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Abhilash talks about his financial planning journey

When I first decided to pursue MBA, I assumed it to be synonymous with 6 figure salaries. Well, I wasn’t wrong about that. Yet my life was a perfect live telecast of a “hands to mouth” living. I had no control over my expenses and at the end of every month, I had absolutely no idea where my money was being syphoned off to. Financial Planning was definitely not luring me enough. But somehow that wasn’t even bothering me. Maybe because I thought such is life for everyone who is approaching his late 20s.

This (Read: Mid 20s) is also a time in life when taking risks gives a lot of thrill. So I started investing in stock markets. I now realize I was betting on circumstances which I could not predict. But I think I was lucky since I had invested a small amount in 2 stocks. By the way, that was my only “savings cum investment” so to say. And oh, also the annual allocation I used to do for the 80C deductions.

Life went on and I forgot about the amount parked in the two stocks. On one such day, I met my friend Vikash who has started a wealth management company called CAGRfunds. As I told him about my inability to save, he told me about investing, mutual funds and the stock market. Boom. I just remembered my stock investments. I went home, logged on to the site and there it was. A substantial reduction over what I had invested. Complete disbelief overtook me.

So I called back Vikash and asked him about what should I be doing with my money. And that is how I started my investing journey with them. Vikash gave me the following two pieces of advice that day.

  1. Redeem all my stock investments. This was because I neither had the expertise nor the knowledge to identify and monitor the right stocks. And my portfolio pretty much made that clear to me.
  2. Start a small SIP.

At that point, I had no idea of what a mutual fund is or what does SIP mean. But the next few sessions with the CAGR team clarified a lot of misconceptions I had about “money” in general and at the same time, opened up a huge number of possibilities of wealth creation.

But that is not what I liked about them. It was the fact that they asked me to start small. Simply because I was new to this domain and they felt it was important for them to educate me along the way. Now, I have met a number of relationship managers from various banks, but no one has ever asked me to start small.

I, therefore, started with a small amount as my monthly investment. Within 6 months, I started a few more SIPs and then kept on adding to it. Life couldn’t have been this simple had it not been for the CAGR online platform (www.cagrfunds.com). Online investment, monitoring and redemption – all in just a few clicks. And because it is a few clicks, it is much easier to manage investments regularly. Although I pretty much manage my investments myself, I owe it to the CAGR team for making me more responsible and now wealthier.

The story has been contributed by Abhilash Sethi who has been a CAGR client for over a year now. Abhilash is a 28-year-old MBA graduate from IIM – Bangalore and is married to Rachana Dongre (also a CAGR client).

Call / WhatsApp us on +91 9769356440 for a free financial consultation!

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Four ways to make your vacation pay for itself

We can totally understand your excitement when a long awaited vacation is approaching. Likewise, the post vacation depression! How we wish we could guarantee ourselves one vacation every year without it making a big hole into our pockets?

Well a bit of planning and discipline can make a guaranteed annual vacation a reality! Here are 4 ways to achieve this dream.

Have a vacation fund amount in mind well in advance

If you are planning one high value vacation every year, it is best to start pinning down the fund you will require in advance. This is because an estimate of the amount required gives you enough time to create the fund.

Invest surplus lumpsum in a debt fund

If you have any surplus lumpsum amount in hand, invest the same in an ultra – short term debt fund. This will ensure liquidity so that you can withdraw as and when required. At the same time your money will grow at modest returns. This strategy should ideally be followed for a vacation that you want to make within 1 year.

Start a monthly debt investment to fund the balance amount

If you have an estimated amount required for vacations that you want to do next year or the year after that, you can start a monthly investment in a debt fund (this method is also known as a SIP). This will enable you to allocate a certain amount every month for the trip.

Start a monthly equity investment to fund trips after 3 years

Since you know you want to travel every year, why not start creating the fund for the vacations you will be doing after 3 years. For such vacations, you can start a monthly investment (SIP) in a balanced equity fund. This will not only enable you to park a certain amount of sum every month but will also grow your corpus over time. So essentially, a part of your trip can be funded by the returns you generate on your equity investment. Isn’t that great?

How do we help?

At CAGRfunds, we help you plan your annual vacation fund by identifying the asset allocation required for the same. Asset allocation is the split of investment required in debt and equity. We help you create your investment portfolio so that you can just plan your travel while your vacation pays for itself!

For planning your travel fund, call / whatsapp us on +91 97693 56440 or leave a message here

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My 15 lakhs FD matured. How do I use the money?

As per a recent survey by SEBI, more than 95% of Indians prefer parking their money in Fixed Deposits (FD). Well, if that is true by any measure, then it is only likely that a good number of those FD(s) are maturing every single day. And the looming question is – Should I start another FD?

Before we answer this question, let us look at the various options we have in hand.

Retain it as cash – Unless you have a spending need within the next 7 days, there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to consider this. Liquid funds work best for any spending needs in near future. Idle cash at home is like a bucket of still water. The level only depletes with time gradually.

Start another fixed deposit – Fixed deposit returns have been falling and the extent of our expenses is increasing. Healthcare costs increase by approximately 15% every year. Are the fixed deposit returns still attractive? We would say a big NO to that. Low returns coupled with taxation of returns renders them to be an unattractive investment destination. With easy access to better information, a lot of Indians are now realizing this. Have you awaken yet?

Invest in debt funds – Debt funds are a type of mutual fund which invest in debt related instruments like Government bonds, corporate bonds, commercial paper (CP) etc. The reason a lot of people are now shifting to debt funds is because of better returns and lower taxation possibilities. With the tax net getting stringent, it only makes sense to explore all possible avenues of reducing tax liability. Read more about how debt funds fare better over FDs here

Invest monthly in equity funds – Equity mutual funds are the latest talk of the town. Useful or in-vogue, whatever you call them, they are amongst the very few wealth creating asset classes available to Indians today. A pre decided monthly investment in equity mutual funds can result in double digit returns over the long term. But only and mostly over the long term. And by long term we mean that your money should stay invested for more than 5 years. For example, an investment of INR 80,000 over 18 months (INR 14.4 lakhs) can lead to a corpus size of INR 41 lakhs after 10 years (Assuming annual return of 12%). And that too tax free.

Therefore in conclusion, the best investible options available are debt and equity mutual funds. You can choose either of them or a mix of them depending on your risk profile, return expectations and time horizon.

How do we help?

At CAGRfunds, we assess your complete profile in terms of risk, return and time horizon and accordingly make customized suggestions to you. We ensure that your money gets invested in the right avenues and meets your expectations.

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Is your fixed deposit making you wealthier?

Last week, I met a lawyer on my flight to Delhi. Since I had nothing better to do, I broke the ice and soon, we started discussing about my favorite topic – how do we get wealthier over the long run.

So I asked my new found lawyer friend, what does he do with his surplus funds? Immediate response – “Fixed Deposits!” So I then asked him why? And with a very perplexing look, he said – “My money grows at 6.5%. Do I need another reason?”

That is when I realized the lack of awareness that is prevalent even amongst the learned breeds of lawyers. I therefore introduced him to the concept of Debt Funds.

Debt Funds are those mutual funds which invest in debt instruments like bonds, debentures and money market instruments. But why are we comparing debt funds to fixed deposits?

Fact 1: Debt funds on an average give an annual return of 7.0% – 8.5%. SBI 1 Year Fixed Deposit yields 6.9% interest annually, and a 3 Year Fixed Deposit yields 6.50% annually.

Fact 2: If money stays invested in a debt fund for more than 3 years, then you end up paying considerably lower tax on the returns from such debt funds. This is because of the indexation benefit. Indexation implies to inflating purchase cost to account for inflation. As a result, returns which are subject to taxation is reduced. Also, such reduced returns are taxed @20%. However, in case investments are held for less than 3 years, the gains are added to the income of the investor and taxed as per the income tax slab rate applicable.

Fixed deposits are taxable as per the applicable slab rate of the investor, irrespective of the holding period of investment. That doesn’t sound good at all!

Let us understand by examples:

Consider an investor with income of INR 15lacs. He is willing to invest INR 1lac. The tax slab for this investor is 30% as per the income tax slab.

Case 1: Comparison of FD vs Debt Fund, assuming different rate of returns (as per Fact 1 above)

 

The net gain from investing in Debt funds exceeds in both the holding periods, so the investor is better off by investing in debt funds after taxes.

Due to indexation benefit, the purchase price has been inflated from ₹100,000 to ₹119,808, thereby reducing the tax liability from ₹6,238 in FD to ₹539 in debt funds. This benefit is available when the holding period is 3 years or more.

Case 2: Let us consider a scenario where returns from debt fund are the same as that of FD

An investor is better off by ₹6,051 even if the returns are same, in case holding period exceeds 3 years. Hence, debt funds are more tax efficient than fixed deposits in every scenario.

Time you think about the funds lying in your bank account?

Read More: Will Debt Funds help your create wealth?