National Girl Child Day 2024: Is equity mutual fund better than Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) for your daughter?

National Girl Child Day 2024: There is a wide range of investment products available for the girl child in India. These investment options help parents or guardians build a substantial corpus for the girl child's future needs. Choosing the right investment to secure your child's later years might be challenging. According to personal finance experts, the selection between Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) and equity mutual funds (MFs) has sparked significant controversy.

Sukanya Samridhi Yojana (SSY) vs equity mutual funds

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) is a fixed income product, while, mutual funds are tools for capital appreciation. Investments made in the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana fund would be locked in till your daughter reaches the age of 21 years, while mutual funds are liquid instruments.

According to Agam Gupta, Executive Director, Share India FinCap, while past returns favor equities, SSY's assurances bring peace of mind. 

He said that ultimately, portfolios call for balance, not dogmatic adherence to one asset. 

“Allot a smaller portion, say 30%, towards leading equity funds focused on high-growth sectors your daughter's generation will ride - technology, healthcare, consumer brands,” said Agam Gupta.

Trick to deliver inflation-beating corpus

Blending SSY's reliability with equity funds' impressive track record can potentially deliver inflation-beating corpus targeted for key milestones - higher education, weddings, and housing down payment, suggested Gupta

National Girl Child Day 2024

National Girl Child Day is celebrated in the country on January 24 every year to provide support and opportunities to the girls of India. It aims to promote awareness about the rights of the girl child and to increase awareness on the importance of girl education, and their health and nutrition, and also to promote the girls' position in society to make their living better.

Sukanya Samriddhi account interest rate

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) currently offers an interest rate of 8.2 per cent. However, this SSY interest rate is changeable every quarter.

Equity Mutual funds returns

Equity mutual funds have shown impressive returns, such as Nippon India Value Fund at 42.38%, Aditya Birla Sun Life Pure Value Fund at 43.02%,  Axis Value Fund at 40.16%, and SBI Long Term Equity Fund at 40%, as per AMFI data for 1-year return ending Dec 29, 2023.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.