Incomes typically grow till your retirement. Your monthly income might support your groceries and other bills but it is inadequate for large expenses. This is what necessitates investments for your future.

One big and certain investment needed is retirement planning. To know how much pension you would require, you should look up an online retirement fund calculator. This simple tool asks for a few details and gives you a solution to your pension problems. It will ask you for:

● Current Age
● Age when you will retire
● How long you’d want a pension
● Current monthly expenses
● Expected Inflation
● Saving done for Retirement till date

Once you answer these, the online retirement fund calculator lets you know the total sum you require as well as the monthly expenses on retirement. It also tells you how much monthly savings are required to reach there.

But apart from pension, what if you simply want to know the maturity amount of any of your investments? That can be easily found by using the Maturity Amount Calculator.

Feed in the following:

● Principal invested
● Rate of interest
● Period of investment
● Compounding frequency

With the click of a button, it calculates the maturity amount for you.

It’s always good to know the figures that you’re working for, and the figures that your investments will lead to. It works as a great motivation to know all that you can do with that money.

Read More

The best military strategies win because they were pre-planned. No General can maintain a winning record by impulsively taking decisions that could have a long-term impact. The same analogy applies to any sport you practice, and any human achievement that you admire. Planning is necessary for long-term success. And you can define the success of your life with Financial Planning.

But before you plan, you must have a good idea of the current scenario as well as your long-term objectives. Therefore, the first step to attaining your life’s goals is Financial Assessment, which is, How much of your income needs to go into fixed expenditures as well as variable ones, resulting in how much money you can actually save. Once you have these figures, you move on to Financial Planning.

Briefly, there are a lot of financial products that you can invest in. But you must choose only those that deliver your long-term financial goals, such as a vehicle, a home, old-age security and so on. Approach a financial services company, who have experienced professionals to assist you in selecting the right plan for your life.

Once you have figured out the plan --- how much of your savings go into insurance, mutual funds, pension plans and so on --  you can be worry-free for the rest of your life. Not only is your present covered, your future is secure too. Whatever happens next won’t bother you, because it’s all covered under your plan. Get ready to savour your successes, one after another!

Read More

Question: The market is down. Shall I stop the SIP?

Answer: To stop your SIP when the equity market has fallen is the worst possible mistake you can commit. To benefit from an SIP investment, you need to stay invested across market cycles. If you continue with your SIP, you will be able to purchase more units of the Mutual Fund during the downturn. Your long-term returns will benefit from those low-cost purchases. When you stop your SIP, you also flout the principle of asset allocation, which requires that you maintain your allocation to different asset classes at a predetermined level, irrespective of market conditions. By stopping your SIP, you tilt the asset allocation of your portfolio away from equities and towards cash, a decision that will harm your portfolio returns. Going by the logic of asset allocation, you should, in fact, invest more in the equity market when it is down.

Read More