Almost five years on, Joshi thinks approaching a planner early on in his life have sorted out his financial needs
Vivina Vishwanathan
Article from live mint.com
When Maneesh Joshi, now 32, moved back to India from Dubai in 2006, he hadn’t tread the investment path ever even though he had been working since five years. He just had three endowment life insurance policies in the name of investment, which neither gave him adequate cover nor would help give good long-term returns. Endowment policies are mostly debt-oriented. However, being a conscientious saver, he had a lump sum in his savings bank account.
Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
Finally, when he was back in 2006, he planned to embark on a proper investment path and put this money to use. However, due to lack of awareness about investment avenues, he once again approached an insurance agent, who advised him to buy high-cost unit-linked insurance plans, or Ulips, (Ulip cost caps hadn’t been introduced then). Fortunately, his friend Arshi came to his rescue and introduced him to a financial planner.
Problems
Negative returns on savings: Since all his savings were in his bank account, earning 3.5% per annum that time, his returns were in the negative, taking into account the impact of inflation.
Many policies, inadequate cover: This part was clearly problematic. While Joshi had three insurance plans, he didn’t have adequate cover. Moreover, when he bought these, he didn’t understand their essence of buying insurance, which is to provide a cover to dependants.
Lack of awareness: The root cause of Joshi’s wrong financial decisions was lack of knowledge about investment avenues.
Solutions
Making a plan, setting goals: To start with, the planner introduced him to the concept of having a plan with specific goals and save accordingly to cater to them. When Joshi met the planner, he was just married and his goals included buying a house, retirement and starting his own venture. Recently, he had a son, Rikhil, and now his goals have expanded to include his son’s education.
Adequate insurance: Since his wife is a homemaker, it was essential for him to have adequate cover. The insurance needs have only increased after they had a baby but the planner made him buy enough insurance through a term cover at the beginning itself. He was advised to continue the three endowment policies since surrender charges would have eaten into the returns.
He took a family health insurance policy then for himself and his wife. He has now added his son to the same policy and bumped up the cover.
Choosing the right investment avenues: Joshi had too much liquidity since he had all the money in his savings account. The planner helped him channelize this saving into equities, bonds and gold. As of today, he has a strong investment portfolio with 60% in equity, 30% in debt and the remaining in gold. He also dabbles in direct stocks with the planner’s help. But to be on the safer side, he sticks with bluechips.
For his child’s education, he is investing in mutual funds, Public Provident Fund, bonds and non-convertible debentures. For his business venture and his retirement, which are long-term goals (though he wanted to start his venture as soon as possible, the planner asked him to put away that goal by at least 10 years), Joshi has channelized his money to equity mutual funds.
Almost five years on, Joshi thinks approaching a planner early on in his life have sorted out his financial needs. He is in the process of building a corpus for the downpayment of his house, which he expects to buy by the end of 2013.
From saving regularly to a structured investment, Joshi’s portfolio has come a long way.
•••••
Name: Maneesh Joshi
Age: 32 years
Profession: Freelancer
Spouse: Neha Joshi, homemaker
Kid: Rikhil
City: Mumbai
Planner: Pankaj Mathpal, Optima Money Managers Pvt Ltd.
vivina.v@livemint.com
Article from live mint.com
