Which mutual fund should I opt for long-term and short-term benefits? This is the 1st time I’m going to invest in mutual funds.

For the long term goals, invest in a mix of equity funds based on your risk profile. This could be large cap funds or a mix of multicap and mid cap funds.

For short term goals, go for liquid funds. Given the current volatility around interests rates, this protects you from the risk of interest rates impacting the funds value.

Be sure to invest only in Direct Plan variants of the Mutual Funds. You then get upto 40% more in long term portfolio size by avoiding annual commissions and brokers. These commissions are calculated daily!

Since it is your first time, get an asset allocation advice from a SEBI Registered advisor. This helps you distribute your investments between long term and short term funds. This is done by knowing your risk profile; get a free risk profile here.