How safe is it to contnue investing in Mutual Funds and ULIP plans at this point of time?

Hello.If you want to insure yourself and your family,it is a good option.But if you want to grow your money,then it is not a good idea as insurance is basically to insure yourself of money.This is the Era of Specialisation and insurance and growing money are two different fields and one should try to avoid both in one scheme(in case of ULIP).If you want to insure you and your family by taking life insurance,mediclaim policies,see to it that you consult a financial advisor and not just an insurance agent or anybody because every family is different and their insurance needs are different.Hope you understand this.
My advice for your long term investment would be these fund schemes.These funds are Equity linked and have delivered good returns when the market has gone up and sustained the bad periods of the market since its inception.Hence they are the proved ones.They are tax free for upto 1Lac rupees invested in them.Equity linked Mutual Fund earnings are Profit (or) Loss earnings and not interests (or) fixed income earnings as in case of Balanced (or) Debt Funds.Try to invest in 3-5 schemes if you can to diversify your portfolio.They are 1)SBI Magnum Global-G(Blue Chip),2)SBI Magnum Contra-G(Midcap),3)Franklin India Prima-G(BlueChip),4)Sundaram Select Midcap-G(Midcap),5)Reliance Vision-G(Midcap),6)HDFC TOP 200(BlueChip),7)HDFC Tax Saver,8)SBI Magnum Multiplier Plus-G(BlueChip),9)SBI Magnum Taxgain-G,10)HDFC Equity-G(LargeCap)
You may invest in any of these funds for your long term plan(above 5 years atleast) and you will surely get good returns.Remember invest 60% of your investments in Bluechip funds and 40% in midcap funds for a safer investment and minimised risk portfolio.Bluechip funds invest in companies which are large and the best and sometimes in Medium sized companies aswell.Midcap funds invest in medium sized companies only as they can fetch excellent returns on profiting.Also remember that do not trade mutual funds like shares by buying a scheme one day and selling it of next week.If you have already bought some schemes and if they are performing well,then dont sell them off until they start performing badly.Some people also think that if the NAV of a fund is high you should not invest.This is also wrong.Mutual funds are not shares that if the NAV is high it has reached its limit.Infact if the NAV of a fund is high it means that the funds past performance has been excellent and it has given good returns.So don't listen here and there.Invest carefree.Remember the power of Mutual Funds lies in giving it time and not in timing the market.It can covert your money into multiple folds the more time you give it with less risk as time goes on.Even then if you are worried about timing the market then dont invest all your money at once.Spread the money which is needed to be invested in 12 months and invest.Although Systematic Investment Planning(SIP) is a good option but I feel the previous idea is much better for persons who have money to invest right now.SIP can be taken by people who want to invest regularly from their monthly income and want it to make a habit of investing money regularly to reap benefits after longer time(10-20 years).Like this the timing effect will be minimised.Even if you want to time the market,invest when the market is on its lowest point.For investing in mutual funds one does not require a demat account but nowadays the agents are misguiding people to open a demat account before investing in funds for their own benefit of comission.PAN Card is required if you are investing in mutual fund.Most investors also have a doubt that whether to invest in dividend re-investment or growth option or dividend option of a scheme.Frankly speaking growth and dividend re-investment options are the same.In dividend re-investment you get an yearly dividend(profit) from the fund posted to your house and that amount is re-invested into the scheme again,and in the case of growth you dont get the dividend(profit) posted to your house and the profit automatically will be invested along with original amount into the fund.For God sake dont opt for just dividend option as it will send the profit to your address and that money will not add on to the original amount.This will be bad for your long term prospect.If you are thinking that you are too old to give your investment,think again.No time is too late.Just start investing from today and you will never regret time.My sole intention is to create awareness among the investors and make their investments a success.Hope you do well.