Goal-driven investments

PORTFOLIO MAKEOVER

I have been investing in stocks and funds since January 2005. Initially, I began investing for tax-saving purposes and later decided to build a portfolio to achieve my future goals, which are retirement, children’s education and their marriage. Please give me suggestions on my portfolio with a long-term view in mind. Which funds should I retain and remain invested in? As far as my direct stock investments are concerned, I didn’t have much of an idea while investing in them. I followed some websites’ instructions and some other sources. In future, I will make sure not to invest directly in the stock market.
-Vikas Kumar K C-

The good news is that you have well-defined, long-term goals and you’ve given yourself quite a good amount of years to prepare for their eventual fulfilment. On the other hand, the not-so-good news (we wouldn’t really call it bad news) is that your approach has been slightly desultory. A portfolio of 16 mutual funds and 15 stocks built over a period of three years is not really ideal. You have been bitten by the over-diversification bug, which won’t really do your portfolio any major harm, but won’t help you in building a decent corpus either.

The basic reason why investing in too many stocks or funds should be avoided is that as individual investments, they stop having any significant effect on the overall portfolio. In your case, the total number of stocks (direct and funds combined) amount to around 300.

The first step is to now decide on your asset allocation. Your portfolio is devoid of debt, which is integral in volatile times like now. Furthermore, you should reduce the unnecessary over-exposure to stocks and funds and opt out of Ulips. On the basis of your specific goals, we did some calculations. We allocated a part of your monthly investable amount to each of your goals and figured out how you can achieve a minimum corpus by adopting a systematic and disciplined investment approach. Please note that for this calculation, compounding interest is used and the rate of return is assumed at 10 per cent per annum.

Goal 1: Children’s Education
A decent corpus is required for your children’s higher education. Since you got married recently, the minimum time after which you will need the corpus is 20 years. Now, if you invest Rs 2,000 a month through the systematic route (SIP) for the next 20 years, you can accumulate Rs 16.19 lakh for this goal.

Goal 2: Children’s Marriage
Here also, if you allocate Rs 2,000 a month, but with increased time horizon of 27 years, your corpus would increase to Rs 33.97 lakh.

Goal 3: Retirement Corpus
At the age of 28 years, you have 32 more years to generate a corpus for your retirement. Now if you invest Rs 5,000 a month for the next 32 years, you could generate Rs 1.15 crore for your retirement and assuming 40 more years of life span after your retirement, you can draw Rs. 24,000 a month till your survival to meet your livelihood expenses and lead a comfortable life after retirement.

Goal 4: Buy a House
To buy a house, you need to take a home loan. Before that, consider this: If you take a loan of up to Rs 20,00,000, at the present home loan rate of 9.5 per cent charged annually and payment period of 30 years, the equated monthly instalment (EMI) would be as high as approximately Rs 16, 817. To reduce the burden of bulky monthly instalments, make hefty down payments. So, if you pay some cash, say Rs 5,00,000 and the loan amount reduces to Rs 15 lakh, your EMI will come down to Rs 12,612.

Other Contingencies
From your monthly savings of Rs 12,000, Rs 9,000 has been used for different purposes; now keep the remaining Rs 3,000 for other uncertainties or contingencies in life.

Action Plan:

Cut down the number of funds in your portfolio

 

Don’t invest directly in the stock market

 

Increase debt allocation

 

Keep investing systematically

 

Maintain a quality portfolio with few selective funds with good track record

 

Move out of Unit Linked Insurance Plans as they wither away your savings

 

Take simple term-plans; pay lower premium and get higher sum assured

To give you a further idea of what we think you should be investing in, we have devised a portfolio that would be ideal for your investment needs. As you can see, the ‘suggested portfolio’ is made up of seven funds and has an increased debt allocation of approximately 12 per cent. We suggest you rebalance the portfolio every year and make changes as per your requirements.