Free Investor Risk Profile Test: find out how much risk suits you in under two minutes
Ten questions, one score out of 100, and the broad kinds of mutual funds that usually match your risk profile.
Before you choose a mutual fund, it helps to know how much risk you can actually live with. The PortfolioCube Risk Profiling tool asks ten plain-English questions about your age, your income and expenses, your goals, how long you can stay invested and how you react when markets fall. It turns your answers into a Risk Profile Score, places you in one of five investor profiles, and shows the SEBI Riskometer level and the fund categories that are typically suited to that profile.
It takes under two minutes, it is free, and you can download the result as a PDF report. It is a self-assessment for general understanding. It does not replace the formal risk profiling and KYC process you complete when you open an investment account, and it is not investment advice.
What you get
1. Your Risk Profile Score (out of 100)
Each answer carries between 2 and 10 points, so the total for ten questions lies between 20 and 100. A Riskometer gauge shows where your score falls across the five profiles, with the needle on yours.
2. Your Risk Profile Assessment
You are placed in one of five profiles, each with a plain-English description, a matching SEBI Riskometer level and a recommended portfolio name:
- Conservative Investor – Low Risk. You lean strongly toward protecting your capital.
- Balanced Investor – Low to Moderate Risk. You accept modest ups and downs for steadier, income-oriented growth.
- Growth Investor – Moderate Risk. You accept a fair amount of volatility for the chance of better long-term returns.
- Aggressive Investor – Moderately High Risk. You are growth-focused, with a real appetite for market swings.
- Very Aggressive Investor – High / Very High Risk. You are focused squarely on long-term growth and can sit through large short-term falls.
3. Fund categories typically suited to your profile
A list of SEBI mutual fund categories that usually match your profile, with a search box to find one quickly. The list shows categories, not specific funds, allocation weights or timing.
4. Your answers and a PDF report
Every question you answered is listed with the option you chose. Use the printer icon or the Download as PDF button to save the report. Tick Include in PDF on any section to choose what goes in; with nothing ticked, the PDF has the full report.
Privacy
The tool asks only for your name and email address, so that your result and PDF can carry your name. It does not ask for your PAN, folio numbers, bank details or any fund holdings. When you finish, PortfolioCube is notified that an assessment was completed, along with your name, email address, score and profile.
How to use the tool
- Enter your name and email in the box at the top of the tool, and press Start Assessment.
- Answer the ten questions one at a time. Pick the option that is closest to your real situation today, not the one you wish were true. There are no right or wrong answers, and the Back button lets you change an earlier answer before you finish.
- Read your result: your score, your investor profile, its SEBI Riskometer level, the recommended portfolio and the fund categories that usually suit it.
- Check your answers in section 3 of the result. If one of them does not describe you, press Retake Assessment and answer again.
- Save or share: click the printer icon at the top, or Download as PDF at the bottom. Tick Include in PDF on the sections you want.
- Take the next step: use your profile as the starting point for the Portfolio Health Check, the Goal Planning tool or the Retirement Planning tool, or talk it through with PortfolioCube.
The Risk Profiling tool is a free self-assessment and is not investment advice. Past returns do not guarantee future returns. Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks; read all scheme-related documents carefully. Nawneet Kumar Panjiyar is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN-303470).
How the Risk Profiling tool works
The ten questions look at three things together: how much risk you can take, how much you need to take and how much you are willing to take.
- Your age – the younger you are, the longer your money has to recover from a fall.
- The share of your income that goes on household expenses and loan instalments – the less of your income is already committed, the more room you have to ride out volatility.
- Provision for your financial goals – whether money is already set aside for goals such as marriage, a home or a child’s higher education.
- What you expect your investments to be worth in 5 to 10 years – how much growth you are counting on.
- When you will need the money – the longer the time horizon, the more equity risk is usually appropriate.
- Your preferred asset mix – the split between equity and fixed-return products you feel comfortable with.
- The loss at which you would sell – how big a fall in your equity portfolio you would tolerate before you exit.
- How you feel about past bad investment decisions – your emotional reaction to losses and mistakes.
- Whether you prefer tried-and-tested investments – your lean toward familiar, slow and safe choices or toward newer, higher-growth ones.
- How stable your current and future income is – the security of the cash flow that funds your investing.
Each answer is worth 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 points, and the points are added up. Your total falls in one of five score ranges: 0–20 Conservative, 21–40 Balanced, 41–60 Growth, 61–80 Aggressive and 81 and above Very Aggressive. The result describes where you are today. It can change as your age, income, goals and experience change, so it is worth retaking the test every year or after a major life event.
The questions, score ranges, descriptions and fund categories are maintained by PortfolioCube and can be updated from time to time.
What a personal conversation adds
Ten questions give a good first picture, but they cannot see everything. In a conversation with PortfolioCube we can look at:
- your goals and when you need each part of your money, using the Goal Planning and Retirement Planning tools;
- what you already own, using the Portfolio Health Check, to see whether your funds match your profile;
- your dependants, insurance, emergency fund and loans, which decide how much risk you can really afford;
- how your portfolio should be split across equity, debt and gold, and how to stay with it when markets are rough.
You can reach us from the Contact section of the home page.
Terms and Definitions used in this Risk Profiling tool
Examples use a Growth Investor who scores 52 out of 100.
Risk Profile – a description of how much investment risk suits you, based on your financial situation and your attitude to losses. This tool uses five: Conservative, Balanced, Growth, Aggressive and Very Aggressive.
Risk Profile Score – the total of the points from your ten answers, out of 100. A higher score means a higher risk profile. Example: 52 out of 100.
Risk Tolerance (Risk Appetite) – how much of a fall in the value of your investments you are willing to accept without panicking or selling. It is about feelings and behaviour.
Risk Capacity – how much of a fall your finances can absorb without hurting your goals. It depends on your age, income stability, expenses, savings and how soon you need the money. Your risk capacity and your risk tolerance can differ, and a sound profile respects the lower of the two.
Time Horizon – the number of years before you need the money. The longer it is, the more time equity has to recover from a fall.
Volatility – how much and how fast the value of an investment moves up and down. Equity is more volatile than debt.
Drawdown – the fall in the value of an investment from a peak to a later low, usually shown as a percentage. The question about the loss at which you would sell is a drawdown question.
Asset Allocation – how your money is split between asset classes such as equity, debt and gold. It is the biggest single driver of how risky a portfolio is.
Equity – shares of companies, held directly or through equity mutual funds. Equity has the highest long-term growth potential and the largest short-term swings.
Fixed-Return Products – debt-type investments such as debt mutual funds, bank deposits and bonds that aim to give steadier returns. They are not risk-free: debt funds carry interest-rate and credit risk.
SEBI Riskometer – the risk label that SEBI requires on every mutual fund scheme. It has six levels: Low, Low to Moderate, Moderate, Moderately High, High and Very High. This tool shows the level that matches your profile; for the two highest, it shows “High / Very High”. Example: Moderate Risk for a Growth Investor.
Recommended Portfolio – the name of the portfolio style that goes with your profile, such as Balanced Portfolio or Aggressive Portfolio. It is a broad direction, not a list of funds or percentages.
Fund Category – SEBI’s classification of a mutual fund scheme by what it may invest in, such as Large Cap, Flexi Cap, Liquid or Corporate Bond. Funds in the same category follow a similar mandate.
Liquid Fund / Overnight Fund – debt funds that invest for a very short period, used for parking money you may need soon. They have the lowest risk among mutual funds, but are not guaranteed.
Hybrid Fund – a fund that invests in both equity and debt, in a fixed or changing mix. Conservative, Balanced Advantage and Aggressive Hybrid funds differ in how much equity they hold.
Flexi Cap / Multi Cap / Large & Mid Cap Fund – diversified equity funds that spread money across large, mid and small companies in different ways, with SEBI minimums for each.
Mid Cap / Small Cap Fund – equity funds that invest mainly in medium-sized or small companies. They can grow faster but fall harder and stay down longer, so they suit higher-risk profiles.
Sectoral / Thematic Fund – a fund that invests in one sector (such as banking or pharma) or one theme. Results depend heavily on when you enter and exit, so they carry a very high risk.
Credit Risk – the chance that a company or institution that issued a bond does not pay back on time. Credit risk funds deliberately take it for higher yield.
Risk Profiling and KYC – the formal questionnaire that an investment firm completes with you before it advises or sells you products. This free tool does not replace it.
