He did an advanced course in IT and secured a high-paying job with a multinational company.

At 35, he owns a house and car, which he bought on loans, and aspires to offer his son all amenities that he always missed. His wife is a teacher with a primary English school and supports the household budget.

Ashwin has a trait that causes him more pain than he realizes — he refuses to ask for help from anyone. Partially, his tough life experiences have made him so, but his “self-made” approach has made him adamant too.

Whenever he falls sick, he avoids going to a doctor. He tries remedies on his own and if he’s still unwell, only then he sees a doctor.

Similarly, he refuses to seek the help of financial planners and takes all investment-related decisions based on his own logic, which is often flawed due to lack of knowledge in financial matters.

Although he wants to keep his family happy, he isn’t taking the right steps to achieve this objective.

Surprisingly, he has no plan to fulfil his financial goals.

In fact, he hasn’t even written down his financial goals.

Ashwin read about PersonalFN while he was searching the internet for the “best mutual fund” that he could invest in.

And he was thrilled to read PersonalFN's views on how serious one should be while managing personal finances. For the first time, he became aware of the importance of a financial plan and why everyone needs to have one.

[Read: Why You Should Opt for Fee-Based Financial Planner]

By the way, do you know why you should create a financial plan for yourself if you haven’t done one already?

Let us first begin by understanding what a financial plan is and what it can do for you.

A financial plan ensures that you are well-equipped to deal with dynamically changing circumstances at a personal level as well as a socio-economic macro level.

In the absence of a financial plan, you might not be empowered to accomplish what you have dreamt of achieving and might also be under-prepared to deal with contingencies.

Also, watch this video:

Financial planning is a process, to achieve one’s financial goals——buying a dream home, a swanky car, travelling abroad for leisure, planning for children’s future (their education and marriage needs), and your own retirement among a host of others——with a definitive, personalised financial plan in place.

And mind you, there’s no one-shot solution or ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Life is dynamic, it does not move in a linear direction, and hence all aspects need to be interwoven well in your financial plan.

It begins with:

✔ Understanding your current financial state,

✔ Accounting for changes (if any),

✔ Defining your financial goals,

✔ Charting your asset allocation, based on your age, financial goals and risk appetite

✔ Choosing productive investment avenues for you, and

✔ Drawing a financial plan to achieve your goals.

[Read: Everything You Need To Know About Financial Planning]

Role of mutual funds in financial planning

Whichever asset class you want to invest in——equity, debt, gold, or others——mutual funds is the right option for you.

Can you skip all these asset classes and still think of making the money you need to satisfy your financial goals?

No!

Mutual funds are the simplest way to invest across asset classes.

(Note: This video is for educative purposes only)

Here are some of the benefits of investing in mutual funds…

You can achieve various objectives by investing in mutual funds (based on the scheme/s you choose):

• Growth
   
• Income/preservation of capital
   
• Tax saving (with ELSS)
   
• Counter inflation; and
   
• Peace of mind

If you are young and earning, the growth of capital, tax saving, and protection against inflation would be your objectives.

If you are retired or approaching retirement, peace of mind and preservation of money would be your investment goals.

In case, you are investing for long-term objectives such as retirement, higher education of your children and their marriage, you may start a SIP in diversified mutual funds that have a proven track record.

SIP will help infuse the needed discipline of investing regularly, enable you to mitigate volatility with rupee-cost-averaging, and power your portfolio with the benefit of compounding.

(Source: pixabay.com)

But when you invest in mutual funds, as per your financial plan, make sure you for Direct Plans over Regular Plan, as the lower expense ratio of Direct Plan can add significant wealth in the long run.

Ashwin realized the importance of seeking expert a little late. But he corrected this mistake.

Sometimes self-help can do more harm than good to you. If you need superlative guidance to define your asset allocation, financial planning and investments, reach out PersonalFN’s investment advisers, who effectively serve as Financial Guardians, on 022-61361200 or write to info@personalfn.com. You may also fill in this form, and soon our experienced financial planners will reach out to you.

PersonalFN can effectively guide and handhold you to accomplish your financial goals. 

What are you waiting for? Swing into action.  

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sauravverma1985@gmail.com Sep 01, 2018 I have just taken a subscription of Personal FN . I need some guidance to review my Mutual Fund portfolio.

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