I am currently 18 years old and I want to start a SIP of Rs 500 for a long term scheme. Can you please suggest me the best place where I can invest?
It is very heartening to know that you wish to start your investment journey at the age of 18. It reflects the level of Financial awareness that today's youth possesses and believes in the concept of starting early. The small amount you wish to start with does not matter for now as you will surely increase it as you progress in life, but what is encouraging is the positive attitude towards investing. As you are making a fresh start, I suggest an Equity Based Balanced Fund - 'HDFC Balanced Fund' to start your monthly SIP.
You should set a financial goal for this investment and invest regularly. Do not get perturbed in the short term by the fluctuations and volatility witnessed in equity markets. Over the long term, the returns in your portfolio will stabilise. Just to indicate the power of compounding over a long term equity investment with discipline, even with a small monthly SIP of Rs 500, assuming a moderate return of 12 per cent CAGR for a period of 35 years, one could create a corpus of approximately Rs 32 lakh.
