What is Financial Planning?

Financial planning is a comprehensive, on-going approach that starts with helping you define your dreams, developing a plan to help you get there, then tracking your progress along the way and finally recommending changes where needed. In other words it is the process of wisely managing your finances so that you can achieve your dreams and goals — while at the same time helping you negotiate the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life.

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Do we understand the concept of Financial Planning?

Unless you were born with a silver spoon and your wealth allows you to indulge in every excess you can think of, you are a common man like most of us and like every common man, you need financial discipline and you need financial planning. To start with, you need to understand the reason for financial planning: its contours, its need and its delivery.

No matter what our individual economic status is the truth is that all of us have desires, goals and aspirations. Some of us are fortunate to have the benefit of an inheritance or the largesse from a distant relative to fulfil every such need. A majority of the masses, however, are less fortunate. For the truly middle income man the need to provide for future known events – education, wedding/s, retirement et al – is predetermined. He simply needs to talk to an expert and explain his special position in life and seek professional answers to how he can achieve all his financial goals.

‘Financial Planning’ is the tool that can help you accomplish your financial dreams and aid in achieving financial freedom. The tool is a scientific approach designed to understand an individual’s current and projected income and assets and then work around allocating funds to investments that can yield returns. The investments are constantly revisited to ensure that they are delivering as assumed. If funds are performing below par the investments are re-configured with other funds yielding better results on the day. This “reallocation” is one of the greatest advantages of working with professional guides; they know the business, they understand your needs and they will constantly be by your side ensuring advice that is in your best interests.

 

Financial Planning - Why you must plan your finances?

Financial planning isn’t something that strikes many people as exciting; one wouldn’t imagine people feeling very enthusiastic when told that they need to sit and figure out their finances. Would you get in the car and drive for hundreds of kilometers without knowing where you were going? With no destination in mind, how will you ever know if you’ve arrived? Just as you wouldn’t take a long road trip without a map, you should not go about your financial future without a financial plan. We think, wrongly, that financial planning is only for people who have lots of money to put away. The truth is everyone needs financial planning.

Like most people, you have hopes, dreams, and life goals for yourself and your family. These might include buying a home or business, saving for college education for your children, taking a dream vacation and retiring comfortably. But the pressures and complexities of everyday life can make setting and achieving financial goals difficult. Yet, doing so is vital if you are to enjoy the benefits of a secure financial future. That’s why it makes good sense to have a financial plan in place.

 

How Financial Planning makes a difference?

True financial planning is based on a long-term, one-to-one relationship with an advisor and involves a comprehensive, on-going approach to managing all areas of your financial life. A financial plan can make tremendous changes in how you feel about your finances by increasing your confidence about financial matters. Recent research shows that people who have written plans say they:

• Are more likely to feel their “retirement has worked out the way they planned”

• Are more likely to have determined the amount of money needed to save for retirement

• Have a clear financial direction

• Feel prepared, even during changing market conditions