Emergency Shield
Money you may need at short notice, kept where it can be reached in a day or two.
Summary
The Emergency Shield basket is a category allocation for an emergency fund: half in a liquid fund, which SEBI requires to hold paper maturing within 91 days and which pays out the next business day; three-tenths in ultra short duration; a fifth in arbitrage, whose equity tax treatment rewards a holding of over a year. You choose the scheme in each sleeve.
The allocation, and why each sleeve is there
Liquid
50%
SEBI mandate: Debt and money market securities maturing within 91 days. Category risk: Low to Moderate.
SEBI's liquid mandate is paper maturing within 91 days, and a redemption is paid the next business day. The largest sleeve because it is the one you can reach fastest.
Ultra Short Duration
30%
SEBI mandate: Portfolio Macaulay duration between 3 and 6 months. Category risk: Low to Moderate.
A portfolio Macaulay duration of three to six months. Slightly longer paper than liquid, still no meaningful interest-rate risk over the periods an emergency fund is held for.
Arbitrage
20%
SEBI mandate: At least 65% in equity, held as offsetting cash and futures positions. Category risk: Moderately High.
Holds equity hedged in the futures market, so it behaves like short-term debt but is taxed as equity once held over a year. The smallest sleeve because settlement takes longer than a liquid fund's.
- Debt
- 80%
- Cash
- 20%
- Built for
- under a year
A suitability assessment expressed in SEBI scheme categories, never a recommendation of any scheme. GrowIQ Capital is an AMFI registered mutual fund distributor (ARN-352082), not a SEBI registered investment adviser.
What to check before choosing
- A liquid fund carries a graded exit load on redemptions within the first seven days, set by SEBI. Money that may be needed inside a week belongs in a bank account, not here.
- Arbitrage schemes commonly carry an exit load within the first fifteen to thirty days and settle in two to three business days. The sleeve is sized so that the rest of the basket covers an emergency while it settles.
- Nothing in this basket holds equity unhedged. The suitability engine's rule for money needed inside a year is equity 0%, and this basket meets it.
What these categories have returned
The median across the schemes in each category that GrowIQ can transact, with the count it rests on. A fact about the category's past, not about any scheme in it.
| Category | 3-year CAGR, median | 5-year CAGR, median |
|---|---|---|
| Liquid0 schemes | not enough history | not enough history |
| Ultra Short Duration0 schemes | not enough history | not enough history |
| Arbitrage0 schemes | not enough history | not enough history |
Computed from NAVs published by AMFI. A category with fewer than three schemes carrying the figure shows none. Past performance may or may not be sustained in future and does not guarantee future returns. Returns of one year and above are compounded annually (CAGR); shorter periods are absolute. Figures are computed from published NAVs and are point-to-point.
Market figures are indicative and may be delayed. Past performance does not indicate future returns. Securities and schemes named anywhere on this platform are exemplary, not recommendatory.
Fund the basket
A SIP registers 12 monthly instalments here. An emergency fund is built and then left alone, so the SIP registers for twelve instalments rather than indefinitely.
From ₹500 a month every line clears the ₹100 minimum an instalment can be.
- Choose a fund for this sleeve
Liquid
₹5,000a month
- Choose a fund for this sleeve
Ultra Short Duration
₹3,000a month
- Choose a fund for this sleeve
Arbitrage
₹2,000a month
Illustration only, computed from the assumptions shown — not a forecast, a projection of any scheme's performance, or a guarantee. Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks; read all scheme related documents carefully.
You choose each scheme. GrowIQ does not recommend one, and the explorer lists every scheme in the category in the same order whether or not you arrive with an amount. Nothing is submitted until you confirm it on the order screen, where the amount can be changed.
Questions
- How much should an emergency fund hold?
- Six months of essential outgoings is the figure most planning guidance uses, and it is a rule of thumb rather than a regulation. Whatever the figure, this basket is about where the money sits, not how much of it there is: the split works the same for ₹1 lakh as for ₹10 lakh.
- Why not keep it all in a liquid fund?
- You can, and the basket would then be one sleeve. The ultra short sleeve typically carries slightly longer paper for a slightly higher yield, and the arbitrage sleeve is taxed as equity after a year, which matters if the fund sits untouched for years — the usual fate of an emergency fund. The split is a description of those trade-offs, not a claim that three sleeves beat one.
- Does GrowIQ pick the liquid fund for me?
- No. Each sleeve links to the explorer filtered to its category, listing every scheme we can transact in the same alphabetical order it always uses. You choose. GrowIQ Capital is an AMFI-registered distributor, not a SEBI-registered investment adviser, and selecting a scheme for your circumstances is advice we are not registered to give.
Beside your risk profile
This basket is 0% equity. It sits within the starting allocation of every suitability tier. Sign in and take the risk profile, and this page will compare the basket with your own assessment.
Take the risk profileA suitability assessment expressed in SEBI scheme categories, never a recommendation of any scheme. GrowIQ Capital is an AMFI registered mutual fund distributor (ARN-352082), not a SEBI registered investment adviser.
What this page is not
- Not a list of schemes. GrowIQ Capital is an AMFI-registered distributor (ARN-352082), not a SEBI-registered investment adviser, and names no fund for anybody.
- Not a forecast. The category figures are medians of past returns with the date they were measured to; past performance may or may not be sustained.
- Not an order. Each link carries an amount to the explorer; nothing is placed until you confirm it on the order screen, where every figure can be changed.
The other baskets
- Tax Shield 80C
Two ELSS schemes at half each, chosen so their portfolios overlap by no more than twelve per cent.
- Generational Compounder
Flexi cap, a Nifty 50 index sleeve and mid cap, inside the mid-and-small ceiling the suitability engine applies.