Introduction to Financial Planning
Financial planning is an important part of
financial management. It is the process of determining the objectives;
policies, procedures, programmes and budgets to deal with the financial
activities of an enterprise.
Let us understand financial planning with an example :
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ANSHUL’S FINANCIAL
PLAN |
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1.Savings |
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Monthly expenses |
179500 |
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Emergency fund for |
6 |
Months |
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Emergency funds required in savings account |
1077000 |
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2.Loans |
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Housing Loans are least expensive |
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Repaying all expensive loans like personal
loans and car loans first followed by housing loans |
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3.Insurance |
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a) Life Insurance |
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Annual Income (assumption) |
1200000 |
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Life cover |
20 |
times |
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Life Insurance needed |
24000000 |
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Life insurance should include coverage for
critical illness |
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b) Medical Insurance |
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Number of family members |
4 |
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Medical family coverage required for each
member |
200000 |
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Total medical insurance needed |
800000 |
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4. Investment plan |
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Invest in : |
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Mutual funds |
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Equity |
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Sovereign Gold Bonds |
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RBI floating interest rate bonds |
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No need to invest in real estate because house
is already available |
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5. Tax plan |
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Avail Tax benefits |
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Save tax under Section 80 C by investing in
Life Insurance and Public Provident Fund |
150000 |
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Section 80 TTA - Deductions from Gross Total
Income for interest on savings account |
10000 |
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Section 80 EE - Deduction on Home Loan
Interest |
200000 |
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Section 80 D- Premium paid for Medical
insurance |
25000 |
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Section 80 CCD ( 1B)- Additional Contribution
to National Pension Scheme account |
50000 |
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6. Retirement Plan |
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As per the retirement plan prepared, it is
estimated that I will have to build a corpus of |
Rs 25.4 crores |
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Insights from the above Financial Plan
A
good financial plan as mentioned above should cover all the six heads: Savings,
Loans, Insurance, Investments, Tax Planning and Retirement Planning.
Savings
according to me a person needs to create an emergency fund in a savings account
which can be used to meet all the designated expenses even if the income for a
particular month is nil. As a thumb rule an amount equivalent to six times the
monthly expenses should be set aside as emergency funds. In my case as
calculated the monthly expenses are of Rs.179500, so an emergency fund of
approx. Rs.10.77 lacs needs to be created to cover all contingencies.
A
good Financial Plan is one where expensive loans (which bear high interest
rate) like personal loans and car loans are avoided. Home Loans are the
cheapest loans. I case of repayment the focus should be to return the expensive
loans as early as possible.
If
we talk about insurance, I have analyzed that Life cover should be equal to 20
times the annual earnings of an individual. The medical insurance should be
available for all the family members. It is better to have a family cover. I
have opted for a Rs 200000 medical cover for each family member. A medical
family cover means that medical expenses to the extent of the family cover are
taken care of instead of the smaller medical insurances.
The
investment portfolio should be a balance of high risk high return instruments
such as equity and mutual funds, moderate risk moderate return instruments such
as Sovereign Gold Bonds and RBI floating interest bonds and low risk, low
return instruments such as Fixed Deposits and Preference Shares, depending upon
the risk taking capacity of individuals. I chose a combination of high, risk
high return instruments and moderate risk, moderate return instruments
according to my risk taking capacity.
For
tax planning, one should try to save as much tax as possible by investing in
tax saving instruments provided by the Government. This will not only help in
saving tax today but also help in the creation of future Corpus.
Finally,
in the Retirement Planning section, the monthly expenses need to be determined
for the calculation of corpus needed post retirement. Accordingly the financial
planning should be done. One should opt for retirement planning as early in
life as possible because considering the ever increasing inflation rate, the
monthly expenses will keep increasing resulting in an exorbitant increase in
the corpus required post retirement if we begin at a later date.
Conclusion
Financial Planning is best if it is simple. A good financial plan should cover all the six heads : Savings, Loans , Insurance , Investments , Tax Planning and Retirement Planning. The goal should be to maximize returns so that a corpus is created in the shortest duration of time for the retirement and a person is able to comfortably meet the expenses.
