It is not a product or a procedure. It is a very personal plan. An individual has to decide what his goals are and how he can go from one level of comfort to another. He would have certain resources coming to him and certain commitments to be fulfilled. A person is able to earn when he is young. These earnings need to be invested wisely so that in old age, when a person's capacity to earn diminishes, he can fall back on his investments. Therefore, he needs to have a clear picture of his financials before making an investment plan.
Example: Take the case of a working couple, aged 30, with two school-going children-a son and a daughter. At present they live a very comfortable life. But they need to plan for the future and invest their earnings wisely to take care of future expenses. The children will want to go in for higher studies within the next 7-10 years. They will need to be married. The family might need a bigger house or there could be some major illness in the family.
All these expenses will have to be met. The needs will increase but the income may not keep pace. If one does not plan for these expenses one may not be able to achieve the milestones as and when they come. So this couple will need to estimate their income flow and visualise their expenses. An investment plan will help them to plan for eventualities in the future.
If one is at comfort level 'A'. From there one needs to go to a higher comfort level 'B'. To do that one would need different types of investment vehicles like stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. One would choose the investment vehicles according to one's needs.
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