Becoming More Savvy in Personal Finance

With the year 2017’s entry, we find ourselves pondering upon what we attained in 2016 and, more importantly, what we need to do in 2017 in preparation for the years ahead of us. Breaking it down into its simplest ideas, our efforts must be toward achieving three essential things: Becoming healthier, wiser and wealthier. The steps needed to build our wealth are as follows:

Separate insurance from investment

Majority of people often put off planning their tax and investment requirements until the last few weeks of the financial year. And usually, they try to simplify their difficult problems by getting insurance. They may end up saving on their taxes; however, they can benefit more from wiser investing. Besides, the common endowment insurance policy provides minimal income and will provide the highest potential for creating enduring wealth. Moreover, the death benefits you get from insurance are not sufficient to address long-term financial needs of your dependents. The better solution is to separate your investment needs from your insurance.

Engage in monthly Investing

You need not equate Investing with getting insurance. Financial experts generally believe that the most effective way to create long-term wealth is through investing in equity, mutual funds, gold, real estate and small savings accounts, such as PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme. It does not matter how big or small the amount involved or what the investing objective, engage in monthly investing. If you have a couple of thousand rupees or more to invest monthly, do it as early as you can. For instance, invest Rs 4,500 in a mutual fund Systematic Investment Plan which will grow 10% yearly for 30 years, and develop a corpus of Rs 1.02 crore. However, with only five years left in your life to achieve the same goal, your monthly investment would be Rs 7,500 – or Rs 13,500 with 10 years left. This is all due to the effect of compounding interest rate. 

Get term insurance and also ensure dependents

For those with dependent family members, consider getting life-term insurance coverage in the amount of 10-20 times your present income per year. Less than that figure, for example, an endowment plan, may not cover your dependents’ financial requirements. Term plans are quite inexpensive and offer many additional benefits, such as premium return and month income. Likewise, acquire a health cover for every one of your family members. This will enable you to save significantly the money you will have to shell out from your pocket in case of medical emergency.

Do tax planning

Avoid going into panic mode at the end of the year, especially when a big TDS occurs in March. Paying tax is a one-year process and everyone has a whole year to figure out what one earned and what to pay. Hence, one needs to maximize the use of that time to determine the best ways to save tax. Section 80 (C) of the tax code, equity-linked saving plans and public provident fund can bring higher long-term benefits compared to insurance plans. Likewise, you can save more tax if you get health insurance for you and your dependent parents. Make sure that your figures for home-acquisition loan principal and interest repayments or rentals paid are accurate. In case you are fall short of exemption limits, you need to determine and invest in a tax-reducing instrument as early as possible. You can attain efficiency on FDs by not going above the interest earnings limit. Above that limit, invest in debt mutual funds for tax efficiency and bigger income.

Avail of digital payments

Digital payment has more advantages than using cash. Demonetization compels us even more to go digital, but be aware of online scams and fraud. Automating payment allows you to do the following: pay your credit card, e-wallet or netbanking bills without using cash, allowing you to earn cashbacks and reward points. Moreover, issue ECS instructions for paying your insurance premiums and EMIs. And as more people are now doing, use your debit card for any transaction. Even day-to-day purchases such as groceries and medicines should be done through e-commerce which already utilizes numerous apps and websites. The future is now here in the growing utilization of paperless financial products. The convenience of using of digital bank accounts and digital wallets should encourage you and people around you to shift to this financial format.