How to Read a Mutual Fund Factsheet Before You Invest

A fund factsheet is a monthly snapshot published by the fund house, and it's one of the most useful documents you can read before investing. It can look dense, but a few sections matter more than the rest.

Investment objective tells you what the fund is trying to achieve and what it invests in. Portfolio composition shows the actual holdings and sector allocation, so you can see whether it matches what the fund claims to do.

Expense ratio is the annual fee charged as a percentage of your investment — it directly reduces your returns, so lower isn't automatically better, but it's worth comparing across similar funds. Exit load tells you if there's a cost to withdrawing early.

Finally, check the fund manager's tenure and the benchmark index the fund is measured against, which gives useful context for judging performance over time rather than looking at returns in isolation.