A map and a guide

Mutual fund investors need a map of where their investments have reached and a guide to take them further

- Dhirendra Kumar

Most of my interaction with investors are with those who have a fairly good awareness of what is going on with their portfolio. These people may not have a precise analytical view of everything but they know the basics: how much their investments are worth, which funds are doing well and which are doing badly.

However, I sometimes forget that this is actually the exception. A majority, perhaps most, mutual fund investors are not actually investors but fund collectors. They – and this is the most important part – are investing in a haphazard manner, flying blind, for no fault of their own.

‘Flying blind’ is a commonly used phrase for doing something without having any idea of where one is going. Of course, in the case of actual flying, it’s OK because aircraft have instruments that enable pilots to fly when nothing is visible outside. Investors don’t have access to such instruments. Or perhaps they do, but more on that later.

A CROWD OF FUNDS

Just before the Chinese virus struck, an acquaintance who is in his early 50s came to meet me. Like many people, his career, which is in the hospitality industry, has taken a sudden negative turn and he finds himself earning a lot less than he used to. He wants to retire at some point not too far into the future. Most years in the past, ever since he started working, he has saved money by making at least the tax-saving investments in March. Generally, this has been in the PPF. He has also been making many mutual fund investments, always pushed by some agent or the other whom he came across in his profession. In recent years, he had also made a beginning with the National Pension System (NPS).