SIP – Systematic Investment Plan

A systematic investment plan (SIP) is a process of investment offered by the different mutual funds, in which the investors can make a periodic investment of small amounts instead of lump-sum. The investment can be made in the frequency of weekly, monthly, or quarterly. SIP helps to grow money through compounding interest, ensuring higher returns on maturity.

What Is SIP - Systematic Investment Plan?

Systematic Investment Plan is commonly known as an SIP. In India, SIP plans allow you to invest a fixed amount in your favorite mutual fund schemes periodically to grow your SIP premium through compounding interest.

So here’s what is SIP in a nutshell: It is a smart, or rather hassle-free, mode of investing money in mutual funds, where you are allowed to contribute a pre-determined sum of money on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

SIP mutual funds are flexible in nature, thus, investors can choose to decrease or increase the amount of investment, or stop investing in the plan whenever they want. SIP is the safest and best choice of investment for beginners and for those who are not well-versed in the mechanism of the financial market.

Best SIP Investment Plans in India

Here are best SIP mutual fund schemes to invest in India

Disclaimer: Policybazaar does not endorse, rate or recommend any particular insurer or insurance product offered by an insurer. Tax benefit is subject to changes in tax laws. *Standard T&C Apply

The route of SIP mutual fund allows you to efficiently manage your personal finances and build a financial corpus targeted at a safe financial future. Contributing to SIP ensures that you can manage your everyday finances, and that too without any hassle. However, the returns are totally subject to your fund choice. The above list of the best SIP plans in India to help you choose your ideal SIP investment.

How Does SIP work?

Investing in SIP mutual fund is very simple and hassle-free. When you apply for one or more best SIP plans, your money is automatically debited from your bank account on a stipulated interval and invested in mutual funds you have purchased. Based on the NAV (Net Asset Value) of your funds, you are allocated a certain number of units at the end of the day. Every time you invest, you choose to invest in best SIP plan in India, and additional units are added to your account based on the current market rate.

The investors don’t require being an expert in the market timing to invest in the Stock Market. Units are purchased at different rates. When the prices are high, the investors buy more units, but when the prices are low, investors buy fewer units.

Two methods that greatly benefit the investors under even best SIP plans are – Rupee Cost Averaging and Power of Compounding.

Rupee-Cost Averaging

The Stock markets in India are unpredictable. Hence, it is often difficult to understand what the best time to invest in is and what is not. Rupee-cost averaging helps investors get rid of this problem. It allows your invested money to earn less units when the price is high and more units when the price is low.

Let’s understand rupee-cost averaging with an example. Let’s assume you are investing Rs.500 each month between November 6, 2018 and October 5, 2019.

Now, check out the average cost per unit for investment. You’ll notice that it is lower than the average NAV of your investment over a period of 1 year.

Average Cost = Total Amount/Total Units = Rs.6000/21.64 = Rs. 277.27

Average Price = Sum of all NAVs/Investment Span = Rs.6757.8/12 = Rs. 563.15

As you can see the average cost is lesser than the average price per unit. This is how rupee-cost averaging helps you generate greater returns by buying the units on lower costs.

Please note: Aforementioned table and values are only provided for illustration purpose and shoul d not be correlated with performance of any SIP mutual fund scheme.

Power of Compounding

Whatever amount you invest in SIP mutual fund, you earn interest on it. Such interests get compounded and accumulated over a period of time. The longer the tenure is the higher the fund value would be. Therefore, if you stay invested for a longer period of time, you can accumulate more wealth with the power of compounding. Hence, if you start investing early in your life, you will create more wealth than one who comes in later. 

Let’s understand the power of compounding using the table below. This table will help you understand how power of compounding helps you maximize your returns over a longer period.

Types of SIP

Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) are of 4 types and a short description of each of these is given below:

• Top-up SIP: This SIP type allows you to increase your investment amount periodically. This also means that you can make the most of your SIP mutual fund investment by contributing to well-performing mutual fund schemes at certain intervals. You can increase your investment amount when your income increases.
• Flexible SIP: This SIP type allows you to increase as well as decrease your investment amount as per the cash flow you have. This way you can skip one or more payments when you face cash crunch due to any reason. Likewise, you can make a bigger contribution to your SIP account when you receive a bonus or an additional income.
• Perpetual SIP: SIP investments are, generally, for a fixed period of 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years. A SIP mutual fund is referred to as Perpetual SIP if you do not mention the end date in the mandate date. This SIP types allows you to redeem your funds whenever required or, particularly, when you have achieved your financial goals. However, it is advisable to set an end date for your SIP contribution so as to build a disciplined, goal-based investment.
• Trigger SIP: This SIP type is ideal for investors with limited knowledge of the financial market. You are allowed to set NAV, index level, SIP start date or event, etc. Since this SIP mutual fund type encourages speculation, it is not desirable or much recommended.

Benefits of Investing in SIP

SIP investment offers various benefits to investors. With a systematic investment plan, an individual can reap big returns by investing a small amount regularly. The following are the benefits of investing in SIP.

• Convenience: By using SIP, one can invest in a disciplined and phased manner. As one of the most convenient and hassle-free modes of investment, the investors can start making the investment through SIP with a minimum amount of Rs.500. Moreover, the investors can also authorize a mandate from the bank to automatically pay for the SIP investment every month.
• Rupee Cost Averaging: The investors do not need to time the market, as they can buy more units when the markets are performing low and can buy fewer units when the market is performing high. This reduces the overall investment cost.
• Power of Compounding: One of the best ways to accumulate wealth is to invest regularly. A small amount invested on a regular basis can ultimately double over a long-term period.  The benefit of compound interest ensures profitable long-term returns as compared to the one-time investment.
• 2x Higher Returns than RD: SIP Investment Plan offers double higher returns as compared to the conventional Fixed Deposits (FDs) and Recurring Deposits (RDs). SIP Plan helps to beat inflation in a much efficient manner. SIP mutual funds help to deal with the market fluctuation and provide returns irrespective of the market performance of the funds.

What is SIP Mutual Fund?

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), commonly called SIP, is a method of investment offered by mutual funds to its investors for disciplinary investment. SIP Mutual Fund facility allows its investor to make investment of a fixed sum at pre-defined and regular intervals in the chosen mutual fund plan.

A simple definition of what is SIP mutual fund is that it is a professionally managed fund, which pools investment from a large number of investors to invest in the capital asset.  In such mutual funds, the capital collected by different investors is invested in purchasing companies stocks, shares or bonds. The professional fund managers collectively manage the mutual fund investment with an objective to create the highest possible returns on investment. SIP aids in growing money via compounding interest, ensuring higher rates of returns on maturity.

Let’s take a look at what is a SIP mutual fund in a gist.

• In mutual funds, money is pooled from various investors and is invested in the different market-linked securities.
• All mutual funds are regulated by Securities Exchange and Board of India (SEBI).
• It provides access to large portfolios.
• SIP Mutual funds offer higher returns as compared to the conventional investing option.
• It provides an option to invest in a small amount.

Investing in SIP mutual fund is one of the most lucrative ways for wealth creation. However, it is very important to consider the expertise of the fund manager while choosing the fund.

Why Invest Through SIP?

SIP Investment Plan works on the concept of “Save First, Spend Next”. Through SIP investment, the investors can invest a fixed amount at a regular interval of time like weekly, monthly, or quarterly instead of doing one-time investment. Let’s take a look at the reasons, why you should invest through SIP?

• Start with a Minimum Investment of Rs.500: The investors can start investing in SIP mutual funds with a minimum amount of Rs.500. Moreover, in SIP investment there is no upper limit set on the maximum investment limit. By investing a pre-fixed amount as per one’s convenience, the investor does not feel any burden on the budget and can increase the monthly installement by a factor of 15%.
• Power of Compounding: With the benefit of the power of compounding the investors can gain interest on the invested amount over a long-term period. This results as a larger return on investment in the long-term as compared to the one-time investment.
• Inculcates the Habit of Discipline: SIP investment plan helps to inculcate the habit of discipline among investors as they are required to invest a fixed amount of money regularly at specific intervals of time. Moreover, with the option of automatic payment, the investors cannot skip the investment as the money gets automatically deducted from the bank account.
• Rupee Cost Averaging: Mutual fund investment is volatile in nature. However, in SIP investment with the help of rupee cost averaging the investors can buy more units when the market is low and less units when the market is high as a result of this, the investors can reduce the overall cost per unit.
• Acts as an Emergency Fund: With a simple process of withdrawal, SIP plan investment can work as an emergency fund in the can of any contingencies. Moreover, through SIP investment, investors can create wealth over the long-term period and can fulfill their financial objectives of life.

SIP or One-time: How should I Invest?

Most of the time, the investors who are new to the market often get confused between SIP investment or one-time investment. However, to sort out their confusion, here we have briefly discussed both the investment option.

How to Choose a SIP?

The investors can get all the information related to various mutual funds online. However, before making an investment, certain aspects should be kept in mind.

• Duration of SIP: The duration of SIP mutual fund investment is an important factor to consider from point of view of risk, return, and tax. While making an investment through SIP, the investors should keep a reference point of 5 years and check how the fund performance across the market.
• Fund House: It is very important to check the reputation of the fund house before choosing a plan. The performance of the fund house will give investors an estimation that how well the fund houses will be able to handle the market lows and highs without letting the investors feel the impact.
• Rs.500 Cr Asset under Management: Rs.500Cr. asset size can be considered as an appropriate benchmark while choosing the fund. However, it doesn’t mean that the funds below this asset size are bad, but it may not perform as good as the funds above this asset size.

How To Invest in SIP?

The investment process in SIP mutual fund is very simple and hassle-free. Investors just need to keep in mind the below-mentioned points while investing in SIP.

• Set Investment Goal: Every SIP mutual fund investment has a set purpose and goal. According to one’s requirements and goals the investors can choose the fund option to invest in.
• Select the Right Plan: As there is a wide range of SIP investment plans available in the market, select the right plan by checking the past performance of the funds. Also, according to the set goals of the investors, they should choose the plans that are most suitable for them.
• KYC: For all SIP mutual fund investments, it is mandatory to have a net-banking account and fulfill the KYC documentation. The investors can opt for the e-KYC option to upload the documents online and fulfill the process of know your customers.

7 Mistakes to Avoid when Investing in SIP

Generally, investors pick funds based on their risk profile, investment tenure, and returns offered in the past 5 to 10 years. Although these aspects must be checked, there are several other aspects that need to be assessed as well, in order to avoid the loss of the capital in a market crash.

The following are 7 common mistakes investors make when investing in SIP:

• Choose the Wrong Fund: This is the first step to start investing in mutual funds, as you need to choose one or more funds to invest your capital in. Before you make the payment, you must know your investment goal, expected returns, and risk appetite. It is advisable to conduct a thorough research and analysis before starting an investment. If you have long-term goals, choose the wrong fund might ruin your financial goals.
• High Investment Amount: Since SIPs allow you to invest small amounts of money systematically in mutual funds, make sure you do not choose an amount of money to invest, which you may not be able to continue investing for the rest of the months of the year. What you need to do is choose an amount that you can easily invest every month so as to reap the returns that you had aimed at initially.
• Small Investors’ Thing: There is a common misconception associated with SIPs that it is only small investors’ thing, as they cannot contribute lump sum through SIP. Well, this indeed is not the case.For example, if you had planned to invest Rs. 5,000 per month, SIP is still your thing because you can invest Rs. 50,000 as a lump sum in SIP. This is mainly because of the principles of SIP – rupee-cost averaging, time value of money invested, compounding.
• Short-term Investment: This is another common mistake made by many SIP investors. The value of an investment is subject to the time is remains invested and not the investment amount. In other words, the longer the investment term, the higher will be the investment value.
• Set Unrealistic Goals: Immature investors are often seen setting unrealistic investment goals and repenting later. It is advisable not to expect phenomenal returns from your existing investment. Instead, you should expect average returns and continue with your regular investment process. Needless to say, expecting 50% to 100% returns instead of 10% to 20% is unrealistic.
• Choose Dividend over Growth: Many investors choose the dividend (withdrawal from the corpus) option over the growth (no dividends are paid) option when they invest in mutual funds through SIP, which runs on the principle of compounding – interest on the interest. On the other hand, the principle of interest calculation in case of the dividend is simple interest, which gives considerably low returns.You can anytime switch between the dividend and growth options to grow your corpus and achieve your financial goal.
• Not to Boost Your SIP: There are times when we go through financially lean and high times. When you are financially high, you have enough funds to contribute a lump sum to your SIP account. There are funds that allow you to add a lump sum to your SIP account under the same portfolio and boost your investment, as the combination of regular funds and a lump sum is bounds to get you more return than a regular SIP.

Can a SIP be Customized?

Investing in SIP is considered as the most promising investment. Instead of keeping your money ideal in a savings bank account, you can invest in a SIP and take benefit of regular savings along with earned interest. However, the perks of investing in systematic investment plan do not stop right there. You can customize a SIP according to your requirements. In case you want to change your fund options or make some other desired changes, even the best SIP plan in India allows you to do so by following some simple steps as mentioned below:

• Stop your existing SIP by providing a simple request on a paper.
• It takes around 15 days to stop your current fund.
• Fill out the new application form for the fund you plan to do SIP, SIP registration form, and OTM/NACH form.
• Deposit the fund amount with an authorized representative.

How Much do you Need to Start a Systematic Investment Plan?

Rough calculations or an approximate calculation can be dangerous when you are planning a particular financial goal to achieve. It is always best to make a foolproof financial plan and work with real numbers while operating towards your short-term or long-term financial objectives.

A systematic investment plan helps you achieve these goals sensibly by making you invest in a mutual fund scheme of your choice. And in return, it manages your investment portfolio. You can start investing even in best SIP plan in India with a minimum of Rs. 500. So, by investing even a minimum amount in SIP, you can fix a time period to achieve your goal.

Tax Benefit of Investing in SIP

Tax benefits are only applicable to the investments made in Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS). If one invests in ELSS, government-approved tax saving scheme, they can claim tax deductions under section 80C of Income Tax Act, 1961.

Benefits of Investing in Mutual Fund through SIP

• Disciplined Investing Approach-

  A disciplined investment routine plays the most important role when aiming for high returns. Investing in mutual funds via an SIP helps maintain the regularity of the investments and helps the investors - attain their financial objectives.

• Offers the Benefits of Rupee Cost Averaging-

  Rupee-cost averaging allows investors to invest pre-determined amounts regularly, either quarterly or monthly. So, instead of investing a lump-sum, one can make gradual investments at particular intervals of time over a long period of time. Rupee cost averaging minimizes the need to study and time the market. During market fluctuations, the rupee cost averaging method allows the investors to achieve a lower average cost per unit.

• Convenient, Simple and Easy to Monitor-

  SIP investment plans are a hassle-free mode of investment. One can issue instructions to banks to facilitate the option of auto-debits from the bank account. A SIP investment is an ideal investment option for retail investors who can’t go for active investments.

• Power of Compounding-

  The most appropriate way to create wealth is to invest regularly and to start investing as early as possible. A small amount invested on a regular basis can ultimately double over a long period of time. With the benefit of the power of compounding, one can stay invested in the plan for a longer tenure and can create wealth in the long-term.

Top Five SIP Investment Funds and their Performances

*All savings are provided by the insurer as per the IRDAI approved insurance plan. Standard T&C Apply

If you are planning to invest through an SIP and a have high to moderate risk appetite, you can invest in the five funds above.  Before investing, always use a reliable SIP calculator to understand the probable return of your investment. However, if you are new in the field of investment, and have low-risk appetite, start with debt funds. Gradually, with experience, start investing in equities for a higher return on your investment. 

How does SIP Calculator Work?

SIP Calculator is an online tool, which enables you to calculate your SIP returns over a period of time even prior to starting your investment. SIP returns calculation is based on the principle of compound interest. You just need to enter the amount you wish to invest, select the investment tenure, and this tool will quickly calculate the returns for you. SIP Calculator is quite helpful for you to decide the amount you want to invest in mutual funds, as you may want to increase your investment amount for much higher returns in the future.

SIP - FAQ