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I am a retired government employee and I am living off my pension and small investments. My wife and I invested Rs 48,000 each in MIS on 4-1-2007. Upon maturity on 4-1-2013, the post office returned the amounts of Rs 48,000×2 but refused the bonus. I find from print advertisement of National Savings Institute, Nagpur that bonus is payable if the investment had been done before 1-12-2011.

—R Ramamurthy

There has been some confusion on the bonus amount since the time it was announced that the 5 per cent bonus on post office monthly income scheme is withdrawn. If you go through the circular in post office MIS site, it says "No Bonus on Maturity w.e.f. 01.12.2011." This has been misinterpreted by many investors because this is confusing. Moreover, there are many people, even people who work in post office, who do not have a clear idea about this (like the newspaper advertisement). The reality is that any MIS that has matured or matures after 2011 will not get any bonus amount. In your case, since your scheme has matured in 2013, you will not get the bonus. There is also another change in post office MIS. The maturity period has been reduced to 5 years. Earlier, it was for 6 years.

I am investing in SIP of Rs 1,500 in ICICI Pru focussed bluchip fund and Rs 1,500 in ICICI Discovery Fund. I can further invest Rs 12,000 per month. I am 34-year-old and want to invest for 10 years. Which other funds shall I choose?

— Aman Arora

I would suggest you go for a combination of equity and balance funds. Equity mutual funds invest their major part in equities and hence they provide better return in the longer term. However, the value of equity mutual funds fluctuates widely in short term. As your time horizon is long, you will be able to build good corpus. Typically equity mutual funds provide a return of 12 per cent to 18 per cent CAGR over longer time. The other fund is balanced fund which invest a part in equity and a part in debt. Balanced funds, in general, provide a return of 8 per cent to 15 per cent. Few funds you can think of investing is Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity, HDFC top 200, HDFC Balanced fund, etc. You should see the performance of funds over last few years to decide on investment. Go for SIP for longer term (8-20) years. You can buy new funds and increase your SIP in blue chip fund from ICICI. Lumpsum amount can be invested in balanced fund or debt fund. Investing lumpsum amount in equity fund at this juncture will be little risky.

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