What is a good stock to buy for long term?
What is good for one investor might not suit another. Needless to say, you have to find a suitable strategy that works with YOUR temperament. Thus, rather than searching for stock ideas, it is better we talk about investing themes or economy or sectors that might do well in near future.

Which Mutual Fund should I buy?
Mutual funds come in many different shades. SEBI has broadly categorized them into 26 silos. This was done to make meaningful comparison between categories and also ease an investor with investing decisions. There is no one size fits all approach. A financial advisor can evaluate your needs and suggest a fund/action plan best suited for your needs.

My bank/insurance agent called about a very good investment offering 12% return. What should I do?
Please note there are very FEW products offering guaranteed returns. And none of those come anywhere close in terms of returns. In all probability, this is some variant of life insurance where investment and insurance is combined. This high projected return combines guaranteed and non-guaranteed portion over the life of product and then mis-sold as guaranteed return. When in doubt, always ask this – if Govt. of India bonds yield X% (7% as of now), how in the world can this product offer more than that?

I have invested in this Mutual Fund or in that Equity Portfolio. What returns can I expect?
The short answer is – nobody knows. More important, nobody can predict what return an asset class will generate in future. This is akin to looking in a crystal ball. What we CAN do at best, is guess a range of possible outcome. The logical action to follow is leave the returns to market forces and focus on things which are in our control that are asset allocation and timing.

How can I maximize my returns while minimizing risk?
Isn’t that the most ideal scenario? But alas, this is not always possible. What is possible is to take known or calculated risk with an expected range of possible outcomes. In addition, Risk Profile and Asset Allocation helps to arrive at ideal mix of risk and return. An investment professional can help you achieve this optimum mix.