|
May 19, 2000
- Banking
- Cards
- General
- Insurance
- Lifestyle
- Loans
- NRI
- Real Estate
- Taxation
- Travel
|
Larissa Fernand
Not sure where you stand where your finances are concerned? Take a look at these questions. If you answer positively to even one of them, then you do have a cause for worry.
- Is your income insufficient to clear your debt?
- Are you resorting to borrowing from one source to pay another?
- Is more and more portion of your income being used to settle debts?
- Is your income just sufficient for your monthly expenses and utility bills?
- Are you tapping on your investments to clear your debt?
- Has your borrowing increased lately?
- Are you a compulsive spender?
- Are you using your credit card to extend your income?
- Are you becoming extremely uneasy about your debt situation?
- Are you having trouble monitoring your debt from various sources?
- Do you feel that you are in a debt trap and haven't a clue when you are going to get out?
- Have any of the cheques you issued 'bounced' for lack of sufficient funds?
- Do you find yourself ignoring or avoiding calls from creditors?
The first step is to Get out of debt. Once that is done, follow these tips on How to start saving.
Finally, be disciplined. The trick is in opting for investments which keep going only if a particular amount is constantly fed into it.
- A Public Provident Fund (PPF) account allows you to make a maxium number of 12 deposits in a year. So either you can put in an amount every month, every alternate month, an annual lumpsum or whatever intervals between deposits you wish to maintain. Since it is not mandatory that you deposit an amount every month but every year, you probably need an instrument that will force you to be more disciplined.
- Opt for a recurring deposit in a bank or even the post office recurring deposit. Here you are forced to deposit a fixed amount every month for a fixed time frame. At the end of the tenure, you get the principal and the rate of interest earned over that period. This is basically targeted at the risk-averse. You are assured of a fixed rate of return over this time frame and you can reinvest the full amount at the end of the tenure.
- Willing to take a little more risk? Opt for a systematic investment plan (SIP) of a mutual fund. Here too you are forced to keep a fixed amount of money aside every month. Assume, you deposit Rs 1,000 on a monthly basis. If the net asset value (NAV) of the fund is quoting at Rs 50, you will get 20 units of the fund. The next month if the NAV drops to Rs 20, you will get 50 units. If it rises to Rs 60, you will get 16.7 units. So over time, your units in the fund will increase. You can take an income fund or if you are really keen on investing in stocks, then you can go for an equity fund. But the bottom line is to keep investing every month. There is no need to invest only in one fund. You can even try small amounts in different funds.
Tell us what you think of this information
|
