HomeMutual FundDefeat Financial Uncertainty with Mutual Funds

Defeat Financial Uncertainty with Mutual Funds

American mathematician John Allen Paulos once remarked, “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” Uncertainty in life typically comes in the form of job loss, medical emergency, and unanticipated travelling.

Such events are inevitable and unexpected, and can weaken one’s economic health. Traditionally, money required for a rainy day was kept in bank deposits (fixed and savings).

However, with falling interest rate and inflation eroding the purchasing power of money, mutual funds appear more appealing. Read on to understand how to build an emergency corpus with the help of mutual funds.

Key Aspects of an Emergency Fund

emergency fund

Explore Mutual Funds to Build an Emergency Kitty

Short-term maturity debt funds such as liquid, ultra-short-term, overnight, money market, and low duration funds are a good investment avenue to help build an emergency corpus since they are relatively less risky among all other categories of mutual funds, and score high on liquidity and returns. Investors can start investing in these funds either via lump sum investments or a systematic investment plan (SIP)

Some of the key variants and features of short-maturity debt funds are:

types of funds

Note: * Macaulay duration is indicative of the sensitivity of the fund’s portfolio to the change in interest rates. Funds are defined as per SEBI’s classification

Case Study

Here’s a theoretical example: Swapnil wants to build an emergency fund wherein he can easily withdraw money as and when needed. He has two options – traditional savings bank account or a short-term debt fund. For this analysis, we have looked at liquid funds, one of the more popular avenues for parking money in the short term.

The money invested by Swapnil (assumed at Rs 2.5 lakh) would have generated just 4% returns in a year versus 7.11% by investing in a liquid fund. Even if we compare post tax returns from both the investments, liquid funds’ returns still top the traditional investment avenue (see the table).

Particulars Savings account Liquid fund
Amount 250,000 250,000
Interest rate 4.00%^ 7.11%1
Interest earned 10,000 17,775
TDS
Taxation @ highest tax bracket NA 30%
End amount 260,000 262,443

As indicated, investments in short-term debt funds are more enriching than in the traditional products. However, debt funds are exposed to market risks (interest and credit) and do not offer guaranteed returns like bank deposits. Investors can allocate a portion of their portfolio to these funds and capitalise on professional management and the ability to get better returns.

Summing Up

Emergencies turn up without a warning, but we can be prepared well in advance. Befriend mutual friends to build a contingency corpus. Before choosing the right fund, do conduct due diligence on portfolio attributes, costs such as exit load, track record of the fund house, and invest as per your risk profile.

FinanceGAB
FinanceGABhttps://www.financegab.com/
Ajeet Sharma, the founder of Financegab and a well-known name in the field of financial blogging. Blogging since 2017, he has the expertise and excellent knowledge about personal finance. Financegab is all about personal finance which aims to create awareness among people about personal finance and help them to make smart, well-informed financial decisions.

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