New Delhi, March 21 -- I am 26 years old with all savings in bank FD and PPF. I would want a good retirement corpus and large sum to buy a house, say, 20 years from now. As I am a first-time investor, please suggest some mutual fund schemes.

-Name withheld on request

Starting early as you're doing now is a great move. In the next step, you would need to identify how much you need for both goals. This will tell you how much you need to save in order to get there. For example, if your monthly expenses are Rs.30,000 today, you would need to build up to Rs.4.3 crore for retirement (assuming inflation at 6%, and a 12% return from your investments). This requires a monthly investment of Rs.7,500. Separate the investments for both goals, to ta...