Skip to main content

Let’s share our financial mistakes This 2017



How many times have we taken an insurance policy because our uncle was the agent. Or how many times have we signed on a document without reading it fully just because the one taking our signatures was a close person. But sometimes sooner or later, we had to pay some price for our stupid financial decisions. This post is all about admitting our financial disasters and learning from them. I want all of us to start this 2017 by consciously agreeing to the wrong we did in the previous year and moving forward with a lesson learnt. Let’s begin with myself – Me despite being a Financial Planner myself, have done a couple of financial mistakes. The worst one being not saving during the initial years of my career. I didn’t start with a great six figure salary, it was nominal. Still, I could have saved with whatever I was earning, but I was so much into spending what I thought was mine with nobody to question me. And Yes, I proudly admit being a spendthrift to the level that I bought a Car with my first Bonus money. It was not needed, was a depreciating asset, and even if I wanted one I had a choice to buy pre-used car. But No, I wanted to spend what I had earned. My stupid without thinking spending stopped only when I saw my husband saving, and appreciating himself on his savings. And yes, then I did all the mathematics for my retirement needs, and after knowing the amount I need to save for my healthy retirement, I at least started saving that much.

Even our extravagant shopping comes under the Category of Mismanaged Money/Finance. With the advent of Online Shopping, everybody has turned into one shopaholic. We are buying things we don’t need or probably won’t use ever. Just because shopping has become so convenient, we feel that urge to buy at every occasion. So, our budgeting skills have already gone for a toss. As per PwC’s report by CII, headed as ‘e-commerce in India – A Game Changer for the Economy’, number of online shoppers will grow to 220 million by the year 2020 from 140 million in 2018, all due to ease of buying and our changing shopping habits.




(Source: http://italiaindia.com/images/uploads/pdf/april-2016-e-commerce-in-india.pdf)


As per S&P survey on financial literacy, over 76% Indians lack understanding in key financial concepts. Financial Literacy means that people have the knowledge to understand key finance concepts like inflation, risk diversification, compound interest, and numeracy.  Anyone who knew 3 out of these 4 concepts was termed as Financially Literate. It is hard to admit that 76% of us were not aware of fundamental financial concepts.

It is my sincere request to all of you who gets some time to read this, please share your financial mistakes so that all can learn about the possibilities of the mistakes when it comes to Personal Finance. And we can all save each other in a Country where there are no Health and Retirement Benefits available to majority of us. Only our Financial Prudence will enable us to live happily without worries of future.



Charu Hastir, CFPCM is founder of http://www.theriteplan.com/. Rite plan is an online financial planning portal created to achieve a single objective of providing easy and Do It Yourself Financial Planning to netizens. Rite Plan is wholly owned by Tikkun Olam Financial Planning Services LLP. Please visit: https://theriteplan.com/index.php?route=common/home/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018: 5 Money Lessons we need to unlearn

I. FD’s are the Best Investments Post Demonetisation Banks have reduced their deposit rates. Following which Fixed Deposits now are not an attractive debt investment option. Moreover, If you fall in 30% Tax Bracket then the return which you will earn from your FD will fall further. II. Time the Markets They Say, Time and Tide waits for none. Well, you can say the same for equity markets as well. So, don’t try to time the market, stay invested for the long term. *Sensex moved from 26595 to 34056 in the year 2017 III. Save only during Tax saving season As Benjamin Franklin rightly said, “You may delay, but time will not.” You should not save only in the Tax saving season, you should invest systematically with discipline at regular intervals. This way you can average out your returns. IV. Rely on your Company Health Insurance Most of us don’t take Personal Health Plan, thinking that our Company covers us. But have we ever thought of a scenario when we ar
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Financial Planning?

What is Financial Planning? One of my friends came to my place for a cup of coffee and while chatting over how life is going, where is it heading, he told me that his elder daughter wishes to go abroad for her graduation. And when I asked him that how is he planning to fulfill her wish, he just laughed it off saying that her graduation is 10 years away, why should he get worried about it now. This attitude of his made me think about the importance of planning ahead of our financial goals and how many of us are conveniently ignoring this very fact. The Term Financial Planning defines itself as planning your finances well. It is a perfect marriage between your finances and your life goals. Efficiently managing your expenses and savings in order to achieve your future goals is nothing but Financial Planning. What are future goals? They differ from person to person. Some might want to take a luxurious trip abroad and some might wish for own home. But there are few goals which m
15 comments
Read more

Union Budget and Your Financial Plan?

Honorable Financial Minister Piyush Goyal presented this year’s Interim Budget on 1 st February 2019. Every Year, on the day of the budget announcement, you can see almost every individual glued on to their Television or mobiles to check the budget updates with much excitement. Sometimes the Budget announcements cheer us and sometimes they make us sad as we think that there are not many benefits being offered for individuals in our tax slab. Budget is also referred as Annual Financial Statement as it contains an extensive account of the Government’s finances i.e. Government’s revenue and expenditure for the fiscal year. How relevant is this budget when it comes to our personal financial savings? Should we wait for the Budget to be announced and then start our investments or should we do our investments without any relevance to the Budget? Let’s discuss this in detail. Budget helps in Tax Planning Budget surely helps in planning the taxes for the next financial ye
1 comment
Read more