It is a fact that the equity markets have not been performing well in recent times. This is not at all surprising as history shows us that the markets are and will be volatile in the short-term. However, there are likely many new investors who have entered equity markets only in the recent past, especially through the mutual fund SIP route. It may not come as a surprise that some of these investors may be feeling a bit worried about the short term performance of their equity funds. In this piece, we will talk about some basic investing principles which would help calm the nerves a bit.

Should you look at short-term SIP returns and worry?

Since you have invested in an equity mutual fund scheme, we assume that your investment horizon would have been long term or related to any long term financial goal. In personal finance parlance, long term is considered a minimum of five years.

It is important to understand that nothing is wrong with your choice of investment for the time horizon you have chosen. You just need to understand that the markets will go up and down, especially in the short term. That is their basic characteristic. It is only in the long run that you will see an increasingly consistent rising graph or upward movement. On the positive side, you may even be happy that the markets have not rallied, as you are now buying stocks at relatively lower price consistently through SIP. That is, in fact, one of the primary advantages of investing through SIP.

Almost every expert knows that the equity returns tends to follow the nominal GDP growth rates (i.e, the real GDP growth rate + inflation figures) in the long-term. With the Indian economy expected to grow at 7% + (real GDP) over the next few years, markets will eventually catch up and deliver positive returns. Hence, investors should not worry about lower or even negative returns in the short-term and continue their SIPs confidently.

Should I look to change my schemes?

Again, the performance of any fund or a fund manager can only be made over time. One year or less is too short a time to comment on the quality of fund management. If one particular scheme is not doing well today, shifting to another well-performing scheme will not guarantee you high returns. All returns and performance are historical in nature and hence will not matter much. Also, shifting between schemes with similar investment objective and investing in the same category/nature of stocks will not improve your portfolio much as the underlying universe of stocks will likely be similar.

What is more important in any portfolio composition is whether there is proper asset allocation and diversification. You should check whether your asset allocation is right for your investment horizon or risk appetite. Next, you could also see if your equity investment is appropriately spread into large, mid or small-cap investments – again as your profile and need. Frankly, we would strongly advise you to consult a proper financial advisor /distributor to construct your portfolio appropriately.

How long should you continue your SIP investments?

The best way to look at a SIP is by mapping or allocating your SIP to some life event or financial goal. For eg., higher education for your child, retirement plans for self, purchase of a second home, and so on. Even if these goals are over 10, 20, 30 years afar, an SIP route will deliver the best likely returns from amongst all asset classes. Given the importance of your financial goal, you should not stop any SIP linked to it as it will directly compromise the success of your goal.

If you do not wish to link your SIP to any goal, we would suggest that the life of any SIP should be at least 5-7 years for it to deliver good returns. Having said so, an SIP can be closed at any point of time – whenever you may need money. A new SIP today must be at least 5 years long.

Should I invest more money in equity funds?

This brings us back to basic questions – what is your investment objective, time horizon, risk appetite for this investment? And also most importantly, what is your present asset allocation? Once, these facts are known, you will have your answer. Broadly speaking you should invest if, your asset allocation in equity is low or your investment objective is to create wealth, the time horizon is long term and your risk appetite is aggressive.

Independent of above things, one is always advised to invest in markets which are not performing well or in other words, the valuations are relatively low. If you have an SIP you should consider increasing the SIP amount periodically – say half-yearly or yearly. Step-up SIPs are now available in the market which automatically increases your SIP amount at a set frequency. This is a more logical thing to do and also ensures that your savings grow along with your income over the years. Perhaps one should approach a good financial advisor to guide you on your fresh investments.

As smart investors, we also need to understand that fall in markets do give an opportunity for new investors to enter the market. Unfortunately, in India experience has shown that most investors enter markets when the returns are 30%-40% over the past year hoping that they too will make easy money.

In the end, we would suggest that a new investor should seek the help of a good financial advisor /planner to guide him/her in his investing journey. If you are investing directly on your own and are worried today, we would strongly suggest that you gain more knowledge and understanding on how the markets and investments work and even seek guidance, if felt required.

One single person cannot be an expert at many things. One may be good at quite a few things but can one call himself as an expert on multiple subject matters? Probably not. Thus, a normal person would need different experts and consultants at different points in time. These experts can be in the form of say, your teachers, gym /yoga instructors, doctors, lawyers, accountants and even your spiritual guide or guru. One such important expert in your life would be your financial advisor but the importance of whom most of us do not fully appreciate.

The financial advisor may come in many different names or designations, irrespective of which their primary concern would be your financial well-being and ensuring that you are financially successful. Thus, choosing and having the right financial advisor is very important as it will have an impact on one thing you value most – your money.

Who is a Financial Advisor:

A financial advisor is one who would be interested in your overall financial well-being. A good advisor would be one who is competent and committed to ensuring financial success for you. The financial advisor should be one who could provide you with advice and access to different financial products as you may need. He should be the one able to not only create and manage portfolios of different financial products but also handle you as a person. The financial advisor would play the critical role of managing your expectations, your emotions, help you build the right habits, attitude and appetite for investments and also help you become more aware of your finances.

Why should he/she be right?

Since we are strictly dealing with your financial well-being here, there is very little scope for compromise. At stake is a huge impact on your wealth – the difference between what a good / decent advisor and the right advisor can make for you. Small decisions, choices of products, timely actions, managing emotions, expectations, etc, everything potentially can end up making a huge difference to your finances especially when we project that over many years or long term.

Why do we need an advisor?

To start with, financial advisory is a huge field in itself. It encompasses different aspects of finance, including financial planning, investment & portfolio management, insurance or risk management, tax planning, retirement planning, cash-flow management, and loan /debt management. I am not sure how many of us would be competent /knowledgeable in each of this aspect. Bringing together all these pieces together is just one part of financial advisor. The real impact a financial advisor would bring would be in effectively managing your emotions and expectations and saying no to you where needed. There is a risk that financial decisions taken by us get affected by > emotions, biases, prejudice, knowledge, understanding, delays and so on. The advisor would help us by bringing professionalism, logic, emotional control, discipline in decision making and bringing all aspects of financial management under one umbrella of strategy or approach.

Who is probably not the right advisor?

Traditional Agents/ Brokers /Accountants:

The role and expertise of a proper financial advisor is an established field in itself. One should not expect a comprehensive assessment and solution to your financial needs from persons handling only specific aspects of your life. This is true for you, unless he/she is also a financial advisor, accountant, banking executive. insurance agent and stock broker. There are many traditional agents in the market who are really not looking at solving your problems or needs but are only interested in pushing the most profitable products to you. One should be more careful of their bank executive selling new ideas, the stock broker frequently churning portfolio and giving tips, and the insurance agent in neighbourhood selling only traditional plans.

Personal relationships:

Having a relationship with an incompetent advisor is not recommended even if you have other reasons for maintaining that relationship. At the end of the day, there is always a chance that you are not satisfied with the advisory part and then that may even ruin the other relationship you are having with that person. It would be advisable to differentiate a personal relationship and a professional relationship and deal / hire the right advisor to manage your finances.

Who is the right advisor for you?

• Competence: Your financial advisor has to be competent. Being competent can be seen as a combination of essentially two things -

• Knowledge: Knowledge is all about knowing everything you expect the advisor to know, including knowledge about assets, products, taxation, etc and also keeping oneself updated on markets and economy.

• Skills: Skills can be seen in two parts – (a) financial advisory skills (c) soft skills. The advisor should be smart enough to your prepare financial plans, do portfolio restructuring, decide upon the right products suitable for you, prepare reports /insights, evaluate products, make decisions based on right inputs, execute plans /transactions and so on. Soft skills would be largely about effective communication and relationship management with you.

• Infrastructure: Knowledge and skills have to be supported by adequate infrastructure. The existing infrastructure should be adequate enough for you to be serviced. The advisor has to be empowered by suitable product basket, technology platform, services, manpower and physical infrastructure. All this will access to the required products, ensure ease of operations, service quality and technology comfort for you too.

• Commitment: The financial advisor should be committed to you. We can interpret this commitment and see it as a combination of the following -

  • Acceptance: the advisor accepts you as a valuable client and is dedicated to serving you. The impact of this acceptance & dedication would reflect on the entire relationship you have with the advisor. Absence of this aspect of relationship would not help you no matter how competent your advisor is.

  • Understanding: another aspect of commitment would be reflected in the extent to which the advisor takes the effort to understand you as a person and your finances. Without a proper understanding of your profile, background, financial status, needs and expectations, it would be difficult for him to give the right advice to you.

  • Intent: The last part of commitment is the intent of the advisor. There are many people in the industry, say bank executives or insurance agents promoting traditional plans only, whose true intentions and/or product biases to be understood. The advisor has to act in your best interests only and not be biased for any particular products or services. A good advisor will not be transaction or product oriented but will talk more in terms of problems or needs and solutions for them.

Time for Tax Planning

In life, two things are certain – death and taxes! 31st March is less than Four months away and you surely now have adequate time to focus on one very important task for the financial year. Tax Planning! You have just about enough time to assess your financial records and plan investments for tax saving purposes. But don't get too comfortable just yet. Time is of the essence when it comes to tax planning and the remaining months will fly away soon. We don't want to end up in the middle of a lot of unfinished work, forced to make last-minute investments in sub-optimal instruments just to save tax. You may end up saving tax but will this investment align with your overall investment goals?

Let us not wait for March month and be done with all tax planning as early as possible. Last minute tax planning decisions, taken in haste often are not the ones most suitable for you. We would suggest it is time to start tax planning right away. The question now is how do we start?

Step one: Assessment of gross income

The IT department has identified five specific heads of income under which all income is classified. These are (a) Income from Salary (b) Income from House Property (c) Profits & gains from Business/Profession (d) Capital Gains & (e) Income from Other sources.

The first step is a fair assessment of the gross income for the financial year. You already have crossed over nine months and we believe you will have a fair bit of idea for income accruing in the remaining months. There is no need to arrive at an exact figure. An approximate figure is enough to know the income for the fiscal year. While arriving at the gross income, please do consider all incomes including things like interest on bank savings, interest earnings from investments made, rental income, etc.

Step two: Assessment of taxable liability

The next step is the computation of the net taxable income. For this, we will be taking into account the exemptions /deductions provided by the government for the above-mentioned income source. We will be also considering the tax saving avenues already used /invested in by us during this financial year. Just to highlight, the following things will have to be considered, subject to the taxation rules,

1. Investments made in tax saving instruments u/s 80C

2. Rent paid for residence

3. Insurance premiums paid

4. Home loan – interest and the capital amount repaid

5. Medical expenses for disease treatments

6. Expenditure on handicapped relatives

7. Other allowed deductions like tuition fees, donations, etc.

After arriving the net taxable income, depending on our income level and our personal profile (age + gender + tax entity type) a particular taxation slab will be applicable to us. This will help us arrive at the tax liability for the year.

Step three: Planning for tax saving

You now have a fair idea of the amount of taxable income and tax liability applicable as per tax slab to you. The next step starts with you deciding how much tax savings you want to do? The idea is to reduce your taxable income so that the tax liability decreases. Thus you will have to work out the right amount of investments to be made in approved instruments which are allowed as deductions...

Note that not every decision is driven by tax saving purpose. For example, taking insurance in itself is very crucial and the decision on it should be taken independently, irrespective of tax saving benefit available or not. Tax saving in insurance products must always be a secondary consideration, as a by-product. As such insurance requirements have to be discussed with your advisor, the sooner the better. Certain insurance premiums are allowed for deduction u/s 80D, 80DD and 80DDB.

We have finally arrived at the stage where we have to select the investment product(s) with the primary objective of tax saving. The most important section here is of 80C which has many approved investment avenues which collectively allow deduction of up to Rs.1,50,000/- from taxable income. The most popular investment instruments available here are...

• Mutual Fund Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS)

• Contribution to Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Employee Provident Fund (EPF)

• Tax saving Fixed Deposits (5 years & above)

• National Savings Certificate (NSC)

• Pension Plans

• Others Investments like Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), ULIPs, Senior Citizens' Savings Schemes (SCSS).

There are also some payments eligible for tax saving deductions u/s 80C which have to be considered, if any.

• Life Insurance premiums

• Home loan repayment (principal amount)

• Children's tuition fees

Further, there is also an additional deduction of Rs.50,000 available for investments made into NPS u/s 80CCD which is over and above the 80C limits.

The question now is what you will choose?

To decide we must see the advantages and disadvantages of our preferred products and also our own financial objectives. Parameters like liquidity (lock-in period), risks, returns potential and your existing investment asset allocation, can be considered to decide on the right investment instrument. Please note that even interest rates on government saving instruments are revised from time to time. How much net real returns over inflation can I expect from my returns? is something that you must question yourself.

We don't wanna push you towards any particular product, though we believe in ELSS as the ideal tax saving instrument u/s 80C. However, overall tax planning is a wide subject and we would suggest that you take the opportunity to sit with your financial advisor and make a fair assessment of the needs and then select the right instruments. It is also an opportunity to take an independent look at your insurance coverage, just in time before the end of the year.