Are You On The Right Track?

Now watch, how your fund is performing.

- Sanjiv Puri

The realty of using equity mutual funds to meet long term goals have been proven time and again. Studies done in the past have always suggested that equity has delivered higher inflation-adjusted return than any other asset class over the longer horizon. The underlying message is the time horizon – the longer one remains invested in equities, better the return.

Once you have zeroed in on the right mutual funds, plan your moves while investing for the long term. Having chosen equity mutual funds as the instrument, link such investments to your long-term goals that would allow you to stay invested in equities long enough to derive optimum results out of it and also even out the volatility in the shortterm.

But, that will be accomplished if you have selected the right mutual funds scheme for achieving the long term goals. Having invested in a scheme may not be enough. The performance may dwindle over a period and hence needs adequate tracking of the scheme’s performance.

Tracking your investment in the chosen mutual fund scheme is equally important similar to choosing the right scheme in the first instance. Such monitoring helps you understand how your money is being managed, detect undesirable changes and signs of underperformance in your scheme, and initiate corrective action before things get worse.