Mutual Funds - Saving Tax

Mutual funds explained with some comment on how to save tax.

• ELSS = Tax Saver (Saving) Mutual Funds (Schemes)
• You can invest upto one lakh in any ELSS scheme.

1. You should check if you really need to invest one lakh, because in all probability, your employer is already deducting PF from your salary.
2. In that case, your investments should be: 1 Lakh - (monthly PF deduction x 12)
3. PF = Provident Fund = Govt’s way of making people save from their salary.

• This investment gets locked for 3 years (lock in period = 3 years).

1. That means that if you invest Rs. 3000 today, you will get it back only after three years from today.
2. That also means that if your are doing an SIP of Rs. 3000 every month, the three years are counted for every 3000 from the month they were invested.
3. SIP= Systematic Investment Plan = Fund’s way of saying “please invest in us regularly at a definite interval”.

• Lock in period of 3 years is good, why?

1. …because that ensures that people can’t take out money for at least next 3 years.
2. … and that makes it easy for the funds to make more money for you.
3. … also this is better than locking your money away for 5 or 7 years (in other schemes - don’t worry about them if you don’t know).

• Which fund to choose?

1. Choose a fund (search now: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=elss+funds) that has: -> a decent asset size and

-> and good two years performance (look at the rate of return in the last two years)

• Frankly, every fund company has two or three Tax funds (or may be just one)
• It’s better to keep your folios tight and invest in a Tax fund of the company where you already have funds.
  Reason: tax funds generally are better than any other tax saver investment, so you should really not worry about choosing, too much.
• Which option to choose?

1. Choose growth option. Don’t choose dividend re-investment. That’s because you really don’t want any more money to get locked again for three years.
2. So if you choose dividend re-investment, and the fund declares a dividend of Rs. 500 at the 29th month after your investment, that Rs. 500 per unit will get locked for three more years.
3. In effect, you will get back the re-invested money after another 36 months (in case the Govt. keeps lock-in as 3 years).
4. So, you get back the dividend money after 29+36 months of your original investment.

• Options: Growth - this means that you won’t get any dividends, but your fund’s NAV will increase intrinsically with dividend declarations.
• Options: Dividend Payout - this means that a dividend declaration will give you back cash in your account. Some times this makes sense.
• Options: Dividend Re-investment - Any declaration will buy you new funds for whatever money you might have got paid. Stay clear of this one.
• NAV: Net Asset Value - Fund’s way of saying “my one unit will cost you this (NAV) much.”
  

The best way to invest is using an SIP.

• During April, calculate what your PF amount is (assuming your appraisal and stuff is over).
  Multiply that by 12 and then deduct it from one lakh. There you go, you have an investment figure - X.
• Divide X by 12, and decrease another figure Y from this new Z = X / 12.

1. This Y depends on your age. Y is directly proportional to [Your Age - 28].
2. Y is the money you should invest in a fixed return investment (like Fixed Deposit, National Saving Certificates or Public Provident Fund).
3. Y is totally your call, but should be quite less than Z.
4. Your total fixed return investment becomes Y x 12, and ELSS investment is (Z - Y) x 12.
5. Your SIP should be for an amount of (Z - Y), starting in April.