Suffering from a World Cup hangover? Here’s how a sound Mutual Funds investment strategy can help you watch the next FIFA World Cup in the flesh at Qatar.
With France lifting the trophy after a nail-biting final encounter with the tournament’s dark horses, Croatia, the World Cup of upsets finally concluded on the 15th of July. If you’re still down about how the end of the 2018 edition of the FIFA World Cup has left a football-sized vacuum in your life, cheer up! In this article, we’re going to tell you how a solid Mutual Funds portfolio can help you catch your favourite team playing at Qatar 2022 in the flesh.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup was indeed a great spectacle and will go down in history as one of the best tournaments so far, at least statistically. Those of us who couldn’t be in Russia had had to suck it up and make do with catching the games on our living room couch, with the occasional time lag during streaming making us want to pull our hair out.
However, there were some lucky individuals, like the Kolkata-based soccer-crazy couple, Chaitali and Pannalal Chatterjee, who attended their tenth World Cup together in Russia. The couple built a ‘World Cup Fund’ over the years that involved uncountable sacrifices, including sleeping on a half-empty stomach for days and foregoing life’s little pleasures – all for the love of the game.
Additional Reading: Here’s How Your Favourite World Cup Team Can Help You Manage Your Money
But here’s the good news. Heading to Qatar 2022 and rooting for your favourite team in person doesn’t have to be as hard as it was for the Kolkata couple. Qatar 2022 isn’t too distant a dream if you start investing in Mutual Funds now to build your own ‘World Cup Fund’.
We did the math to create the perfect Mutual Funds portfolio that should get you to Qatar in 2022 without a sweat. Let’s take a look:
Air Tickets
A round trip to Doha will cost you around INR 30,000*.
*Assuming the destination origin is Mumbai
Match Ticket Prices
Disclaimer: The following calculation has been arrived at by assuming that you will buy CAT4 tickets at the rates that they were sold for in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Here’s what a ticket will cost in INR at every stage as your team advances to the finals:
(RUB – Russian Ruble, QAR – Qatari Riyal, INR – Indian Rupee)
Group matches: RUB 1,280 = 74.08 QAR = 1,397 INR
Given that to advance to the finals, your favourite team will need to play three matches during the group stage:
Total ticket price for group stage matches: INR 1,397 x 3 = INR 4,191
Round of 16: RUB 2,240 = 129.64 QAR = 2,446 INR
Quarterfinal: RUB 3,800 = 219.78 QAR = 4,146 INR
Semi-final: RUB 4,480 = 259.11 QAR = 4,888 INR
Final: RUB 7,040 = 407.17 QAR = 7,681 INR
If you’re going to catch your favourite team playing at the World Cup through all the qualifiers and right up to the finals, then the total amount that you will need to shell out for the ticket prices equals to INR 23,352 (remember this is for CAT4 tickets).
Accommodation
Given that it takes a whole month for the semi-finals and the final to begin since the kick-off of the group matches, one can assume that you will be spending a month in the host country to root for your favourite team if it makes it to the finals.
Here’s what a month’s stay in Qatar will roughly amount to:
INR 4,000 (per day hotel tariff) x 30 days = INR 1,20,000.
Assuming it costs another lakh for miscellaneous expenses on food and travel for the duration of an entire month, then an ideal ‘World Cup Fund’ would roughly amount to:
| Item | Price (in INR) |
| Air tickets | 30,000 |
| Match tickets | 23,352 |
| Accommodation | 1,20,000 |
| Miscellaneous expenses | 1,00,000 |
| Total | 2,73,352 |
For the sake of convenience, let’s round off the figure to INR 3 lakhs.
Additional Reading: Lessons From Football Players Who Made Dumb Financial Decisions
How Much Money Should You Invest?
Here’s how much you have to invest on a monthly basis (based on your risk appetite) to get to Qatar in 2022:
Conservative Investor
As a conservative investor, you may not be willing to take risks. Hence, your portfolio will ideally consist of 80% debt funds and 20% equity funds.
| Goal Amount | Time Period | Expected Returns (Annually) | Total Investment | Monthly Investment |
| INR 3,00,000 | 4 Years | 10% | INR 2,43,216 | INR 5,067 |
Balanced Investor
As a balanced investor, you are open to taking some amount of risk. Hence, your portfolio will consist of 50% debt funds and 50% equity funds.
| Goal Amount | Time Period | Expected Returns (Annually) | Total Investment | Monthly Investment |
| INR 3,00,000 | 4 Years | 12.5% | INR 2,30,352 | INR 4,799 |
Aggressive Investor
As an aggressive investor, you don’t mind risking your money for higher gains. Hence, your portfolio will consist of 20% debt funds and 80% equity funds.
| Goal Amount | Time Period | Expected Returns (Annually) | Total Investment | Monthly Investment |
| INR 3,00,000 | 4 Years | 15% | INR 2,18,016 | INR 4,542 |
Additional Reading: Ronaldo VS Messi – The Ultimate Financial Showdown
Now that you know how much you have to invest to get to Qatar in 2022, what are you waiting for? Christmas? Start investing, already!