Let,s Celebrate  this Diwali with Peace Prosperity & Happiness by just  following  this 7 simple steps towards Complete Financial Well-Being

One the Eve of Diwali, I just want to wish all my avid reader a very happy &  prosperous Diwali, Diwali is the biggest, brightest and the most celebrated festival in our country like India. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair. It is well-known that Goddess Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, Goddess Saraswati is the Goddess of knowledge and wisdom while Lord Ganesha is considered the God of intelligence. Gaining wealth without knowledge and intellect will only result in misusing the wealth. So, this Diwali we must all make an effort to acquire knowledge and intelligence to manage and spend wealth for prosperity to last and flourish. That’s precisely the reason why people worship these three deities together to welcome wealth along with knowledge, wisdom and intelligence. It is so unfortunate that though we spend half of our lives working long hours to make our ends meet to  earn money & live our livelihood, Still yet we are barely able to take out time to manage our personal finances. The need of the hour is to not only earn wisely, but also allocate our time in managing & understanding our relationship with  money and come out clear change in our mindset. To make it more simple to understand just this simple steps to follow it.

1. Educate & Enhance  your Financial knowledge:  Today everyone  of us suffer from financial illness  like low returns, loan trap, under insurance, insufficient retirement funds and improper asset allocation. The major cause of these problems is that though we had studied & understand  various subjects like mathematics and science at school, but we have not been taught about personal finance which is important  in our daily life. Having the right education  of PERSONAL FINANCE is imperative and is the first step towards your financial well - being & Financial Freedom too. 

2. Have a Goal for every Investment Objective: Planning is important at every stage of life, and is absolutely important  when it comes to matters of money. You must set your financial goals for every stage of life and plan their achievement levels. Financial Goals can be of three types: Short, medium and Long-term. A short-term Goal could be anything like say purchasing a car, a medium-term goal may include planning your child's education or child marriage  and a long-term Goal could be your retirement planning. Whatever be the financial requirement, it can be fulfilled by determining its urgency and thereby making a saving plan for each goal.

3. Budgeting: To gain control over your finances, you need to know how much you are earning and where you are spending. Budgeting will help you to identify high or low  expense area and help you to understand  how you can curtail unnecessary expenses. This knowledge can be very helpful in saving money and building wealth in the long run. 

4. Loan Management: We should review our existing loans and ensure that we only have good debt aka loans that will help us in increasing our net worth in the long run like education loan. In case we have bad debt we should plan for repaying the same immediately  like  your personal loan or car loan. A proper debt management  will also help us find out ways to reduce our interest burdens too. 

5. Invest as per your Risk Appetite: We should understand that risk and return are the two sides of the same coin and an investment with a higher return indeed bears a higher risk. Therefore, we should plan our investments as per our risk appetite and investment horizon. We should also ensure that the post tax returns on our investments are able to beat inflation and additionally, offer sufficient liquidity.

6. Tax Planning align to your Financial Planning: For most of us, tax planning is an end-of-the year activity just before march month ending, Last minute exercise. Tax planning should actually be done keeping in mind our needs, It should link to our different life goals and risk appetite in conjunction with the overall financial planning. You should take help of an expert who can help you plan your taxes in a way.It save in maximum for your financial goals.

7. Take the help of Professional: In Personal finance matter we only become our expert or follow our uncle/neighbour friend  rather than  seeking  expert professional advice in this regard,  Infact  in every field, such as consulting a doctor for our health, an architect for constructing our home, a chartered accountant for managing our taxes, or a lawyer for handling our legal matters, sadly when it comes to taking advice on one of the most important matters of Life ‘Finance’, or Personal Finance  we listen to anyone and everyone. Our beloved friend who is also an insurance agent becomes our insurance advisor, our chartered accountant becomes our wealth manager, our  office colleague  who just made money from a ‘hot stock tip’ become our share market advisor. And we absolutely forget the need of the most important and relevant of all a qualified financial planner for our financial planning  need.

Irony  in India, the financial service providers often focus on providing commission or brokerage based recommendations. They are not bothered about providing right information  to their clients to help them manage their money for financial well being. Hence, we need qualified  financial experts who can give solutions considering one’s over all need & requirement , attitude, life style, risk tolerance and financial situation. Transparency and integrity  & qualification are the main aspects you must consider while selecting a financial planner for yourself  for your Personal Finance.

Conclusion :-  So  just  follow  this steps  for  your complete Financial Well-Being & again  Wishing  You a happy and prosperous Diwali that will last a lifetime.