Mutual funds invest in stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other assets and these funds are operated through professional money managers, who allocate the assets in various options and try to achieve capital gains or create tangible returns for investors. If you want to invest in mutual funds, and want to earn, you need to follow a certain formula. 

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To give you concrete advice, financial expert Dipesh Raghav of personalfinance.in suggests that first of all, investors should keep patience and discipline while going ahead with their financial planning. This is being advised because most of us are tempted to sell witnessing ups and downs in the market, rather, he suggests that unless there is a major change in fundamentals of the fund, you should remain grounded with that investment. On Zee Business TV, Raghav provides 5 money mantras investors can follow: 

1. Don't get perturbed or panicky after witnessing ups and downs in the market because it's a common trend and you should not change your strategy due to such factors. If you keep on changing your plans on the basis of the performance of your investment every 3 to 6 months, you will book losses. To remain in equity market, always strategise for the long term. 

He added that investors should also have faith in the advice of their fund manager. And they should ignore volatility even if his strategy is unsuccessful in the short term. Your goal will be achieved only when you take a time period of at least 8-to-10 years. 

2. If your are investing in equity markets, don't forget to review your portfolio after certain time period. You should do it on your own, but if you can, you should take advice from a financial expert. 

3. For short term expenditure, you should maintain an emergency fund through investment in Fixed Deposit or similar fund, but you must avoid equity investment for any short term goal.

4. It has been witnessed that some people in their long-term investment try to wait till end of the period of their investment despite reaching their goal. Dipesh Raghav, however, suggests that you should start shifting your money from equity to debt funds a few years ahead of the goal, you can do it on yearly basis at the rate of 20%. But don't leave it for the last year because your goal may fall flat if there is any volatility in the market. Therefore, you should do it through STP or Systematic transfer plan to achieve your set target.

5. Since most of us keep on investing and don't review our investment, Dipesh Raghav advises that this can be done on yearly basis. You should review and analyse you portfolio and then decide about short-term debt plan or long-term equity invest according to your risk appetite.