Trends
Small is the Next Big Thing
First-time investors from smaller cities are increasingly showing greater appetite for mutual fund investments , but is the trend here to stay ? Preeti Kulkarni probes for answers
Roopesh Kumar Yadav , a 37-year-old central government employee based in Meerut , is not associated with the city ’ s famed sports equipment manufacturing industry , which has supplied its sought-after willows to many a celebrated cricketer . Yet , Meerut ’ s legendary status as the Sports City of India has lent its flavour to his investment approach . He believes in accumulating the ones and twos while not losing sight of the occasional sixer to push up total gains . “ I have been investing in an equity mutual fund since June through an SIP of `4,000 per month . Recently , I also directed an additional savings of `20,000 to this fund to boost my corpus ,” explains Yadav . Why settle for a 280- odd score when 350-plus is the new normal seems to be his mantra . “ My PF is unlikely to grow into a sizeable corpus as it does not fetch lucrative returns . Moreover , interest rates offered by post office and bank deposits are also quite low . Equity funds are my best bet to create a large enough retirement fund ,” he reasons .
Aiming Big
Yadav represents the growing tribe of retail investors from the not-so-big cities who are increasingly relying on mutual funds to realise their dreams . As per data from mutual fund research firm Morningstar India , investors from B-15 cities – the ones beyond the list of top 15 cities – accounted for 17.7 per cent of the overall industry assets under management ( AUM ) as of September 2017 , up from 17 per cent in October 2016 ( See : Upward March ).
A close look at the Association of Mutual Funds in India ( AMFI ) data on AUM by geographies ( see : Gaining ground ) reveals that
Name : Rajesh Arun Bara Age : 32
Location : Nashik Investment Rationale :
Tax-saving ; prefers ELSS over other section 80C instruments due to these schemes ’ ability to generate higher returns .
Photo : sanjit kundu
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Outlook Money December 2017 www . outlookmoney . com