The recent news of 23-year young Captain who laid his life while fighting on the border moved my heart. Their patriotism and the willingness to risk life for the nation is commendable. This emotional fervor for them last for few days and then the reality of life dawns on their family. As a financial planner I was wondering about their families and whether they plan their finances.
Our international flight landed at Mumbai airport and I heaved a sigh of relief. I was irritated by Long sitting hours, headache, temporary deafness due to air pressure, booming noise, turbulence and last but not the least-fear of crash. While exiting the plane, a passing thought came to my mind- if air traveler goes through all these what about the staff especially the Air pilot who do their job day in day out!
Beyond the excitement of flying the plane, a Pilot’s career means odd working hours, medical issues, mandatory retirement age and job uncertainty due to airlines going bust.
We have always seen our mothers on the front-foot, towards managing the house, family, husband, kids, or virtually everything in the house. Also referred as a “Tiger-mom” towards handling kid’s education, other activities, with a selfless motive, to ensure that kids just excel. And the story continues,with our dear spouse as well (wife). 😉
But when it comes to finance or investments, they just give it up, either it’s the father, or the dear husband, who becomes the driver on managing investments.
But I still recall, whenever one need handy cash or some contingency funds, pop comes the money, mostly as cash or some unknown Bank FD/ deposit.
A right financial planner is the doctor of doctors!
Doctor’s duty is to understand the patient’s problems, diagnose it and then provide the right medication or solution to them. But when it comes to their own financial planning, do doctors go to a financial planner or a financial doctor? I randomly spoke to my doctors & their friends, outcome was startling… as none of them have a financial planner.
There are many milestones of being an adult. Signing your own lease for the first time, being able to rent a car, having someone call you ma’am.
But being an adult also means being responsible for your own finances. Like many things, you can’t have a successful financial future if you don’t plan for it. The best way to do that? Create a budget.
Creating a budget can seem daunting, but it just requires a series of steps. See below for help on creating your first budget.
Track your expenses
Before you can start a budget full of limits, you need to know how much you’re spending right now. Take two or three months to spend normally and track your transactions in Moneyfrog.in.
Fixed expenses like rent, insurance and utilities will be easier to monitor than variable expenses, such as groceries, entertainment and travel, which will fluctuate month-to-month.
Even though consumers have been using online banking and mobile applications for years, the concept of online financial planners like Moneyfrog.in is still new. In comparison to a traditional face-to-face financial planning relationship, how do online financial planners work?
Online financial planners allow you to:
“I have opted for financial planning and wanted to invest in mutual funds” – when I told this to my mom; she was as concerned, as one feels towards a medical patient.
Now stop smiling there!
If it reminds you of a famous dialogue-“It happens only in India”, then you are wrong. It’s not just the case in India, it’s worldwide. People are afraid about investing in market either because of their bitter experiences or scarce knowledge.
My mom warned me to either take a money back insurance policy or open a bank FD account for all my needs. She said “it’s more than (more…)
Yes, very true, this is exactly what everyone thinks in India, whenever we hear the term “Financial Planning”.
Since the day I have started my venture in similar field and my interactions with my near & dear ones to promote same, reactions have been quite similar, i.e. they perceive my pitch as another advisor in town, who wants to sell investments (i.e. Insurance or Mutual Fund). And all most all of them have replied back (though without hurting my feelings), that they will call back once they have funds in hand… 😉
As a matter of fact, my own experience of last 15 years in capital market & my recent venture, where we have registered more than 1500 customers for Financial Planning, most of them or rather 99% of them, relate the term “Financial Planning” to “selling new investments”.
Well for starters, my interaction with customers of all categories, i.e. retail to mass affluent or even budding HNI’s, not just in today’s market scenario, but since last 15 years of my corporate career, is that customers don’t mind paying for advice, as long as same delivers, “what is preached?”
Pop comes out question; why we don’t have players or offerings which takes care of same?
My understanding, it’s all about vision & execution from a leader or from a company, where we have very few risk takers or even innovators. We all follow a herd mentality, not just at a customer level, but even at a company & leader levels. In short, we have very few companies, who would want to try new products or create new demand. I am talking about companies like Apple, Facebook, even our own Tata motors with Nano… all have DNA built on innovation & customer centric working. Whereas most of the other companies, follow the herd mentality.