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Managing money both an art and a science

One earns money through salary/enterprise/businessconsultancy or even from investments and inheritance.

Managing money both an art and a science

One earns money through salary/enterprise/businessconsultancy or even from investments and inheritance. As cash flow increases, the real challenge is to manage the money.

The first and foremost step is to have clarity on various financial goals. One can look at the tried-and-tested bucket method of investing, where one earmarks money for fees, birthdays, festivals, etc. Today, it is known as goal-based investing, which involves asset allocation and time horizon. If you look closely, the bucket method is all about goal-based investing. Keeping it simple and easy to understand and implement is the key.

Suppose, you need to plan for higher education of your child. To build a corpus of R10 lakh after 10 years considering 7% inflation and 12% return, one needs to save R8,650 per month. If you do not consider inflation, then you need to set aside only R4,300 a month.

If you inherit money, or get a big bonus, the approach should be to look at asset allocation for long-term wealth creation. Moreover, the inheritance corpus can also be used to retire high-cost debt like personal loan or credit card loan, if you have any. This would not only give you peace of mind, but also improve your cash flow and reduce monthly interest payments.

Why do we get it wrong?

So, one may ask: If managing money is so simple, why do people go wrong? It is because of behavioural biases that many investors have. Typically, we like to follow what the latest fad is. For example, as equity investments are generating high double-digit returns now, many are moving their investments to stocks. But keeping all eggs in one basket can be very dangerous for an individual investor. Secondly, we also like to invest in what our friends and relatives have gone for ? the herd mentality ? without realising that your investing goals may not be similar to others. Here, failing collectively is acceptable rather than winning individually.

Third, asset-class bias is a common observation. Maybe, your early investments in a particular asset class have delivered returns for you. Mentally, you are prone to invest in that particular asset class time and again.

Investing in products that were traditionally preferred by parents and grandparents still continue to attract most of us. As you are familiar with the product, you want to take the easy approach.

But that may not be the optimum approach. For instance, in the last decade, majority of investors have gained from real estate. So, this has become the first option for investment, especially of a large corpus. But one must remember that every asset class goes through highs and lows and one must take timely buy or sell calls.

Managing money is an art as well as a science. It is science because investing is a process and art because of the manner in which it is executed. One must remain well informed about various investment avenues. In case, you are not well tuned, it is better to engage an expert who commands your trust and executes the investment based on your goals.

The writer is founder and managing partner of Zeus WealthWays LLP

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First published on: 25-07-2014 at 02:38 IST
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