By IndiaHub 
My father, who has recently retired from a government job, has received Rs 50 lakh as retirement corpus. Of this, Rs 15 lakh has already been invested in a Post Office savings scheme, yielding Rs 30,000 quarterly. We want to invest the remaining Rs 35 lakh safely for steady returns. He receives a Rs 5,000 monthly pension, Rs 16,000 from my grandmother’s pension, and I contribute Rs 15,000 each month. We have health insurance, but no emergency fund. He is considering the following mutual funds: Tata Balanced Advantage Fund, ICICI Prudential Multi Asset Fund, and Parag Parikh Conservative Hybrid Fund. What is the best way to invest Rs 35 lakh with minimal risk for a regular income?
Vidya Bala Co-Founder, PrimeInvestor.in:
Your father can consider a combination of Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme, RBI Floating Rate Bond and the Parag Parikh Conservative Hybrid Fund mentioned by you. If he wants lower volatility, it is better to have equity savings funds than balanced advantage funds.Also read | With Rs 15,000 monthly SIP, can I build a corpus of Rs 1.5 crore in 14 years?
I will retire in March 2026 at 60. My current portfolio is worth Rs 6 crore, including large cap equities, mutual funds across categories, and three PMS accounts (ICICI Growth, ICICI Contra and MO Founders). I will receive an additional Rs 5 crore from EPF, NPS and gratuity. I need Rs 3 lakh a month for my expenses after retirement. I also want to preserve capital while letting my equity/MF/ PMS investments grow for five more years to beat inflation. How should I invest Rs 5 crore to generate this income? Alternatively, how much of it should be allocated for monthly income as the rest compounds?
Sumit Duseja Co-founder & CEO, Truemind Capital (Sebi-registered investment adviser: Assuming a life expectancy of 90 years, 7% inflation, and 9% post-tax return (11-12% pre-tax) from your portfolio, you’ll need a retirement corpus of Rs 8.4 crore to sustain an inflation-adjusted income of Rs 3 lakh per month. The good news is that your projected corpus of Rs 11 crore offers a healthy margin of safety. Your goal should be to preserve this capital while aiming for 10-12% long-term returns. Avoid taking unnecessary risks that could disrupt your financial stability. To achieve this, consider allocating 40-60% to equity, 15% to gold, and the rest to debt instruments, assuming long-term returns of 14%, 10%, and 7%, respectively. For equity, invest in three four flexi-cap mutual funds, which offer dynamic allocation across large, mid, and small caps. These are also more tax- and cost-efficient. For the debt portion, you can rely on annuity from the NPS, interest from the Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme, and short- to medium-term debt or arbitrage funds, from which you can initiate a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP). Gold remains a crucial hedge against global uncertainty. Stick to your asset allocation strategy and rebalance periodically. You may also opt for direct mutual fund plans to boost returns by saving on commissions
Have a question for the experts? etwealth@timesgroup.com