Sujith, Trivandrum sujiths413@rediffmail.com

I am a 38-year-old businessman from Kerala. I have been investing Rs 40,000 for retirement in SIP of large, small, and mid-cap funds. In the next eight years, I plan to invest in a property worth Rs 40 lakh, for which I can invest Rs 30,000 in SIP. Please suggest an option that can provide returns of 8-10 per cent.

For your property purchase goal, you can look at allocating your SIP of Rs 30,000 into large-cap funds and aggressive hybrid funds, as investing in mid and small-cap funds require a longer horizon of over ten years since they are comparatively more volatile.

Suman Surendran, Chennai, suman1002007@gmail.com

I have been investing Rs 7,000 in L&T Emerging Businesses Fund and Rs 7,000 in Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund. However, L&T Mutual Fund has been giving negative returns to date. Shall I continue or shift to SBI or Axis Small Cap? Also, please suggest if Mirae Mutual Fund is a good option too.

L&T Emerging Business Fund is a small-cap fund. These funds are invested with a time horizon of over 10 to 15 years, as this category is very volatile and can deliver good returns if held for the long term. Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund is a large and mid-cap fund and is less volatile. I would suggest you avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. You have not mentioned the time horizon for which you are investing in these funds.

Suhel Chander, Certified Financial PlannerCM, Handholding Financials