How Many Funds For a Diversified Portfolio? (2024)

How Many Funds For a Diversified Portfolio? (1)

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your investments. These words of wisdom are hammered into the minds of people looking to invest. While diversification is a crucial element and should be taken care off, most investors tend to go overboard and stuff their portfolio with a large number of funds

This can be counterproductive as a messy portfolio is difficult to track and manage.

So how many funds should you invest in to build a sufficiently diversified portfolio? Well, we read on to know all about it.

Let’s first talk about the number offunds

Yes. You should invest in more than one fund. While most mutual funds are inherently diversified, putting all your money in one fund means you are relying on the judgment and investing style of one person. This gives rise to fund manager risk, and this can work against you. That’s because even the best of fund managers can go wrong.

Now that we have established that your portfolio should have more than one fund let’s go to the next question.

How many funds areenough?

One thing you should always remember is that a lot of funds in your portfolio doesn’t mean you have a diversified portfolio. A portfolio with 15 funds that have overlapping is not diversified.

You should have no more than 4 funds in your portfolio. You don’t get any additional diversification if you invest in more funds.

That’s because most funds of a category invest in the same set of stocks, so buying more funds just means you are loading up on the same stocks via different funds

With the number of funds defined, we move to the next piece of the puzzle.

Should you pick these funds from the same category or different categories?

Well, it is ideal you pick fund from different categories. That’s because you will have exposure to different parts of the market and since stocks of different kind of companies tend to do well or do poorly at different times, your risk is reduced.

So, now that you know you need different categories, what those 4 categories to go for.

1. ELSS Fund -  This is the first fund any investor should buy. Not only it helps you save tax, but they are also multi caps funds under the hood. You can read more about why ELSS should be your first category.

2. Aggressive Hybrid Fund -  These funds were earlier called Balanced Fund. This fund category invests at least 25% in debt allowing you to have some exposure in another asset class.

3. Multi cap Fund -  These funds invest in companies of all sizes and across sectors. There go anywhere approach allows them to invest in the best ideas across the market and in the process build a diversified portfolio.

4. Large and Mid Cap Fund - This category of fund invests primarily in the top 200 companies in India. So you get a portfolio of leaders of today (large caps) and the potential leaders of tomorrow (mid caps).

Bottomline

A portfolio doesn’t need to have a lot of funds to be diversified. You just need to pick 3–4 categories and invest in one fund from each of those categories and you are done.

How Many Funds For a Diversified Portfolio? (2024)

FAQs

How Many Funds For a Diversified Portfolio? ›

A portfolio with 15 funds that have overlapping is not diversified. You should have no more than 4 funds in your portfolio. You don't get any additional diversification if you invest in more funds.

How many funds should be in a diversified portfolio? ›

You should therefore only keep as many funds in your portfolio as you're comfortable monitoring. For example, if you hold 10 or 20 different funds, you'll need to keep a close eye on the changing value of all these investments to make sure your asset allocation still matches your investment goals.

How many funds do I need in my portfolio? ›

Financial planners say it is difficult to put a cap on the number of schemes in an investor's portfolio, as investors increasingly use mutual funds to meet both long-term and short-term goals. However, they feel investors should restrict themselves to 10 schemes, as a higher number is difficult to monitor and manage.

How many funds make an ideal portfolio? ›

Unless you are very well versed with the markets and have expert knowledge about mutual funds, a good rule of thumb would be to own: Large Cap Mutual Funds: Up to 2. Maybe 3 at best. Beyond that, it doesn't make sense as there will be a great overlap in the shares owned by your mutual funds.

What is the 75 5 10 rule for diversified mutual funds? ›

Diversified management investment companies have assets that fall within the 75-5-10 rule. A 75-5-10 diversified management investment company will have 75% of its assets in other issuers and cash, no more than 5% of assets in any one company, and no more than 10% ownership of any company's outstanding voting stock.

What is considered a well diversified portfolio? ›

Diversification means owning a variety of assets that perform differently over time, but not too much of any one investment or type. In terms of stock investing, a diversified portfolio would contain 20-30 (or more) different stocks across many industries.

What is considered a good diversified portfolio? ›

Having a mixture of equities (stocks), fixed income investments (bonds), cash and cash equivalents, and real assets including property can help you maintain a well-balanced portfolio. Generally, it's wise to include at least two different asset classes if you want a diversified portfolio.

What is the minimum number of stocks for diversification? ›

What's the right number of companies to invest in, even if portfolio size doesn't matter? “Studies show there's statistical significance to the rule of thumb for 20 to 30 stocks to achieve meaningful diversification,” says Aleksandr Spencer, CFA® and chief investment officer at Bogart Wealth.

How many index funds should I have in my portfolio? ›

Experts agree that for most personal investors, a portfolio comprising 5 to 10 ETFs is perfect in terms of diversification.

Is S&P 500 diversified enough? ›

Is Investing in the S&P 500 Less Risky Than Buying a Single Stock? Generally, yes. The S&P 500 is considered well-diversified by sector, which means it includes stocks in all major areas, including technology and consumer discretionary—meaning declines in some sectors may be offset by gains in other sectors.

What is the best portfolio ratio? ›

Many financial advisors recommend a 60/40 asset allocation between stocks and fixed income to take advantage of growth while keeping up your defenses. Here's how 60/40 is supposed to work: In a good year on Wall Street, the 60% of your portfolio in stocks provides strong growth.

Is the 3 fund portfolio good enough? ›

The three-fund portfolio is a sound investing approach, and you can't go wrong with it. If you set up asset allocation appropriate for your age, a three-fund portfolio will most likely perform well. I say "most likely" because nothing is guaranteed with investing, but this strategy is one of the safer options.

What is a typical 3 fund portfolio? ›

A three-fund portfolio is a portfolio which uses only basic asset classes — usually a domestic stock "total market" index fund, an international stock "total market" index fund and a bond "total market" index fund.

What is 15 15 30 rule in mutual funds? ›

15 X 15 X 30 rule of mutual funds

If u do a 15,000 Rs. SIP per month for 30 years (instead of 15 years as earlier), at a 15% compounded annual return, You will be able to accumulate 10 CRORE against 1 crore if u invest for 15 years), said Balwant Jain.

What is the 80 20 rule in mutual funds? ›

By asset class: You can use the 80-20 rule to allocate your portfolio between different asset classes, such as equity, debt, gold, etc. For example, you can invest 80% in equity and 20% in debt, or 80% in debt and 20% in gold, depending on your risk-return profile.

What is the 15 15 15 rule for mutual funds? ›

What is the 15x15x15 rule in mutual funds? The mutual fund 15x15x15 rule simply put means invest INR 15000 every month for 15 years in a stock that can offer an interest rate of 15% on an annual basis, then your investment will amount to INR 1,00,26,601/- after 15 years.

What is the 25% diversification rule for mutual funds? ›

Let's start with the 25:1 and 50:5 rule, a sort of “bright line test” with two simple guidelines: One issuer cannot contribute more than 25% of the portfolio's fair market value. Five or fewer issuers cannot contribute more than 50% of its fair market value.

What is the rule of thumb for portfolio diversification? ›

First, set aside enough money in cash and income investments to handle emergencies and near-term goals. Next, use the following rule of thumb: Subtract your age from 100 and put the resulting percentage in stocks; the rest in bonds. In other words, if you're 20 years old, put 80% of your assets in stocks; 20% in bonds.

How much money do I need to invest to make $1000 a month? ›

Reinvest Your Payments

The truth is that most investors won't have the money to generate $1,000 per month in dividends; not at first, anyway. Even if you find a market-beating series of investments that average 3% annual yield, you would still need $400,000 in up-front capital to hit your targets. And that's okay.

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