[amtak]

Hi Girish,

I have atleast 21 years in hand (my age is 29 as of now). I have invested in ICICI Blue Chip fund and also in LNT MF (second one is expiring in December 2014). Both are equity based funds.

I am thinking of some more funds and hence, considering all options. What do you recommend in BSL?

[MaxTorque]

@Amtak

In my opinion, stay away from ULIP products. Instead of that go for a term insurance and equity investment. While taking insurance try to take cover of at least 10-15 times of your annual income.

You have not mentioned what is your current investments (funds and amounts) then only others can make some suggestions.

You have plenty of time in your hand so don't worry. Right now, you may divide your investment in 80:20 in equity:debt instruments. As you cross 35 years slowly change the distribution towards debt instruments. I have just considered your age factor, the asset distribution depends on other parameters as well.

[carboy]

Insurnance is not an investment. Don't do ULIP or whole life insurance, ever. Don't do any kind of life insurance where you get back money without dying. Without dying, you should not get even a single rupee. That's the best kind of life insurance.

And also determine if you in fact require life insurance - is there someone who is financially dependent on you? If you die, will someone suffer financially? If so, get term life insurance. The term should be dependent on how long think it will be before your savings will be enough so that your dying will no longer affect the person financially.

[Visaster]

Hello folks,

It hit me very late.
I am 33yrs and have no investment to talk of. I have not even got to claim the 1 lakh tax exemption.
Kindly let me know what financial planning is all about.

Where should I invest to have some gains?
Mutual funds, ULIP... all sounds new to me.

I am ready to invest upto 10k every month on funds which will grow and provide returns

Please suggest some good performing tool to invest.
All I know of is bank FD.

Thanks.

[amtak]

Max torque,

My investments are as follows:

• 1 Investment in ICICI Blue Chip Focused Fund (G)
• 1 Child Plan from LIC (I guess jeevan Ankur)
• 1 MF from LNT MF which is expiring in December 14
• 1 ULIP for wifey
• 1 money Back for wife from LIC
• 1 House bought at 33 lakhs (booking value) and current value (booking wise) is at 42 lakhs. This is towards my son's future education. I am anticipating a price hike with a final price being 60 lakh in the coming years.

Now, I know that this is all less investment compared to what I could have (missed a lot of opportunities due to my foolishness and over excitement to treat my friends during my bachelorhood days.



Now, as you might have noticed, I do not have a term Insurance; it is on my agenda and I would be buying it in the next 15 days. Any recommendations? Is LIC a better buy? I found it to be a little expensive but may have peace of mind for my family?


I also plan to have 1 or 2 more mutual funds for wifey and myself and would like to make a sensible choice this time. May be infrastructure fund / Pharma or something else?


Lastly, I do not have much experience in trading (can only dabble in automobile stocks); would like to explore this option as well.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Visaster

I am 33yrs and have no investment to talk of. I have not even got to claim the 1 lakh tax exemption.
I am ready to invest upto 10k every month on funds which will grow and provide returns

@Visaster,
You are not alone on the boat. So relax you still have a lot of time in hand. Sit down and jot down your goals. For eg House, Children education, Retirement etc. You can get the corpus required for the same on many tools available online for eg Moneycontrol.com. Based on the goals, you can start investing. Equities are the best way to go. Choose any 5 star rated Mutual fund preferably diversified segment and start an SIP. Pls note that the early you start investing for your retirement & post expenses, the higher will be the yield. If you know a good Financial advisor, discuss with them instead of venturing out alone.

Originally Posted by amtak

I do not have a term Insurance; it is on my agenda and I would be buying it in the next 15 days. Any recommendations? Is LIC a better buy? I found it to be a little expensive but may have peace of mind for my family?

Amtak,
Dont waste any more time and get a good term policy. I have recently read that LIC has dropped the premium rates for the term policy by almost 40%, I guess they must have felt the heat from the competition. In your case I am sure it will be at par with private players. Get the rates from LIC, Aegon Religare, HDFC Ergo etc for the term policy. Visit policybazaar.com for the comparitive rates. Your Sum assured should be 10 times your annual income. & take care of the nominations part too.

Chuck the Ulip, money back and the LNT MF at the earlest. Dont mix investments with Insurance. One another imp investment you need to make is take a good health insurance policy with critical illness cover even if you have your employer's. As told to @Visaster you need to have goals in mind before you make investments.

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by amtak

Max torque,

My investments are as follows:

@ Amtak,

Godlur has already outlined a probable action plan. If LIC is giving a pure term policy, go for that even at a slightly higher premium. The reason is, LIC is the insurer with best claim settlement ratio.

There are two three good funds from L&T Mutual Fund, though I have redeemed my investment (L&T Equity Fund) with them. So you can take a relook on that investment before exiting.

Right now you have a large cap fund. Now add a Multi Cap fund, Large and Mid Cap fund and a Small Cap fund in your Portfolio. If you are very keen to invest in a Pharma fund go for Reliance/SBI Pharma Fund. Ideally 4-5 Funds will give sufficient amount of diversification.

Entering to stock market is good move, provided you have sufficient time to analyse and pick good stocks. Else it will be fatal. Also you need to be vigilant to developments happening in economic affairs.

[amtak]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

@Visaster,
Amtak,
Dont waste any more time and get a good term policy. I have recently read that LIC has dropped the premium rates for the term policy by almost 40%, I guess they must have felt the heat from the competition. In your case I am sure it will be at par with private players. Get the rates from LIC, Aegon Religare, HDFC Ergo etc for the term policy. Visit policybazaar.com for the comparitive rates. Your Sum assured should be 10 times your annual income. & take care of the nominations part too.

Chuck the Ulip, money back and the LNT MF at the earlest. Dont mix investments with Insurance. One another imp investment you need to make is take a good health insurance policy with critical illness cover even if you have your employer's. As told to @Visaster you need to have goals in mind before you make investments.

Thanks Girish. I would be sending in a reminder to my LIC guy for sending in fresh quotes today itself. My wife's ULIP is less than 5 years old; I think I should keep it for one more year to keep the loses to minimum and take benefit of maturity? Also, LNT MF is expiring in December, I do not need the money now.

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

@ Amtak,

Godlur has already outlined a probable action plan. If LIC is giving a pure term policy, go for that even at a slightly higher premium. The reason is, LIC is the insurer with best claim settlement ratio.

There are two three good funds from L&T Mutual Fund, though I have redeemed my investment (L&T Equity Fund) with them. So you can take a relook on that investment before exiting.

Right now you have a large cap fund. Now add a Multi Cap fund, Large and Mid Cap fund and a Small Cap fund in your Portfolio. If you are very keen to invest in a Pharma fund go for Reliance/SBI Pharma Fund. Ideally 4-5 Funds will give sufficient amount of diversification.

Entering to stock market is good move, provided you have sufficient time to analyse and pick good stocks. Else it will be fatal. Also you need to be vigilant to developments happening in economic affairs.

Any recommendations in terms of Mid and Multi Cap fund? I remember we discussed about FT India growth fund; still a good bet?

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by amtak

I would be sending in a reminder to my LIC guy for sending in fresh quotes today itself.

If you wish to go in for a pure term policy - the online route would be a better and more economical option since there is no agent commission involved for the sale.

Online search would also assist you in finding out the most economical quote from different insurers for the parameters (Sum Insured , tenure etc.) stated by you.

Note that premiums for non-smokers would be lower too.

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by amtak

Any recommendations in terms of Mid and Multi Cap fund? I remember we discussed about FT India growth fund; still a good bet?

If you are exiting the LNT fund, go for following combination.

Large Cap - ICICI (Already invested)
Large and Mid - Quantum Long Term Equity Fund
Multi Cap - Principal Growth Fund
Mid and Small Cap - SBI Emerging Business Fund

Now the division of investment can be your call. You can give slightly more focus towards to last two funds as you have age at your side. Closely monitor the funds once six months. Compare them with their peers and nifty/sensex. If they are performing well, continue else exit after an year.

[dmplog]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

@Visaster,
You are not alone on the boat.

I have recently read that LIC has dropped the premium rates for the term policy by almost 40%

take care of the nominations part too.

mostly with @ghodlur.

Thought LIC has dropped rates for their Insurance Premium, it is still higher than other players and much higher than online term policies.
I suggest to stike a balance of cost vs safety, one can buy 2 Term policies one LIC Term Policy (Amulya Jeevan http://www.licindia.in/LICs_Amulya_J...onditions.html ) and one Private Online Term Policy (such as HDFC Click2Protect http://www.hdfclife.com/term-insuran...lick-2-protect).

My take on Claim Settlement Ratio
Although this ratio indicates that how many claims were successfully settled, it may not indicate the complete picture. Because, claim settlement depends on many factors such as : What were the exclusions of the policy, what was the identified cause of the death, whether correct information was declared by policyholder about his family and self's medical history, etc. So, I suggest look for inclusions and exclusions of policy, declare all medical facts correctly. Once you do that only then I feel one should look at the Claim Settment Ratio. And yes, none of the Insurers (even LIC) will go out of their way to pay your nominee the insurance amount if the conditions of claim settlement are not met.

And before I forget, I can't stress enough the importance of correct nominations. Many of us might have taken a policy before getting married. But, after getting married, how many of us have taken the effort to update nomination to Wife?

[vina]

I was trying to buy Direct-option funds when I ran into the issue that funds require acknowledgement letter for KYC

My question is how to obtain the letter? I am not sure where I have it (or whether/when I even received it). Should I go for a KYC update for this purpose?


Also do I need to send the funds a copy of the letter or the original itself?

[sgiitk]

@vina, You can get the KYC status from CDSL. Google for it. Key in the PAN (and maybe the dob) and you see it. Just print it out.

[vina]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

@vina, You can get the KYC status from CDSL. Google for it. Key in the PAN (and maybe the dob) and you see it. Just print it out.

Sir

can I send that as the "KYC acknowledgement letter" to the AMC while buying into a fund for the first time?

[ghodlur]

Now since the markets are on a rampage, any fantastic Mid cap or small cap (or combination of both) recommended? This will be for short term (>6 months < 1 yr) lumpsum investment.

Now with the new govt forming and most probably an extra emphasis on the infrastructure, shouls a thought be gioven for the thematic (infrastructure) Mutual funds like BSL Infrastructure, ICICI TIGER etc?