If your horizon is 5-7 years for buying a house- go for ELSS in mutual funds instead of PPF. You can start a PPF a/c but invest Rs 5000 every year in it.

With an income of 10 lakhs - why do you want to wait for 5- 7 years for a house. A housing loan gives you the best tax benefit. Interest upto 1.5 lakhs is fully deductible from your gross income. You save over 30% tax. Principal repayment gives you 80C benefit upto 1 lakh. Go for a housing loan.

Please take enough pure term cover (atleast equal to your housing loan).

Have a mediclaim policy and enjoy 80D benefit upto Rs 15000.

Avoid bank deposits . You will be paying 30% tax on the interest earned. Instead invest in arbitrage fund and get around 8% tax free income.

Avoid sector funds. Go for the following funds -
1) HDFC TOP 200
2) Sundaram Select Focus
3) HSBC Equity
4) Reliance Growth
5) DWS Investment opp fund
6) DSPML TOP 100

For ELSS - go for Sundaram Tax saver & DWS Tax saver.

Invest via SIP only. Look for value research rated funds.

...

Everyone in the wedding ceremony was watching the radiant bride as her father escorted her down the aisle to give away to the groom. They reached the altar and the waiting groom ; the bride kissed her father and placed something in his hand. Everyone in the room was wondering what was given to the father by the bride.



The father could feel the suspense in the air and all eyes were on him to divulge the secret and say something. So he announced "Ladies and Gentlemen today is the luckiest day of my life." Then he raised his hands with what his daughter gave him and continued, "My daughter finally, finally returned my credit card to me." The whole audience including the priest erupted in laughter.......... all except the poor Groom!!

...

You have to register with that particular AMC or registrar like CAMS or Karvy to save entry load. Otherwise go to the AMC or Registar and submit the forms directly....

Go for ARBITRAGE funds. It will give you an 8% return without much risk. It is tax free. You can invest in your own name. ...

You can invest part of your 80C in ELSS scheme. Opt for growth.
You can go for DWS TAX SAVER / Sundaram Tax Saver.
For pure investment - you can go for HDFC TOP 200 & Sundaram Select Focus. Opt for growth option since you need a target amount. ...

Always keep Insurance & Investment separate. Among the MF schemes - only DWS looks the best. Invest in the scheme if it does well and you need to save tax under 80C. As long as you stay invested - you get free insurance cover. But if the fund does badly - get out. One should not get married to any fund. ...

It is a closed ended scheme. The exit load is heavy if you come out within 3 years. If you do not require the money now - stay invested and pray that the fund will do well. Never go for NFOs and especially closed ended schemes. Go for good value research rated funds. (5* or 4*) Invest ONLY VIA SIP....

Dear Ranjan Appreciate and thank you for your reply , your suggestion is very valuable and I 'll be considering same while Investing Thank You very much once again and God Bless all of us !! Best Regds saby...

Even I made the mistake of putting lumpsum in ICICI Pru Indo Asia equity NFO, which is badly hit now. Any chances of its revival? What Should I do - stay or suffer losses and come out? ...

It is a fantastic solution given by u. But I would also like to mention that ULIP is not bad if u take horizon of 7+ years. Bcoz what ULIP has unique feature is if u r young between 25 to 35, u can have a potential a long way to invest regularly some amount in ULIP. ULIP gives u Insurance, Investment, Tax Benefit, Pension, Accident benefit, Waiver of premium in case of permanent disability etc. In my view there is nothing wrong in ULIP, if u have clear cut idea about that....

HI ranjan...the suggenstion u gave me wazs the first thing that i thought of but then this way if u see, every year or so there is a new best fund in the top 10 funds across the schemes...if we all keep stopping the investments and starting new ones i guess well have tons of new schemes with us and actually no objevtive will be fulfilled. I took a call on DSP top 100 equity and DSP balanced after seeing this dwontrend in my folio..but dnt u think tht keeping the sips on will help in averaging out the nav in my schemes.......

Dear Ranjan, Thanks for your suggestion. Currently my wife does not fall under the tax bracket. More than saving load, I am more interested in trail commission. Thanks, Raj...

thank u sir for ur prompt reply..... i have invested 1000 rs per month each in sundaram select focus and dspml top 100 fund and rs 500 each in reliance growth fund and reliance banking fund for a time horizon of 3-5 years via sip route.... is my portfolio right.....??? also i want 2 invest rs 1000 each in 2 more funds .....out of following funds which funds 2 go for..... kotak 30 birla sunlife frontline equity fund taurus starshare hdfc top 200 fund hdfc equity fund dspml equity fund ...

which balanced fund should be opted for a period of 3-5 years via sip route.....??? dspml balanced fund sbi magnum balanced fund kotak balanced fund tata balanced fund....??? ...