Mutual fund schemes to save for retirement and child education

I am a 31-year-old married, IT professional. Currently, I am planning a family. I have a monthly SIP of Rs 3,000 in HDFC Top 100 Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option which I started a year ago. I also invested a lump sum amount periodically in HDFC Hybrid Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option. I have invested around Rs 1.10 lakhs in it till date. I have around Rs 2 lakh in Nippon India Low Duration Fund as an emergency fund. I invested a lump sum amount in ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund - Direct Plan - Growth periodically. Current valuation is Rs 1 lakhs +. I have long term SIP for 10 years in L&T Midcap Fund Direct Plan - Growth for 2000 per month. It's currently in the second year. Apart from these I invest in NPS and PPF regularly. I also have a PF account. My aim is to build a sizeable corpus for our retirement and for my children's future. The retirement fund and child's future fund will be separate. I would like to know if I am on the correct path.

--- Debdutta Banerjee

Vishal Dhawan, founder, PlanAhead Wealth Management, a financial planning firm, based in Mumbai, responds:

Looking at the fact that your investment horizon is fairly long, we are assuming you have above average risk appetite. Hence would recommend you to go a little more aggressive on your equity SIPs.

You can consider investing in a small cap strategy which is recommended for long term wealth creation. Assuming your total SIP is Rs 5000, you can carve out Rs 1000 towards small caps such as Axis Small Cap or SBI Small Cap.


In this market environment we would advise caution on lump sum investing, but still if you want to go for lumpsum, then ICICI Pru Balanced Advantage Fund is a good choice which adjusts its equity- debt portion according to market cycles.