So you have started shining in your career and had the privilege of building your investments. Most of us consult a financial advisor suggest FD investment and the moment we feel like we’re in a good place to start investing and trust them to suggest the best possible plans for us. Is that good enough? We’ve made a checklist to help you align your investment goals with your bucket list.
Make your goals measurable and real
Goals. They need to be specific, measurable and real. So go back to your bucket list and see, what it pertains: Higher studies abroad, a swanky car, a posh house, a world tour, huge bank balance to retire in the hills. You are bound by your imagination. So how much money would you need to tick off the listings? Having specific numbers in mind for each of your goals, and a target for each of your investments brings in a great deal of clarity.
The first step would be to mark these goals on your list as short-term, mid-term and long-term, and revisit your portfolio of investments to see which falls where and if these investments are working for you to meet them.
Eliminate any ambiguities
Many people make the mistake of considering insurances as investments. If you have any insurance products in your portfolio, take them out of the list and put them in a dedicated insurance-portfolio. Insurance products, except ULIPs, will not work towards your bucket list. Unfortunately, mediclaims do not cover nose jobs or plastic surgeries — if they happen to be on your bucket list.
Investments and insurances solve different purposes and it would be wise to treat them that way.
Don’t place all your eggs in one basket
Consider this. You have enough resources to get you started with investing. Would you pick one company that’s doing extremely well and invest all your money into it, or diversify? Your portfolio should have a mix of debt and equity products. If you are planning for a swanky car, or an underwater marriage, or a honeymoon in the Maldives, maybe you should consider Fixed Deposits (FDs), which will get you assured returns at the time of maturity. Bajaj Finance Fixed Deposit offers a high interest-rate of 8.10%, with additional interest rate for senior citizens. You can check, how much you will gain at the time of maturity by using the FD Calculator online.
Also, you may not want to park all your money in one FD. Use the laddering method — invest at different times for varied terms in different schemes — to provide a cushioning against interest rate fluctuations and lock-ins.
If you have a goal of buying a house, say after 15 years, you may want to look at mutual funds that work best in the long-term and can fetch you high returns. But, if you want to retire to the mountains, consider PPF/EPF that will give you assured returns to lead a peaceful post-retirement life.
A smart way to look at investments is to diversify them as much as possible, and divide your cash flow in a way that allows you to invest in multiple schemes. That way, you would still have a cushioning when the market is slightly risky and one of the investments isn’t doing as well as expected.
Review your plans regularly
Markets are susceptible to changes every single minute, which means the investment plans you made a couple of months ago, may not be doing so well for you in the present day, and this could jeopardize your bucket list.
Make it a ritual to meet your financial advisor and review your plans regularly, to see what changes and tweaks you can make to get the best out of your investments. Research and educate yourself, so you can rely on your intuitiveness to take risks — where need be.
Consider loans against securities rather than personal loans
Investments on their own may not help you tick-off the bucket list. You may need a little hand-holding via loans. Instead of taking expensive personal loans, which may come at an expensively high rate of interest, varying anything between 18% and 25%, you may be better off taking a loan against securities — shares, mutual funds, debt bonds, gold bonds, National Saving Certificates, Kisan Vikas Patra, etc.
These loans come cheap and financial companies offer anything between 50% and 90% of the value of your securities. Since loan against securities is an overdraft facility, you pay interest only for the amount spent and for the period spent.
This way, you keep earning market gains and dividends on your securities. You can always go for other loans if you are still falling short of cash.
If you’re looking for quick and easy loans, you can opt for pre-approved offers from Bajaj Finserv. You can avail your money in just three clicks and save time and effort. Remember the golden rule. Save before you spend.
