A Workable Financial Planning Guide For 35 – 45-year-olds

“A good financial plan is a ‘roadmap’ that shows us exactly how the choices we make today will affect our future.” – Alexa Von Tobel

Everyone dreams to have a stable financial life charted out. The problem arises when the dreamers are more than the planners.

Most of us would have splurged a lot in our 20s or wouldn’t have felt the need to save.

It’s when our late 30’s or early 40’s seem to be nearing. We start worrying about saving for our future.

If you fall anywhere between this category. No need to worry, you still have the time to catch up.

Before starting the process of Financial Planning, it’s important to review the last 10 years of your life.

Let’s do a simple exercise:

• How will you rate the last 10 years of your financial life?
• Do you think you could’ve saved enough over the years?
• What healthy money habits do you wish you had cultivated over the years?
• Do you think you should’ve started investing early?
• What percentage of your portfolio has beaten inflation?
• What mistake do you think you could’ve handled better while dealing with your finances?
• Have you started planning financially for your retirement?
• What do you think you could’ve avoided in your financial planning?
• What do you think has worked best so far in your personal finance?

It’s definitely overwhelming to sit down and plan for your financially secure future. As there are a plethora of resources available on the Internet, it’s normal to get confused.

But let us go through a simplified process of your financial planning.

Financial planning is very much like taking a road trip

Let’s understand how both could be similar:

Now, to help you navigate this path full of ups and downs. You will need a road map.

If you feel you started your financial journey without a road map and got lost…

No need to worry!!!

Because no matter how far you are into the journey, it’s always possible to course correct.

Table of Contents:

1. Handling your Savings Efficiently.
2.Build an Emergency Fund.
3.Planning for your Children’s Education.
4.Risks of Property Investment.
5.Seek the help of a Financial Planner.
6.Planning your Retirement.

1.) Handling your Savings Efficiently:

A trip is something that would constantly bombard you with unexpected expenses such as sudden hunger pangs even if you just finished lunch or one of your tires might get punctured. It may not always be under your control.

Just like how in life, you might have to deal with sudden job loss, accident, natural disasters, etc…. and leave you with expenses you never anticipated in the first place.

As much as it’s hard to think about certain situations, we still need to assess if your family would be able to sustain itself financially if you as the breadwinner of the house died. This is why it’s more than important to have a savings fund you can rely on.

First, you need to create a cash flow table to analyse your expenses from your income. The next step is to start saving immediately. 

Initially, you could invest your savings in fixed income securities to have assured liquid-able investments as a way to keep your life rolling even under emergencies.

To ease you with the process, you can download our “Investible Surplus Calculator” in which you can analyse your expenses and income to figure out your surplus which you can use to invest.

2.) Build an Emergency Fund:

With the rise of the Internet, so has the rise of Internet banking. Even for a cup of chai, we tend to transfer money through the Internet. 

Imagine being somewhere on a road trip without an internet connection? or eating somewhere where they only accept liquid cash? 

For emergencies like this, we tend to keep a few loose changes in our pocket. Your emergency fund requires the same function but it needs to be worth more than a few loose changes. 

Ideally, your emergency fund needs to consist of cash that could cover at least 6 months’ worth of expenses.

You should regularly distribute your income under expenses and savings. Your savings needs to be categorized into various goals you see fit. But your emergency fund should not be touched under any circumstance except in an emergency. 

3.) Planning for your Children’s Education:

Our children are growing up in a world where expectations different from yours are placed on them. It’s no longer adequate to be a degree holder. 

 Our children need to have double degrees and various skills to display on their resumes. Even that seems to fall short at times. 

 So, saving up for their education which might be more expensive in the future than in the present is crucial. Growing up, they might also develop an interest in different niches and express a desire to study abroad.  

 So, it’s more than necessary that you chart a financial plan that includes saving for your children’s future higher education and making sure you have made wise investments to back up their choices.

Just like when you go on a trip along with your kids, you will definitely plan something additional to accommodate their needs.

In the same way, you also need to additionally plan for your kid’s financial future.

4.) Risks of Property Investment:

Many people initially buy out a property somewhere that’s worth a huge amount of corpus. It’s a wise decision if they are going to be living there.

But due to what their career demands, they might be living someplace far away. The property might be sitting somewhere idle and even if it gave out rental income, it still isn’t a sustainable investment in the long run.

Think about how much money would be spent on maintenance of the property, and taxes all for a small rental yield.

Instead, if the money was deposited in equity funds, the amount of surplus would’ve doubled in the long run.

A property might seem like a lucrative investment but mostly it springs up expenses you would not even have expected in the first place.

You can watch our video on “is real estate a good investment?” To better understand its risks.

5.) Seek the help of a Financial Planner:

While planning for a trip, we sought the help of a travel consultant. Especially if we are going somewhere we’ve never been before.  

To help us book the cheapest flights at the ideal time and also to book hotels where they provide complimentary breakfast along with other customer service benefits which we could utilize to our utmost benefit, a travel consultant is the best choice to seek help from.  

In the same way, an experienced financial planner with his expertise in the field of finance will not only help you save money. 

But will also help you take appropriate decisions concerning your financial goals which will help you in the long run.  

A road trip is not about how fast you reach your destination instead it’s about how memorable your trip was. In the same way, a financial Planner will help your financial journey to become easier and to go smoothly. 

6.) Planning your Retirement:

Retirement planning should also come under your overall financial planning.   Imagine coming home after a trip with no resources or a plan to set your life forward. 

Your retirement planning is to decide what to do after the trip ends. 

When you start accumulating money for your long-term goals in your late 30s or your early 40s such as for your retirement, you can start to keep a higher equity exposure. 

You might be worried about the certain risks involved in investing a significant portion of your money in stocks but you will still be able to get a higher return than what you would’ve probably got by investing in fixed income securities. 

Equity investments are perfect for long term goals as Warren Buffet rightly said,

“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years,

Don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”

In your sunset years, having a well-diversified portfolio yielding you better returns helps you completely enjoy and relax.

As you near your retirement age, it would be a wise move to transfer at least 70% of your portfolio to fixed income securities by reducing your equity exposure to 30%. As this will help in rolling out a steady income which will also be able to provide you with inflation-beating returns.

At the end of the journey, a financially secure future would become a reality.

Being disciplined while sticking to your financial plan along with patiently moving forward with it would yield better results than you can imagine. 

Now, take some time to re-assess your financial plan?

• How do you plan to implement your financial goals into becoming a reality?
• Do you have debts? How are you planning to become debt-free?
• How are you planning to save to reach your financial goals?
• How do you want the next 10 years of your financial life to be?
• What is your plan to have an inflation-beating return?
• What is your ideal retirement lifestyle? How do you plan to achieve that?
• How are you planning to go about your financial planning moving forward?

To help you ease your process of financial planning, we are happy to provide you with our “Net worth calculator”. You can easily calculate your assets along with adjust your liabilities to determine your net worth. This will help you in periodically reviewing your net worth which in turn helps you plan your finances accordingly. 

For tailor-made outcomes, it’s a wise decision to seek the help of a financial planner who can customize a financial plan according to your financial goals.

If you are wondering where to approach a financial planner? Holistic has got you covered. Reach out to us if you think using professional strategies would help you yield great results.

Register on the below link to avail our 30 minutes complimentary financial consultation and get your doubts cleared by experienced professionals.

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