Invest Savings from FDs to Debt Funds

No matter what savers are hoping for, interest rates are going to stay low for years to come. It is time to study the investment alternatives.

A few hiccups along the way notwithstanding, it's more than likely that India is heading for lower interest rates for years to come, if not for decades. In fact, if one steps out of the ivory tower of economists and into the real life of savers, a huge amount of damage has already been done. A measly 2.5 - 3.5% on savings bank deposits and 5-7% on other deposits are going to be the normal from now on.

Most Indian savers, including retirees who need income, are heavily invested in bank fixed deposits. Their earnings have fallen by 25% or more in the past three years. So is there a solution? As it happens, there is. There are mutual fund products that fit the bill perfectly. They not only give you higher returns than the banking products, but are also liable for a lower tax outgo, making the effective return very attractive. In fact, their liquidity and convenience are also superior compared to fixed deposits, especially if you deal through the special apps that many funds have released for the purpose.

Sebi's recent reorganisation of fund categories has somewhat changed the lie of the land, so the types of mutual funds that work well as substitutes for bank accounts are liquid funds and ultra-short duration funds. These funds give predictable and stable returns with negligible volatility. The precise definitions that Sebi has now enforced have made them even more stable. Over the past year, liquid fund returns have been an average of 6.85%, while that of ultra-short duration funds have been around 6.47%.

While these compare well with the deposit products they can replace, the real kickers are convenience and tax factors. Liquid funds can be invested in and redeemed through a smartphone-based app for many fund companies. Through these apps, you can invest instantly by transferring money from your bank accounts. More to the point, you can redeem the investments and the money gets transferred to your savings account in five to 10 minutes. So you are able to earn interest that is 1.5 times that of a savings account and, yet, have a liquidity compromise of only a few minutes.

The benefits of funds over fixed deposits go much beyond a simple comparison of returns. The different taxation structure means there's a bigger difference in post tax returns. The tax difference arises from the fact that returns from fixed deposits are classified as interest income, while mutual fund returns are classified as capital gains. For interest income, you have to pay tax every year for what you have earned that year. If your total interest income from a bank (all accounts and deposits together) exceeds ₹10,000, then the bank also deducts TDS at 10%. In fact, if the bank does not know your PAN, it will deduct 20%. This means that a part of your return is not available for compounding because it is taken out and paid as tax every year.

There is a further advantage to the mutual fund option if you stay invested for more than three years. If you redeem after three years, then the gains are classified as long-term capital gains and are taxed after indexation. Essentially, you get taxed only on inflation-adjusted returns. Again, this does not happen with FDs. Applying all these factors, a three-ear investment in a short-term fund will leave you with almost twice the returns as an FD over the same period, and with excellent liquidity.

Earlier, this kind of fine-tuning could be expected only from a handful of knowledgeable and involved investors. However, with low interest rates, the payoff is huge, and a lot of us could benefit substantially from shifting away from deposit-type products and towards mutual funds.

SIPs are Best Investments as Stock Market s are move up and down. Volatile is your best friend in making Money and creating enormous Wealth, If you have patience and long term Investing orientation. Invest in Best SIP Mutual Funds and get good returns over a period of time. Know which are the Top SIP Funds to Invest Save Tax Get Rich - Best ELSS Funds

For more information on Top SIP Mutual Funds contact Save Tax Get Rich on 94 8300 8300

OR

You can write to us at

Invest [at] SaveTaxGetRich [dot] Com

Calculate RETIREMENT Amount

An ideal retirement corpus should take care of all your expenses after you stop working. But can you calculate the amount required? It involves taking into account life expectancy, interest rates, inflation and the time value of money...and can be a bit tricky. Here we explain how to use MS Excel to calculate the amount easily. But first, let's understand some basics.

The concept of time value of money states that the worth of a rupee received today is more than a rupee received at a later date because of its earning potential. The concept of time value has two elements: Compounding and discounting. Compounding helps to estimate future values whereas discounting helps to estimate present values. For calculating your retirement corpus, it is the present value that matters.

For example, an investment product promises ₹8 lakh in 10 years if you invest ₹4 lakh today. Given interest or term deposit rates of 8% per annum, will this investment product be profitable? You will have to find out the present value of ₹8 lakh at 8% discount rate to arrive at the right answer. Present value is calculated by dividing ₹8 lakh by (1+r) ^n, where 'r' is the discount rate (or interest rate) and 'n' is the tenure of investment. The present value of ₹8 lakh works out to be ₹3.7 lakh.

Since the present value of the amount that the product promises to pay (fund inflow) is less than the amount invested (fund outflow), the product is not profitable. In other words, the net present value of the investment product is negative. Net present value is the difference between the present value of cash inflows and present value of cash outflows.

If the same ₹4 lakh is invested in an FD for 10 years, offering 8% annual interest, the maturity proceeds work out to be ₹8.63 lakh (assuming no tax)—₹63,000 higher than the aforementioned investment product.

Calculating the present value of an amount gets complicated, if the investment generates a series of payments over a period of time. To calculate the current worth of such an investment, the present value of each payment in the entire series of payments needs to be derived. Technically, one needs to find out the present value of an annuity.

Estimating one's retirement corpus involves calculating the present value of an annuity. This is because, one expects to generate a stream of payments—monthly, quarterly or annually—from one's retirement corpus for a given number of years at a certain rate. Such stream of payments seek to take care of one's post-retirement expenses—based on one's current expenses and assumed inflation rate.

A 38-year-old with current annual expense of ₹6 lakh can calculate his annual expenditure requirements when she retires at the age of 60, based on an assumed annual inflation rate over 22 years (the period after which she will retire).

For instance, at 5% assumed inflation she will need ₹17.5 lakh—₹6 lakh x (1+5%)^22. The ideal retirement corpus must generate a stream of ₹17.5 lakh annually for 25 years after retirement, assuming life expectancy of 85 years. Such a corpus can be arrived at by adding the present value of each stream of ₹17.5 lakh discounted at an appropriate rate. The appropriate rate is generally the average long-term (10-year) yield on government securities. Additionally, the post-retirement inflation also needs to be taken into account.

Although the methodology appears complex, MS Excel's NPV function can help you do the calculations easily. NPV requires you to input the discount (or interest) rate and the series of expected inflows or estimated expenses.

At 7% discount rate and assuming no inflation, the present value of the annuity works out to be ₹2.04 crore. So, in our example, the working professional will have to accumulate ₹2.04 crore for his retirement. However, if we assume post-retirement inflation of 4.5% per annum, he will have to accumulate ₹3.12 crore. One can play with the numbers to see how changes in inflation, discount or interest rates changes the desired corpus.

SIPs are Best Investments as Stock Market s are move up and down. Volatile is your best friend in making Money and creating enormous Wealth, If you have patience and long term Investing orientation. Invest in Best SIP Mutual Funds and get good returns over a period of time. Know which are the Top SIP Funds to Invest Save Tax Get Rich - Best ELSS Funds

For more information on Top SIP Mutual Funds contact Save Tax Get Rich on 94 8300 8300

OR

You can write to us at

Invest [at] SaveTaxGetRich [dot] Com

PPF vs ELSS Tax Saving Mutual Funds

The Public Provident Fund (PPF) and equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS) are popular investment options that both qualify for income tax deductions. A deduction reduces your overall tax liability. Contributions up to Rs 1.5 lakh a year qualify for tax deduction under Section 80C. Financial planners say that when it comes to investments in the PPF and ELSS mutual funds, investors should look at these investments not just from a tax-saving perspective but one that will help achieve their financial goals. ELSS mutual funds invest in equity shares of companies across sectors and market capitalization and have a three-year lock-in.

An ELSS mutual fund is quite the same as a diversified equity fund, other than tax deduction benefits and the three-year lock-in. ELSS investments come with a lock-in period of three years, which is lowest among Section 80C investments. Investors should understand ELSS mutual funds are equity market-linked products.

1) The PPF is a 15-year government-backed savings option offered through banks and post offices. Thereafter, it can extended further in batches of five years.

2) The interest rate on the PPF is revised every quarter and is benchmarked to yields on government securities. Currently, the PPF fetches an interest rate of 7.6%.

3) In the PPF, you can maximise your returns by investing early in the financial year so that your deposits can earn interest for the entire year.

4) The minimum amount that must be deposited in a PPF account in a financial year is Rs 500 and the maximum allowed is Rs 1.5 lakh.

5) From the seventh year, you can make partial withdrawals from your PPF account. Apart from income tax benefits, the PPF is suitable for conservative investors who are looking at long-term financial goals like a child's education or retirement, say financial planners. The interest and maturity proceeds are exempted from tax.

6) Premature closure of a PPF account is allowed only under specific conditions such as expenditure towards medical treatment. For this, a PPF account must have completed at least five financial years.

7) ELSS or tax-saving mutual schemes have a three-year lock-in period. You can partially or fully redeem your ELSS or tax saving mutual fund investments after three years.

8) Financial planners suggest investors to opt for systematic investment plans (SIPs) in tax saving mutual funds to help spread their spread their investments throughout the year.

9) The lock-in of three years also applies to SIPs. In other words, every SIP instalment in a ELSS fund is subject to a three-year lock-in.

10) Long term capital gains from equity mutual funds, including ELSS funds, above Rs 1 lakh will be taxed at 10%. ELSS funds come with both growth and dividend options. Mutual fund houses have to pay a dividend distribution tax or DDT of 10% on dividends declared under equity schemes, including ELSS funds. This effectively reduces the return from dividends from equity funds.

SIPs are Best Investments as Stock Market s are move up and down. Volatile is your best friend in making Money and creating enormous Wealth, If you have patience and long term Investing orientation. Invest in Best SIP Mutual Funds and get good returns over a period of time. Know which are the Top SIP Funds to Invest Save Tax Get Rich - Best ELSS Funds

For more information on Top SIP Mutual Funds contact Save Tax Get Rich on 94 8300 8300

OR

You can write to us at

Invest [at] SaveTaxGetRich [dot] Com

Focused Funds

They are bit more Risky. The risk comes in two forms.

One is the likelihood of a fund manager losing money in a certain stock. I think if a fund manager goes wrong, the possibility of significant loss in a focused fund is far higher. Because in a focused fund a position in a stock can well be in the region of 5 to 10 percent.

The other is that focused funds can be far more volatile because you have fewer stocks. Nowadays, we are seeing a volatile market. So, the days on which the market goes down you see the concentrated fund falling much more than the market, compared to a more diversified fund.

I would say volatility is not as much of a risk on a 5 to 7 year basis. Because volatility, if you stay invested, is not a risk. But the risk of the fund manager going wrong is reasonably high.

So, yes, focus funds do come with high risk of volatility as well as the penalty for a fund manager going wrong with his selection is very high. And if he goes wrong with a couple of things, it could be a disaster.

But, I guess, that is where evaluation of a fund manager for a focused fund comes in handy. As a fund performs well and gets more money, it tends to become more diverse. So, I think 30 also gets you reasonable diversification.

So, check two things. You should look at the experience of the fund manager, of what he has set out to do and what are the quality filters. That apart, make sure even if it is a focused fund, it has at least 20 to 25 stocks, which is reasonable diversification for an investor. If you are comfortable with the volatility some of the focus funds look very promising.

SIPs are Best Investments as Stock Market s are move up and down. Volatile is your best friend in making Money and creating enormous Wealth, If you have patience and long term Investing orientation. Invest in Best SIP Mutual Funds and get good returns over a period of time. Know which are the Top SIP Funds to Invest Save Tax Get Rich - Best ELSS Funds

For more information on Top SIP Mutual Funds contact Save Tax Get Rich on 94 8300 8300

OR

You can write to us at

Invest [at] SaveTaxGetRich [dot] Com

Impact of rising interest rates on Equity Mutual Fund Investors

Rising interest rates in all eventuality can apply the brakes on a rising stock market. Of late, returns from market indices, especially mid- and small-cap indices have dwindled. "Interest rates act like gravity on valuations; higher the interest rates in a country, lower are the equity valuations. It is an inverse correlation

Reasons such as rise in oil prices, faltering health of public sector banks, increasing inflation among others may lead to the equity market finding new lows in the near future. The offset is that corporate earnings have been robust this quarter (top and bottom lines) for a substantial portion of the market. The question is what level will crude become an impediment to earnings, and we think we are already at levels that will result in a dampening of consumer willingness to spend.

That has repercussions for equities and continued rise in crude is likely to impact markets negatively

What to do: These macro economic factors should not deter a long term investor in equities and equity mutual funds. We would point out though, that the macro conditions can change quickly, so investors need to work within an asset allocation framework and stick to a plan that takes advantages of moves in the market, rather than letting these moves shake them out of a long term investment plan

 

After the recent reclassification of mutual funds, tracking the performance by investors may become easier. Going forward, investors will benefit by focusing on their fund's relative performance against its benchmark as well as the peer group during different timeframes

SIPs are Best Investments when Stock Market is high volatile. Invest in Best Mutual Fund SIPs and get good returns over a period of time. Know Top SIP Funds to Invest Save Tax Get Rich - Best ELSS Funds

For more information on Top SIP Mutual Funds contact Save Tax Get Rich on 94 8300 8300

OR

You can write to us at

Invest [at] SaveTaxGetRich [dot] Com