Podcast: A step-by-step guide to investing in mutual funds - part 1 and 2

Personal finance
1

In the past few months, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of new investor in the markets. But some of the mistakes they make are the same old ones. On the Zerodha Educate podcast, we’ve published some really awesome conversations on how to think about investing but we hadn’t published a detailed guide - a blueprint if you will.

In this episode, we caught up with Vidya Bala, founding partner & Head – Research and Product at PrimeInvestor. In Part 1 of the conversation, Vidya dives deep and gives some insightful perspective on:

  1. Investing in stocks vs mutual funds
  2. Why mutual funds are one of the best avenues to invest for the masses
  3. How have the right expectation when investing
  4. The right risk and return expectations
  5. What return you can expect from investing in mutual funds
  6. What is asset allocation, why it matters, the role it plays in determining your returns, and how to get your asset allocation right
  7. How to figure out your risk tolerance
  8. Active vs passive funds
  9. How to pick an equity fund
  10. How to sort through the various styles of funds and how to include them in your portfolio
  11. Do’s and don’t when picking an active funds
  12. Growth vs dividend plans

In the upcoming part 2 of the conversation, Vidya explains why you need debt in your portfolio, how to pick the right debt fund, how to avoid debt fund blowups, and how to maintain your portfolio once you start investing. Stay tuned!

part 2

In part 1 , Vidya spoke about why mutual funds, having the right expectations, setting goals, importance of asset allocation, and how to pick an equity fund. We figured given all the issues, the topic of debt mutual funds deserves a separate episode unto itself. Debt is supposed to be the boring part of your portfolio that provides stability while equity provides growth. But we’ve seen that investors driven by past returns, star ratings, and poor understanding of the various categories of funds have seen losses in the debt part of their portfolios. In this episode Vidya talks about:

  1. The need for a debt fund in a portfolio

  2. How to analyse and pick debt funds - the do’s and dont’s

  3. Understanding credit risk and duration risk

  4. How to use gilt funds

  5. What is rebalancing, the need for rebalancing and how tor rebalancing?

  6. Vidya’s investing philosophy

  7. Her favourite books

2 Likes