Widely read:
Adobe Stock
Summary: Abhijeet is investing Rs 12,500 a month into Sukanya Samriddhi and Rs 15,000 into equity for goals that are 17 to 26 years away. That sounds balanced. It isn't, and the shortfall at the last milestone runs to nearly a crore.
Abhijeet Prabhakar is 32. His daughter Ananya turned one a few months ago. He wants to fund three milestones for her: an undergraduate degree at the age of 18, a postgraduate degree at 22 and a wedding around 27.
He already puts the full Rs 1.5 lakh a year into Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), a government-backed savings scheme specifically for girl children, and has another Rs 15,000 a month to invest in mutual funds. His question: how should this be invested so no milestone catches him short? And is there any benefit to investing in Ananya’s name rather than his own?
The second question has a short answer. The first one requires a reframe.
The problem most parents miss
Abhijeet is making a mistake that most parents make without realising it. And that is treating the SSY contribution and the mutual fund SIP as two separate decisions when they are really one.
His Rs 1.5 lakh annual SSY contribution works out to Rs 12,500 a month into a pure debt instrument. The Rs 15,000 SIP goes into equity. Together, that is an effective 55:45 equity-to-debt split for goals that are 17 to 26 years away.
For a horizon this long, that mix is too conservative. The corpus will fall short of the larger milestones, the wedding especially, where the gap could run into a crore or more in tomorrow’s rupees.
The fix is conceptual before it is mechanical. SSY and the equity SIP together form a single portfolio with one mission: funding Ananya’s life. SSY is the debt sleeve. Mutual funds are the equity sleeve. The right question is what proportion to hold them in. And at 17 to 26 years, that proportion should be tilted heavily toward equity.
Once you frame it this way, most child planning questions answer themselves. Fund selection, tax efficiency, these become secondary. The first decision is asset allocation. Get that right and the rest settles.
What these goals will actually cost
Before deciding the mix, the targets need to be clear.
Education in India is inflating at around 8 per cent a year, well above headline inflation. A wedding can be tracked closer to a normal inflation rate of 6 per cent. Abhijeet’s three milestones, priced in tomorrow’s rupees, are significantly larger than they look today.
The corpus does not need to hold all three numbers at once. Each milestone draws down a portion while the rest keeps compounding.
The right portfolio for Ananya
The right shift for Abhijeet is to cap his SSY contribution at Rs 75,000 a year, half the current amount, and redirect the freed Rs 6,250 a month into his equity SIP, taking it from Rs 15,000 to Rs 21,250. The new split sits at roughly 77 per cent equity and 23 per cent debt.
For the equity portion, a flexi-cap or multi-cap fund is the right core holding. Both allow the fund manager to invest across large, mid and small-sized companies, which suits a long horizon well. Mid- and small-cap exposure generates higher long-term growth potential; the large-cap portion provides relative stability during downturns.
If Abhijeet still claims deductions under the old tax regime, an ELSS fund can replace the redirected Rs 6,250 each month, since it carries the same 80C tax benefit the SSY contribution did.
A 7 per cent annual step-up on the SIP, roughly in line with a modest annual salary increase, keeps contributions rising with income without requiring a conscious decision each year.
The inflation rate for undergrad and postgrad is considered to be 8 per cent per annum, while the wedding goal is considered to be 6 per cent p.a. The rate of return for equity is considered to be 12 per cent p.a., and for SSY, 8.2 per cent p.a.
Simulating the outcomes with the revised plan in a similar environment, 12 per cent annual growth in equity mutual funds and 8.2 per cent in SSY, all three milestones are funded, with a Rs 40 lakh cushion at the wedding.
The default 55:45 plan funds the first two but falls Rs 1 crore short at the last one. The allocation was the only thing that changed.
Two things worth knowing
The last mile. Equity builds the corpus. It is also the wrong place to hold money two years before you need it. Begin moving the goal-specific portion into a short-duration debt fund 24 to 36 months before each milestone. Shift the undergraduate corpus when Ananya turns 15, the postgraduate corpus at 19 and the wedding corpus at 24. Many otherwise sound plans come apart at exactly this stage.
Investing in Ananya’s name. Section 64(1A) of the Income Tax Act treats income earned in a minor’s name as the parent’s income until the child turns 18, which neutralises the supposed tax saving entirely. There is also operational friction: a minor PAN, mandatory folio conversion at 18 and parent-as-guardian on every transaction. None of this is worth the effort. Hold the mutual funds in your own name, earmark the corpus on a tracking sheet for Ananya’s goals and transfer the units to her name when she turns 18 via MF Central or the CAMS portal. SSY is the genuine exception. It is, by design, a beneficiary account in the child’s name.
The cost of growing up is high and rising. The answer is not a special child plan or a bundled insurance product. It is the right allocation, held for long enough, with a clear plan for the last few years before each milestone arrives.
That is it. Everything else is noise.
Also read: Process before performance
This article was originally published on May 20, 2026.
Disclaimer: This content is for information only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation.
For grievances: [email protected]
Ask Value Research 
New episodes every Friday 
New Process Alert 
Seems like you've uploaded a wrong QR code. Please upload the QR code downloaded from MF Central platform.
