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Investment

YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN IS NOT JUST ABOUT INVESTING

Financial planning is a step-by-step process to help investors achieve their short-term and long-term financial goals. In short, a financial plan helps to create a roadway to achieve one’s financial objectives. However, several investors have an incorrect notion towards financial planning that their job as an investor merely ends at researching and selecting the best investment options for their investment portfolio.

Did you know that a financial plan is dependent on an individual’s financial security? So basically, an individual who has just stepped into the investment world would have a different approach to financial planning than someone who has say accumulated a sum of money. Let’s understand this better and in-depth through this article.

If you are a beginner and new to the investing world

For someone who has just stepped into the investment world, certain things must be taken care of. Health insurance policy is the first thing that must be tended to as it helps to cater to your medical bills. Next, you can consider getting a life insurance policy provided that you have some dependents. Apart from this, you must also have an emergency corpus. Emergency corpus helps to tend to different types of emergencies that come unannounced in life such as home repair, loss of family member, job loss, etc. It is advised that you allot and invest at least three to six months of your total living expenses. Once you have catered to these basic necessities, you might consider moving towards being entirely debt-free. Being entirely debt-free gives the real freedom of being financially independent. you can choose to allot your assets in investments that cater to your financial needs. Mutual funds are a good way to cater to a novice investor’s needs because of the professional management it offers to investors. Mutual fund investments are professionally managed by fund managers who have in-depth knowledge and skills to manage several investors’ investments.

If you have collected a considerable sum of money

In this scenario, an individual is in that phase of their life where in they have catered to all their safety nets for their family. Additional to that, these individual has also made several investments to achieve their financial objectives. An individual is this phase is already debt-free and living in a financially independent life. This individual has their health insurance policy and life insurance policy (if needed) in place. Also, they have a decent size of emergency fund. Next, they must invest in securities that allows them to have a diversified investment portfolio. A diversified portfolio reduces the risk of being exposed to just one type of asset class or investment. You can choose to invest in different types of mutual funds to cater to your varying financial needs of different investment horizon and risk profile.

No matter what type of investment you choose for your investment portfolio, you must ensure that it aligns with your financial goals, investment duration, and risk profile. Lastly, do not forget to monitor your investments on a periodic basis. Remember, financial planning is a dynamic and continuous process. Your financial plan does not end at mere investing. Happy investing!

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Finance

ASSET ALLOCATION AND DIVERSIFICATION – ARE THEY RELATED?

You might have across the investment terms diversification and asset allocation quite often. These are essential concepts used while constructing a financial plan. However, often investors end up using these investment terms interchangeably. Though both these investment concepts aid in managing portfolio risk, are these two terms related? If yes, how exactly? Let’s explore that in this article.

What is asset allocation?

It is an investment strategy that allows investors to balance risk vs rewards by determining the right percentage of each asset class in a financial portfolio. This determination is basis the investment horizon, financial goals under consideration, and the income flows of the investor.

Traditionally, there are three main asset classes in the investing world – equities, debt, and cash and cash equivalents. One can also add precious metals (such as silver, platinum, gold, etc.) or real estate, and alternatives such as other collectables, coins, and art to this asset class mix.

Note that, the portfolio risk adopted is not done on some random whims, but a consequence of an investor’s wealth status.

So if you are an individual with a low risk appetite, or if you are nearing your retirement, your asset allocation strategy would be different than someone who is in their 20s or 30s or someone who has a high risk profile.

Why must an investor invest in different asset classes?

The basic principle behind investing in different asset classes is that when you invest in an array of asset classes that aren’t highly correlated, an investor can successfully reduce the volatility of an investment portfolio. What’s interesting to note here is that it is compulsory for the asset classes to be negatively corelated.

Note that, histrocially, bonds and equities do not move in same direction and the correlation between both these asset classes are low.

Diversification

Is your portfolio risk fully accounted for with just mere asset allocation strategy? What if an investor invests all their particular asset class such as debt or equity into a single fund or stock? Imagine Raj has a single stock in their portfolio while Ramesh has 10 stocks in his investment portfolio. So in case of Raj, if the company that he has invested in suffers business loss due to any reason, his investment portfolio could take a huge beating. On the other hand, in Ramesh’s case, if any one of the companies that he has invested in suffers business loss, it would not impact his investment portfolio to a huge extent as he is heavily diversified across various stocks. One stock going bad would only impact 1/10th of this investment portfolio.

However, note that though diversifying your portfolio can be quite beneficial to your portfolio, over diversification might turn the tables around and might not be as effective. Experts believe that if an investor diversifies their portfolio beyond 20 or 30 stocks, it would be counter-effective and not make much sense. You can choose to diversify your investments across asset classes (debt, equity, cash and cash equivalents), location (international funds, national funds, regional funds, etc.) and also sector funds. Next time you choose to invest in mutual funds, keep these points in mind. Happy investing!

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