Mr. A. Balasubramanian
Chief Executive Officer
Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Limited
So the saying goes. Incidentally, money and wealth cannot really be spoken of in the same breath; they have their own definitions. But being wealthy does have its distinct “place” in our mind map.
Simply put, compounding is nothing but interest on interest, and it is this simple concept that is at the heart of long-term wealth creation. There is a catch: compounding is a function of time. So you need to stay invested long enough to create wealth. And since time is a factor, the earlier you start the better.
This is just one aspect of investment; risk is the other crucial success determinant in wealth creation.The idea is to treat your investments as a “going concern” or a business that is expected to continue operating in the foreseeable future. And since you are the CEO of this business (read investments), it’s prudent to keep re-jigging your portfolio once in a while – keeping your eyes on the risky assets and planning for long-term returns.
Since returns are a function of time and also a function of risk, the benefits of starting early are very clear. Your risk-taking abilities are high when you are young and you also have the benefit of time for compounding your wealth. In other words, your investments must be highly disproportional to your age.
The next question we need to answer is, what are the best avenues for investment? While fixed deposits in banks (or a savings account for that matter) give you capital protection, wealth creation is minimal. Hence a higher proportion of equity exposure at an early stage in life is a good bet, assuming your income is on an upswing. As age advances, your income and also your risk profile changes; at 50, your investment objective should be more towards capital protection as your income horizon begins to decline.
Beware of inflation -- it is a speed-breaker for your returns and often outpaces the interest accrued on your eroding investments. Therefore, for the power of compounding to work efficiently, you need to look very closely at inflation vis-à-vis returns. Of course, equities have traditionally been wealth creators but investing in them directly requires rigour of a different nature.
How do you stay with equities without getting burnt? Well, the sage advice is to leave it to the experts. Investing in mutual funds is a good idea and even better still, systematically investing in them (through SIPs). SIP is nothing but investing at regular intervals without trying to time the market as well as worrying about the market fluctuations. It insulates investors from the irrational behaviour of the markets, while helping them to accumulate wealth. The idea as always is to beat inflation and the market.
Companies like Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund have mastered the art of wealth creation and have been creating wealth for investors for over 15 years. Their domain expertise comes from an understanding of the markets, scientific tools for analysis, and solid research. The result: wealth creation on a sustained basis. It’s easy to see how this works. Let’s take the example of Birla Sun Life Tax Relief ’96 – an open-ended equity-linked savings scheme. Assuming that you invested Rs.1,000 on the first day of every month since the inception in Birla Sun Life Tax Relief ’96, your total investments would have been Rs.1,67,000 and it would have grown to become Rs.17,99,615. In comparison, the same amount invested in the BSE 200 would have grown to become Rs.6,23,213. It’s now not hard to see how the power of compounding has worked behind the scenes.
Money grows silently, if managed judicially and with prudence. As they say, all you must do is to keep the faith.