Top 10 Liquid Mutual Funds to Invest in 2018-2019 in India

Top 10 Liquid Mutual Funds to Invest in 2018-2019 in IndiaTop 10 Liquid Mutual Funds to Invest in 2018-2019 in India


Due to stock markets being volatile, some investors might be thinking of keeping some liquid cash so that one can take opportunity in investing in stock markets during correction. Some investors want to park money for short term like paying down payment for Car or Home. Here comes the Liquid Mutual Funds. If you want to invest lumpsum for short term of 1 week to 1 year, you can invest in some of the top and best liquid mutual funds in India in 2018-2019. Best liquid funds provide high returns compared to bank FD’s in the short term.  You can get as high as 4% returns for 6 months and 6% to 8% returns for 1 year. What are liquid mutual funds? How liquid funds are best compared to other fixed investment options available in the market? Which are the top 10 best liquid mutual funds to invest now in 2018-2019 for a short term period?  Earlier, I have written about Top 5 Liquid Funds and now I have enhanced this to top 10 liquid funds.

Also Read: Best Mutual Funds to invest in largecap Segment

What are Liquid Mutual Funds in India?


Liquid mutual funds are debt funds which invests in short term investment options. Liquid mutual funds invest in debt options, money market instruments, treasury bills, government securities which matures before the 90 day period.

Benefits of investing in liquid mutual funds


1) Liquid mutual funds invests in fixed income options or debt category which are relatively less risky.

2) These liquid funds have no lock in period. Means you can redeem them anytime.

3) You can withdraw liquid funds anytime within 24 hours on a business working day. If you redeem them before 2 pm on a business day, your funds would get credited to your bank account before 10 am on subsequent days. Means, literally you can withdraw in less than 24 hours.

4) Liquid fund aim is to provide liquidity anytime, hence there is no entry load or exit load. Some of the AMCs are offering liquidity of liquid mutual funds within minutes which may soon offered by all AMCs too. Sebi has capped this limit to Rs 50,000 a day or 90% of your folio’s value, whichever is lower.

5) Liquid funds provide good returns. Some of the funds provided 4% returns for 6 month period and 8% for 1 year period.

How to choose a Best Liquid Mutual Funds?


Most of the liquid funds adopt similar objective of investing in short term fixed investment options. However, one can follow these tips in choosing a best liquid fund.

1) Select funds that gave the highest returns in last 1 week to 1 year period.

2) Select fund that has highest fund size. Means large institutions already analyzed and investing in these funds to get higher returns.

3) Funds that have good credit quality of underlying assets.

What are various options available in Liquid Mutual Funds?


Liquid fund has options to invest in growth option, daily dividend plan, weekly dividend plan and monthly dividend plan. These are available in direct plan as well as regular plans. Direct plans have low expense ratios and provide high returns compared to regular plans.

What about Taxation of Liquid Funds?


Here is how Liquid Mutual Funds are taxed.

#1 – Dividends received through liquid funds are exempted in the hands of investors. However, mutual fund house would pay dividend distribution tax before making any dividend payment to mutual fund investors.

#2 – If you redeem liquid funds in a growth option within 3 years, returns are short term capital gains and taxed as per your individual tax slab. Beyond 3 years, they are long term capital gains and taxed at 10% without indexation and 20% with indexation benefit.

How Liquid fund score high compared to Bank FD or Bank SB Account?


Let us understand how liquid funds score high when compared to Bank SB or FD account.

1) Score high in returns: Liquid funds provide returns between 6% to 7% per annum, whereas the interest on bank Savings Bank account are ranging between 4% to 6%. Even bank FD’s for short term of 3-6 months are below 5% per annum. E.g. if you want to invest for just 3 months for Rs 10 Lakhs, some of the top liquid funds can give you Rs 18,000 (upto 1.8%). Where as banks can provide you Rs 15,000 (upto 1.5% returns).

2) Post tax returns: Since liquid funds offers higher returns compared to bank FDs, post tax returns are also high. Continuing above example, if one falls under 20% tax bracket, post tax returns would be Rs 14,400 from liquid funds and Rs 12,000 from bank FDs.

Does the NAV of liquid mutual fund go down?


The answer is NO. As per rules laid down by the SEBI, capital market regulator, if a security matures in under 60 days, it need not be marked to market. Means the interest component needs to be added. In other words, whatever interest your debt fund earns through the tenure of a security in which the fund invested, it will divide the total interest component equally for the number of days it holds the security. The security’s price remains steady. Hence, your liquid fund’s NAV movement is positive and would always go up.

Top 10 Liquid Mutual Funds to Invest in 2018-2019 in India


These top 10 mutual funds have been arrived based on below parameters.

1) Top 10 funds picked based on highest returns received in the last 1 week to 1 year period.

2) Funds that are rated by Crisil as a rank-1 to Rank-4 which specifies good fundamentals for these top 10 mutual funds.

3) These are best liquid funds as per value research where it has 5 star, 4 Star and 3 Star ratings.

4) AUM (Assets under management) > 1000 Crores. This provides investor confidence among these top 10 mutual funds.

Also Read: Best High Risk High Return Mutual Funds for 2018

Here is the list of Top 10 Liquid Funds with returns for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year period


List of Top 10 Best Liquid Mutual Funds to invest in 2018-2019 in India

Conclusion: Liquid mutual funds are good for short term investments. Understanding how liquid mutual fund works would help you to take an investment decision of investing in them for 1 week to 1 year period. Instead of just parking your money in a Bank SB account for any short period, invest your hard earned money in liquid funds to get higher returns. Consider investing in these Best Liquid Funds for 2018.

Happy Investing in Liquid Funds in 2018!!!

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Suresh

Top 10 Liquid Mutual Funds to Invest in 2018-2019 in India

Suresh KP

33 comments

  1. HI Suresh,

    Firstly I do admire your blogs, for a not so finance person these are simple and help me take a lot of decisions.

    Regarding liquid funds, seeing the tax liability, would you advice going for devident option, what is the difference between returns. I do fall in the 30% tax bracket. I want to use this fund to park extra amount which I can later consolidate for a bigger investment or purchase. Pls advice

    RD

     

    1. Hi Rakhi, Thanks for your comments. Regd your query, no point in opting for dividend option. The objective is to park your money in short term option so that you can use it to buy or put it in bigger investmnet. You can opt for growth option.

  2. Sir,

    Can i do SIP in liquid funds. What would be a better mode of investment for these funds, SIP or Lump sum. If SIP is possible, keeping in view my limit of 1000/month, any funds which you would want to suggest me?

    Thanks!
    Suhail

    1. Hi Suhail, Liquid funds are best for lumpsum investmnet where you are parking funds for short term. Why you want to do SIP in liquid funds. If your goal is capital appreciation, invest in equity mutual funds.

      1. Thanks Sir.

        Actually, i am investing 2500/month in 2 ELSS. Wanted to park some extra money in liquid funds on monthly basis, which can offer better liquidity than ELSS and more returns than normal savings account.

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