With a long time horizon to invest (5 plus years), you can look at direct equity as the best way to grow wealth.
The question hints that mutual funds have not been impressive in their performance. While they do offer multiple fund classes, it is true that on the equity side, 3 yr and 5 year returns have been mediocre. Do not go by the 10 year and 15 year track records because they would carry survivorship bias, ie poor performers get weeded out leaving only the better ones standing.
On the fixed income side, my favourite investments (other than Mutual funds) are:
- PPF
- Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
- Debt Funds
Investments on the equity side:
