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Getting To Know 'Mutual Funds'

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What is a ‘Mutual Fund’? A mutual fund is an investment vehicle made up of a pool of moneys collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and other assets. Mutual funds are operated by professional money managers, who allocate the fund's investments and attempt to produce capital gains and/or income for the fund's investors. A mutual fund's portfolio is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus. Mutual funds give small or individual investors access to professionally managed portfolios of equities, bonds and other securities. Each shareholder, therefore, participates proportionally in the gains or losses of the fund. Mutual funds invest in a wide amount of securities, and performance is usually tracked as the change in the total market cap of the fund, derived by aggregating performance of the underlying investments. Mutual fund units can be purchased o
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Inflation - The Silent Thief

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A penny saved is a penny earned! But thanks to inflation, not really.  Over time, the value of the penny saved could be much less than when it was earned. For instance, Rs. 100 will be worth Rs. 90 after a year if it is not invested and the inflation rate is 10%. To illustrate this, let’s say you can buy a pizza for Rs. 200 this year and annual inflation is 10%. Theoretically, 10% inflation means that next year the same pizza will cost 10% more, or Rs. 220. So, if your money doesn't increase in value by at least the same rate of inflation, you will not be able to buy as many pizzas in future. Imagine that! Inflation is a silent thief – you will not necessarily notice how much it erodes your savings over time, because their physical ‘value’ does not change, but what you can buy with those savings is being cut, unless you do something about it. You may have the same amount of money, but the purchasing power of that money has diminished now. That is why one alw
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