It is the time of the year when HR and accounts people chase you for your ‘investing’ proof. So people ask me the following questions:

– should I invest in equities?

-should I invest in ELSS?

or should I invest in bank deposits, nsc or ppf?

And worse, some people think they are doing ME a favor if they invest in equities or in ELSS. Let me clarify:

– I am not here to increase the equity investments in India

– I do not have a SEBI/AMFI mandate to create equity assets for the mutual fund industry

-I do not care about where you invest. Not being blunt, but just being factual.

-How does it matter to me about where you invest?

-If you ask me and then ask another set of 30 people, it is a waste of time for me and for those 30 others.

-You can read subramoney.com and depending on what else you wish to read please come to your OWN conclusions.

Why am I saying this:

Simply because those who had to meet the Dec 31st deadline (set by HR and Accounts of most companies) have already seen a fantastic spurt in the NAV of their ELSS portfolios. This is luck. Those who invest in Jan 2012 may not see a 16% spurt in nav in 3 months time.

Those who are expecting 16% returns over the next 5 years could invest. Those who are expecting this over the next 3 months, should not.