visakhapatnam known for being a pensioners paradise the port city is seeing an increasing number of retirees opting for investment options such as mutual funds instead of the traditional fixed deposits according to mutual fund managers retirees form a major chunk of the investors for mutual funds in the city which till now used to be the option for businessmen and salaried employees the investments into the mutual fund segment is growing at around 1520 every year mutual fund managers said adding that retirees now constitute 4045 of the investors in the city speaking to toi branch manager of dsp blackrock investment managers private limited diwakar s said retirees are predominantly investing in mutual funds as an alternative to fixed deposits the reason is that fixed deposit rates have come down and mutual funds are giving out better returns in the long term elaborating he said on an average while fixed deposits give returns of around 89 returns the mutual funds returns average around 15 on the long term there is a considerable increase in investments in the mutual fund segment as many are moving from recurring deposits to fixed deposits there has been about 1520 increase in mutual funds over the last couple of years abhishek kumar employee with a private bank said another bank official on conditions of anonymity said retirees definitely prefer mutual funds due to the attractive returns and the awareness also has increased during the last couple of years also children of retirees who are settled abroad or with good jobs are advising their parents to go for mutual funds which is leading to surge in such investments he said about three years ago the overall mutual funds investments would have been around rs 1000 crore per year but now it has gone up to at least rs 17001800 crore pointing out that earlier people used to either invest in gold or in real estate the bank official said gold has been fluctuating and is not as attractive to people as in earlier times real estate is still an attraction but the gains from the investment cant be seen physically whereas any rise in asset value is clearly visible from the mutual funds also in some cases the lump sum amounts available with them may not be sufficient to purchase the property of their choice however he cautioned that investors need to understand the market risks involved and choose mutual funds for long terms of three or five years and above all about the money on an average while fixed deposits give returns of around 89 returns the mutual funds returns average around 15 on the long term retirees prefer mutual funds due to the attractive returns and the awareness also has increased during the last couple of years children of retirees who are settled abroad or with good jobs are advising their parents to go for mutual funds which is leading to surge in such investments quote gold has been fluctuating