Where should I invest my father’s retirement corpus?

I want to invest my father’s retirement corpus in mutual funds within two to three days. Where should I invest to get the maximum monthly income. The investment amount would be around Rs 2 lakh. I don’t mind taking moderate risk.

--Sayan Datta

To begin with, it is not a great idea to take care of investing your father’s retirement corpus on your own if you are not well-versed in investing in mutual funds. Consult a financial/mutual fund advisor before investing. An advisor would be able to offer you personalised solution after considering your father’s financial position.

This is what we typically tell retirees looking to invest in mutual funds. If you are looking for a primary income to take care of your regular living expense, opt for government-sponsored schemes like Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS), Post Office Monthly Income Scheme, etc. These schemes offer guaranteed returns. If you have a regular income that is sufficient to take care of your living expenses, you may consider investing in mutual funds for the supplementary income.


However, you should remember that mutual funds do not offer guaranteed income. They may offer dividends, but they are not guaranteed. Mutual fund schemes declare dividends only when the schemes are making profits. You may withdraw a fixed amount regularly from your mutual fund schemes to supplement your primary income. However, you should make sure that you are not drawing more than the returns (5-6 per cent). Otherwise, you will dip into your corpus.