More

Is it prudent to fund the deficit via PSU selloffs?

“Proceeds should be diverted towards capital creation”

The government should not be treating the proceeds from the PSU disinvestment as a
revenue stream to fund its ballooning fiscal deficit. Although the country’s fiscal deficit has surpassed estimates and is a cause of immense concern at $42 billion (Rs 1.98 trillion) for the period April to September (49.3 per cent of the full year target), using the divestment vehicle as a tool for this would give no real comfort from the point of fiscal prudence otherthan providing some temporary relief.

Moreover, the move to use the earnings from disinvestment to finance welfare projects such as education, employment and healthcare could be viewed as a political compulsion. Even though the sale proceeds are to be used to fund capital expenditure of social sector projects, it is often difficult to distinguish between government expenditure spends and capital creation spends. Read More

Mutual Funds – A Good Way To Buy Stocks

Most potential investors don’t have a clue on how to go about investing in the stock market. After all, only a small percentage actually opts for investments in stocks. If you are among the novices waiting to test the waters, here’s the scoop: just hire a brilliant stock market investor. No, don’t worry. This tie-wearing expert won’t charge you a bomb for fee.

You also don’t have to pledge lakhs of rupees to hire his service. All you need is small change. Even an investment of as little as Rs 100 a month would do.

Surprised? Don’t be. We are speaking about hiring the service of a mutual fund (MF) manager to take care of your investments in stocks.