Financial Guidance

Q. I am 57 and have a daughter aged 23 and a son aged 20. Daughter is about to get married and son has completed second year B. Tech and will be going to the States for balance two years. My monthly income is Rs 50,000 approx. with three dependents – wife, daughter and son. I invest in shares and have a portfolio of about Rs 50 lakh. I now wish to increase my exposure to mutual funds. I already have Rs 7–8 lakh in following schemes:
(a)  DSP BlackRock Top 100
(b)  Sundaram Select Focus
(c)  Franklin High Growth
(d)  Reliance Eq. Oppourtunities
(e)  UTI Div. Fund
(f)  Kotak Contra Fund
(g)  SBI Magnum Multicap
(h)  Birla Top 100
(i)  Tata Contra
(j)  Reliance Diver. Power
(k)  UTI Mid-Cap
(l)  SBI Blue Chip
(m)  UTI Growth Sector Services
(n)  HDFC Long Term Eq
(o)  HDFC Top 200
(p)  DSP Oppourtunities
(q)  Franklin Blue Chip
(r)  Birla Div. Yield Plus
(s)  JP Morgan Small Companies
(t)  Fidelity Intl. Oppourtunities
(u)  Birla LT Advantage

Please advise if any changes are required in the above schemes and also suggest how much should I invest every month and in which schemes. I can spare about Rs 8,000/- per month.

- Col. Bhupinder Singh, Agra

A. Bhupinderji, please stop your list before you run out of alphabets! You have too many funds. Over-diversification kills returns. The good performers are always few in number and you will never end up enjoying their performance if you have so many funds. I hope your stock portfolio is also not like this. Out of the list above, I would recommend you to keep only five – a, e, j, o and q. Your future accumulation should also be in the same five funds. Funds such as Franklin India Blue Chip, HDFC Top 200 and DSP BlackRock Top 100 should have the bulk of your investments and the balance in the other two