1.) What according to you is a better investment option shares/ mutual funds/ or fixed deposits?

For many people mutual funds are the best option but not for all. If you are the sort of person who does not wish to spend at least several hours a week doing research, then mutual funds are the ticket. But at least 70% of mutual funds do not perform as well as the market in general, so one must be very choosy about which mutual funds one is willing to invest in.

There are some people for whom the stock market is not a suitable investment option. For them fixed deposits are the best option. These are the type of people who will loose sleep at night when the stock market drops 20%.

It is my personal opinion and not necessarily correct that for people who are willing to invest the time, purchasing stocks directly is the best option. There are several reasons for this. One is that mutual funds have to invest billions of dollars. Their options are limited. Secondly, they have high expenses. Thirdly, they tend to churn their holdings which causes capital gains reporting and tax consequences for the investor. But even for those people there are mutual funds that can do a better job than the individual. Those are the funds that invest in small cap stocks and foreign stocks for example. Their resources in those areas are much better than an individual's.

I like mutual funds/ especially taxfree ones

Good Luck and God Bless!!

What do you want?

No risk, low return? Go with fixed deposits with a reputable bank.

Or have a mix.

Set up a goal first, and then plan to get to the goal. If you don't know where you are going, how are you going to know when you get there?

Mutual Funds.

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If your risk taking capacity is not very high then you should invest in mutual funds.
If you can have good knowledge of how stock market works and can take considerable amount of risk then only you should invest in share market.

My order of preference would be
1) Mutual Funds.
2) Share Market.
3) Fixed Deposit.

Mutual funds