Radhika Gupta, the Managing Director of Edelweiss Mutual Fund, has addressed common misconceptions surrounding investments for minors. On X, she clarified three key points that can be particularly beneficial for new parents and investors.
“1. You can get a PAN for a minor as soon as they are born. You need a birth certificate and Aadhar first,” she shared X. “2. You can open a bank account for a minor. You can invest for a minor in their name in an AMC in regular funds (not just children’s funds). For Edelweiss Mutual Funds, we allow you to manage existing minor folios online and will shortly enable new folio creation too. Till then, (it) can be done offline.”
Gupta advocates for early investment, emphasizing the importance of starting young. She personally began investing in equities for her son when he was just six months old, contrasting with her own start at 24 years old. Her father, on the other hand, commenced building his portfolio when he was over 40 years old.
“Age at which each generation started investing in equities: Dad: 40+ years. Me: 24 years. Son: 6 months,” Gupta tweeted. “Financial freedom is about starting earlier and earlier!” she had earlier said.
Recently, Gupta mentioned that buying a house is often influenced more by emotional factors than by investment strategy. She pointed out that many investors make the decision to buy homes primarily for the emotional satisfaction they offer, rather than purely for financial gain.
“If investing was logical, very few of us would buy a home because the rental yield math never justifies it! But it isn’t … and many of us, including professional asset managers like me, buy homes,” she wrote on X. “Emotional value is hard to argue with and finally you can’t live in an NAV (net asset value) and do up a folio to your liking.”
