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Careful planning can always help reach your financial goals. It may seem like hard, but doing so can prepare you for a more comfortable life when you decide to stop working and start enjoying your retirement. You may make change as needed but remember to stick to the plan so that you can achieve your milestones without delay and achieve your goals exactly you made them when you were younger. >Age plays a crucial role in financial planning. As soon as you start earning, you need to understand basics of financial planning. Identify short-term and long-term goals. Understand and identify priorities depending on age and life stage. There are many financial instruments in the Indian market. It is recommended to take the help of professional financial planners. Your 20s would be your first foray into the professional world, which means this is the time when you’ll start earning your own money. It’s also an excellent time to set your financial goals and decide on your approaches to accomplish those milestones. This may be exciting times since you’re earning your own money and you’d want to spend it on things you probably don’t need / exciting, while you keep aside some budget for your basic needs and adequate partying it is important to start saving on priority. You need to pay back your educational loans as soon as possible in case of any. Start building good credit history that helps you get home loan etc at best interest rates. When you save / invest in financial products it is important to understand insurance products are generally age based. For the same benefits, you will pay less when you are younger and gradually pay more as age grows. You need to understand the insurance needs for various goals like family security, kid’s higher education, kid’s yearly education and retirement. Generally, insurance products are needed for the goals that need to be secured even when you are not around for the family due to unforeseen events in life. In our view, once kids are born education must continue irrespective of bread winner is alive or not. At least basic education should be insured while you continue to invest in higher return investments for best possible education (like best B-Schools, Medicine, International education) for kids. Even for retirement, there are few suitable products that you can consider for some part of your retirement need and keep exploring and understanding on various ways to diversify your investments for retirement. In India marriages are considered grand event for life. Spend lot of money on clothing, ceremonies, food and hosting friends, relatives, and well-wishers. It is important to plan for marriage and honeymoon expenses instead of getting into debt trap by taking loans and using credit cards for these expenses. Try and spend within available budget and savings rather than taking loans and using credit cards. 30s are when things get serious and expensive life events happen. People get married, have kids, and buy a home. These significant milestones mean that even if your earnings grow, you may find it challenging to figure out how to save for retirement or avoid getting into debt. An excellent way to deal with this is as your salary increases, you figure out ways how to live below your means and save whatever extra you make from raises and bonuses. Remember, a home is one of the largest investments you’ll make in your lifetime and paying off a mortgage can reach up to 30 years. Raising children is another big investment that requires careful financial planning to be able to attend to their needs. Keep in mind that it gets more expensive as they grow older and when you start providing for their education. It is important to make sure, you have 6 months earnings / savings as emergency funds to be able to manage job risks / income loss / any unforeseen expenditure that come across. It is also important to make sure you keep aside your yearly commitments by saving them in low risk and high liquid debt instruments. Fixed Deposits / Recurring deposits are not ideal as the returns are considered as income attract higher taxes. Please talk to us how where to park these funds aside while they are available to liquidate any time and generate good returns. Now that you’ve started a family, some or even all may be dependent on your income, so it’s important to complete your life insurance policies and start creating a will. Getting life insurance in 30s if not 20s allows you to lock in a lower rate while you’re still young and healthy. Never leave your insurance needs to 40s. Once you reach 30, it’s time to increase your contributions for your retirement fund. If you started at 10% in your 20s, you could increase it to not less than 15% of your income. Middle age is when you’re more established in life, Income is at lifetime peaks and your finances should be able to reflect that. This will help you aim for more critical milestones in life. Hopefully, your debts are kept at the minimum. This includes car loans, credit card bills, home loans, and other consumer debt, which allows you to focus on other essential aspects, such as your kids’ college education. identify where to enrol them, so you have an idea on how much to spend on tuition. Another great goal to work on at this age is to have twice your annual income saved in your retirement accounts. You can augment this by finding other sources. You can do this by starting a small business or perhaps take on freelance projects that fit your skill. As soon as you enter 40s, it is important to make sure you have adequate and best health insurance plan. People generally expose themselves to health issues due to stressful work, responsibilities at home and social pressures. Taking health insurance while you are healthy helps avoiding loading and policy declines. You should make sure to diversify your investments into multiple financial instruments like Gold, Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Debentures, Retirement Plans, Real Estate and other structured products and alternative investments. Time flies fast. And when you’re close to the end of your professional life, it’s where everything starts to slow down, so take the necessary measures to max out your retirement contributions to help prepare you for retirement. Meet your financial advisor to help you figure out which options that work best for you. It would be ideal to pay off your mortgage to give you more financial freedom, which you should take advantage of for your retirement. By this time, it would be best to have saved around four to five times your annual salary for a more comfortable life as a retiree. Start to identify ways to earn your pension through various options like Systematic Withdrawal Plans, Annuity Plans, Guaranteed pension products, rental income, Provident Fund, Public Provident Fund and National Pension Scheme etc. Being a senior citizen is the time when all your savings and smart planning should be paying off. You can fine-tune your retirement goals according to your preferred lifestyle as you enjoy the rest of your days. You can consider downsizing your home or move to a smaller house to lessen your expenses. Finalize your will in case you wish to alter a few details. If needed, you can make other significant changes as you transition towards retirement. Review your life insurance policy to make sure everything is in place. Look into long-term care if you deemed it suitable for yourself and your spouse. Ideally, this should be in place before you need it. Conclusion All this may seem daunting, but you’ll have to step back and look at the bigger picture to help you put things into perspective. Keep in mind that there is no cookie cutter way to achieve success, so you don’t have to be discouraged if you passed these milestones. What you can do is take a moment to think about where you are and how your finances are doing, so you can make the necessary adjustments. The key is to always make deliberate choices when it comes to your finances. You should also be aware of these milestones, so you can never lose track of your financial goals up until you settle comfortably into retirement.

If you're feeling uncertain about your finances, you're not alone. Many people struggle with financial uncertainty at some point in their lives. Here are some reasons why you may be feeling uncertain about your finances: You're not sure how to create a budget that works for you. You're living paycheck to paycheck and don't have any savings. You're in debt and don't know how to pay it off. You're not making enough money to cover your expenses. You're going through a major life change such as a divorce or job loss. You're worried about retirement and if you'll have enough savings to live comfortably. You're not sure how to invest your money wisely. No matter what your financial situation is, there are steps you can take to improve it. Seeking advice from a financial professional or creating a plan to manage your money can help you gain more control over your finances and feel more confident about your financial future. Take a moment to consider these important questions for yourself: Does your current advisor? Align your current investments with your goals? Plan for emergency funding? Conduct a product comparison study? Provide any fixed / secure alternative earnings? Ever suggested products like NCD, MLD, Bonds etc? Do you know all the Financial Products? Do you know products beyond FDs, Insurance, Stocks, Mutual Funds and Real Estate? Do you know there are products that you can earn 8% without locking your funds? Do you know you can invest in Real Estate with minimum investment? Do you know how to plan for these important goals and life stages? How do you plan for children's higher education? How do you plan for annual education of children? How do you plan your child marriage? How do you plan for retirement? How do you protect your family in your absence? How to plan to buy a house or a car or to a foreign trip? Do you have these questions around stock market? Is the stock market always at risk? Is there a safer investment opportunity? Are F&O/derivatives suitable for me? Are there other options besides stocks and mutual funds? Do we need gold as an investment? Do you know the following about Life Insurance? Do you really need insurance? Which insurance products do you need(do not need)? How to determine time period and coverage? How to determine adequate cover? Do you know the following about Health Insurance? Difference between base & top-up plans? What is unlimited restoration of SA? Does your plan include cover consumables? Are there any limits, sub-limits in your policy? Difference between Corporate & Personal health insurance? Can I pay the premium of my entry age even if my age increases? Connect with our experts to get these questions answered for you.

#gold #goldinvestments #goldetf #sgb #goldmf #goldtaxation Since the beginning of recorded history, gold has been a universal symbol of wealth. Because of its beauty and scarcity, ancient civilizations coveted the precious metal as a manifestation of status and power. Ornaments, jewelry, and early forms of money were all crafted from gold. From the time of ancient civilizations to the modern era, gold has been the world’s currency of choice. Today, investors buy gold mainly as a hedge against political unrest and inflation because of gold’s low correlations with other asset classes. In addition, we recommend a portfolio allocation in commodities, including gold, to lower overall portfolio risk. Gold Bars / Coins This is perhaps the best-known form of direct gold ownership. Many people still believe in investing gold in the form of bars and coins is more safe and continue to invest in the traditional form of coins and bars. While heavy gold bars are an impressive sight, their large size makes them illiquid, and therefore costly to buy, store them in lockers safely and sell. After all, if you own one large gold bar as your entire holding in gold, and then decide to sell part of it, you can’t exactly chop off the end of the bar and sell it. If you buy them as smaller coins, you will end up paying premiums on the gold price. It used to be 5% but now it reached more or less 10%. Every time, you do the transaction 10% loss is a huge loss. The main problems with gold bullion are that the storage and insurance costs and the relatively large markup from the dealer both hinder profit potential. Gold ETFs / Mutual Funds A Gold ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that is equivalent to the domestic physical gold price. Gold ETFs are units representing physical gold which are in de-materialized form. One Gold ETF unit is equal to 10 mg of gold and is backed by physical gold of very high purity. Gold ETFs combine the flexibility of stock investment and the simplicity of gold investments. Gold ETFs are listed and traded on NSE & BSE like a stock of any company in cash segment. Gold ETF can be bought and sold very easily during trading hours. Buying Gold ETFs nothing but purchasing gold in an electronic form. When you actually redeem Gold ETF, you do not get physical gold, but receive the cash equivalent. Trading of gold ETFs takes place through DMAT and a broker, which makes it an extremely convenient way of electronically investing in gold. Because of its direct gold pricing, there is a complete transparency on the holdings of a Gold ETF. Please note there ETFs attract less fund management charges over Gold Mutual Funds. Who should invest in Gold ETFs? Gold ETFs are ideal for investors who wish to invest in gold but do not want to invest in physical gold due to the storage hassles / doubt about purity of gold and are also looking to get tax benefits. There is no premium or making charge, so investors stand to save money if their investment is substantial. What’s more, one can purchase as low as one unit (which is 10 milli grams). Investing in an ETF that is backed by physical gold, ETFs are best used as a tool to benefit from the price of gold rather than to get access to physical gold. So, when one liquidates Gold ETF Units, one is paid as per domestic market price of the gold. AMCs also permit redemption of Gold ETF Units in the form of physical gold in ‘Creation Unit’ size, if one holds equivalent of 1kg of gold in ETFs, or in multiples thereof. A tax efficient way to hold gold as the income earned from them is treated as long term capital gain. ETFs are accepted as collateral for loans. How to buy and sell Gold ETFs? Gold ETFs can be bought or sold at the stock exchange through the broker using a DMAT account and trading account. Since one is investing in an ETF that is backed by physical gold, ETFs are best used as a tool to benefit from the price of gold rather than to get access to physical gold. So, when one liquidates Gold ETF Units, one is paid as per domestic market price of the gold. AMCs also permit redemption of Gold ETF Units in the form of physical gold in ‘Creation Unit’ size, if one holds equivalent of 1kg of gold in ETFs, or in multiples thereof. Gold Bonds Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) are government securities denominated in grams of gold. They are substitutes for holding physical gold. It is one of the preferred investment options for investors looking for secure investment. SGBs are issued in multiples of one gram of gold where the investors can easily invest in their DMAT account. Unlike physical gold which is an idle investment, 2.5% interest can be earned on sovereign gold bonds on semi-annual basis. Sovereign gold bond scheme can helps in portfolio diversification. Tax Benefits The taxation for Sovereign Gold Bonds is upon interest applicable as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. In the context of SGB redemption, the capital gains tax levied on an individual is exempted. Also, long-term capital gains attract indexation benefits to an investor or when the bond is transferred from one person to another. Investment Limits An individual investor(trust) can buy 4 kg (20kg) of gold every year as the ceiling has been fixed on a fiscal year (April-March) basis. The sovereign gold bond price varies depending on different factors. Tenure SGBs have a maturity period of 8 years. However, the investor can exit the bond from the 5th year (only on the date of interest pay-out). The amount of investment also depends on the current sovereign gold bond price. It is a good strategy to buy SGBs if you are planning as long term investment option. How to choose among the available options? As we have seen, there are multiple ways to invest in gold like ETFs, SGBs, Coins / Bars, Ornaments. Investing for long term / Investing for kids marriage etc? Gold has an important role to play in Indian marriages. People buy large quantities of gold during marriages. So most people tend to accumulate ornaments or coins for kids marriages. If you buy latest design ornaments of current times, by the time your kid grows those could become old. You will end up melting the gold and buying new ornaments where you incur losses. Instead, SGBs are good alternatives for this purpose. Where you can invest in gold for long term, continue to earn interest and the returns are tax free. Investing for liquidation / to avoid stock market risks? It is a good strategy to invest certain percentage of your equity investment into gold as it helps to liquidate during recession or wars or pandemic like COVID 19 etc. More over, gold prices would raise in these situations while the stock markets go down. Gold ETFs are the best instruments to invest for this purpose. What is the best way to buy gold ornaments? In India, there are two ways to invest in gold ornaments: You can just walk-in to the shops and identify the good model and make the payment and walk away with the ornament. Generally this approach attracts additional making and wasting charges generally starts around 18% to 30% depending on the models. The other approach is, you can identify the shop that offers best models and join the gold savings schemes. Generally, gold accumulated by investing in this scheme will not attract making charges (unlimited / up to certain percentage). But most cases, the gold accumulated is very less compared to the item that you actually want to buy or you end up taking smaller items limiting within accumulated gold. Best way to buy ornaments is the mix of both Gold ETFs and gold savings schemes. First of all, you need to identify the target ornament that you would like to buy and an average weight of the ornament. Example you would like to buy necklace of weight 100 grams. You need to start accumulating the gold ETFs in your DMAT up to 100 grams. Once you have equivalent weight is accumulated, join the gold savings scheme. In this scheme, monthly investment should be roughly equivalent to 9 grams in a 11 months scheme. You can sell the Gold ETFs equivalent to 9 grams and pay in the scheme every month. You can get into higher monthly commitments without any fear as the equivalent gold is already accumulated. Now the 100 grams necklace can be purchased without any making charges. You can get into higher monthly commitments without any fear as the equivalent gold is already accumulated. Now the 100 grams necklace can be purchased without any making charges. 18% to 30% savings by investing over a period of one year is a huge savings. Conclusion Gold Mutual Funds, Gold ETFs and SGBs are three simple and better ways to invest in gold in digital form. Depending on your individual needs and investment horizon, you can select the best investment option. Investing in gold through SIP in Gold Mutual Funds without worrying about maturity period is very convenient option.