My Latest Mutual Fund Portfolio 2025-26

It’s late 2025, and Indian equity markets are on a rollercoaster ride. The Nifty swings wildly with every US Fed surprise, the Rupee hovers at record lows against the Dollar amid relentless FII outflows, and escalating Middle East tensions. To top it off, SEBI’s new fee rules are tightening the leash on mutual fund managers.

And moments like these remind me why sticking to core financial planning principles matters so much — goal-based investing, asset allocation, diversification, rebalancing, living within your means, and keeping debt under control. Simple, timeless concepts that always hold steady when the markets don’t.

My Investing Journey – The Foundation

I’ve been a mutual fund investor since 2009. Over these 16 years, three qualities have truly paid off — patience, discipline, and conviction.

Since 2015, I’ve become a lot more structured and goal-focused about my investments. Rather than investing randomly, I channel my money toward specific life goals — mainly two big ones:

1. My child’s higher education
2. Our retirement and long-term wealth creation

Both goals are backed by goal-based investing — where each rupee has a purpose. Let me walk you through how these goals are shaping up.

Financial Goal 1 – Kid’s Higher Education

Back in 2015, we started investing in HDFC Balanced Fund (now HDFC Hybrid Equity Fund) purely for our son’s higher education — with a 10-year time horizon.

We planned for the worst-case, high-cost scenario — medical education via management quota, factoring in 15% annual inflation! It might sound overcautious, but it helped us stay future-ready. We assumed a 10% annual return from our investments.

Fast forward to now — our son has indeed chosen Biology, Physics, and Chemistry for his higher secondary and hopes to become a doctor. With the goal nearing (2027), capital preservation became more important than growth. I didn’t want to take unnecessary equity risk. So, at the start of FY 2025–26, we moved the entire corpus from equity to Bank FDs and Arbitrage Funds (Kotak Arbitrage Fund and SBI Arbitrage Opportunities Fund).

This shift ensures capital protection since the goal is just two years away. The portfolio delivered around 12.5% XIRR (pre-tax), higher than our expected 10% — a pleasant surprise!

Interestingly, the fund’s recent performance hasn’t been stellar compared to peers, but consistent, above-expectation returns kept us invested for a decade. And that consistency matters more than flashy short-term numbers.

If our son earns a government (free) seat, the actual cost for MBBS will be much lower, meaning much of this corpus could later support his post-graduation expenses. We’ll revisit the allocation once we know the exact scenario in 2027.

Financial Goal 2 – Retirement & Wealth Accumulation

While the education goal is drawing to a close, our retirement plan continues in full swing — a 15-year journey (from now).

For long-term wealth creation, I’ve been allocating most of my surplus to equity-oriented funds. Recently, I introduced ICICI Prudential Multi-Asset Fund to complement UTI Nifty Next 50 Index Fund.

Why Multi-asset funds?

They provide built-in diversification — typically 65–80% equity, 20–35% in debt, gold, and commodities. This balance cushions volatility, offers inflation protection (via gold exposure), and delivers better risk-adjusted returns.

Multi-asset delivered strong absolute returns through diversification (equity ~65-80%, debt/gold), often matching or slightly exceeding Nifty 50 in risk-adjusted terms (Sharpe >1), but lagged Nifty Next 50’s higher mid-cap beta growth in bull phases. Recent volatility favored its balanced approach.

ICICI Multi-Asset Fund, for instance, has a Sharpe ratio above 1, low expense ratio (~0.7% direct plan), top-quartile CRISIL ranking, and has outperformed the Nifty 50 during volatile years (20% vs 15%).

It’s a robust fit for a 15-year horizon aiming for stable compounding without excessive churn.

Our return expectation here from our portfolio is around 12% over the long term, and we continue investing through periodic lump-sum additions.

Closing Thoughts

This journey reaffirms that financial planning isn’t about chasing the highest returns — it’s about aligning money with your life goals and sticking to your plan amid noise.

When I look back, this whole experience reinforces one simple truth — financial planning works best when it’s goal-driven and unemotional. We didn’t chase the best-performing funds every year. We didn’t panic during corrections. We just aligned every rupee with a purpose and trusted the process.

For any investment goal, the time horizon is fixed, but returns are not in your hands—the only controllable factor is how much more you can invest. Focus on increasing income or savings, and/or decreasing unnecessary expenses to accelerate corpus growth. Your risk profile, goal horizon, and discipline matter far more than timing market peaks or reacting to every macro headline.

Markets will always be unpredictable — but your goals needn’t be. Markets swing wildly, but your goals stay steady with discipline.

 If you have any queries on your mutual fund portfolio or require review, do not hesitate to post them in our Forum.

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(Disclaimer: The details and portfolio shared above are based on my personal goals and risk profile. This is not investment advice. Please consult a Registered Investment Advisor for personalised guidance. Mutual Funds are subject to market risks; past performance is no guarantee of future returns.)

(Post first published on : 14-Dec-2025)