Your first SIP is important. Just make sure it doesn’t come before your first four foundations. (AI image)
Most investing problems don’t start with the funds you pick; they start with the life problems you ignore.People ask, “Which is the best mutual fund for SIP?” Far fewer ask, “Is my life ready for investing?” As a result, they rush into equity funds with half-finished emergencies, no insurance and credit card debt quietly multiplying in the background.Then one crisis hits, the SIP is stopped, the fund is redeemed at the worst possible time, and “mutual funds are risky” gets the blame.At Value Research, when someone comes to us for investment advice, we don’t start with large-cap vs. flexi-cap or aggressive vs. conservative. We begin with their life: do they have a safety buffer, are they protected against big medical and life risks, are they dragging expensive debt, and do their investments match their time horizons? The funds come later. The foundations come first.Before you worry about categories and star ratings, there are four things you need to fix. Think of these as the foundation. The funds are only for the walls and paint, which come later.
1. Build an emergency fund
An emergency fund is boring. No app will show you a fancy chart for it. But it’s the one thing that stops your investments from being ruined by bad timing.Ask yourself a simple question:If you lost your income tomorrow or had a sudden expense, how many months could you keep living your current lifestyle without touching your long-term investments?For most people, the answer is “not even a month”.A basic thumb rule is to keep 3–6 months of essential expenses in a safe, easily accessible place, a combination of a savings account and a good liquid fund.Use a simple example. Suppose your monthly essential spend (rent, EMIs, groceries, school fees, basic bills) is ₹1 lakh. Your emergency fund should then be in the range of ₹3 lakh to 6 lakh.Now compare that with the cost of a single medical emergency without insurance: a typical hospitalisation in a metro city can easily run to ₹10 lakh–₹15 lakh. One such event can wipe out years of SIPs.At Value Research, this is usually the first thing we check: If something goes wrong next month, can this person avoid touching their equity funds? If the answer is no, we know that any portfolio we build will be fragile, no matter how good the funds are.Without an emergency fund, you will be forced to redeem your equity fund when markets are down. With one, you can ride out the storm.
2. Get
The second foundation is protecting your health and your income.Most urban Indians are underinsured on both counts:They rely only on employer health cover, which may end if they lose their job or change employers.They mix insurance and investment (ULIPs, endowment, money-back plans), resulting in very little actual risk cover.Think of health insurance as protection against a single, large bill destroying your finances. A family floater cover of ₹25 lakh for a family of four, a 35-year-old husband, 36-year-old wife and two small children living in Delhi can cost you about ₹27,000–30,000 per year; quite small compared to the hospital bill it can shield you from.Term insurance is even simpler. It’s pure risk cover. No bonus, no maturity amount, no returns to discuss. Just a simple question:If you were not around, how much money would your family need to live comfortably and meet key goals?A rough starting point is 10–15 times your annual income as term cover. So if you earn ₹15 lakh a year, you should be looking at term cover in the range of ₹1.5–2.25 crore.In our advisory work, it is very common to see people with impressive SIP portfolios and almost no real protection for their family. On paper, the portfolio looks good. In reality, one bad health event or an untimely death can force the family to liquidate everything.Buy health insurance and term insurance before you start a big equity SIP. It may not feel as exciting as a new fund, but it is far more important. Investing without protecting yourself is like driving a fast car without seatbelts because the seatbelts don’t look “smart”.
3. Tackle high-cost debt first
Many new investors proudly show their SIP portfolio and then casually mention they are revolving credit card dues. That is like filling one bucket while another has a big hole at the bottom.Credit card interest in India often works out to about 30–40 per cent a year when you carry a balance. Personal loans are cheaper, but still far higher than what your mutual funds can reasonably earn.A simple comparison makes the point:Assume you keep a rolling credit card balance of ₹1 lakh at an effective annual interest rate of 36 per cent.In three years, if you keep paying only the minimum, the total interest outgo can easily cross ₹1.5 lakh, more than wiping out the gains from a disciplined equity SIP started at the same time.No mutual fund can reliably earn 30–40 per cent a year over long periods. So as long as this kind of debt sits on your balance sheet, it silently destroys your compounding.When we review portfolios at Value Research, this is a standard question: Is there any high-cost debt here that is earning the bank more than the portfolio can ever earn for the investor? If the answer is yes, our recommendation is very simple. Fix the debt leak before worrying about adding one more fund.The order, therefore, should be:Pay at least the entire credit card bill every month. If you already have a balance, aggressively reduce it before increasing your SIPs.Refinance very high-cost personal loans to cheaper options if possible.Only once high-cost debt is under control does it make sense to push your equity investing.You don’t have to be completely debt-free. Home loans and education loans are different, but you must be free of expensive, bad debt.There is a fourth foundation, matching your investment product to your time horizon but that deserves a full column of its own, which we’ll come to later.
A simple starting checklist
Before your first SIP, pause and run through this short checklist. This is very close to the mental checklist we use when we first look at an investor’s situation at Value Research:Emergency fund: I have at least 3–6 months of essential expenses parked safely.Insurance: My family has separate health insurance, and I have basic term cover in place.Debt: I am not carrying expensive revolving credit card debt; if I am, I have a clear plan to eliminate it.Time horizon: I know what each investment is for and when I’ll need the money, and I’m choosing products accordingly.If you get these four right, even an average mutual fund can serve you well. If you ignore them, even the “best” fund in the latest ranking list won’t save you from disappointment.Your first SIP is important. Just make sure it doesn’t come before your first four foundations.
(Sneha Suri is Lead Fund Analyst – Value Research’s Fund Advisor)