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Set up a calendar to meet your financial goals

April marks the beginning of a new financial year. It is a good time to start your personal finance calendar that reminds you of all important due dates for payments of bills, taxes as also your investments for the year. Thus, the calendar helps you to organise your finances better.

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April marks the beginning of a new financial year. It is a good time to start your personal finance calendar that reminds you of all important due dates for payments of bills, taxes as also your investments for the year. Thus, the calendar helps you to organise your finances better.

Setting up a calendar is easy. April should be the month when you plan your budget for the year as also take a re-look at your financial goals. If you have not drawn up an investment plan, make sure you talk to an expert and draw up a plan as soon as possible.

"It is important to have an investment plan so that you know what your financial goals are and what time horizon you have to meet these goals. This will help you to decide how much money you need to invest for different goals. With proper planning, your tax saving plans could also be aligned to your financial goals,'' advises Rustagi.

It will take a little effort to sit down and chalk out a calendar for the full year. But it will be time well spent if you consider the benefits of making the calendar.

Missing out on payments of insurance premia, credit cards or utility bills is very common. "It is very important to honour the due dates on any financial product,'' says Anil Chopra, group CEO & director, Bajaj Capital Ltd. "In life and health insurance, one doesn't just have to pay penalty in reviving the policy but would also lose insurability. Based on health conditions, reviving will be done.'' In case of credit cards, "irrespective of the outstanding amount, if even the mandatory 5 percent of card bill is not paid on due date, the penalty is huge,'' he adds.

And missing the due dates for tax payments could lead to a date with the taxman. Remember to mark July as the month when you need to complete the filing of your tax returns.

The financial benefits of making a calendar is that it helps you get more bang for your buck as your investments are planned better. "If SIPs aren't being paid through ECS or if SIPs are ending (after six or more months), ensure investments don't get a break as it hampers the effect of compounding,'' points out Chopra.

Spread out your big investments or tax payments into bite-sized payments across the full year. This would ensure that there are not situations of financial surplus initially followed by financial famine during the end of the year.

Hemant Rustagi, CEO, Wiseinvest Advisors, says, "You will never feel pressure at the end of the year as you know you are investing right. Thanks to the disciplined investing, you will feel in control as the asset allocation will be in line with your financial goals.''

If you think it is too complex a task to keep tabs of all these dates and the reminders, then take the help of technology to ease your job. "Maintaining such records in diary is the traditional way. Nowadays, there are several apps also catering to such needs. Also, there are several software (at a cost) that helps you manage such dates in addition to several other money management features,'' says Chopra.

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