Short answer: education in India inflates at roughly 10 to 12 percent a year, about double the 5 to 6 percent general inflation most people plan with. That gap sounds small, but over 15 years it is the difference between a ₹48 lakh target and an ₹84 lakh reality. Plan your child’s degree at 6 … Read more
Short answer: there is no best date to start a SIP, and any page that promises you one is selling a myth. Long-term backtests across decades of Indian market data all reach the same conclusion. The gap between the best and worst SIP date is around 0.07 to 0.15 percent, which on a ₹12 lakh … Read more
Short answer: a new fund offer priced at ₹10 is not cheap, and buying one because the NAV looks low is a mistake. A ₹10 NAV and a ₹500 NAV are identical in value. You just get more units of a smaller size, which changes nothing about your returns. Worse, an NFO asks you to … Read more
Short answer: an IDCW payout is not income the fund gives you on top of your investment. It is your own money handed back to you. On the day it is paid, the fund’s NAV drops by exactly the payout amount, so your total wealth does not move by a single rupee. You are no … Read more
Short answer: yes, a 5-year SIP can lose money, and history proves it. The popular claim that a SIP always works over five years is comforting, but it is not true. A Nifty 50 SIP run from March 2015 to March 2020 finished worth less than the money put in, and the worst 5-year SIP … Read more
Short answer: your fund’s advertised return and the return you actually earned are two different numbers, and the gap is not the fund lying. The advertised figure, say a 5-year return of 15 percent, assumes one lump sum invested on the very first day and held the whole time. Your SIP put money in gradually, … Read more
Short answer: a trailing return is a single snapshot from one start date to today, and it can be flattered by a lucky end date, while a rolling return tests every possible start date and shows you the full range of what the fund actually delivered. The same fund can advertise a shiny 16 percent … Read more
Short answer: missing one SIP installment is not a disaster, but it is not free either. Your mutual fund charges you nothing, and your existing investment is completely untouched. The only direct cost is a small bounce fee from your bank, usually ₹250 to ₹500. The two things that actually matter are the rule most … Read more
Short answer: an RD is safer, but a SIP builds far more wealth, and the gap widens sharply once you account for tax. At a 30 percent slab, a recurring deposit paying 7 percent returns only about 4.9 percent after tax, which barely keeps up with inflation. A SIP targets around 12 percent and is … Read more
Short answer: a step-up SIP does build a bigger corpus than a flat SIP, but not for the reason most people think. It wins because you invest much more money, not because each rupee works harder. In fact, each rupee works less hard. Measured by gain per rupee invested, a flat SIP returns about ₹3.16, … Read more
