CONCERNS OF YOUR AGE AND RELEVANCE OF PERSONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT !!!!

I am asked by many people for different reasons if and how learning personal financial management and freedom is relevant to them at their age. Reasons given are:

1. I just started earning and don’t have much savings to invest

2. I don’t have time as I am too busy at my job.

3. I have my bank/adviser/broker advising me already so why disturb the comfort zone.

4. I feel equity investments are too risky or too complicated to learn, monitor and manage.

5. Can I learn it at my age?

6. I have retired or I am about to retire so what use it for now?

7. My wife has never been involved in Personal Financial Management of the family and how will we do it now and why?  

Let me start by dividing all the people in some age groups and delineate their concerns for ease of understanding the concerns and then see how Personal Financial Management is relevant to them all and why my approach merits consideration : 

20s: Education loan,college choice,job choice, salary, preparing for marriage,choice of a life partner,bonding and adjusting to marriage and starting family or to have a second child or not

 Your concerns are likely to be

1. How much loan to take for education and start working life with debt?

2. How long to continue education-cost benefit analysis

3. What should be my priority for fulfilling my desires? How much to spend on what and how to save ?

4. What to look for in a life partner and how to select one? Love marriage, dating or arranged marriage if not married?What age to get married?

5. How to adjust after marriage blues are over and bond the relationship for mutual happiness? Money yours, mine and ours if both earning ?

6. How to take care of parents?

7. How is saving such small amounts help me in the long term ?  

30s and 40s: Managing home loan or child future

Your concerns are likely to be:

1. First house and child’s future, what to choose?

2. When to have a child ? one or two? Bringing up children and coping with it.

3. Will this affect my retirement plans and how ?

4. Can I retire early and make time for what I am missing because of work?

5. Search for happiness and its linkage with money.

50s: Child’s higher education and retirement

Your concerns likely are:

1. Odd age issues of teen aged children and how to manage them?

2. Child’s higher education, careers choices,marriages and helping them settle down in life and own retirement , is there a conflict ? How to resolve it

3. How do I see my child taking an education loan or funding it myself ?

4. How much to spend on children weddings?

5. How to find goal congruence with wife on Personal Financial Matters like these?

6. When can we retire and what preparations to do for it?

60s and beyond : Retirement Planning and Investing Retirement Funds

Your concerns are likely to be:

1. Not given serious thought to retirement and how to go about it now ?

2. Where to stay and housing ? Down size? Move to another place?

3. How much we need to live and maintain our life style that we are used to ? Do we need to make any life style changes and how?

4. Giving health a priority and finding time to exercise and keep fit.

5. How much to be involved in the children and their lives?

6. Will my retirement savings last for our life times?Where to keep the money - equity or debt or banks ?

7. How much to spend on travelling or sight seeing or visiting near and dear ones?

8. How will one of us manage himself or herself after the other partner is no more?

9. How will children respond and behave ?

10. Making wills and whether to share them with the children?

11. How to simplify bank accounts,routine jobs and investments ?

12. How to utilize extra time at my disposal ? How to be happy when you are only two left in the house with much more time together? How to give space to each other?

13. How to repay to the society and public at large by some contribution ?

14. How to maintain good physical and mental health and plan for medical care and expenditure?

15. End of life plans at a stage when support is required physical, moral or financial and still to be by yourself or with the children?

16. What to do if children have settled down abroad ?  

SOLUTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Individually for different concerns you have for money matters financial advisers in bankers, brokers, mutual fund agent and so called independent professional advisers. For other mind and relationship issues you have counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists.For health issues you have the home remedies to over the counter medicines to doctors, specialist and hospitals and lucky if you have an old fashioned and outdated concept family doctor.

Personal Financial Management is one aspect of our lives which lends itself for one to one partnership and long term planning.

Continues support, sounding board or guidance from an independent and genuinely non vested interest person with life experience is the best solution.

Some of the aspects and concerns mentioned above I have covered in my blogs on Savings, banking, mutual funds, SIPs,insurance, first house etc. Some more in the pipe line are on PPF, Investments in Gold and silver, on equity indexes,how to correctly use credit cards ,how to select stocks, manage risks and grow your savings without having to worry for market moves up or down.Behavioral aspects and its understanding are very critical to personal financial management and hence have covered it in one blog as well as recommended one book covering basics of building enough wealth for a life time and above all finding happiness in life. Simple tools like budgeting and periodically reviewing these budgets with actual and taking stock of your assets and liabilities helps to be in control and confident in life.    
Now coming to the concerns raised by different people mentioned above. As you can see the list is the longest as the age increase. Like change is the only constant in matters of personal finance earlier you start the better it is, earlier you involve your life partner and do it together better it is. Earlier you develop the right attitude towards money and understand it linkages with happiness ,health and good inter personal and family relationships better it is.

What happens if you don’t start early, your concerns increase as the age increases and cause you stress and dis comfort too.You may have sporadic bouts of happiness when relatively large amount of money comes in on retirement only to regret it in many cases after unplanned spending at a later stage.Luckily its never too late start and learn in life and doing it at a later stage does no harm but only good by taking control and being more confident in life. It helps in early retirement as a choice if you start early but started even late helps you retire gracefully with respect from near and dear ones and live purposeful life and say bye when time comes with no remorse or regrets. Raising standard of life is easy but lowering it forced by inadequate finances is painful and not easily digestible as age increase.

A great personality and successful businessman like Mr. Singhania of “Raymonds” is heard facing tough old age life for making the mistake and willing all his wealth to his son prematurely.

Better late than never and age is no bar to learning If you feel you can start learning to manage your money matters better by learning from me and living happily visit and enroll on : www.moneymonk.me