Mutual Fund Portfolio- How to Build a Mutual Fund Portfolio

Key Highlights

• A mutual fund portfolio is the collection of investments held by a number of mutual funds.
• Your investment goals and objectives are aligned with all of these investments.
• This will allow you to view your mutual fund investments in detail, giving you the possibility of monitoring, analyzing, and managing them more effectively.

What is a Mutual Fund Portfolio?

Mutual funds are investments made by fund houses that pool money from a large number of investors to invest in securities like stocks, bonds, or short-term debt. The portfolio is defined as the combined holdings in the mutual fund. Mutual funds are a way for investors to buy shares. Each share represents the part of the fund that is owned by the investor and the income that is generated.

Understanding the steps to build a Mutual Fund Portfolio

To build your mutual fund portfolio, follow the below-mentioned steps.

Step 1: Define your objectives Identifying the objectives for which you intend to build a portfolio is one of the first steps in building your mutual fund portfolio. It is crucial to have objectives because they are the basis of all future decisions. Investing without a mission is as if you boarded a train with no destination in mind. The objectives could be anything like buying your dream house, planning the kids' education, saving for retirement, etc.

The identification of goals is also useful for determining the time horizon. It may help to know the level of risk that you are willing to take. The longer the time horizon, the more risk you can take. On the other hand, lower risk levels are achieved by a shorter horizon.

Step 2: Creating a mutual fund portfolio by means of the SIP route is the most suitable way This step resolves the dilemma of lump sum investing and a structured investment plan, which you can adopt. There are many different benefits to the SIP method of investing. First, the core of building a mutual fund portfolio that lasts for many years is less investment and more discipline. The process of wealth creation becomes passive as long as the SIP discipline remains in place. SIPs are matched to your cash flow by your investment allocations. A monthly SIP ensures you don't have a problem with mismatches in your cash flows since inflows are usually monthly. Finally, the benefit of averaging the cost of the rupee is offered by the SIPs that are part of a phased investment.

Step 3: Before you invest in mutual funds, it's important to do your homework If you're trying to invest for the sake of your goals, you're delegating the wealth creation tasks to a mutual fund, and you can't pass on your leadership responsibilities. Before investing in these funds, you need to do some homework. Your goal must be reflected in the funds you're purchasing. For example, it is not possible to buy a high-risk fund for low-risk objectives, and the opposite may also be true. There are plenty of equity and debt funds out there for you to select from. A dividend and growth plan can be selected. The regular and direct options can also be selected.

You will have to focus on the consistency of returns over time, not CAGRs, which is normally misleading when it comes to portfolio creation. Always prefer the growth option over the dividend option since it is an automatic wealth compounder. And they're also more intelligent about taxes. You will need to decide between direct and regular options based on your probability that you can make the right decision on your own or get expert guidance. In short, direct choices do not offer any advice, and the costs are much lower.

Step 4: Separating the mutual funds from Core's and Satellite's holdings The core portfolio is the one that holds your longer-term and short-term goals in mind. These are the resources you will need to achieve your lifelong and medium-term goals. Normally, unless a strong case is made for an adjustment in accordance with your yearly review, you don't disturb them.

Satellite portfolios are opportunistic and aim at alpha. This is where you can look at sectors, indexes, gold funds, and thematic funds as special opportunities because satellites should only be a part of it. On the debt side, depending on the interest rate outlook, you can switch to higher-risk credit opportunity funds. According to the rule, you can only attempt alpha for your satellite holdings, which do not belong to core holdings.

Step 5: Assess the returns and risk of fund holdings compared to goals After building a mutual fund portfolio, your work is not done; it still has to be frequently examined. You should reduce your exposure, for instance, if certain sectors or the equity markets are becoming too hot. In the same vein, you must increase risks when valuations are giddy. But more significantly, you should constantly assess whether your core portfolios are in line with your objectives. The annual evaluation aids in decision-making, such as whether to raise monthly spending or take on greater risk.

Conclusion

As a general framework, these steps may be used for the creation of your portfolio of investment funds. But remember, investing and planning your objectives is not just a matter of time. It must be continuous, and you may need to take these steps again at some point in the future. You can find more information on Kotak Securities if you need help building your portfolio. The genius can understand your objectives and risk profile and recommend portfolios to meet them. You'll be able to pick the correct one and make your investment right away.