As investors most of us feel that creating wealth requires an active approach on our part. Frequent portfolio churning, be it stocks or mutual funds, multiple trading and demat a/cs and at the end of the year, managing the capital gains tax component. While some of us may feel that active management is the way to create wealth, let us understand how we can create wealth by just being passive investors.
LIQUID FUNDS:
This is one of the most underrated mutual fund product categories in the Indian MF space. Why? As investors, we tend to leave a lot of money lying around in our savings and current a/cs for liquidity or emergency reasons. We may have also come across investors for whom having a large bank balance is a matter of prestige and topic of discussion and comparison in their friends’ circles. This fantasy is further fueled by the big private banks who provide goodies like high value credit cards with free add-on cards, international debit cards with high daily withdrawal limits, stylish looking cheque books with Platinum or Gold customer mentioned on the cheque leaves and a dedicated relationship manager to take care of all your needs. The only person who benefits in this whole game is the bank and of course, the relationship manager. The poor investor is worse off as over a period of time the money lying in the savings and current a/cs has actually de-grown if we consider the impact of taxes and inflation.
Solution:
Open a liquid MF a/c through NJ E-Wealth A/c which provides online buy / sell facilities through the mobile device of your choice. The entire process is paperless and also helps save the environment. You get your money back in 1 working day and the returns, depending on the option selected, can be either tax free dividends or capital gains. Some MFs also provide you with an ATM card which can be used at the bank of your choice for withdrawing upto 50% of your liquid fund balance. The card can also be used to pay for your groceries at supermarkets.
EQUITY LINKED TAX SAVING SCHEMES (ELSS):
This is a favourite with tax payers who want to take risk in their portfolio. The scheme has a lock in of 3 calendar years after which you are free to withdraw the money whenever you choose to do so. The money invested in year 1 can be redeemed in year 4 and reinvested to claim tax benefits for that year. Similarly, the money invested in year 2 can be redeemed and reinvested in year 5. This cycle can go on endlessly. The benefits to you are two-fold, namely: Tax benefits u/s 80C and market-linked capital appreciation. As an investor, you need to invest for only 3 years after which it becomes a self-generating investment.
PROPERTY:
Investors who are matured and have a large surplus can look at investing in property. The benefits to you are multi-fold. To start with, you can claim tax benefits if you buy the property on loan. Secondly, if you put the property on rent, you can generate a monthly income for yourself. Thirdly, this monthly income can increase over time. Finally, the property will also appreciate in value. If we were to do a survey of people who have taken a housing loan for a period ranging from 15 – 25 years, the interesting fact that will emerge is that majority of the borrowers tend to pay off the loan much before maturity. Thereby, saving on the interest component. Therefore, it makes immense sense to buy a house on borrowed funds and try to pay off the loan before maturity. You may then look at taking another property on loan and repeating the same process. The monthly EMIs can be funded from the income being generated from the earlier property. The result can be a chain of properties earning regular passive monthly income.
All the options mentioned above are applicable to salaried as well as self employed investors. The options are simple and easy to execute and, hopefully will not take much of your time. If the passive options are well executed, you may end up as a wealthy investor at the end of the day thanks to passive income. A word of caution: none of this will happen over night. It will require time and patience from you. The power of compounding requires time to work in your favour and help you create wealth. The legendary investor Warren Buffett once said:
“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”