I have been answering questions on mutual funds (MFs) in my weekly Mint Money column for more than five years now. Taking a step back and looking at the questions that have come in, I can see some clear patterns in the doubts, concerns, and misconceptions that people have about MFs.
The best thing about these questions is that these are people who have heard about MFs, are favourably inclined towards investing in them, and are asking reasonable questions to clear their doubts, or to figure out how to go about investing. That in itself puts them in the top 10% of the potential market for MFs in India. They are more knowledgeable than the majority of the people who either still don’t know about MFs, or look upon it unfavourably, conflating it with the innumerable financial scams perpetrated by the unscrupulous.
When a person chooses to take an objective view of the choices available for making long-term investments, she will invariably come to the conclusion that investing in MFs is the way to go. But once she comes to this conclusion, what are the factors holding her back from getting started? What doubts and apprehensions do they have?
