How to invest in Different Stages of Life?
There’s a proverb that goes something like, “Right thing will come at the right time.” This theory applies to real life, thus you should adopt it. You’ll indeed go through several phases of life. Those aspirations and those duties grow with you as you go through each level. In this way, it’s possible that wanting everything at once is counterproductive.
Therefore, you should go with your life so that you can reach your goals at the appropriate times.
Phases Of Life For Investing
Stage | Categories of life Stage |
Stage 1 | Bachelor |
Stage 2 | Marriage |
Stage 3 | Parenthood |
Stage 4 | Retirement |
These are distinct stages in your life. Each of these stages introduces a new investing goal. Each step represents a significant achievement. These are the goals you desire to accomplish in your life. Let us go through these steps one by one.
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Unmarried And Young – Bachelore Stage
In terms of your current lifestyle, you have a lot of costs. Going out to eat, purchasing the latest technological equipment, and mingling with friends might all be costly, but they are all worth it to keep you happy and active. At the same time, now is an excellent moment to begin developing the habit of investing since you have time on your side. Prepare an investment plan & start investing today, even if you can only invest a modest amount. And do it as frequently as you can, for example, by utilising SIP Invetment plan.
In general, this is an accumulation period in investing, during which you may take greater risks with your money. You will be able to recover from or sit out any volatility in your assets because you have no dependents. Furthermore, you are likely to have short- to medium-term objectives throughout these years, such as purchasing a car or continuing your professional education, and investing correctly may help you attain those goals.
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Life As A Young Married Couple – Marriage Stage
This stage is a combination of accumulation and transition—you’ve reached a new, more responsible stage in your life. You will most likely be working hard, creating a career, and amassing cash while also aiming toward other milestones such as purchasing a home for your family.
As time passes, new expenditures, such as a car or home furnishings, may necessitate the discharge of part of your savings or investments. At this point, consider fine-tuning your understanding of your risk profile. While you should continue to buy wealth generating assets at this point, you may also want to examine some reduced volatility items to help fund your house or any other short-term costs. You will also consider goods such as life insurance to cover your family in the event of an unexpected incident, especially if you are the only contributing member of the family and your spouse is reliant on you.
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Married Couple With Small Children – Parenthood Stage
This era of life is both an accumulation and a transition period. While you will still be young enough to save for retirement and other long-term goals, other factors will now determine your risk profile. You may have dependents and, as a result, increased outgoings, such as health insurance; you would like to begin saving for your children’s education. Investment plan for children’s higher education should be done over a medium-term time horizon of 10 years or more (depending on how early you start).
Investigate current costs and factor in inflation to determine how much you will require when your children are ready for higher education. This aim is adequately matched by investment in equities mutual funds given the time horizon. You should also start preparing for your retirement now, which may be funded by equity exposure (particularly through equities mutual funds) because it will be more than 15-20 years away and you still have time and the force of compounding on your side.
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Married Couple With Elder Children – Parenthood Stage 2
In this investing period, your goals and investment plan were shifting, yet your career is likely to be in full swing at this point. As your children grow older, you will need to consider if they want to pursue further education. You may also need to look farther ahead and consider wedding plans. This requires a strategic rethink and, once again, an intentional increase in contribution to your portfolio, more toward equities but with a well-diversified viewpoint to avoid being overly aggressive or taking too much risk. At the same time, keep in mind that your retirement is approaching, which means you’ll need to rebalance your portfolio accordingly.
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Pre Retirement – Retirement Stage
This is typically a transition period when retirement is just a few years away and your concerns are primarily restricted to you and your spouse, since most of your children’s requirements have been met- after all, you have been a responsible and wise investor, planning for all of the earlier objectives so successfully! Pre-retirement is a time in which you are likely to reduce the risks to which your portfolio is exposed since you are nearing retirement and may need to use part of your anticipated retirement assets soon. So, during this period, be sure to change and rebalance your investment plan portfolio as needed, and that you are prepared for the next stage of your investment life: distribution.
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Retirement – Final Stage of Investment
The golden years are here! Consider this step to be the distribution phase, in which you receive the benefits of all your hard work. It is the stage that you have worked so hard to prepare for ensuring that you have enough money to create a solid income to support your lifestyle and that of any dependents. Because you may not have active income-generating employment right now, your collected retirement corpus will function to generate the necessary income for you.
In general, at this point in life, it is a smart practice to keep your capital in lower-risk products, such as debt mutual funds, which, coupled with the Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP), will give you monthly income. People are living longer and longer lives as a result of medical advances and a general focus on active health and fitness. As a result, you may want to keep a percentage of your portfolio (maybe 20-25%) devoted to wealth-generating asset classes, such as a few solid stocks, some diversified and well-established equities mutual funds, and so on. Simultaneously, you may want to consider cutting back on certain discretionary spending so that you can save for any unforeseen bills, such as medical crises.
Variable Factors that Drive Changes in How We Invest
Let’s look at the main aspects that affect an individual’s investing decisions at each of these periods of life before considering the approach an investor should take:
Amount of Available Funds: After paying all of your usual costs, your disposable income is the amount you have left over. Savings and investments are made with this discretionary income. A person’s disposable income is influenced by a variety of variables, including their overall income, the number of dependents they have, their debt load, etc.
Age: When making an investment plan or decission, age plays a very large role. In general, as a person gets older, their appetite for risk decreases. This is because as people become older, they have more obligations, which makes them risk-averse.
Savings: Savings is a significant aspect that influences the amount of money that a person has available for investment. To have a greater corpus to invest with, it is advised to start saving as soon as feasible.
Economic Patterns: The status of the nation’s economy and current economic trends have an impact on investment decisions as well. Investments rise when the economy is growing and fall when it’s in a slump.
Investment Plan in Different Stages of Life
Let’s look at the investment plan you need to make to effectively complete these phases now that you have examined the numerous stages and what you will be expected to perform in each of them. The top investing opportunities for 2022 are listed below.
Retirement Plans:
These are the investment plan that support your financial security once you retire. After retirement, these plans may be able to assist you in generating a consistent income to cover your costs.
You can choose from a variety of retirement plan types, including:
- Public Provident Fund (PPF)
It’s a retirement plan backed by the government. It is risk-free and delivers enticing interest since it is governed by the government. PPF scheme also offers tax advantages to you.
Interest Rate | 7.1% per annum. |
Minimum Investment Amount | Rs.500 |
Maximum Investment Amount | Rs 1.5 lakh per annum. |
Tax Benefit | Up to Rs.1.5 lakh under Section 80C |
Risk Profile | Offers guaranteed, risk-free returns |
Tenure | 15 years |
- Employee Provident Fund (EPF)
Employees can save for their retirement through this plan, which is run by the EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organization).
- To participate in this plan, both you and your employer must contribute 12% of your basic salary each month.
- If you’re a woman, you simply need to make an 8% contribution for the first three years.
- The interest rate is 8.5% per annum.
National Pension Scheme (NPS) and ULIP are other investments that you can make.
- Investment Plan for short-term investments
Along with making plans for long-term objectives like retirement, you also need to be aware of your immediate requirements. You must create investments that are more readily available and have a short timeframe for these. The following things satisfy these requirements:
- Bank Fixed Deposits
In the views of the Indian populace, it is the safest and one of the most well-liked investments. You receive fixed interest rates from the bank FD for the time period you specify.
Any bank or even a post office will let you open a bank FD account. FDs have fairly flexible terms and can occasionally serve as long-term investments. You can create a fixed-deposit account for any duration, ranging from seven days to ten years. Rates offered by different banks vary; they normally range from 3.5 to 6%. Seniors receive higher interest rates. Other option for short terms investment are mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc.
The Bottom Line:
Keep in mind that life does not always unfold as neatly as you may like. Unexpected events might occur, both good and unpleasant. At first, glance, having a financial strategy that takes into consideration the majority of these events may appear complex, but in reality, it is rather straightforward and may help you navigate through difficult times and accomplish the majority of your financial objectives. It just involves keeping your portfolio balanced at all times, being extremely aware of what’s happening, and occasionally reacting to it. The more in charge you keep now, the simpler it will be to create a joyful tomorrow.
FAQs
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What is financial planning?
The process of financial planning is comparable to a methodical approach to problem resolution. Each organised exercise in corporate issue solving comprises a set of stages (the same can be applied in financial planning as well). However, the process of financial planning often consists of 6 parts. These methods will be quite familiar to the majority of financial counsellors and certified financial planners (CFPs). Investors should be aware that, while CFPs or financial planners can be crucial to the financial planning process, the success of the financial plan ultimately rests with the investor.
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How soon should you begin investing?
Some individuals might ponder the best timing to begin investing. The solution is to begin as early as possible so that you may take advantage of time, based on your investment objectives and risk tolerance.
The average person now lives a longer, healthier life thanks to medical improvements. To maximise the advantages of compounding over a long period of time, investing early is essential.
To maximise the benefits of the compounding effect over a long period of time, investments should be made as early as possible. Young people starting careers may find this to be a good time to clarify their financial objectives, create a strategy, and begin investing.
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How should someone start investing?
Before beginning a long-term investment journey, you would need to set financial goals, just like you would pick a destination while travelling.
When we enter different periods of life, we have varied financial demands. The more typical financial requirements can be for continuing your school, getting married, purchasing a home, starting a family, and retirement preparation. Having a solid global positioning system (GPS) that can direct us toward our life goals is like having clear financial objectives.
Your long-term investment journey may be aided by defining your financial goals and developing a strategy to meet them, even when your life, the markets, and the economy change. You may then develop an investing strategy that enables you to take advantage of the larger investment horizons for objectives with longer time frames once you have determined how much to put toward each goal based on your priorities.
To meet emergencies and future major needs without having to sell your investments during bear markets, it is also ideal to keep a reserve fund of cash and liquid short-term investments.
Interested in how we think about the markets?
Read more: Zen And The Art Of Investing
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