Best mutual funds to build corpus for son’s education, marriage

I am 34 years old. I am planning to invest Rs 5,000 per month in mutual funds. My goal is to create a corpus for my son’s education and marriage. My risk profile is low. Where should I invest?
--Rajesh Gnanasekaran

Pankaj Maalde, certified financial planner, responds:

Equity investment is not suitable for investors with low risk profile. Traditional low-risk products will not give you more than seven to eight per cent returns. Public provident fund (PPF) account may be ideal for you. It will give you around seven to eight per cent tax-free returns. If you want double-digit returns, you should be willing to take moderate risk. This is assuming that you have an investment horizon of at least 10 years.

You may consider investing Rs 2,500 per month via SIPs in two aggressive hybrid mutual funds such as SBI Equity Hybrid Fund and ICICI Prudential Equity & Debt Fund. These schemes might give negative returns in the short-term since the market is currently volatile. However, they will give you good returns if you hold the investments for a long period.