Lately, the population of India understands the importance of being invested in the Financial market. It’s about individuals’ growth in terms of financing throughout the stages of their life expectancy. Having a flow of cash at any point in time is quintessential for reasons like retirement and financing the needs of the younger generation in the family ecosystem. The average life expectancy of an Indian is accounting for 70 years, have we got a plan for our finances yet, or are we on the verge of living in the moment for now?
Financial Literacy to all: Now more than ever!
It’s time for Indians to acquire knowledge about financing now more than ever because of a need to make informed decisions on money management. Indeed, 76% of the Indian adult population doesn’t have a basic understanding of the concepts in finance that could have yielded their life aspect with financial stability by now but this is not the current case for most of them. The thrive to progress in this sector is seen amongst many. It is witnessed as there is a huge difference in the adaptation of digital bank accounts on this day than that was in 2014. But the thought of making wise financial decisions is yet to instill in a vast audience.
For instance, looking at momentary growth by investing in short-term instruments might meet the needs of short-term goals but surely not for long-term goals. Thinking from an economic perspective, neither the life stage goal of a household is met nor the intensive balance in a capital requirement for the growth of the country’s economy is met in such decisions.
Financial literacy in India currently constitutes only 24%. The benefits of being financially sound are good for one and all but how do we go about it?
Indians don’t save enough…
Since the pandemic catastrophe, folks have had an understanding of the impact of financial planning on well-being. Though the concerns of saving money are on the checklist of individuals the need to do it right away is sidelined due to other financial priorities for expenses.
On world-saving day, Scripbox, a well-known digital wealth management platform, made an online survey to learn the sentiments of the investor. The active participants of the survey included 630 of them and spanning the age bracket of 25 to 55+. There was equal participation from both men and women where 50% of the respondents were falling under the age of 35 and the rest above 35.
Having known the details of the survey, the overview of it was projecting an intricate conveyal that depicts the current sentiment of an investor in financial planning. The major concern is that people hardly save from their income at this point in time. Only 20% of the respondents save around 20 – 30% of their income while the larger chunk of the data that is 50% of the respondents are into saving anywhere from 0 – 20%.
There were two observations made where 42% of the respondents agreed upon having a financial plan and 23% would want to be invested in wealth creation. The majority of the respondents lean towards having funds for emergencies while 43% of the respondents wanted to save or invest for retirement.
What’s more interesting about the survey is, people below 35 years of age are investing in the instruments while the above 35 years are most prone to keeping their savings sitting idle in the bank account. This speaks more about the millennials having a greater affinity toward financial planning than anyone else.
Having a thought for saving seems ideal for financial planning and having a thought process for investing is making space for wealth creation. Growing money by investing comes from little savings accumulated by you. Where do you stand on the two ends of the financial spectrum?
Time value of money in the present & future
Reasons why people are not Investing
Have you ever wondered why 76% of investors are not into investing? The reasons are obvious to us but putting them here makes a difference to overcome and begin the investment thoughtfully. The point is whether you are up for interpreting and overcoming it to attain financial stability.
5 reasons that are stopping you from investing
1. The attitude that’s averse to change
The need to stick with safer returns has been the conservative thought amongst all investors. 6 lakh crore new accounts were opened during 2020 for FD. That indeed depicts the need to be invested in FD as relaxing and risk-free though the interest rate offered is lesser.
The subjectivity of risk is what makes the market run with its overall sentiments. One can still think of low-risk fixed-income assets that are offering higher returns to grow the money, having researched the issuer details to predict the growth of the firm by seeing its historical trajectory is still possible.
2. Greater liking for Gold than Other Assets
Physical asset Gold has some auspicious sentiments attached to it. So the go-to option at the moment is Gold without any doubt. But taking into account the numbers depict that the dip in Gold last year could have made the losses while the fixed-income returns at high-interest rates were making regular income at lower risk.
3. Not enough capital to Invest
The general notion of having a huge corpus to invest is in the back of the mind but isn’t the true scenario. An investment as low as Rs 10,000 can still be a means to receive regular monthly returns. So that leads one to research rather than assuming. At the moment investors have their assumptions rather than knowledge.
4. Issues with trust in the Market
It’s an obvious thing to acknowledge that when we lack knowledge about a subject, we tend to have issues with trusting the market. The bond market has been emerging and little do people know about the bonds that are offering higher interest rates at nearly low risk. Trusting the market comes with knowledge and shows the need to be invested rightly.
5. Scarce Knowledge of Finance
Consumer education is very necessary in recent times due to increased product complexity thereby needing selective advertisement to reach out. That is just one of the ways to imbibe understanding in people’s minds, yet it has done way better compared to years that lacked this. The main crux here is to educate them on the need to invest now for the future which gives them a sense of accountability to live a financially stable life. Establishing finance literacy among investors has been a challenge and is not actively being pursued in recent times.
Here comes the three stages of Financial Planning
Our economic state can be analyzed based on the decisions we make in the financial planning stages. We’ve been talking about the need to have financial planning in place and it’s time you learn about it. The 3 phases might sound like a basic concept yet hold an impact in making informed decisions in the phases of our life.
#1 Wealth Accumulation
Living a young and energetic life is a space for thoughtful planning and to the contrary, the later stage of life is no longer supported as it is now. The time and value of money earned at the beginning of your career is a destination for career progression as well as progression in the growth of money. Having to blow it in a minute might seem alluring at this point but may not be the same when our skin and bones are deteriorating. Having thought about our next versions, every time we blow money keeps us in the understanding to save.
Saving and timeline for doing it at an early age help in compounding the sum no matter how much it was accumulated while saving. This stage of wealth accumulation when done wisely leads to the next phase of planning.
“Saving over time = Wealth Accumulation!”
#2 Wealth Preservation
Before this stage, the idea was to save, but now it’s about re-evaluating the accumulated savings to think of retirement planning. The stage needs your most attention to make plans and investment that secures you during the time of retirement, having a conscious thought about the financial security of the children, including planning for tax savings and receiving proper annuities.
So how are you preserving your accumulation? That’s about this stage!
#3 Wealth Distribution
What pays off your retirement stage is the planning in the previous stages. What’s accumulated and preserved is giving paychecks while you aren’t receiving one from the workplace. The accomplishment of this is so much needed, but we might still struggle to comprehend the need to have achieved it, well that’s the ultimatum of living tense-free.
What mattered here is how you gave thought to distribute your investments to fulfill a goal!
That’s the 3 basics of financial planning that lead to the accomplishment of financial goals for freedom. Does that put you to plan for every crucial time of your life? Start thinking about savings and investments seriously!
The investment plan that a senior citizen must know!
Plan your financial future now!
We all are still vibing to live for the essentials at the moment but there is no thought given to our future. Over-expenses are momentary, and savings and investments are essentials like its food to live life. The point of financial planning is for future financial freedom that lets us have a dignified life even while the cost of living expenses is dramatically increasing. We don’t know what’s in the future but we can do as much as we can today to have a future with certainty to an extent of not worrying about having cash flow.
