Whether in equity fund or debt fund - all can benefit from the disciplined investing through SIP

A lot has been written about the benefits of SIP in equity funds. However, little has been discussed about the same in the context of debt funds. Click on the link to understand how SIP in debt funds can be useful to you:

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The English translation of the article is as under:

“My daughter is studying in the 10^th standard now. She would be ready for the college in a few years. I want to be financially ready to fund her education.” A proud father of a daughter was talking to his friends. Let us analyse the situation.

The daughter is going to college for higher education in just three years. There is a possibility that they have figured out what kind of course and college that she may attend. It does not matter whether the girl and the parents have decided on the course. Whether they have decided or not - whatever the case, there is a need to be financially ready. If one has not done anything so far, one needs to start investing as soon as possible.

However, in this situation, the goal is very close – just three years away and a serious one at that. Due to such a short time period, it would be unwise to take an exposure to equity. That means, one should avoid investing into equity mutual fund in such a case. At the same time, one has 36 months to accumulate the money. Such an investor should consider investing through SIP.

The option now for the investor is to consider doing a regular monthly investment in a fund that is not risky, i.e. one may consider a debt fund (especially short term debt fund or an ultra short term debt fund). Such funds invest in debt securities issued by various companies, banks and even government. since the investments are in debt securities, the funds are a lot safer than equity mutual funds.

Since most of the discussions on SIP end up talking about long term goals and SIP in equity funds, many are not aware that it is possible to fund near-term goals through SIP in fixed income funds, too. While discussing the benefits of SIP, majority of the experts highlight two benefits (1) Rupee cost averaging, and (2) Power of compounding. The former is derived due to the volatility inherent in equity, whereas the latter too is a function of the nature of equity to potentially provide high returns in the long run. As can be seen, both the major benefits talked about are related to equity. However, some of the underplayed benefits of SIP are as under:

·      SIP brings discipline to one’s savings approach

·      SIPs allow large sums to be accumulated even by saving small

·      It helps automate the savings approach

In the situation described earlier in this article, or any such similar situation, it is possible to accumulate the required amounts through SIP in debt funds.

How do fund managers manage debt funds

Debt funds, also known as income funds or fixed income funds invest in a mix of government securities, certificates of deposits of banks, corporate debentures, and some other debt and money market securities. These investments are safer than equity securities in that these do not exhibit the price fluctuations as much as stock markets.

While we have talked about various categories of debt funds, some features of these as well as the risks involved. Today, we will discuss how these funds are managed by the fund managers.

Click here to read further ...

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The English translation of the article is as under:

How do fund managers manage debt funds?

Debt funds, also known as income funds or fixed income funds invest in a mix of government securities, certificates of deposits of banks, corporate debentures, and some other debt and money market securities. These investments are safer than equity securities in that these do not exhibit the price fluctuations as much as stock markets.

While we have talked about various categories of debt funds, some features of these as well as the risks involved. Today, we will discuss how these funds are managed by the fund managers.

The function of fund management team is to generate higher returns for the risk taken or to reduce risk for a given level of risk. In other words, they have to reward the investors for the risks taken. The reward should be higher than what an investor would be able to achieve by oneself.

For that purpose, the fund managers need to manage the risks. Or in other words, they need to take calculated risks. In debt funds, there are three major risks that the fund managers manage in order to generate desired fund performance in line with the scheme objective.

These three risks are:

1.     Credit risk:

When you lend money to someone, there is a contract that the principal amount as well as the interest on it would be returned at a pre-agreed time. However, in certain cases, the borrower is not able to honour this commitment. The possibility of such an event is known as credit risk. In other words, the risk can be mentioned as: “what if the principal or interest payments are not received in time or not received at all?”

The companies where such a risk is high, is expected to pay higher interest, else nobody would lend money to them.

The fund managers understand this risk through a careful study of the financial statements and business of the company, as well as an analysis of overall economic situation. With this analysis, they try to find out securities where the future returns could be higher for the suggested risk.

2.     Interest rate risk:

When interest rates in the economy fall, the existing debentures become more attractive, as they carry higher interest rates. Due to this, investors queue up to buy these debentures from the secondary market, which pushes their market prices up. Thus, as interest rates in the economy went down, the prices of existing debentures went up. The opposite of this is also true.

This sensitivity of debentures to changes in interest rates is called “interest rate risk”. Securities with short maturity period are less sensitive as compared to those with longer maturities.

Fund managers may take a view on the possible change in interest rates in the economy and shift the portfolio accordingly. When the rates are expected to rise, the fund managers sell securities with long maturity and buy those with short maturity. When the rates are expected to fall, they do exactly reverse. In this way, they try to reduce the negative impact of rising rates and maximize the impact of falling rates.

3.     Liquidity risk:

When any investor wants to sell a security, there should be a buyer in the secondary market. In the absence of a buyer, there is no liquidity, or one would be required to sell the same security at a discount. At the same time, if a security is known to be illiquid or less liquid, the interest rate is normally high to compensate for this lack of liquidity.

Most mutual fund managers buy illiquid securities only (1) if the scheme’s objective allows it, or (2) the expected redemptions are less than the liquid component of the portfolio. By maintaining proper balance between liquid and illiquid securities, the fund managers are able to get higher interest income as well as provide redemptions without hassles to investors.

So, go ahead and enjoy the fruits of professional management by investing through debt funds.

- Amit Trivedi

Transcript of my chat today on www.moneycontrol.clom

Here is the transcript of my chat on www.moneycontrol.com:

Equity investments simplified

Mutual fund expenses - how are these calculated and charged?

How are mutual fund expenses charged? Do I pay both at the time of entry and exit? In such a case, does it not become costly? There are many questions around the fund expenses. Read on for the answers

http://epaper.gujaratimidday.com//epaperpdf/gmd/03072017/03072017-md-gm-12.pdf

The English translation is as under:

Understanding mutual fund expenses

We have already covered the expenses charged for the management of a mutual fund scheme in one of our earlier articles. Mutual fund companies are allowed to levy only two types of charges, viz., (1) exit load – chargeable at the time of investor’s exit from the scheme in certain schemes only if the exit is within a stipulated period of time, and (2) fund expenses – chargeable to meet expenses and payment of fees to various constituents.

We will elaborate on the second in this article today.

There are various constituents working to make the mutual fund run professionally in the best interests of the fund’s investors. These constituents need to be paid their fees for the services provided. This fee is payable through charging each scheme a certain percentage of the fund’s corpus.

These expenses are mentioned in terms of percentage of the scheme’s AUM (Assets Under Management) or the scheme’s corpus. SEBI regulates the maximum expenses that can be charged to the scheme.

These expenses are mentioned as annualized percentages with respect to the scheme’s AUM, but charged on a daily basis such that the scheme’s NAV accounts for the expenses on a daily basis. Let us understand the nature of these expenses with a calculation.

Let us say, a scheme’s corpus is Rs. 1,00,000 and the expenses are 2% p.a. In such a case, the expense charged for the day would be as under:

Expense charged for the day = Scheme’s corpus X fund expenses (% p.a.) / 365

In the example given,

Expense charged for the day = Rs. 1,00,000 X 2 % p.a. / 365

                = Rs. 5.48

If the scheme corpus goes up the next day, a higher amount would be charged for that day. At the same time, if the scheme corpus drops, the expenses charged would be lower. Taking the calculation further, if the scheme’s corpus goes up to, say Rs. 1,10,000 the next day (corpus can change on account of change in the market prices of the securities as well as fresh inflow by investors or redemptions or payment of dividends).

Expense charged for the day = Rs. 1,10,000 X 2 % p.a. / 365

                = Rs. 6.03

On the other hand, if the corpus had falled to Rs. 95,000; the expenses charged would reduce.

Expense charged for the day = Rs. 1,10,000 X 2 % p.a. / 365

                = Rs. 5.21

If someone stayed invested only for three days and then took the money out, the expenses charged would be only for the three days that one stayed invested. Also please note that this is not charged at the time of entry or exit, but on a daily basis. Thus, the expense is charged fairly to all fund investors in proportion to the amount invested as well as their stay with the fund.

Hope this clarifies some doubts that one might have.