Many people live paycheck to paycheck and stress over their inability to save for a rainy day, and yet they wonder: “Why do we need a financial plan?”
People want to own a house, enjoy a good lifestyle, save for their children’s education, and secure a comfortable post-retirement life. But all this begins with a minimal but effective financial plan. Financial planning is an exercise to evaluate your present standings and future needs. While financial goals are a milestone, financial planning is a marathon.
Keep reading to understand everything you need to know about financial planning to get you started on your journey.
Personal Financial Planning
Here’s what you need to know about personal financial planning:
Get Your Life Covered
Insurance is the foundation of financial planning. Life insurance is one tool that takes mere thousands and guarantees lakhs.
A life insurance policy has dual benefits: it provides an assured sum on maturity, and financial security to the policyholder’s family in case of an unfortunate event. People seeking to create wealth for the future should start by securing the present with life insurance.
Extensive research before buying any policy is mandatory. Future Generali India Life Insurance is one provider that may have some suitable term insurance and life insurance that can be customized as per your needs.
Get Your Health Covered
Why is health insurance important?
28% of deaths2 in India occur due to heart related diseases. In private hospitals, open-heart surgery costs can vary from 1.5–4 lakhs2.A comprehensive health insurance plan is necessary to cover the cost of diagnosis and treatment of such diseases1.
For instance, Future Generali Heart & Health Insurance Policy is a comprehensive plan, with coverage starting from INR 5 lakhs.
Define Financial Goals
Financial planning is useless without clearly defining the financial goals you want to achieve. Short-term, medium-term, and long-term financial goals are necessary to get started. People also opt for goal-linked savings schemes, for example, a guaranteed savings plan dedicated to paying the down payment of your new house in 5 years.
Budgeting
Imagine if a person’s credit card bill and salary slip looked identical.
As the Swedish proverb says, “He, who buys what he does not need, steals from himself.”
Habitual spending is convenient, but habitual savings is crucial. The only thing that is constant between previous generations and millennials is the financial crisis.
A simple 50-30-20 rule can help. Allocate 50% of total income towards essential needs, 30% towards wants, and 20% towards savings. When consistent savings are mixed with stable compounding, it creates a corpus for future financial goals like secured post-retirement, child’s education, or marriage.
How to Invest in Savings?
When people hear about wealth, they think about the stock market. But the stock market can be risky. Not everyone can handle market volatility. People looking for stable and decent returns can instead invest in a savings policy based on the investor’s needs.
For example, Future Generali India Life Insurance offers a traditional savings plan, and a guaranteed savings plan. Both offer multiple benefits, including a fixed amount for the first few years, a lump sum when the policy matures, and 100% of the sum assured to the nominees in case of death.
Emergency Fund
An emergency fund can protect a family during uncertain times. Having approximately six months of income set aside is enough to get started. Such a fund would be handy and valuable when an urgent need arises. A liquid fund is an ideal place for emergency funds.
Asset Allocation
A person must invest their savings in assets based upon the risk appetite and time horizon. Suppose the risk appetite is high, and the time horizon is medium- to long-term. In that case, they may invest in assets like mutual funds and equity. If the investment horizon is short term and the risk appetite is also low, they may opt for fixed deposits, savings plans, or debt funds.
Retirement Planning
While retirement spells complete freedom from a work routine, it is also a halt to a steady income. Not all people can thrive on their savings. Therefore, proper planning for a secured post-retirement life is crucial.
People are accustomed to a monthly income. Hence, plans like Future Generali’s Immediate Annuity Plan allow them to invest a single premium today and receive a fixed income for the rest of their life.
Final Words
To conclude, every nugget of financial planning deals with the future, but it starts with the present. Planning is all about bringing the future into the present, and the present starts with knowledge. For knowledge seekers like you, Future Generali India Life Insurance has built a knowledge center that gives a comprehensive outlook on financial planning. From your 20s to 60s, Future Generali has curated a set of article such as:
- Tying the Knot? Buy These 3 Financial Things Together
- Here's How Your Financial Plan Should Look Like in Your 40s
- Why Life Insurance is important in financial planning
The financial health and stability we seek tomorrow will depend on how efficiently we start today. So start now.
To know more about life insurance and intelligent financial planning habits, visit Future Generali India Life Insurance and get started on your first financial plan today.
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