Slow and steady tends to win most races, even the financial ones. And Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) are a testament to that. When you follow an SIP, you invest small amounts regularly in an investment product of your choice over a certain period in order to meet your financial goals.
This approach has several benefits that make investing easy, accessible, and effective for many types of investors. But before we dive into these benefits, let’s take a look at how SIPs have changed the investing landscape in India.
History and growth of SIPs in India
The concept of an SIP was formally introduced to India in 1993 by the mutual fund industry. As a result, to this day, SIPs are often synonymous with mutual fund investments. Over the years, due to investor education and awareness, the adoption of mutual fund investments through SIPs has grown rapidly. As of June 2023, there were about 6.65 crore SIP accounts in the Indian mutual fund industry, while the amount collected through SIPs in that month was ₹14,743 crore, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
However, while SIPs first became popular in the context of mutual funds, they are now a popular mode of investing for various types of investment products, such as stocks, bonds, gold, etc. That’s because the way SIPs work turns out to be advantageous across securities. Let’s look at why that is so.
Why you should consider investing in SIPs
Here are the main benefits of SIPs, and the reasons why you should consider using them when making your next investment:
- Requires a low capital commitment
You can begin an SIP with as little as ₹100 a month. This is quite different from the way certain other kinds of investing work, where one may require a significant lump-sum amount of capital to invest.
Hence, it does not much matter what your financial position is right now. Even if you have only just started working and are yet to save much, or are paying off a loan, you can still get started with an SIP. SIPs do not require you to dramatically change your budget. You can simply skip one of your weekly cups of coffee at the local café or cancel an OTT subscription. Use that money to start an SIP in an investment product of your choice right away.
- Timing the market is unnecessary
Another benefit of SIPs is that they do not require you to constantly monitor and try to time the market. This is a big plus for both new investors, who are yet to understand how the markets work, and experienced investors, who are likely to be short on time. And the reason SIPs do away with the need to time the market is that they embody an investment strategy called rupee cost averaging.
SIPs invest a predetermined amount at regular intervals in your chosen security, irrespective of what the prevailing market price is. This reduces the impact of poorly timed market entries, and lowers the overall cost of a given investment compared to what it would have been if you had invested a lump sum during a relative market high.
- Compounding returns help accumulate wealth
Through the power of compounding, SIPs can help you accumulate a significant amount of wealth over the long term. Compounding is a process that earns you returns not only on your initial investment but also on the accumulated returns from previous periods. In other words, for every successive period, you get returns on a higher initial amount.
This results in a snowball effect over time, leading to exponential growth. The longer you continue your SIP, the more is the power of compounding. Think of it as capitalising on the passage of time to make your money earn you more money.
Say you begin a monthly SIP of ₹5,000 in an equity mutual fund with an expected rate of return of 12%. Let’s look at this example with three different investment horizons — 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years.
| Investment horizon | Total invested amount | Estimated returns | Investment value |
| 10 years | ₹6,00,000 | ₹5,61,695 | ₹11,61,695 |
| 15 years | ₹9,00,000 | ₹16,22,880 | ₹25,22,880 |
| 20 years | ₹12,00,000 | ₹37,95,740 | ₹49,95,740 |
In the third scenario where the investment horizon is 20 years, the total invested amount is only ₹6 lakh more than the first scenario of 10 years. However, the difference between the estimated returns is massive — more than ₹32 lakh!
- Facilitates goal-based investing
You’re likely to have short-term, medium-term, and long-term financial goals. These different investment horizons require different securities, with distinct risk-return profiles. The flexibility that SIPs enable makes them a great tool for goal-based investing, as SIPs can be implemented with a wide range of securities.
The nature of SIPs also helps inculcate a certain level of discipline that is required to meet goals in the desired timeline. Since you can set the SIP amount to be auto-debited from your bank account in line with a predetermined schedule, having an ongoing SIP can help you avoid impulse purchases and stay on track with your investments.
- Makes various asset classes accessible
We’ve already seen above that whether you want to invest in stocks, bonds, gold, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or real estate, SIPs allow you to do so easily with minimal capital.
Hence, by leveraging SIPs, you can build a well-diversified investment portfolio that aligns with your risk appetite and financial goals. This will allow you to get good returns and minimise losses by effectively spreading your investments’ risks more uniformly across your portfolio.
The best way to invest in SIPs
The best way to invest in SIPs is through a platform that offers you easy and low-cost access to a wide range of securities. And Appreciate does exactly that! Through Appreciate, you can set different goals — buying a car, saving for a down payment, going on a vacation, and more — and then tailor SIPs to those goals.
With access to the US markets, AI-based investment recommendations, and investing guides and insights, you can meet your financial goals in the desired timeframe. Download the app today!
