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As far as insurance is concerned,take a term insurance. At your age,the premium will be very low and you can get insured for Rs 30-50 lakh at less than Rs 12,000 per annum. Term insurance is good to have but the money is paid to your dependents only in case of any eventuality. The loan interest of 11.25 per cent is high. You can negotiate with your cooperative bank to reduce it or go for refinancing. However,check with other costs of refinancing.

I have just started my career as a business analyst in a bluechip company and Im paid a stipend of Rs 18,000 per month. Assuming that I get a 30-40 per cent hike every year and that I save up to Rs 8,500 per month,how and in what products should I invest? 

Swagata Mukherjee

I would suggest you go for pure equity fund. Invest 80 per cent in equity mutual funds. Almost all fund houses offer plethora of choices. Go for SIP Systematic Investment Plan. Alternatively,you can also start putting a small part in gold fund through SIP as gold prices have gone down. You can also open demat account with few of the broking firms and start investing in good stocks. A word of caution: Please understand that equity investment is risky. However,over longer term 10 years,equity funds have beaten all other investments.  

I am an engineering student and I am intrusted in investing in stock markets. I request you to guide me for I have no knowledge about how I should go about it.

Gaurav R Salvi 

Read good books on investing. There are good books by Peter Lynch,Warren Buffet,etc. Learn as much as you can about companies and stock market. Put some amount of money in stock market and test your analysis. This will give you confidence when you make money. Even when you lose money,you will have great lessons at low cost. Understand that risk and reward go hand in hand. Equity market provide higher returns because they are riskier too. Remember that stock market has given good returns but has also made paupers to those who are doing it without any study and analysis. Then you open a demat account with few of the broking firms and start investing.

Expert advice by Adhil Shetty,CEO,BankBazaar.com

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