I invest in the following funds through monthly Systematic Investment Plans: Rs 6,000 in UTI Opportunities, Rs 5,000 each in HDFC Top 200, IDFC Premier Equity and HDFC Midcap Opportunities, Rs 4,000 in Fidelity Equity, Rs 3,000 in ICICI Pru Dynamic, and Rs 2,000 in Franklin Prima Plus. Totally, I invest Rs 30,000.

I will need the money after 10 years. Please suggest changes, if any, needed in this portfolio to maximize returns with ‘above-average' risk.

— C. D. Anthony

The amount that you have chosen to invest monthly - Rs 30,000, is fairly high. We hope you have made adequate investments in the remaining avenues such as debt, gold and real estate to diversify your portfolio.

The time horizon of 10 years will leave you with sufficient time to generate a healthy corpus. It also helps that you have an above-average risk appetite, which is necessary for generating higher returns from aggressive funds.

Coming to your portfolio, many of the funds you hold have a reasonably strong performance record. But there is still some tweaking that can be done to strengthen your portfolio.

Continue to invest Rs 5,000 in HDFC Top 200, IDFC Premier Equity, and HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities.

The first fund will provide you with large-cap stock exposure, while the remaining two mid-cap funds are among the best in the category, and may be expected to deliver returns upward of 18 per cent annually during the long-term. In UTI Opportunities, you can park Rs 5,000.

For the balance Rs 10,000, because these two mid-cap funds would make for high-risk, you can temper it by switching from Franklin India Prima Plus to Franklin India Bluechip, and invest Rs 5000 there.

You can also consider switching from ICICI Pru Dynamic to ICICI Pru Focussed Bluechip. Both these large-cap funds have done extremely well in the last 3-4 years, outperforming most indices.

So, you would have three large-cap, one multi-cap and two midcap funds.

With Fidelity's AMC recently being acquired by L&T Finance, we adopt a cautious ‘wait and watch' approach.

I would like to accumulate around Rs 1 crore in 15 years. Please look into my portfolio and advise if I need to make any changes.

I am investing Rs 7,000 in HDFC Top 200, Rs 5,000 in Franklin India Bluechip, Rs 2,000 in Birla Life Dividend Yield Plus, Rs 3,000 in HDFC Prudence Fund, Rs 2,000 in Franklin India Flexi Cap, and Rs 2000 in Kotak Opportunities.

I totally invest Rs 21000 every month.

— Chetan Gurkhi

It is nice to note that you have given yourself a reasonable timeframe to achieve a corpus.

If you continue to invest Rs 21,000 a month for the next 15 years, you will cross Rs 1 crore, assuming a rate of return of just 12 per cent. Achieving this return isn't that challenging.

Your portfolio can be rebalanced as follows:

You can invest Rs 6,000 in HDFC Top 200. Continue your current investments in Franklin India Bluechip, Birla Sun Life Dividend Yield Plus and HDFC Prudence. These funds have delivered top-quartile returns in the large-cap, multi-cp and balanced categories during the long-term.

Kotak Opportunities has been a laggard during the past three years in the multi-cap category. Franklin Flexi Cap has delivered reasonable returns, but there are some funds that have delivered higher returns, and are more consistent in the multi-cap category. So, you can consider exiting this fund and instead invest Rs 5,000 in Quantum Long-term Equity.

Review the performance of the funds in your portfolio at least once a year to remove any underperformers and rebalance. In case of any extraordinary rallies, move the profits to safer investments.

Also, approximately six months to a year before your specified timeframe, start moving your fund proceeds to debt instruments, so that a sudden correction doesn't leave you unprepared.

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