THERE is a lot of disruption that is being witnessed in the investment world and this is the time that an individual should look towards ensuring that they are doing the right thing.

The choice should be made in such a manner that the end result does not come as a major surprise or disrupt the overall planning of the individual. In this sense, there are a couple of factors that need to be understood in the context of the recent crises that have been witnessed in the capital and commodity markets, and how one can go about tackling the overall situation.

Recent situation:

There is a situation where investors have been burning their fingers in a lot of areas. The overall turmoil in the global markets has ensured that the position is such that various asset classes are under strain. On one side, gold is no longer the safe haven that it used to be earlier, and on the other, even debt instruments have taken a knock in recent times as the Reserve Bank of India's efforts to stem the rupee slide has led to a negative impact on the debt market. The developments regarding the position in one of the commodity exchanges and the consequent pressure witnessed by several stocks across the board has meant that worries have arisen for the investors in several additional areas.

Fixed deposits:

Even when it comes to fixed deposits, the situation needs a bit of attention because of the fact that individuals can find themselves in a soup if they do not take the necessary amount of care. This happens due to the fact that there are now several entities that are offering high rates of returns for these kinds of deposits to attract investors. However, as far as the individual is concerned, it is important that they look only at the safety element first because this is significant from the point of the view of ensuring that the investment is safe and that it continues to earn over a period of time.

Different periods:

One of the factors that have been seen with various fixed deposits especially by institutions and housing finance institutions is that there is a wider element of choice that is now available as far as the investment options are concerned. This is in the form of deposits for different time periods as earlier the most common offerings were for one, two and three years. Now, however, there are some changes being witnessed as some institutions are going in for periods that are different from these ones and they are better options for the individual. This happens because they will be able to invest for intermediate time periods where there might not have been choices earlier but now there are so the individual is able to match their requirements with the choices in front of them.

Reducing risk:

The whole point of making any investments at this point of time for the individual should be that they are reducing the risk in their investments.

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