Starting early gives you a head start for financial freedom. For instance, if you keep Rs. 1000 aside every month, at the end of the year you will find Rs. 12000 which you could use in an emergency.
With changes in the economy, lifestyles have changed and our needs have increased. So what worked for our elders will not necessarily work for us. Price hikes and our salary hike are inversely proportional.
So what do we do? Invest in Life Insurance? Mutual Funds? Real Estate? Gold? Share Market? Everyone has their own needs and requirements, similarly the way we invest varies with our needs. So never think that someone's investment strategy will work the same way for you. Keeping in mind the current economic situation, these three general steps will be a good tip for you to start— Secure, Accumulate and Enjoy
Secure
Secure yourself and your family with Life insurance as these are difficult times and insurance has proved to be a life saver for many families during critical times.
Accumulate
Start saving today, let it be 100, Rs. 500, or Rs.10000 but start saving. We have got a number of tools and options to save. “In Investment, understanding is more important than information.”
Banks
Old and classic method of saving. The interest rates are normal and bank has options like Fixed Deposit and Recurring Deposits. One of the safest methods of saving and investing, but will the interest from the banks match the current price hike?
Shares
The Current Hot Spot for investment all around the world. Every private company sells its shares and people buy them (Share holder) thereby getting an ownership of the company. If a company performs well, the shareholder gains money, else loses. You will have to be vigilant to buy the correct shares and sell them to make profits. It is a high risk area, you will get either huge profit or incur huge loss and every day you will have to follow the market to make some money. Needs a lot of patience and monitoring.
Mutual Funds
Instead of you directly investing in Share market, you invest your money with a reputed company who has a money manager who manages all the money collected by the company from various people and does investment in the market to gain returns. There are various companies; you need to choose a mutual fund company based on its past performance and portfolio maintained. Mutual Funds have a lot of options and you should choose the correct option. But beware that past performance doesn't indicate the future performance. So check twice before choosing the correct fund and options.
Life insurance
Once upon a time, it was an instrument to replace a financial loss to a family .Now it has transformed into an investment tool. Currently life insurance has become a bundled offer- Insure life, save income tax and earn money. Some people choose this as a good investment as they don't want to confuse with various options, since it takes care of insuring, saving and investing. But this will not work always and for everyone. So choose a correct option and please sit with a professional to work out your dream. Fix a dream – Let it be a house or a car or a good education for your children or a good pension. Work it out and start saving and investing through the correct option from today. Once your dream and investment plan are fixed, then you are sure to attain success.
Cirruskanthan is a working professional.
