Mr. Money, a constant necessity for all of us to meet our essential needs such as food, clothing, and shelter to live comfortably and to satisfy the majority of our wants. All of this involves a continual flow of funds, which implies proper long-term planning.
While having easy access to money provides you with the material comforts you desire, you are merely borrowing from the future, which must be repaid through time and work rather than just money. As a result, it is necessary to plan your funds to achieve your future needs.
Investing is a practice in which you set aside a portion of your income regularly and invest in an instrument that can beat inflation while also helping to preserve your corpus.
Money continues to lose value as goods and services get more costly year after year, therefore your money must increase at a greater pace than the current rate of inflation.
You have a variety of investment alternatives. You can either acquire a fixed income with minimal risk and low returns, or you can invest in a high-risk but high-income choice.
Investing in an instrument depends upon your financial goals. It’s necessary to establish life goals and make investments following them. These objectives could include your child’s education, marriage, or the construction of a home.
Longer-term objectives can be easily achieved through equity-based investing. As you get closer to your goal, you might convert your investments to a more secure fixed-income instrument to protect the gains from your stock investments.
Fixed income instruments:
- Bank Fixed Deposits
- Post office schemes/PF/PPF
- Convertible and Non-Convertible Debentures
- Government Securities
- Corporate Bonds
These products are for the risk-averse investor who is content with a reasonable return on investment and does not want to put his or her money in danger. PPF/PF and Government Securities are the safest investments since they are backed by a government guarantee.
Equity linked instruments:
- Stocks
- Equity-based mutual funds
Most investors in our country regard stocks as risky and avoid them, despite strong evidence that equities investments over a longer period considerably outperform fixed-income investments.
The main thing to remember when investing in stock is that you must invest for a longer period (e.g., 5-7 years) to reap the benefits of equity investing. If the time horizon is short, avoid investing in stock because equity markets are volatile and can have periods of slowdown, with the ROI being substantially lower or even negative at times.
To conclude it is essential to begin investing at a young age to allow time for the corpus to expand. If you have a lot of time on your hands, stock investing should be a no-brainer because it can yield far better returns than a fixed-income investment.
Investing isn’t an option; it’s a must if you want to live comfortably in retirement. A life without compromises, where you can live happily ever after.
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