@eluid Everyone is different. If you have the discipline to invest the same proportion of your salary in equity or debt as per your risk appetite. Unfortunately, most people don't have the required discipline.
@eluid These people in the comments are ignoring the fact that every time you put money into NPS they cut tax. So already cut tax when you invest and lock it till retirement .
You will only get 60% of the total corpus when you retire and the rest of it will be taxed as you get monthly pensions.
The whole tax exemption thing is only after you pay tax during investment and pay tax during redemption of your pension.
ELSS mutual funds give much better returns and gives tax benefits. Even if you consider LTCG taxes you will have a bigger amount to withdraw when you retire
@forevereternal Why not invest the same money directly in MFs instead of in NPS? Talking about the employee contribution here. Doing it in MFs doesn't come in with the lock ins and restrictions that you have in Tier 1
@elliot44 Oh didn't know that not all employers offer this, I've only worked for large mnc and have seen the option to contribute to NPS. I can't understand why employer won't give the option, it's not like they have to shell out the contributions from their pocket.
@eluid EPF and PPF are still considered as very good investments. EPF is generally much more relaxed and the interest rate is always more than 8%. It is generally easy to withdraw (despite the bad news recently).
PPF is a bit more tight but it is an EEE investment. Despite the 15 years lock in, it is one of the best investments for a long term.
If you are interested in shorter duration based on your life, MFs are a good way provided you stay for atleast for 3 years.
@eluid Talk to your employer. If they have an option to invest in NPS (emplyer contribution with no obligation by employee to match it), then you must take it .
it will reduce your tax liability as well and your money will grow.
Just for a comparison, the XIRR for last FY in equity (70%) in NPS is over 20%. No other investment could have returned this much