Real Estate Investment

Real estate is a booming industry in India. It has huge prospects in all the major sectors like housing, commercial, manufacturing, hospitality, retail etc. As an individual investor, buying a flat or a plot could be the best decision for your investment portfolio.

Real Estate is termed as the "money making industry" in the country. Real estate investments in India guarantee a return of 30% to 100% annually. But to avail that benefit, one has to do a proper research and then buy some property in such places where prices could go up to some significant level in next 5-10 years horizon.

Investing in Gold in various ways

Gold is an evergreen investment product, as the liquidity is always there. One can invest in gold anytime in any format like Gold deposit scheme, Gold ETF, Gold bar, Gold mutual fund etc. In long term of more than 10-15 years point of view the return will be definitely good.

In case of the Gold deposit scheme introduced in budget 2015, the investor can deposit/ invest minimum of 200 gm gold in exchange for gold bonds. The bond will hold a tariff free interest rate of 3% – 4% with a lock in period of 3 to 7 years.

Gold bonds are not entitled to any kind of capital gains of tax and wealth tariff. According to the investor's preference, the insured amount can be accrued back in terms of cash or gold.

Post Office Savings Schemes (POSS)

Post Office Savings Schemes are popular for their higher return. The monthly income plan of POSS is mostly suitable for retired individuals or people with regular income needs.

Being a govt. savings scheme, it has very low risk. Also there is no TDS in a POSS.

Post Office offers various schemes such as National Savings Certificates (NSC), National Savings Scheme (NSS), Kisan Vikas Patra, Monthly Income Scheme and Recurring Deposit Scheme.

Among them, NSC for 10 years is a good post office investment option with a guaranteed return amount. In case you don't want to take risk and the investment period is of 10 years, then NSC can provide a decent return on investment.

Company Fixed Deposits

Company FDs are preferred over bank FDs for their higher interest rates. Corporate FDs are instruments used by companies to borrow money from small investors. You need to select the investment period carefully as the money cannot be withdrawn before maturity.

Unlike bank FDs, The corporate fixed deposit schemes are not covered under any Insurance benefit. These instruments are not governed by the Reserve Bank of India. So Company FDs are mostly suitable for those long term investors who can bear some amount of risk.

Invest in attractive IPOs

Initial Public Offerings or IPOs are often presented as "Once in a Lifetime" opportunities as they happen only once for every company. IPOs are very attractive, if launched by a reputed company.

IPOs are little different from the average stocks as they have many unique risks associated with them. The uncertainties associated with IPOs are mainly because of the lack of available information. To make a wise investment decision, try to learn as much as you can about the company.

Generally most companies want long-term investors who will hold their stock. In such a case one can put some money for a longer period of time and get benefited.

Buy any ULIP plan for a long term

Unit linked insurance plans or ULIPs invest in equities and debt markets. The ups and downs are captured by the net asset value (NAV). Although ULIPs are not recommended product due to the various charges, but if you are investing for a long period of time then ULIP can also give a decent return of 7-8% on investments.