Mutual Funds got a little better for small investors!

The good news is SEBI the regulatory body for Mutual Funds has been very active for last few months and this has favored small Mutual Fund investors most of the time. A few days back it passed on a notification which essentially has five major changes. Let’s see how each one of it affect the retail investors:

Asba, for Mutual Fund NFOs (New Fund Offer)

Change: Money would be debited from your account only after the NFO closes.

Benefit: You continue to earn interest on the same. Remember the savings account would now get interest on daily basis from 1st April 2010. Read the details here

Best ELSS (Tax Saving) Mutual Fund for 2010 - 2

If you are the one who’s still to invest for your tax saving this year or would like to start SIP for next finacial year, you got a few more Tax saving fund (ELSS) options. A few months back I posted the list of “Best ELSS to invest for FY 2009-10”. You can read the complete details of how I selected these funds by clicking here.

In this post I would like to add two more funds to the list of 5 ELSS funds selected previously.

Religare Tax Plan

DSPBR Tax Saver

Here is a brief review of both the funds:

Can ULIP beat Mutual Funds in returns?

Strange Question!

If you guessed No for the above question, you are not wrong most of the times. But then things change with time. And so do some answers.

Refer to my earlier post about ICICI Prudential Ace ULIP and probably you may know what I am talking about. Yes this is the latest launch from ICICI prudential and it has potential to beat equity mutual fund/ Tax Saving (ELSS) return in the long run.

ICICI Prudential Ace – Best ULIP in the market?

Don’t you think Best investment & ULIPs are kind of oxymoron! I am sure you might have heard about several horror stories about investors being cheated by agents through ULIPs, and at the end of locking period the returns not even equal to the total investments made.  

But thankfully things have changed and this time for better. IRDA, the insurance regulator in India had modified certain rules which essentially meant cutting expenses of ULIPs. And adhering to this ICICI Prudential Ace is a new launch from ICICI Prudential stable.

Understanding Benefit Illustration & charges of ULIPs

Insurance in itself is a complex product and ULIPs (Unit Linked Insurance Plans) make them even more complex. All the ULIPs are different with different features, different clauses and bonuses & expenses structure which at times is even difficult for an expert to comprehend.

Infact I remember seeing ULIP benefit illustration for the first time and I was not able to make anything out of it. So here is a post that would help all the naïve investors to see and understand the Benefit Illustration table for ULIPs.

Any Benefit Illustration has two tables – The first shows returns based on 10% gross yield while the second table shows returns based on 6% gross yield.

Save 1 Lac Income Tax by investing Rs. 90,000 - 2

Yesterday I told you about how you can save income tax on 1 Lac by investing Rs 90,000 in SBI Magnum Taxgain (D). Today you can use the same strategy by investing in HDFC Taxsaver (D) on or before 4th March 2010.

The best thing about HDFC Taxsaver (D) is it is the only Tax saver (ELSS) Fund that has given consistent dividend continuously for last 5 years in the month of February/March. You can read details about the same here.

HDFC Taxsaver (D) too has declared 60% dividend i.e. Rs 6 per unit and the record date is 4th March 2010.

Save 1 Lac Income Tax by investing Rs. 90,000

It’s the last month for saving taxes for Financial year 2009-10 and also the season when most of ELSS (Tax Saving) Mutual Funds declare dividends. And if you are the one who have still not invested for tax savings, here is an opprtunity to invest less nad save more taxes. Read on to understand the complete strategy and how the news below would help you in the same.

SBI Magnum Taxgain (D) too has declared 40% dividend i.e. Rs 4 per unit and the record date is 5th March 2010.

How is your blog doing? (February 2010)

When I visit blogs which have grown over time I am always curious to know when the blog started, how was its journey, how it grew through years, what’s its revenue potential and much more.

 

But I rarely find such posts in many blogs. So in order to answer my readers & friends curiosity, I had started reporting my monthly statistics for my blog from last month and plan to do it going forward every month.