Assessing the Health of Your Fund Portfolio: Portfolio Doctor’s Advice for Pankaj Trivedi

Investor Pankaj Trivedi has been diligently investing in diversified equity funds for his child’s goals and retirement for the past 4-5 years. However, the Portfolio Doctor has assessed his fund portfolio and found some areas that need attention.

Trivedi’s aggressive investing in small- and mid-cap schemes has helped him build a sizeable corpus. However, he is investing small amounts in too many similar schemes, leading to duplicate holdings with no meaningful benefit. This has made his portfolio difficult to monitor.

While Trivedi’s targets are ambitious, his early start has made it easier for him to achieve them. The doctor advises him to add some fixed-income investments such as PPF to balance out his high allocation to equity. Additionally, Trivedi has also invested a small amount in stocks, which the doctor recommends moving to mutual funds for more stable returns.

The doctor notes that Trivedi’s fund portfolio has mid- and small-cap skews, so he should be prepared for high volatility. It is also recommended that he take adequate life insurance to safeguard his financial goals and keep a balanced allocation in the NPS, with not more than 30% in equity funds. Trivedi should review his investments and rebalance at least once a year, and reduce risk when a goal is near to ensure he doesn’t miss the target.

If you want your portfolio examined like Pankaj Trivedi, you can write to [email protected] with Portfolio Doctor as the subject. Be sure to mention the names of the funds you hold, the current value of the investment, if you have SIPs running in any of them, the financial goals for which you invested, how much you need for each financial goal, and how far away each goal is.