Guide
Most SIP underperformance isn't bad luck — it's a handful of avoidable mistakes.
The single most expensive mistake is pausing or stopping a SIP during a downturn. That's exactly when your fixed amount buys the most units. Investors who stop lock in the loss and miss the recovery.
A SIP you set in your twenties and never touch becomes trivially small relative to your forties income. Not using a step-up leaves a large amount of potential corpus on the table.
Planning on the nominal, pre-tax number leads to under-saving. The real, post-tax corpus is what funds your goal — plan with that figure, which is why our calculators show all three.
Past performance is the weakest predictor of future returns. Switching funds to chase recent winners often means buying high and selling low. Pick a sound fund and let the SIP discipline work.
Beyond a handful of well-chosen funds, more funds just replicate the index at higher cost and complexity. Overlap dilutes any edge.
A SIP without a goal is easy to abandon. Tying each SIP to a concrete target — retirement, a child's education — makes you far more likely to stay the course.
Redeeming without regard to holding period can turn long-term gains into higher-taxed short-term ones. Mind the 12-month clock on each tranche.
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