I make 15 lac p.a in India and want to invest for future. What is some good strategies to save & invest money for the long run?

I'm assuming that you've received this offer from a top MNC; the vertical could be banking, technology or oil/mining. I think the best investment is education. Since you're just an undergrad, try to get a post grad degree. I'm gonna explain why, and it might be digressing greatly from your question but I think it is necessary to put through what I'm trying to tell. Initial Reactions: People would go crazy and scream at you that you're already earning 15 LPA and there's no need and only greed in you taking up further studies but, in your career, a point would come where your senior management will have to decide whether to make you the new manager or some guy (with an O.K. type MBA) and, since this company seems to be a big one, more often than not, they're gonna go with the MBA grad. Qualification lets you grow faster than experience. Personal/Monetary Gain: Monetary gain is ludicrous among all of these. Anyway, explaining lucidly why you have to invest in education over stocks or gold or real estate: Stocks = Gains over long term is ~ 10-15% Equities = Not much clue about them but they should earn you slightly more than what banks pay you on savings account or, what we call, risk-free rate of return Real Estate = Appreciates over 4-5 times (400-500%) over a period on 10 years (this is ridiculously generalized but, on a average, safely assumed) Education (Big daddy of all): X = Course fee 2X* = Minimum entry level pay (assuming you'd be going to a good school for MS/MBA) *This 2X is the minimum amount you're guaranteed every year for the rest of your life (comes upto 80X assuming 40 years of career; 20X for first 10 years, while your real-estate grew only 4X-5X). Assume 8% appraisal P.A., no switch of job at all, and no promotion. Even in this case, you're gonna make close to 120X over these 40 years. The only factor that could affect this return is your performance. There is no speculation. This is a very important aspect that you should look at. Professional Gain: If you go to a top grad school or B-school, you receive the incentive of great alumni chapters, bigger exposure to markets, innovation and trends of investment, etc. and, you could find fancier things to invest. In case you're wondering, I'm talking about start-ups. I believe there is nothing more luxurious than your investment making money for you while you're holidaying at Caribbean or raving at Thailand. I'm not saying that they're absolutely gonna make you money. I'm merely pointing out that given your aptitude, you're capable enough to make them make money for you. Here's how you could do it: 1. Save 60K a month: 30K is enough money to live decently and drink heartfully. 2. Learn as much as you can at your new job and explore the possible streams you can choose. If you're in Financial Services (IT), try to streamline it by choosing a course like Financial Engineering or Mathematical Finance. If you're in Product Development, try to excel and go for either masters in that subject or a full-time MBA at top school. 3. At least 2 years of work exp. More could be beneficial too and, on the positive side, your account gets beefier. 4. Once you get an admit, trust me you would have to spend a lot before and as soon as you go to USA (for applications, and a huge amount of up to, but not necessarily, 2 lakh to confirm that you're taking an admit, flight tickets, first semester fee, etc). Saving precisely and potentially reduces the loan you'd be taking by 25-40% or even more depending on how you're gonna skim through these 2-2.5 years. The point of all the points, I call it the Grand-Daddy point: "Exponential growth of you as a "portfolio" - put in every minute effort and every pinch of capital you can to make this happen."

Excellent answer Varun. But here are some minor changes I have done while building my PF. 1) Approximately 100-(Your Age) should be the % of Equity in your PF. Crude way :D 2)  Instead of FD I preferred Gilt fund which invests in Government Bonds.  Although historically its returns are comparable to FD but considering  the falling interest rate scenario in India, I think it may outperform  in the upcoming years. Plus it has no exit load. 3)  Invest a very small amount in Gold/Silver (5-10%). Just for the  diversification. You can go for ETFs if you don't want to buy physical  Gold. 4) For 80C tax benefits, You can go for PPF (Low Risk/Average Return) or ELSS (Equity Linked Savings Scheme). 5)  Term Insurance and Health Insurance are MUST. That too for you and your  parents. They protect your hard earned savings from unforeseen  expenses. Getting one at a younger age will also reduce your premium. And as Warren Buffett says, "Do not  save what is left after spending, spend what is left after saving." Hope this helps. Happy Investing! :)

The percent of your income that you save will have a far greater impact on your eventual wealth than exactly what you invest in, unless you invest in something high risk, and you are lucky. Even then, your savings rate is still massively more important than the choice of investment, as it multiplies the effect of any benefit you get. Hence, the best way to invest is to control your spending.

I wrote a detailed and informative answer on a very similar question that might help you. But I will answer you here as well. Please note that my advice might be different from others, sometimes completely opposite. I would encourage you to read with an open mind and make a judgment for yourself. So let's begin with some wise words. Investing is a plan, not a product. A plan has goals. This is the critical piece of information missing from the question. What are you trying to achieve? I'm assuming that your goal is to be very comfortable when you retire with a chance to be rich if the risk allows it. Personal Recommendation Whatever you invest in, always make sure to have a high value term insurance and medical insurance. Also set aside money for a rainy day (~ 3 month salary). This should be your fall back in case there is an emergency. So let's start with some real advice. Successful investing is not about the investment, it's about the investor. Have you heard about the stock exchange? (Stock market) Have you wondered why is called an 'exchange'? Because stocks really get exchanged there. For every buyer, there is seller. For every loser, there is a winner. Do you know people make fortunes when the stock market crashes? Do you know that there are ways to make money in a market when its going up, when its going down and when it is going nowhere. You might be wondering why I am telling you this. I'm trying to tell you that there are people making money when others are losing their shirts. So let's repeat, successful investing is not about the investment, its about the investor. Diversification vs Focus Let us imagine that you, an IIT graduate, are asked to give career advice to a young guy. In the room is the young guy, his parents and the career adviser. The career adviser says the following: "I have evaluated your (the guy) profile and I would suggest as you are young, you can take a reasonable amount of risk, so I would suggest you spend 30% of your time studying for medical exams and 30% time for engineering exams. You should also spend 10% time preparing for government exams as they are safe from recession. 15% of your time should be used to study business, so you have a fall back. 5% of the time should go each for arts, literature and sports education. This would make a low risk, diversified skill set." At this point you may be banging your head against the wall. It just does not make sense. Just replace the different exams with financial assets (bonds, real estate, stocks, mutual funds etc) and replace the career adviser with financial planner. Kinda feels similar doesn't it?  I wanted to show you that mainstream advice that you frequently hear on TV, in financial advice columns, is not even average advice, its poor advice. That's why nobody becomes rich following that. They do make some money though, just like the guy above would have a "career" if he followed that career advice in the above example. But you get the point. When you set a goal to do engineering from IIT, you focused your efforts. You studied the important subjects, not diversifying your knowledge all over the place. Investing is no different. The best investors always focus. Warren Buffet invests in businesses he understands. Jim Rogers is invested in commodities. George Soros is a technical investor who invests in currencies and other assets. If you want to start investing, you should probably focus on an asset that interest s you and be good at it. (Just like your career) If you choose real estate, then know the tax laws. Know the national and local trends. Understand taxation on real estate. Understand the different ways you can invest in real estate ( REIT, personal investment, investment through an LLP, corporation or partnership) and the advantages/disadvantages of them all. If you learn these and apply them effectively, then you will be able to make money in real estate whether the market is going up or down. You will become a successful investor. PS: Also study basic economics. It helps. More Advice An investment should make sense if the market goes up, if it goes down or it goes nowhere. Almost all mainstream advice fail this test. Most new investors won't be able to point out a single investment that fits the rule. Here is where your education comes in. If you understand your investment you will have a plan for if the market goes up if the market goes down if the market goes nowhere As I said earlier, "Investing is a plan, not a product" With your investment education you will have more control over the investment and will be able to make money when average investors wouldn't be able to. Final Words I hope I have shed some light on investing for you. I also hope this advice helps you and makes you rich :). Personal Recommendations If I gave specific advice to you, I would tell you stay away from mutual funds and other saving schemes. They hardly give around 8% returns at a time where inflation is over 10%. That is like buying return free risk with a free guaranteed loss. It's not smart. Plus you have no control over the investment. Also if you understand global trends, then you will know that inflation is not going to come down soon no matter what the government tells you. (Hint: They always lie). I would also ask you stay away from real estate at this point as the prices are extremely high (possibly a bubble). Smart investors should buy when the prices are low, not when they are high. Avoid the US dollar like plague. Also anything denominated in US dollars (US bonds etc) is a bad investment at this point. (Hot tip: The US bond market is a huge bubble ready to pop). Gold, silver and precious metals are a good investments. Commodities are good too. But don't take my word for it, because.. Who needs a bull market when you are a good investor? Cheers.

What is the best way to invest in order to save money for the long run? I'll focus on the words rendered in bold right above. When you say 'invest', you are looking for a sum of money which is greater than what you started with. When you say 'best way', I don't necessarily read it as 'investing in some financial instrument/scheme/plan, etc etc.' I read it as 'how do you enter a state of mind where you can make wise decisions related to your money?' By this question, here's what I want to convey... The times are unpredictable. And there's no shield to the unpredictable. What happened in the past few decades might not be the best indicators of what's gonna work in the coming decade or any time longer. You oughta read up about how different guys are trying to make sense of the economics of the world. Nope, don't ask too many people. Spend time figuring it out for yourself. Take recommendations for what you wanna read but don't go by the face-value of recommendations. I seriously recommend reading Nassim Taleb's 3 books before you start dreaming of good investments. Take up a craft/something artisanal on the sides of your job and try selling your craft/art. That will make you understand the source of value and how value gets generated in the market-place. Once you understand 'generation of value' through your very own hands and work, you'll understand where to invest. Try staying in top shape physically and your mind will lead you in the best possible direction for you to invest your money in. If all the above feels abstract to you, here's the most concrete thought from me :). You can't possibly go wrong by investing in a fertile piece of land.

Don't save or invest money for tomorrow......IF HE has given you today HE will give you tomorrow...spend as much as you can...so much so that you feel that the salary you are getting is not enough...and then may be you will get 30 lac p.a job...

It's appreciable you are thinking of investing the money. Plans like this cannot be made random, you need to work out on some of the important points. 1. What is the goal you want to achieve. Before going for any investment plan, look out for what you want to achieve. Your goals will define the patch ahead. It could be buying a new home, a new car, your marriage, marriage in your family, education of your children, retirement etc. 2. Time Line Then it is important to know the time line, when you want to achieve that goal. It could be a short-term goal of within 5 years or a long-term goal for 8-10 years or more. 3. How much to invest This analysis comes after, when you have in your mind how much you are expecting the return out of it. Based on that you can decide on the amount. As you have already mentioned the amount make sure you are meeting the present necessities of our family, else may revise the amount. 4. Where to invest Never keep your money at one place. It is always wise to make a diversified portfolio, in case one instrument fails, you still remains financially stable. 5. The advisory Never forget to take advice from expert financial advisors. They are the people who have very well researched the financial products available in the market. And will suggest you the best fit as per your goals and requirements. For more details visit: http://www.arthayantra.com/ OR You can try managing your goals online through this portal. It's free to sign up https://arthos.arthayantra.com/

Hi there, With Rs 15 lacs in trading capital you have many options at your disposal. Basically it depends on your risk appetite and expected returns. It would be helpful if you elaborated a little more on that. However, to ascertain and your goals, use the following tools on our website: http://fyers.in/inflationcalculator/Future Value Calculator http://fyers.in/compound-rate/CAGR Calculator I would suggest if you have the risk appetite and want to make higher double digit returns, then you could trade in options strategies. We have an in-house options strategy builder that is awesome and can help you trade options strategies without exhausting yourself with an overload of information.  http://fyers.in/options-strategies/Options Lab!The way to use it: Step 1 - From a wide variety of available strategies, you can use your outlook on the market primarily your bullish/bearish stance to filter out the ones that you don't need at the moment. Step 2 - Then you can choose number of legs you prefer in your options strategy trade. You can manage your risk efficiently through this filter. You can choose multiple options too. Step 3 - By this function of choosing maximum profit, you're defining what sort of risk you're comfortable with in the trade. Step 4 - An options trade can have unlimited profit and limited loss & vice-versa. You have the facility to choose this as well. Choose one as by clicking both you'll nullify the effct of the choices. Step 5 - Finally, A debit/credit spread can be chosen. Apart from knowing your preferences, you won't need anything else. See, now we have a strategy that you can use. Step 6 - You'll need to enter the underlying values of the scrip, Options Prices as needed according to the strategy. The graph will show you exactly where you will break-even, make the maximum profit and loss. Also, there's a table to display the the results for every 1% price movement in the underlying. If you have any doubts, there's a detailed explanation in every strategy. If practiced diligently, you could make a lot of steady income on most months. Professional traders make 25-50% per year doing it and these strategies can be chosen based on your risk preferences.You could use our in-house trading platform, Fyers One to get the additional edge in trading options. Analyze all the derivative contracts and make the appropriate decisions. This Options chain window gives you all you need: To try us, visit: http://fyers.in/join-us/

There are two things here: 1. If you are looking for just pure investments which are fully safe and secure, then I would recommend PPF, NSC, Bank FD's etc. Read this for more details: http://anandvijayakumar.blogspot.com/2014/07/safe-investment-havens-of-india.html 2. If you are looking for Investments along with tax benefits and save up a good corpus for yourself, then I would recommend you read this article: http://anandvijayakumar.blogspot.com/2014/06/can-i-become-crorepati-with-my-current.html Best Wishes Anand