Contents
Mutual Funds have become very popular investment options for individual investors because of the benefits they provide. Among the many advantages, the most important ones that attract investors to mutual funds are that Investors can
Start with any amount (SIP as low as Rs. 500)
Start automated monthly investments (SIP)
Diversify into multiple stocks and other instruments like equity, debt, gold, etc.
Invest without the need to open a DMAT account
In this guide on how to invest in a mutual fund for beginners, we help you learn about Mutual Funds and get started with them. We have also provided many links for you to understand specific terms and types. We suggest bookmarking this page so that you can go through the articles at your own pace.
Introduction
If you are already aware of mutual funds, their workings, types, and benefits, etc., you can proceed directly to the next section. Below mentioned five articles that cover the basic factors to know how to invest in a mutual fund for beginners. Also, a special article on tax saving funds has been mentioned here.
Building a Portfolio in Investments
The correct way of investing is to build a mutual fund portfolio for yourself. A portfolio is a collection of selected mutual funds that helps you achieve your investment goals. The total returns you will receive will depend on your overall portfolio and not one particular fund. In below-listed blogs, we learn about the basics of building a great mutual fund portfolio.
Checking Mutual Fund Performance
How to Select Mutual Funds
Before Investing in Mutual Funds
There are some necessary processes laid down by the SEBI. Before you can start investing in Mutual Funds. It is the KYC or Know your Customer process. Not only this compulsory procedure makes sure that
How to Invest in Mutual Fund for Beginner
Most of the first-time investors do not prefer to invest in mutual funds because they find the process too complicated. These articles will help to invest in a mutual fund for beginners easily. And get started.
Important Factors
To know how to invest in a mutual fund, there are some important things beginners would need to understand. Without knowing these things, you can seriously lower your investment returns.
Here is a list of terms that are quite regularly used, when talking about mutual funds. Because you are to invest in a Mutual Fund as beginners, so for now, you do not need to learn all of these. You can use the below table as a dictionary to look for and understand the meaning of any term you come across.
80C | The Section under Income Tax Act outlining the exemptions for income tax. |
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AMC | The full form is the Asset Management Company. Or the Fund House that runs a mutual fund. Examples are HDFC Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund, Reliance, etc. |
Annualized Returns | Returns that a specific investment makes. These are generally measured for 1, 3 or 5. it is one of the criteria to check the performance. Even if the investment has been made for less than a year or more than a year, they are proportioned to 1, 3 and 5 years. |
AMFI | The Association of Mutual Funds in India is a non-profit government organization and primary regulator under the purview of SEBI. The purpose to incorporate it is to promote best business practices and code of conduct amongst all members. |
Arbitrage Funds | Arbitrage funds are quite complex than the average mutual fund. Arbitrage funds are a kind of equity-oriented Hybrid Mutual Funds. They generate returns through the purchase and sale of securities, simultaneously, on different exchanges that feature a pricing mismatch. This is exactly opposite to the typical equity fund, where the fund invests in equities and holds them till they can be sold at a profit in the future. they key point here is holding the equities. |
Asset Allocation | The process of allocating your funds across different asset classes. Assets are items like equity, debt or gold. We can further divide an asset like equity into large cap, mid cap or small cap. |
AUM | The full form is Asset Under Management. The total funds any mutual fund scheme holds for investments. |
Average Maturity | A weighted average of maturity (years between today and the final payment date of the debt security, by which date the principal is due to be paid) of all the debt securities held by the fund. |
Balanced Funds | Balanced Mutual Funds are also known as Hybrid Funds. They invest funds in both debt and equity. |
Benchmark | The standard you can compare your returns with. Common benchmarks are BSE-Sensex, Nifty, and NSE. You must also understand that they, in turn, depend on and fluctuate according to the fund you consider. |
Biller | Once you’ve paid the first SIP installment, you have started invested successfully. But to ensure that the next SIP installments get auto-debited from your account every month, you will need to set up a biller. If the biller is not set up, the next SIP installment will fail and the SIP amount won’t get deducted. Setting up the biller is a one-time process. You don’t need to add the biller again when you start another SIP Plan. |
Bonds | Bonds are debt obligations issued by the governments or the companies. When you buy an individual bond, you are, basically, lending your money to that entity for that particular duration. In exchange, you will receive interest from the entity until the end of the period or the maturity date. At the maturity date, you will receive the original investment or loan amount (the principal), as well as the interest. |
Brokerage | The fees you pay to your Financial Advisor for letting you invest in a Mutual Fund as beginners, and make all the transactions. |
BSE | The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is the Indian Stock Exchange based in Mumbai. Established in 1875, it is Asia’s first Stock Exchange. |
CAGR | Compounded Annual Growth Rate is the annual growth rate of an investment over a specific period of time. This return parameter used to compare returns for our investments. It represents how much returns a mutual fund has earned you every year in a certain duration. |
Close-ended funds | Close-ended funds are not very common. They have a fixed number of shares. They are traded on a stock exchange. Like stocks, their share prices are determined on the basis of their supply and demand. They are often traded at a wide discount or premium to their NAVs. |
Corpus | The Corpus refers to a pool of money collected by various investors who intend to save and make money through their investment. |
Coupon Rate | The Coupon Rate is the rate of interest paid by the entities issuing bonds on the bond’s par value. It is the periodic interest paid by bond issuers to its investors. This coupon rate is calculated on the face value of the bond, not on the issue price or market value. |
Credit Rating | All debts issued by companies or governments are ranked by independent rating agencies based on their capacity to pay back. For example, AAA-rated debt is good. BB is not good. |
CRISIL | CRISIL is a rating agency that ranks the mutual funds and debts issued by companies. |
Debt Funds | Debt Mutual funds invest in debt instruments. |
Direct Funds | The funds which are not bought through Mutual Fund Distributors. You directly invest in such a mutual fund, even if as beginners. They are purchased directly from AMC. |
Dividend Schemes | Mutual fund plans which provide regular dividends to its investors. For example a monthly Income plan. As against Growth Funds, where the profits are invested back in the equity or debt. |
ELSS | ELSS is short for Equity Linked Savings Scheme. They are also known as tax-saving investments. The earnings from investing in these special mutual funds are exempt from tax under section 80C. Subject to certain conditions. |
Equity | Equity means the stock of a company. Buying equities is similar to buying stocks of a company. |
Equity Schemes | Equity schemes are Mutual Fund Scheme investing predominantly in shares or stocks of companies. Best Equity Mutual Funds invest in stocks of public listed companies |
ETF | Or Exchange Traded Fund. ETFs are like mutual funds. Except for the feature that ETF gets traded on stock exchanges and you can buy or sell them like stocks. |
Exit Load | At the time of redemption of a mutual fund, the exit load can be applied for certain schemes. It can be as high as 1% for certain schemes. |
Expense Ratio | The charges you pay each year to the fund house for managing your money are termed as Expense Ratio. It is charged as a percentage of your investment. |
Face Value | The Notional value of any security according to which dividend, share capital, etc are calculated. It is not very important to make investment decisions. |
Floating Rate | A floating interest rate means a variable interest rate that changes throughout the debt obligation. It is exactly opposite to a fixed interest rate loan, where the interest rate remains constant throughout the life of the debt. |
FLR | It is a Floating Rate Fund. Floating Rate mutual funds are those debt mutual funds that invest in fixed income securities as well as floating interest rate securities like bonds, bank loans and other types of debt securities. That is approximately 75% to 100% of the capital is invested in securities with a variable interest rate. This is why these funds are not as popular at times when the interest rates are dropping, but quite in demand when the interest rates are rising. |
FoF | FoF or Fund of funds is the mutual fund that invests in other mutual funds. In other words, FoF invests in other funds just like normal Mutual Funds invest in equity and debt of other companies. This fund invests in a portfolio of other funds. It is also known as a multi-manager investment. Most of the international mutual funds are Fund of International funds. |
Folio Number | A folio number is like a bank account number. It is a unique number that identifies your holdings with the respective mutual fund. This unique number differs from one fund house to another. Only an existing investor can have a folio number, not the new ones. To invest in a mutual fund as beginners, you will get allotted a folio number only after investing. You can invest in multiple plans by using the same folio number within the same Mutual Fund. This eases the tracking of your investments. |
Fund Manager | The Fund manager is the person who is deciding where to invest your money in the mutual fund. The performance of a mutual fund largely depends on this Fund Manager. Of course, he has to work within the outlines of the fund’s objectives as defined in the prospectus. |
Gilt Funds | Gilt Funds are those mutual funds that invest only in government bonds (debt). They are suitable for risk-averse and conservative investors who wish to invest indirectly in secure government bonds. Especially suitable if you are starting to invest in a Mutual Fund as beginners. |
Gold Funds | Gold Funds are mutual funds investing in various forms of gold. It can be in the form of physical gold or stocks of gold-extracting companies. |
Government Securities | Government Securities are securities or bonds issued by the Government for raising a public loan. The government finances its operations largely through taxation and levies. When the revenue received from taxation and levies doesn’t meet the expenditure of the government, it finances the difference (deficit) mainly by borrowing from the public by issuing government securities. They are an important means of financing deficits. They may be Government Promissory Notes, Bearer Bonds, Stocks or Bonds held in Bond Ledger Account. They may, also, be in the form of Treasury Bills or Dated Government Securities. |
Growth Plan | The growth plan means that the dividend will not be provided to the investors. And is invested, instead, back into the fund for further growth. |
Holdings | Holdings are the contents of a Fund portfolio. That is which stock in what quantities are held or the Corpus is invested into, by a mutual fund. |
Income Funds | An income fund is, basically, a debt mutual fund that generates returns by investing in relatively long-duration debt instruments like government securities, corporate bonds, debentures, certificates of deposit, etc. Two categories of mutual funds (as per SEBI) can broadly fall into this category – Long Duration & Medium to Long Duration. |
Indexation | Indexation is used to inflate the purchase price of a debt fund to reflect the effect of inflation on it. It takes into account inflation from the time you invested to the time you redeem. A higher purchase price means a lesser profit, thereby reducing your tax liability. |
Index Funds | An index fund is a type of mutual fund with a portfolio assembled that matches the components, growth and ups and downs of a market index. |
International Funds | An international fund or a global fund invests in companies in countries other than the ones they reside. It is also called overseas or foreign funds. Investing in them may mean higher risk, but also the chances of higher returns. Therefore, it is not recommended that you invest in such a mutual fund as beginners. People usually invest in it for long-term and to diversify their portfolio. |
iSIP | An iSIP is an internet-based SIP. It is a completely paperless way to set up a SIP. Once you have set up the iSIP, you will have to add the AMC as a biller in your bank through internet banking. This process will need to be done for every iSIP in every plan. The AMC will, then, send monthly demands to your bank. If you select the auto-payment option while adding the biller, the payment will happen automatically whenever the bank receives the demand. |
Investment Objectives | This is the objective set by the AMC for a particular mutual fund plan. AMC will operate this mutual fund to achieve this only. But most of these objectives are very similar and vague. Therefore don’t tell you much about the intent of the AMC. |
KIM | It is short for Key Information Memorandum. It contains the key information about the scheme which is important for an investor to know. It comes attached along with the application form of the scheme. In other words, KIM is a summary of SID & SAI. |
Large-Cap | Large-Cap is a category of an equity mutual fund that invests mostly in the companies with large market capitalization – Rs. 20,000 Cr or more. |
Launch Date | It is the date on which a Mutual Fund Scheme is launched, through New Fund Offer (NFO) or otherwise. |
Liquid Funds | Liquid funds are such Mutual Funds that invest in money markets and instruments (FD etc.). The maturity of these securities has to be 91 days or less. Therefore these are almost zero-risk Mutual Funds and high credibility. |
Liquidity | Liquidity helps you get your money whenever you need it. That is, how quickly you can get your hands on your cash. It might be your emergency savings account or the cash lying in your home that you can access in case of any unforeseen happening or any financial setback. Liquidity plays an important role as, in some situations, it allows you to seize opportunities. |
Lock-in Period | This is the time duration, from the start of your investment, for which the investment cannot be withdrawn. Tax saving Mutual Funds, ELSS, have a lock-in of 3 years. |
Long-Term | A time period of 5 years or more is considered to be long term in most of the discussion. |
Market Cap | Market Cap or Market Capitalization is the market value of a publicly traded company. It can be measured by multiplying the number of shares with the current share price. |
Mean Returns | Mean returns are the arithmetic average of the returns earned by a fund over a particular period of time. It is also known as the Expected Returns of the Mutual Fund. |
Mid Cap | Mid-Cap is the category of Equity Fund that invests mostly in the mid-sized companies that have a market capitalization in the range Rs. 5,000 Cr to Rs. 20,000 Cr. |
Min Additional Investment | Minimum additional investment is the minimum amount of money you can invest in a mutual fund if you already have an investment in that specific fund, and not are beginners. |
Min Investment | Minimum Investment is the minimum amount of lump sum that the fund accepts as a first-time investment. |
Min Withdrawal | Minimum Withdrawal or RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) offers monthly cash flow from an individual’s mutual fund investments to one of their immediate family members. A sum of money is withdrawn monthly from their investment in a growth option of an open-ended mutual fund scheme to either a parent, sibling, spouse or child. It aims to provide a tax saving option to withdraw from mutual funds. A fund transferred to immediate family members is considered a gift under the law and does not attract any taxation. |
Modified Duration | Bond prices and interest rates are inversely related. That is, if there is a rise in the interest rates then the price of the bond falls correspondingly. If the interest rates fall, then the price of the bonds will rise. MD is this change in the value of debt security in response to the change in interest rates. It indicates a bond’s sensitivity to a change in interest rates. The higher the duration, the more volatile the bond is with a change in interest rates. Since the modified duration of a portfolio takes into account all the debt instruments, it will change according to the composition of the portfolio. |
Money Market | The money market is the part of the financial market where highly liquid securities of very short term maturities are traded. |
Mutual Fund Agent | A Mutual Fund Agent needs an empanelment from a Fund House and the AMFI to start practicing. therefore, they are bound to sell you the products from that Fund House only. But becoming an agent is fairly simple, so there are over 50,000 brokers in India. |
Mutual Fund Distributor | A Mutual Fund Distributor or Broker is someone permitted to sell mutual funds – they are intermediaries in the purchase process. They are identified by the ARN stamp. His name and stamp will appear in all your communication about your mutual fund investment. He should guide you through all the plans available in the market. This is preferable as he will be able to guide you to invest in a Mutual Fund as beginners. |
NAV | Net Asset Value. It is the value per unit of a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund (ETF) on a specific date or time. |
NFO | A New Fund Offer, it occurs when certain mutual funds are launched. Depending on the decision by the Fund House. It allows the firm to raise capital for purchasing securities. You may purchase units of a closed-end mutual fund in an NFO. |
NIFTY | Nifty is a benchmark index for Equity in India introduced by the National Stock Exchange on April 21, 1996. The term ‘Nifty’ is derived from the combination of two words – ‘National’ and ‘Fifty’ – as it consists of 50 actively traded stocks accounting for 12 sectors of the economy. Or in other words, NIFTY 50. |
Nominee | The nominee is the person selected by the investor to receive the benefit in case of death of the life of the investor. So the nominee has a valid discharge to the mutual fund on the settlement of a claim. |
Open-Ended Fund | Open-ended mutual funds are bought and sold on demand at their NAV (Net Asset Value). The NAV, which is based on the value of the fund’s underlying securities, is calculated at the end of every trading day. |
OTM | One Time Mandate is a one-time registration process, authorizing your bank to debit money towards the payment of a mutual fund, you selected. You can use this facility, up to the limit you have prescribed, whenever you are transacting with the mutual fund. It is a simple, convenient and paperless way to invest. |
PAN | PAN is an electronic system under which, all tax related information for a person or company gets recorded against a single PAN number. This acts as the primary key for the storage of information and is shared across the country. As no two tax paying entities can have the same PAN, therefore, this PAN Card is an essential KYC document. To be provided before you start to invest in Mutual Funds as beginners. |
Portfolio | A portfolio is the total financial assets where the money collected under a mutual fund scheme is invested. It may be stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies and cash equivalents, as well as their fund counterparts, including mutual, exchange-traded and close-ended funds. A portfolio may also consist of non-publicly tradable securities, such as real estate, art, and private investments. |
Prospectus | It is the Mutual Fund Offer Document (OD). It provides details about the investment objectives and strategies of a particular fund or group of funds. All the finer points of the fund’s past performance, managers and financial information are stated on it. All fund companies also provide copies of their ODs on their websites. |
PSU | An enterprise owned by the government is called a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) or a Public Sector Enterprise. These companies may be owned by the union government of India, or one of the many state or territorial governments, or both. A major portion of the company’s stock needs to be owned by the government to be a PSU. |
Ratings | A mutual fund rating is a measure of its historical risk-adjusted performance over different time frames compared with the funds in the same category. In other words, it is a composite measure of both return and risk. It provides the potential investor an idea about its ability to deliver returns for a given level of risk. |
Redeem | Redeeming the Mutual fund is a process where the investor intends to sell his/her investments in that fund. This may be due to various reasons, maybe there is a need for money in case of an emergency or the investor speculates that this is the peak of the fund’s performance and keeping funds locked-in beyond, would not be a good idea. Or the investor simply wishes to switch investments from one fund to another or opt for a different investment option. |
Redemption | For a mutual fund investor to make a redemption, he has to inform his fund manager of his request. The manager would process the request within a certain amount of time and distribute the funds to the investor, which is normally the current market value of their shares—less any fees and other charges. |
Regular Funds | Regular funds are the funds that are bought through an intermediary. It may be a Mutual Fund Advisor, Broker or a Distributor. |
Returns | Return is the profit or loss made on an investment. Essentially, it is the change in value or the principal amount of the units one holds. |
Risk | Risk typically means uncertainty in investment. No investment is risk-free. Risk arises in mutual fund investment due to the reason that mutual funds invest in a variety of financial instruments like equities, debt, corporate bonds, government securities and many more. Moreover, the price of these instruments is volatile and depends on a lot of factors like supply-demand, change in interest rate, inflation, etc. |
Risk-Free Rate | The risk-free rate represents the interest an investor would expect from a risk-free investment over a specified duration. In theory, the risk-free rate is the minimum return you expect from investment because you will not accept additional risk unless the potential rate of return is greater than the risk-free rate. |
RTA | RTA or Registrar and Transfer Agent is an agency appointed by a mutual fund to handle all transactions related to that mutual fund plan. |
SAI | This document is a sort of mutual fund’s prospectus containing additional information about the fund and disclosure of its operations. It carries information about any changes made in the scheme’s operations and other related areas. The information provided in the document is not so important for the investors because the abbreviated form of all this information is already mentioned in SID, due to which it is also called Part B of the fund’s registration documents. |
SEBI | Securities and Exchange Board India is the regulating body for all the players operating in the Indian capital markets. Its objective is to protect the interest of investors and aims at developing the capital markets by enforcing various rules and regulations. |
Sector Allocation | There are many different ways one can diversify a portfolio. it can be diversifying across asset class, or another common way to diversify is between the various sectors of the economy. This is usually achieved with mutual funds that concentrate on one of the major sectors, such as natural resources or utilities. |
Sector Funds | Mutual funds that invest in a particular sector or industry are said to be sector-specific funds. Because the portfolio of such mutual funds consists mainly of investment in one specific type of sector, they offer less amount of diversification and are considered to be risky. |
Securities | They are usually stocks and bonds of various companies. It is a financial instrument representing financial value. Mutual funds collect money from the investing public and use that money to buy securities. The value of the mutual fund plan depends on the performance of the securities it decides to buy. |
Sensex | Sensex is an indication of an overall stock market. It is essentially a figure which indicates the relative price of 30 companies weighted on free float market capitalization. The base year of Sensex is FY 1979 and the base value is 100. |
Sharpe Ratio | The Sharpe ratio is calculated using the Standard Deviation Ratio and Excess Returns to determine reward per unit of risk. It shows a relationship between excess return and risk. The higher the Sharpe ratio means the fund’s historical risk-adjusted performance is good. |
Shares | Shares are the stock ownership certificates of a company. |
Short-term | A period of less than 36 months or 3 years is considered as a short term time horizon for mutual fund investors. A 3 to 5 year investment period qualifies as medium term. And more than 5 years qualifies as long term. |
SID | The SID contains information like:
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SIP | A SIP Plan is a plan through which a fixed amount of money is invested into a mutual fund scheme at fixed intervals, for a fixed or variable duration of time (depending on the type of plan or the fund scheme). In SIP investment, instructions to increase/decrease the value of the monthly installment, start or stop at predetermined intervals, etc. can also be provided. |
SIP Minimum | This is the minimum investment amount you need to regularly invest in a SIP in a mutual fund. This is decided by a mutual fund house. |
Small Cap | Small-cap Equity Funds are those which invest in equity shares of companies that have smaller capitalization and are listed under the 250th rank of the underlying benchmark. |
Standard Deviation | Standard deviation is a statistical measurement that shows how much variation there is from the arithmetic mean (simple average). So you can say, a greater standard deviation indicates higher volatility, which means the mutual fund’s performance fluctuated high above the average but also significantly below it. Experts describe the standard deviation as the volatility of past mutual fund returns. Or you can say, that both these terms, volatility and standard deviation, are used interchangeably. |
Stocks | The stock simply means a share of the company. They are traded on the various stock exchanges continuously. And the prices change throughout the day. Whenever you want to sell, you can redeem anytime during the trading session. |
STP | An STP or Systematic Transfer Plan transfer a fixed amount of money from one mutual fund to another at regular intervals. For instance, an STP can transfer Rs 10,000 each month from Axis Liquid Fund to Axis Bluechip Fund. Generally, an STP is used to transfer money between liquid or debt fund to an equity fund, both coming under the same AMC. This averages out an investor’s buying price in the equity fund and reduces his or her risk. |
Suspended Fund | Mutual Fund suspended for sale means the fund house, for the time being, would not accept the subscription for that scheme. It may be looking for proper avenues to invest in, that comply with the objectives of the scheme. It may open the subscription at an appropriate time in the future. There is no risk on your investment, due to the suspension of the sale. On the contrary, sometimes AMC suspends sales to keep up its performance. |
SWP | Systematic Withdrawal Plan or SWP Calculator allows an investor to withdraw from his mutual fund scheme at prefixed intervals on a pre-set date. This withdrawal amount could be fixed or variable. And the time of withdrawal can be either annually, semi-annually, quarterly or even monthly. |
Ultra Short Term | Ultra short-term funds invest in fixed-income instruments which are mostly liquid and maturing within the short-term. By investing in Ultra short-term funds, investors can avoid interest rate risks. Still, they are riskier and offer better returns than most money market instruments. Liquid and ultra short-term funds are quite similar on many points, but there are some differences between a liquid fund and an ultra short-term fund. |
Units | Whether you are dealing directly with the AMC or go through an agent, you do not make your purchase from other investors or on a securities market. The smallest part of ownership in a mutual fund is called a unit and represents your proportion of the company’s investments. Or you can say, when you invest in a mutual fund, you purchase units, as beginners. |
UTR |
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WAM | WAM or Weighted Average Maturity shows the average period of time for the maturity of all those financial instruments that have a limited duration. It gives the maturity period according to the weight of each instrument in the group of maturity based instruments owned by an investor in his portfolio. |
XIRR |
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YTM | Yield to maturity (YTM) is the weighted average yield of the constituents of the portfolio. Funds investing in debt securities with higher coupon rates would have higher YTM than others. Thus, YTM is used mostly in the case of debt funds. It gives a fair idea about the interest income that can be accrued in a stable interest rate scenario if all its portfolio constituents are held until the end of their maturity period. However, YTM is not the sole indicator of the possible gains from a debt fund as the actual return would also depend on the market-to-market valuations and changes in the portfolio. Net YTM of the portfolio is the gross YTM minus the expense ratio. |
With presenting this guide on how to invest in a mutual fund as beginners, we wish you luck. Though, while making any investment, the returns usually depend more on sound judgment, than good luck. This depends on being clear about your own goals, as well as the variety of plans available. Building a good portfolio means that you diversify according to your risk appetite and financial planning.
Therefore, it is advisable to use professional advice from experts. Our services at WealthBucket provide services to people who want to invest in mutual funds. These services include equity funds, liquid mutual funds, debt mutual funds or small-cap mutual funds.
You can either call us at +91 9999379929 or email us at contact@wealthbucket.in.
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