I am 33 years old; married without kids. I have monthly savings of ₹15,000. I also have ₹4 lakh in my savings bank account. I have been investing in the following SIPs: ₹1,500 and ₹1,000 each in ICICI Pru Focused Bluechip and Value Discovery for the past one year; ₹3,000 each in SBI Bluechip and Kotak Select Focus for the last six months; and ₹2,000 in Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip for the past six months.

I have no other debt instruments except EPF. I also don’t have private term and health insurances. Please help me plan a portfolio and also advice if I need to switch any mutual funds.

Mahantesh Prabhu Swamimath

All the funds you have chosen have good long-term track records. Following market regulator SEBI’s new rules on categorisation of mutual fund schemes, some of the funds that you are holding have undergone changes.

Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip, earlier a pure mid-cap fund, is now a large- and mid-cap fund. Kotak Select Focus remains a multi-cap fund but has been renamed Kotak Standard Multicap fund. ICICI Focused Bluechip has become ICICI Pru Bluechip, but remains a large-cap fund. Value Discovery and SBI Bluechip continue to retain their names and investment philosophies.

If you want to invest the entire ₹15,000 that you are currently saving, you can rejig your portfolio as follows: Invest ₹4,000 in ICICI Pru Bluechip, a pure large-cap fund. ₹3,000 each can be put in ICICI Pru Value Discovery, Kotak Standard Multicap and Mirae Emerging Bluechip.

The remaining ₹2,000 can be invested in Franklin India Prima, which is a good mid-cap fund.

Else, if you want to just stick to the existing total SIP investment of ₹10,500, you can invest ₹4,000 in ICICI Pru Bluechip and spread the remaining equally between any two of Value Discovery, Kotak Standard Multicap or Emerging Bluechip.

Regarding the ₹4 lakh lying in your savings account, you can retain a small portion for emergencies, and invest the remaining in liquid funds.

In the past five years, lump-sum investments in liquid funds have delivered a return of 7.9 per cent — higher than the 4 per cent usually offered in SB accounts. You can also exercise the option to sweep money over a certain threshold in your savings account into fixed deposits which offer a higher rate of interest.

Although your organisation may be providing health/life cover, taking into account that you may leave this job, take a break or the fact that your new employer may not provide insurance cover, it is always better to take a personal cover for your life and health.

Send your queries to mf@thehindu.co.in

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