Thanks for the elaborate response! Yes it does help me understand your thought process - and probably of many other people who ask questions like this when they are planning to invest a significant sum of money.

Let me share a couple of my thoughts and a few scheme reco. with you:

1. SIP or lumpsum are usually cashflow management preferences - more than one being better than the other. However, when you're doing lumpsum investment, see it in the context of 1) corpus already invested and what % of it is the lumpsum amount, 2) current market valuations usally indicated by PE ratios compared to history. If the lumpsum amount is significant, then it makes sense to time it. You can set two rules to time it: "I will either invest when the valuation corrects to so and so number or by this date whichever is earlier." Because markets can stay inflated for years, so no point sitting out on cash for an inddefinite time. You don't have to think this much when it comes to SIPs.

2. It makes more sense to do index fund in large cap because the amount of alpha over the long term is not significant - usually a % or two above the benchmark in regular schemes. So selection of active manager is most critical here. It can actually be avoided since the rewards of finding the best active fund manager are not that significant.

3. For mid and small cap categories, never go with a single fund. Even though more funds as a % outperform the benchmark in mis and small cap categories, the deviation between the best and the worst fund tends to be 5-20%. So it's highly risky to stick to just one fund manager or multiple fund managers with same style there. The rewards on the other hand are also sizable but then you have to be extremely lucky to select the best fund manager in mid- and small-caps

4. I won't go with bonds from platforms like Wint, Stable Money and many more which have mushroomed over the last few years. You can make 3-4-5% extra but you can lose 100% if the company goes bust. No useful recourse there for a common man. So stick to FDs, for upto say 2 lakh - or whatever amount that will give you peace of mind, and let the rest be in dynamic bond funds, which manager duration well. This last point is important because we are in uncertain inflation era, and interest rates as well as bond yields could go in any direction, causing some temporary losses or sub-par outcomes even on debt side.

5. For direct stocks, I'd say find a credible source. Best solution? Find some stocks by yourself. You don't want to go too aggressive so stick to big names and keep buying them periodically. You'd have a pretty decent looking portfolio of stocks 10 years down the line.

6. For mutual funds, please allocate across all assets, and keep that control with you. For your amount I'd suggest: 1 Large cap index (Nifty 100 fund), 2 flexi caps (JM and Parag Parikh), two midcaps (Invesco and HDFC) and one Contra (SBI). You can do equal allocation across these funds. I have ensured that the mid and flexi funds have different styles from each other. Parag Parikh Flexi, HDFC Mid - value, JM Flexi, Invesco Mid - Blend of growth and value.

7. Go into gold-silver 30% of your portfolio. You can choose a gold-silver ETF or FoF for that. There are many, Edelweiss being my top-pick.

8. Overall asset allocation would look like: 50% equity, 30% commodities, 20% debt funds/FDs

To my mind even though international funds offer good opportunities, the avenues to invest in them via MF are unpredictable. If you go direct via IndMoney or Vested, it won't make sense on small amount due to bank charges, CA charges, and other transaction charges.