This is the second post from the Suggest a Topic page, and in this post I take a look at the different types of debt funds available to Indian investors.
1. Monthly Income Plans: I start with MIPs first because I have already written a post about them in the past, and these are funds that primarily invest in debt instruments, and try to give you a monthly income in the form of dividends. The income is not guaranteed of course, and they only pay out a dividend if they are profitable for that time period.
This type of a debt fund is for people who have a big corpus initially, and would like to generate a monthly income for them with low to moderate risk. When I wrote that last post about MIP I got an email asking if you could do a SIP in a MIP. While that rhymes together nicely, I don’t see merit in investing monthly in a product whose premise is generating a m0nthly income, so I’d avoid that.
2. Capital Protection Plans: Capital Protection Plans are debt instruments that guarantee your capital, and then invest a portion of the funds in equity in the hopes of generating excess returns. I personally don’t see any compelling reason to invest in these type of funds because you can create such a portfolio yourself fairly easily, and avoid paying the mutual fund fees that they will charge you.
3. Gilt Funds: Gilt Funds invest in government debt viz. the debt issued by Reserve Bank of India on behalf of the government. They also invest in securities issued by state governments. The investments are done in ultra safe paper because they are backed by the government itself but that doesn’t mean the Gilt Funds are risk free. They can go down in value because when interest rates rise the value of the debt goes down. So, there could be a possibility that the debt funds lose some part of their NAV also.
Gilt funds can be short term gilt funds, or long term gilt funds. The short term Gilt Funds are meant for people looking to invest their money for shorter durations of say 3 – 6 months.
4. Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs): Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs) are quite similar to fixed deposits in the sense that these funds are usually close ended, which saves you from interest rate risk, and even if rates move upwards the fund NAV doesn’t go down. The way the fund works is that a fund house announces a new fund offer specifying the duration of the fund say 18 months or so, and then they collect money from investors which is then invested in debt of the same duration.
These funds have become popular because of a sort of a tax advantage where interest on fixed deposits are charged at a higher tax rate than dividends from FMPs for individuals who are in the higher tax bracket.
The risk of investing in FMPs is that they might invest the money in lower quality debt, and then during times such as the last crisis might come under pressure, and in that sense your capital is not really assured as it is in the case of say a fixed deposit with SBI.
5. Liquid Funds: Liquid Funds are funds that are used by investors for extremely short time durations, and in most cases instead of a savings account. The current savings account interest rate is 3.5% per annum, whereas funds like the SBI Magnum Cash Liquid Float, LIC MF Liquid Fund and JM High Liquidity Fund have returned over 5% since last year. These funds are not meant to keep money in for longer durations because these same funds return in the range of 6.5% when you look at their returns for the past 3 years.
6. Floating Rate Funds: Floating rate funds are funds that invest in predominantly floating rate debt instruments, and can invest in government and corporate securities.
You can have a short term floating rate fund, or a long term floating rate fund. A look at the top floater plans on the Moneycontrol page shows that the 1 year return for the funds that performed in the last year range in 5.3 to 6.1% area, and the 3 year returns range between 6.9% to 7.9%.
Other long term and short term funds: Outside of the categories mentioned above there are debt funds that target long term debt, or short term debt, but may not be strictly a liquid fund, or a floating rate fund. If you look at a bond fund, and by its description its not clear how it fits in the earlier categories then you will have to dig in deeper into the fact sheet or information document or just the returns over the years to see how it did, and get a feel for the nature of the fund. An example would be the SBI Dynamic Bond fund – you will have to look at the information document to dig deeper and see what the fund is all about as the name alone doesn’t indicate what this is all about.
I have tried to cover all the major categories, and if you think that I have left out something then please leave a note, and I will update the post with that information.
Next week, I am going to make a comparison between the debt funds and fixed and savings deposits.
This is a great tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Brief but very precise information… Thanks for sharing this one.
A must read post!
I think MIPs and other dividend payout schems will lose sheen now as DDT is doubled now.. only feasible option is to switch it to growth plan and do SWP.
Manshu ,
Will DDT apply in case of Dividend-Reinvestment plans of Liquid and debt funds? I think yes.
Yes, I think so too.
Very informative. But the Income funds have not been covered. Also if you can elaborate on Long Term Debt funds for maturity tenure of 1 year or more. Which is the most suitable for long term debt investment say 2-3 years.
Sir, please give a suggestion about that, Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) are a type of mutual fund and not? and if yes, so why you did not added in your article.
Please give me an answer of my query as soon as possible.
Here is a post that explains the difference between an ETF and a debt fund in detail.
http://www.onemint.com/2011/12/05/what-is-the-difference-between-mutual-funds-and-etfs/
I have invested my money in equity fund in ulip plans . it is more than 4 yrs. , but there is no growth . what would you suggest & do i need to switch to debt fund available. what returns can i expect from the debt fund & are the returns guaranteed .
Where to get Private Equity and hedge funds or fund database. I want a list of them.
you haave left liquid plus fund in this article.
Can u explain the difference between dividend payout and dividend reinvestment option from customer’s perspective.
can u explain dividend stripping via example in lucid manner.
It’s my understanding that liquid plus funds were never that popular with retail investors and I myself certainly don’t know much about it. Dividend payout is when the scheme announces a dividend and gives that to the investor whereas dividend reinvestment is when the dividend declared is used to buy more units of the fund. In that sense there is not much benefit in opting for dividend reinvestment and you can opt for a growth category instead.
Dividend stripping was more like loophole where you buy a MF just before the dividend was declared, then the dividend was declared, and the price of the MF fell, you sell that unit and incur a loss which you use to set off against your gain and get a tax benefit. That’s been plugged some time ago and no longer works.
Hi,
I have around Rs 2 lakhs with me and i will need this money in 8-9 months from now. I do not wish to use a savings account to keep this money due to the low interest rates. Equity fund is anyway ruled out due to short time period. Can you suggest the type of debt fund that i should use, to keep this money.
Thanks.
Generally speaking, you can either look for a FMP for that duration, or a liquid fund.
Hi Manshu,
You have written almost everything about personal finance – whatever term I search I find a post written by you.
Sharing this link to one of my clients 🙂
Thank you very much for the compliment Hemant, though I will attribute it more to your generosity than to the breadth of topics covered here. There are far too many topics that I haven’t touched at all like insurance, which I find boring, but want to cover this year.
Hi,
1. I want to do Fixed Deposit in any national bank for Tax saving.
Cound you please guide which one will be help full for tax saving…
Plz drop a mail regardig this.
2. If I break this bond in between what might be the charges?
Please help
[email protected]
Thanks & Regards,
Alim Basha Shaik
[email protected]
Here is a list of tax saving fixed deposits that you can try out:
http://www.onemint.com/2010/11/04/tax-saving-fixed-deposits-in-india/
OneMint is not an agent so I can’t help you in selling these FDs, and you can approach a bank of your choice to do so.
Sir, I HAVE PAID RS 20000/- TO IDFC FOR PURCHASE OF TAX SAVING BONDS WITHOUT DEMAT ACCOUNT .NOW MORE THAN TWO MONTHS PASSED I HAVE NOT RECD MY ORIGINAL BOND . IS IT BECAUSE OF DEMAT ACCOUNT ? KINDLY GIVE A REPLY.
How did you apply for it? I mean did you take the help of any agent, if so, please contact that person to get a status. Also, use your application number to check if the bonds were allotted to you or not on this link.
http://mis.karvycomputershare.com/ipo/
Thank you so much Manshu for writing on the topic I had requested.
Could you please also guide on how to choose from different plans available with these funds — Growth, Dividend, Dividend Reinvestment — comparing taxes, effective yield, etc.?
Looking forward to your post on comparison between the debt funds, fixed deposits and savings deposits.
Appreciate your comment.
Before you get to the dividend or growth option – you need to narrow down your goal with this investment. So if you’re looking for a place to park money in the short term then you will go for a liquid fund, and if you have to go long term then you have to evaluate whether you want a fixed term, or you are okay with a variable tenure that can swing a little bit?
Based on that you can narrow down your options more till you arrive at one category out of that and then look at the dividend or growth on that category.
Have you given it thought in this manner? Is this a short term or a longer term plan?