Start investing for your newborn now, but do it with a purpose, says Edelweiss MF CEO Radhika Gupta

Every parent hopes to fulfil his/her child's dreams. The first step to making a child's dream come true is education.

Edelweiss Mutual Fund Managing Director and CEO Radhika Gupta, who started investing for her one-year-old son Remy's future right after his birth, said that starting early with a purpose can help their child get his/her dream education.

In a series of tweets, the first-time mom shared tips to build a portfolio for a child.


"Start with a purpose. For a newborn, a college education is a good one. Determine a monthly SIP amount based on the capital needed and what you can afford, and start," she shared.


Sharing the plan she picked for her child, the 40-year-old said she picked a passive fund that had a mix of large, mid- and small-cap funds that gives broad market exposure.

Use equity funds since there is time. We started with a large and mid-cap index fund and just added our own Edel small-cap fund and a US fund (to hedge for currency depreciation). The passive fund gives broad market exposure and active is a great approach in small cap. This is not a perfect calculation given inflation and depreciation but it gets us started on our goal and we will adjust as he gets older. He will also enjoy seeing his portfolio as work when he is older," she wrote.


Gupta's husband Nalin Moniz, who is the Chief Investment Officer of Alternative Equity at Edelweiss MF, also took to Twitter to share his views on his CEO-wife's post.

In his post, he said the couple didn't do any fancy calculations before building a portfolio for his newborn. However, starting early and being consistent were key.

"We haven’t done any fancy calculations and will probably be off on the final amount but just starting early and building slowly & consistently is half the battle won. And besides no parent will ever let their child’s education fall through for lack of money," he tweeted.


Earlier this week, Gupta shared a series of tweets on five financial habits she would want her child to inculcate.

In her lengthy note, the AMC boss said that she will teach her son to encourage earning and saving money, but won't let it define him. While gratitude is the most important money attitude, she also said that the biggest and best in finance take a hit when greed takes over.

Gupta also said that one should manage their biggest asset - talent - first - before earning money.


"You can learn to manage money much later. It isn’t that hard ... And when you do, mutual funds will help you and I hope you will believe they are the right option," she concluded her post.

Do you agree with Gupta's investment lessons for children? Let us know in the Comments section.