Some of the best time proven ways to invest smarter in mutual funds.

Mutual Funds are one of the best ways to invest, especially for people who are not from the insides of the financial world. Mutual Funds have given excellent returns over the long term to millions of people – provided these people invested in the right type of mutual fund.
Selecting the right mutual fund is extremely important for long term success. Here are some of the best time proven ways to invest smarter in mutual funds.

Invest in fund with a track record
It is your hard earned money and you have to take some efforts to ascertain if you are investing in the right scheme. Go with a fund house you trust. Fund house should have investment processes in place than just some star names to manage money.

Markets can go up and down, but if there is trust you can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that the people at your mutual fund are working in your best interest.

Though investment processes are important, fund managers do count. Keep a track of their performance. If the fund manager managing your money quits his job, put your fund on watch at least for some quarters. Generally fund houses with sound processes ensure that such transitions are smooth.

Do check if the scheme in which you want to invest has been a consistent performer. The scheme may have some short periods of under performance, but in the long term especially in three, five, ten years time frame it must do well as compared to the scheme's benchmark as well as scheme's category.

Take unbiased advice
Make sure you get advice from people who are neutral and have your best interest in mind when it comes to investing. Sometimes a few advisers might be tempted to offer you products that give them the highest commissions, even though the product is not the best for you. Find out the commissions they are getting, ask them to share this information with you in writing to be sure the advice you get is totally neutral and unbiased.

Better still is to be willing to pay your adviser a decent fee so that they work in your best long term interest. Great advice should always be rewarded.

I know people who invested huge amounts of money and ended up losing large sums, because of biased advice. Learn from such things and stay alert.

Invest regularly
Once you have selected a couple of good mutual funds and divided part of your money with a few fund types, make sure you invest regularly. It is great to get a SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) in place. This will ensure a part of your monthly earnings, automatically get invested.

A lot of people need this to ensure a sense of discipline and make sure regular savings and investments do happen. If they don't have this, they end up spending lots of money on things they don't really need.

Never sell in a panic
Once you have a systematic investment plan in place, stop paying too much attention to the ups and downs of the market. Simply focus on following your plan. This way you will not suddenly sell because you feel the stock market is falling. Instead, every time the stock market falls – continue investing as per your plan. This way you get lower prices.

Don't invest all your money in equity mutual funds
Equity mutual funds are a great way to add a little aggressiveness to your investments, but do have risks. They can go up substantially, but they can also come down. Make sure you don't invest all your money in mutual funds and have other savings, fixed deposits and assets too.

This way, no matter how your mutual funds are doing in the short term, you can be at peace.

Make sure you continue investing in knowledge, as it is the best investment you will ever make!

Keep smiling and happy investing!

Yogesh Chabria is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and educator.