The worst investment tend to happen in the month of February and March for saving tax and I realized I have been preaching the same on my blog.
I normally tend to invest for ELSS tax saving options in the last quarter of the fiscal but when I shared my My Top 3 ELSS Funds in February 2014, I was not comfortable investing in ELSS fund then because market was quite high and I was expecting a fall soon but that did not happen and as ELSS investment comes with a lockin period of 3 years, I was not comfortable investing then and so finally had to let go the tax saving option in the last fiscal. In July now I realize that I need to be paying lot more tax. 🙁
In October to December 2013, I got lot of questions from my readers asking me as to when I will be doing the tax saving suggestion for the year but then my response was the analysis will be done in the last quarter of the fiscal. I delayed the analysis because I tend to share only when I analyze options for my own investment and don’t think it is fair to be sharing anything that I personally don’t invest into.
How I Realized
When analyzing the portfolios of my consulting service subscribers I found that the worst investment tend to happen in the month of February and March for saving tax. When discussing with them I realized that I have been preaching the same on my blog.
When it is as late as February or March for saving tax, not everyone will be comfortable investing for various reasons including not keeping money aside for investment or market not favorable and the list continues. In a rush to save tax many invests in areas where they should not be investing or invest only as much as they can with the last source of available funds. as not everyone will be able to let go the tax saving investments option and pay the tax.
I was speechless and had no answer for it.
Sincere Apologies
I would like to say sorry from the bottom of my heart to all my blog readers for what I have been doing unknowingly. There can be lot of reasons given for doing the same but then I think it would be just justifying the reason for being wrong and so let me not do that.
Image Credit: Patrick
Will suggest you to focus on on saving tax from the very start and for some reason you are not able to do it, start as soon as you can because if you take the risk of waiting, you may end up in my situation of not able to save tax or then invest in areas where you should not be investing.
Finally
I will also make sure I invest in the tax saving options ASAP (Preferably in August) and will share where I have invested into with all the details.
What are your Worst Investments?
Just go through all your investments and see what are your worst investments when you invested into them. Most of the time it will be the tax saving investment in the month of February and March. Share your worst investments in comments so others can learn the worst tax saving investment option and can prevent investing into.
Remember its better to be saving tax early than to be waiting for the last moment and then buying those crap products.
vinay says
Hi Shabbir,
I am AMFI certified MF advisor. I invest in ICICI pru tax plan
(growth option) through SIPs starting from April of each year. I got very good returns (46% annualised returns). I suggested the same SIP to my clients and they too are very happy with the returns.
I believe SIP is the best way to invest for long term instead of trying to time the market.
Shabbir Bhimani says
Hi Vinay, Yes I completely agree with you on SIP but I have not been doing SIP for ELSS because it comes with lockin period.
vinay says
Hi Shabbir,
I am AMFI certified MF advisor. I invest in ICICI pru tax plan
(growth option) through SIPs starting from April of each year. I got very good returns (46% annualised returns). I suggested the same SIP to my clients and they too are very happy with the returns.
I believe SIP is the best way to invest for long term instead of trying to time the market.
Shabbir Bhimani says
Hi Vinay, Yes I completely agree with you on SIP but I have not been doing SIP for ELSS because it comes with lockin period.