India Investment Instruments 2019

The table below shows the average returns expected from a variety of investment options. You should refer to it to help you plan out your next short or long-term investment. Actual returns depend on your scheme's performance, investment duration, and tax bucket. One should have a balanced structure portfolio of a mix of equity and debt funds.

	1m	3m	6m	1y	3y	5y	Liquidity	Risk
Payments Bank	4	4	4	4	4	4	High	Low
Savings Account	4	4	4	4	4	4	High	Low
Fixed Deposit	3.5	3.5	7	7	7	7	Low	Low
Recurring Deposit	6.25	6.25	6.5	6.5	6.25	6.25	Low	Low
Gold	0	0	4	8	20	10	High	Low
Silver	0	0	0	0	17	-12	High	Low
Cryptocurrency	18	-60	-60	-400	1000	500	High	High
Small Cap Fund	3	7.5	-7.5	-21.5	9	21.5	Low	High
Equity Linked Saving Scheme	2.5	7.5	-2	-9	11.5	16	Low	High
Arbitrage Fund	0.5	1.5	3	6.5	6.5	7	Low	Low
Gilt Fund	0.8	4	5	6.5	8	9.5	Low	Low
Liquid Fund	0.6	1.8	3.5	7	7	7.5	High	Low
Index Fund	2	5.5	1	1.5	12	12.5	Low	High

Notes:

• I am not an investment expert, and this information should be considered only for reference.
• The above table shows return in percentage (%); m represents months, and y represents years.
• The data provided is not exact, and it imitates CAGR (Category Average) collected over various resources as per the time of writing this blog.
• Payments banks have an upper limit of 1,00,000 (1 lakh) rupees
• Index funds represent various BSE and NSE indices based funds
• Small-Cap, Index(Large Cap), and ELSS are Equity Mutual Funds
• Arbitrage is Hybrid/Balanced Mutual Fund
• Gilt and Liquid are Debt Mutual Funds
• Returns over 1 year are Annualized
• Mutual funds attract 15% tax on the gain if invested more petite than a year and a 10% rate if invested for more than a year.
• Cryptocurrency is highly volatile. Thus, you should only invest your throw-away money into it; prices are derived from Bitcoin (BTC) prices.
• Liquidity and Tax rates should be focused upon while drafting a portfolio
• Low liquidity refers to lock in time before the modest positive return
• Equity stocks are high risk, and Debt stocks are low risk
• High-risk investment generally yields high returns
• For Tax saving purpose, you should invest in ELSS, which has 3-year lock-in periods, and the principal amount is exempted from tax up to 1,50,000 (1 lakh 50 thousand) rupees under 80C
• You can expect 8-12% interest on ELSS after maturity; gains over 1,00,000 (1 lakh) in a year is taxed at a 10% rate
• For a long term investment of 5 years or more, you should opt for Small Cap or Blue Chip funds
• For investments between 1 to 3 years, choose Liquid Funds
• Go for Savings accounts for short terms investments up to a year