[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by pradkumar

HDFC Balanced is good, but I am not sure about HDFC Prudence.

Agree with you. The last time I compared, HDFC Balanced was better. Another fund to consider is Tata Balanced, but last 2/3 years performance is not that good.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

Agree with you. The last time I compared, HDFC Balanced was better. Another fund to consider is Tata Balanced, but last 2/3 years performance is not that good.

HDFC Balanced and Prudence are both excellent and well managed funds.

However I would not encourage you to invest in both together.

[nowwhat?]

FYI Mirae has "temporarily" closed its Emerging Bluechip Fund for subscription.

No new lump sum investments, no new SIP above ₹25K per month per PAN (not folio).

Existing SIPs and redemptions as usual.

I guess Mirae is trying to stem the "hot money" coming into this fund. Earlier they had changed exit fee from 1% within 365 days to 2% within 182 days and 1% later.

Reminds me of IDFC during Kenneth Andrade when Premier Equity was closed for lump sum investment.

Originally Posted by hserus

HDFC Balanced and Prudence are both excellent and well managed funds.

However I would not encourage you to invest in both together.

@hserus: I don't personally invest in Balanced Funds at the moment.

[anku94]

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

FYI Mirae has "temporarily" closed its Emerging Bluechip Fund for subscription.

Any idea how long these 'closures' usually last? I'm a regular investor with this plan but don't prefer SIPs for some reason.

[nowwhat?]

Originally Posted by anku94

Any idea how long these 'closures' usually last? I'm a regular investor with this plan but don't prefer SIPs for some reason.

No idea. I have asked them about it and haven't heard back yet. I am also not sure whether the limit is 25K per SIP or 25K per month.

Don't know what IDFC said the first time Premier Equity closed for lump sum investment. Ever since I could remember, they only took SIP. Once every few years, IDFC would suddenly open up Premier Equity for a few days out of the blue for lump sum investment. These were of course during its rock star days. Ever since the Fund Manager left a year or so back, Premier Equity has been indefinitely open for lump sum.

In a nutshell, unless we get clarity from Mirae, the fund may be restricted for a long, long time. The AMC can do this if they wish. Mirae's India Opportunities is supposed to be their flagship, but Emerging Bluechip ended up with more AUM.

[prateekm]

My mom has some extra funds in liquid, which I'm planning to invest in MFs with a decent risk appetite. I am planning to split the money into 5 funds - 2 funds focusing on midcap (high risk), 2 flexi or large-cap funds (moderate risk) and 1 debt fund (low risk).

I've shortlisted the following:
1. SBI Blue Chip Fund - Regular Plan
2. Kotak Select Focus Fund
3. Franklin India Smaller Companies Fund
4. UTI Mid Cap Fund
5. Birla Sun Life Floating Rate Fund

Apart from the one time investment, I will also start a SIP of 4-5k into each of these funds + Mirae Asset Emerging BlueChip Fund. Any suggestions?

[hserus]

They are all ok funds - but yes, high risk appetite is putting it mildly for some of those.

Depends on how disciplined and long term a investor you are.

I would stick to 3 (or absolute maximum four) funds instead of splashing out on 6 funds. Keep it simple, start small and ramp up would be my advice.

Start with one largecap (icici pru focused bluechip, hdfc equity fund, franklin india bluechip etc), one balanced (hdfc prudence, birla sunlife balanced 95 ..) and one mid or multi cap (icici pru value discovery / idfc premier equity, franklin india prima plus) - the ones in the brackets are choices you can evaluate other than the ones you have identified.

Avoid debt unless you understand the implications. Or - again if you understand the implications to some extent and have an increased risk appetite - you can park your money in a debt fund from some good fund house and do a systematic transfer plan (for example, Birla Sunlife Cash Manager (G) -> Birla Sunlife Balanced 95)

As your mom is an older person and maybe a senior citizen - keep her future needs in mind, investment horizon may be lower than you anticipate due to various financial needs + her necessity of a monthly income, before you make such investments that pay off in the long term. Short term redemption in a hurry can make a huge dent in her corpus. Also - Tone down your risk appetite when you invest on behalf of older people.

[sgiitk]

@hserus; I tend to agree. I am a pensioner so am focussed more on lower risk investments. Debt is fine as long as you are aware of the three year limit before you can claim indexing. Also, I find Arbitrage a good option to FDs. I also try and invest into Debt biased balanced funds.

My daughter wanted to open a couple of SIPs and I have steered them into FT Blue Chip and ICICI Pru Value Discovery. They had earlier liquidated their MFs folios for buying their flat.

[prateekm]

Thanks for the advice. Including me, there are 3 earning members at home, because of which her entire salary is saved as liquid. This is the reason why I want to invest in MF. My mom does have investments in FDs too. This would be a long term investment, at least 5 years and there won't be any short term redemption. I'll take your advice and replace the debt fund with a balanced fund and reduce the number of MFs to 3-4 to start with.

[scorpion_blore]

Explored "My CAMS" recently, and it provides direct investment options with the fund houses. So it is possible to invest in "Direct" plans instead of "Regular" plans.

Till now I used to invest via FundsIndia, and hence had the option only to invest in "Regular" plans.

Is investing through "My CAMS" safe compared to FundsIndia? The little extra returns from the Direct plans look good.

[hserus]

CAMS is the registrar for quite a lot of mutual funds. If you are comfortable with their portal use that. Or if you are comfortable with creating accounts at each AMC you have a folio with you can definitely do that as well.

In the long run it won't make very much of a difference. So see what value add funds india gives you (maybe better reporting etc) before you switch.

[scorpion_blore]

Originally Posted by hserus

CAMS is the registrar for quite a lot of mutual funds. If you are comfortable with their portal use that. Or if you are comfortable with creating accounts at each AMC you have a folio with you can definitely do that as well.

In the long run it won't make very much of a difference. So see what value add funds india gives you (maybe better reporting etc) before you switch.

Thanks for the quick reply. I am more concerned about the safety aspect of CAMS compared to FundsIndia. Is it reliable? I've been using Funds India for more than 5 years now, and it is reliable.

[hserus]

CAMS is the registrar for most mutual funds that don't work through Karvy. Kind of like Hertz and Avis dominate the US market in rental cars.

So if they were not sufficiently secure the MF industry in India has some fun problems before it. Note - that still means I don't know about how secure they are but anyway.. just pointing out the obvious here.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by scorpion_blore

Thanks for the quick reply. I am more concerned about the safety aspect of CAMS compared to FundsIndia. Is it reliable? I've been using Funds India for more than 5 years now, and it is reliable.

Hello scorpion_blore. I have been investing through CAMS for more than 5 years now. And using MyCAMS portal for investments/redemptions for close to 2 years now (all direct plans only). No problems so far. Not a single issue either. Family members are users of MyCAMS as well. And they too are happy about its utility and security. Hope this helps.

[Rahulk76]

Originally Posted by srvm

Hello scorpion_blore. I have been investing through CAMS for more than 5 years now. And using MyCAMS portal for investments/redemptions for close to 2 years now (all direct plans only). No problems so far. Not a single issue either. Family members are users of MyCAMS as well. And they too are happy about its utility and security. Hope this helps.

I am also in the same boat. Thinking of switching from Funds India to Camonline as it allows Direct Plans viz a viz Regular Plans and in long run yes it benefits as per paper calculations.