Guide me to start investing

You can go through zerodha varsity . I started my investment journey by reading this.

Link : https://zerodha.com/varsity/

If you’re a beginner and don’t have time to spend in market, start investing in mutual funds. You can use ET money (I’m using since 5-6 years) or Groww app

Like everyone suggested here (rightfully), start with mutual funds. I personally use the Groww app as I like its feel, but Zerodha is also great (I use it for stocks). However, I would advise against stock investment at this stage because it is very volatile, and it’s better to learn it first.

You must pay attention to these points:

1. There are two types of MFs – Regular & Direct.
2. Regular have commissions, and Direct do not (I personally prefer Direct).
3. Direct ones require a bit of analysis.
4. Pay attention to the expense ratio, exit load & understand taxes.
5. To explain: if there are two MFs that provide similar returns, I would choose the one with a lower expense ratio & exit load.
6. Short term is less than one year, and long term is more than one year.
7. Short-term tax is 20%, & long-term is 12.5%.

I hope this helps.

Start investing in something simple that doesn't take up too much of your time. In the early stages of your career, the most time you need to invest is in upskilling yourself. A 50-70% hike in two years will beat all kinds of investment ROI. The first five to seven years should be for earning and saving on something simple, then, you can start to dive deeper into investing.

Figure out goals - short term and long term - having a time frame for each goal helps in figuring out the mode of saving for that goal. Short term goals should be saved for through recurring deposits or fixed deposit or other non-market linked means. Long term goals you can save in equity instruments like mutual funds. As the goal comes near you need to start moving money from equity to non-market linked investments like liquid funds or fixed deposits.

First goal should be to have an emergency fund for 3-6 month of expenses including investments

The second goal should be to get life and health insurance for self and family.

Then after the above you should go for other things like house,bike, car etc. if you are new to saving them I highly recommend recurring deposits to get into the habit. If you want to get into the market then invest in mutual funds particularly index funds like nifty 50 or nifty 200. You can do this through a mfcentral app or any other app such as paytm money. Once you have done this for an year or so then you can explore actively managed funds or sector themed funds (risky stuff) or investing through purchasing stocks.

I am an amateur and not a certified financial advisor so please be careful before following any advice that you find on random internet forums.

Your age? Married? Kids? And rough income in bank? And major expenses or outflows?

Please be cautious while investing through banking apps for the mutual funds as most of the funds they sell are regular funds. Only invest in direct mutual funds through ET money, Groww, Coin app. You can also park some money for emergency and medical needs. Buy a good term and medical insurance.

You don't need demat to invest in mutual funds and stock investment need a lot of study and research. So start slow and be in the game.

Start with Mutual Funds you will need to open Demat account, you can choose between Zerodha(COIN) and Groww

Groww & Zerodha both don't charge anything specifically for mutual funds.

Groww's demat account charges are completely zero but Zerodha takes around 300/year.

If you are planning to invest in mutual funds only, there are absolutely no other charges on those platforms. (So, Groww is completely free for MF investors)

However, I prefer Zerodha because For Zerodha, stock delivery is free. But Groww charges 0.005% or max 20.

Videos from Honestly by Tanmay Bhat are good for newbies

If you are a working professional, invest in up skilling yourself. You’ll not get better returns anywhere else.