In a chat with CNBC-TV18's Anuj Singhal and Latha Venkatesh, Vishal Dhawan, Director,

Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors, answered some of the common personal finance queries.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the videos.

Caller: My monthly salary is Rs 50,000 and I have bought two money based policies, that is
Rs 22,500 and other one that is LIC which is Rs15,000. My current age is 36 years, and after
55 years I am expecting Rs 1 crore, then what should be my investment?

Dhawan: Actually, the retirement corpus amount would be a function of the amount of the
money that he spends today. We would need to adjust that for inflation to take care of prices
19 years later.

However, assuming that one crore number is a targeted number for the corpus, about Rs
7,000 in month invested at 15% CAGR, should be able to give him about a crore in the next
19-20 years.

Clearly, he has mentioned that there are some money back policies in place already. I assume
that there would already be some provident fund contributions that are happening. So, using
pure equity products may make the most sense him at this point in time.

Latha: Is there anything you would want to advice in terms of what kind of funds, any
names?

Dhawan: Essentially, using a combination of one index fund and one diversified equity fund
with a good track record would be a good option for him to look at. So there are multiple
names available with good track records for him to pick on.

Caller: I would want to invest Rs 100,000 per annum, and my time horizon is five-10 years,
which mutual fund should I invest in? .

Dhawan: Essentially, the way volatility on the stock markets works make it very difficult for
you to run a structured a SIP program by just making a one time investment. He could
consider the use of a systematic transfer plan, which is an STP, where he puts in Rs 1 lakhs
and one short into liquid fund and then every month over a period of 12 months the money
gets transferred to an equity mutual fund. And from there onwards, let the money stay there
and compound over the next five -10 years for him to get the real rate of return. Running up
pure SIP on this principle may be very difficult to do.

Caller: I want to invest for 10-15 years, so should I opt for SIP or in mutual funds, to get
maximum returns? I am 30 years old and want to use this money for my child's education and
I can to invest Rs 18,000 every year.

Dhawan: First of all it is excellent that he is planning for his child’s education at a very
young age and giving that money 10-15 years to actually grow to what he is trying to achieve.
Essentially, the ideal thing for him to do would be to use diversified equity funds and in index
fund during the first seven -10 years of his savings.

And then as we get closer to the need for that money for education, moving into something
which is lower risk ideally, having significant component of fixed income in it.
So, if the use of again a combination for diversified equity fund and index fund and also gold
fund, put together to just balance out the volatility on the portfolio would be a good bet for
him to consider.