I am 23 years old and I want to invest in mutual funds through systematic investment plans (SIPs). My monthly salary is about Rs23,000. Recently, I have started investing Rs2,000 in a tax saving scheme—regular growth—of the State Bank on India. Can you please suggest some other mutual funds as well to diversify my portfolio? I want to invest Rs6,000 a month.
—Kingshuk Ghosh
If you invest Rs2,000 a month in a tax saving fund, your annual investment would be Rs24,000.
Please ensure that this amount is required for you to claim 80C deductions to reduce your tax liability, and adjust the investment as needed.
Given your salary, you may at best be saving Rs1,300 a year in taxes by making this investment. So, if you’d like to add to your portfolio, I would suggest non-tax saving funds which do not have any lock-in period (tax-saving funds carry a lock-in of 3 years).
