Don't Restrict Your Financial Planning to the Tax Season

With the arrival of the tax season comes the reminder for most of us to sit down, pull out our accounts and start planning for the financial year ahead. But while this tax-time financial planning ritual might be useful, it isn’t always helpful. That is because financial planning done only for the sake of taxes, does not take into account how to achieve one’s personal and financial goals.

This is the reason why most Indians find themselves confused about how to save, invest or achieve any financial freedom. According to a recent survey by Scripbox, as many as 72% of Indians do not have a clear idea of how much they need to set aside in order to meet their financial goals. Moreover, 76% of the respondents agree that they need to be better educated in planning their finances.

Financial planning should not just be a process carried out during tax season. Instead, we can benefit greatly by shifting our focus on carrying out a thorough personal financial planning process. This process should be carried out not just when tax season arrives but every year, month or as many times as needed with one’s changing financial circumstances.

What is personal financial planning?

Simply put, personal financial planning is the process that helps individuals and families achieve their financial goals by efficiently saving and investing their finances.

As opposed to planning finances for a single purpose, such as buying a house or doing one’s taxes, personal financial planning is comprehensive. It takes into account both short-term and long-term goals and involves taking account of budgets, loans, investments and planning for retirement.

Another important aspect of personal financial planning is, of course, to prepare one’s finances for unforeseen circumstances. In particular, for families with single earners, it is important for the financial provider to be insured. For this purpose, the Smart Protect Goal term insurance plan at Bajaj Markets is an excellent option. This term insurance plan is economical, easy to avail and promises an all-encompassing life cover up to Rs. 1 crore.

What’s more, you can avail tax deductions on premiums of up Rs. 1.5 lakhs for the Smart Protect Goal Plan, under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Under Section 10(10D), you can also avail deductions on the payouts received under the Bajaj Allianz Life Smart Protect Goal policy. Thus, tax planning needn’t be restricted just to the tax season. You can invest in a plethora of tax-saving instruments all year round and reap the benefits during tax season.

How do I start my personal financial planning process?

If you are new to the process of personal financial planning, there is no need to worry. Personal financial planning is a continuous process and is based on learning from one’s past financial decisions in order to make better ones in the future. All in all, you can start your personal financial planning process at any time by keeping a few simple pointers in mind:

• Evaluate current finances:

The first and most important step is to stay informed of the scope of your own wealth. This means making note of not just your finances and bank statements but the value of all your assets and investments as well. This helps shed light on how you can better invest or utilise aspects of your wealth that you were previously unaware of.

• Develop and prioritise financial goals:

Another crucial aspect of personal financial planning is to formally list out the financial goals that are important to you as an individual or family. After that, these financial goals must be arranged in order of priority or importance. As a result of this process, you can immediately direct resources to fulfilling the goals with the highest priority instead of trying to fulfill all of them at once.

• Take appropriate actions:

The first two parts of this process might reveal to you several ways in which your wealth creation or saving efforts might be lacking. Hence, as a next step, you can implement new processes in place to help plan your finances better. These could be better budgeting practices, more diversified investments or simply saving a larger portion of your finances for retirement.

• Find the right products:

Any financial planning process is as good as the options you choose to implement it. From picking the right investment instruments to handpicking the best insurance plan, these choices can have long-term impact on your finances. Select products which align with your financial goals and help keep your finances secure, in sickness and health.

That is why availing the Smart Protect Goal term insurance plan on Bajaj Markets may be just the option for you. It comes with a coverage option of up to Rs. 1 crore as well as a return of premium benefit. Moreover, this term insurance plan also provides coverage options for spouse as well as a variant with cover option for Child Education.

Source: Fotor

With these simple pointers to get you started, your journey to personal financial planning is guaranteed to reap rewards for yourself and your family in the near future. Always make sure to have proper budgets, the right investments in place and most importantly, a reliable term insurance to secure your family’s needs.

You need look no further than the Smart Protect Goal term insurance plan available at Bajaj Markets, India’s leading financial supermarket with over 100 million customers. This term insurance provides you with the coverage option of upto Rs. 1 crore and comes with an additional cover for over 55 critical illnesses. What’s more, at Bajaj Markets, you can easily avail the term insurance plan online with a simple, secure and transparent process.

Bajaj Markets, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, is a one-stop digital marketplace that has been created for consumers on the go. It offers 500+ financial and lifestyle products, all at one place. At Bajaj Markets, we understand that every individual is different. And that’s why we have invested in creating a proposition – Offers You Value. A value proposition that ensures you get offers which are tailor made for you. We also offer an amazing product range and unique set of online offers across Loans, Insurance, Investment, Payments and an exclusive EMI store. Be it in helping you achieve your financial life goals or offering you the latest gadgets, we strive to offer what you are looking for. From simple and fast loan application processes to seamless and hassle-free claim-settlements, from no cost EMIs to 4 hours product delivery, we work towards fulfilling all your personal and financial needs. What’s more! Now enjoy the same benefits in just one click with our Bajaj Markets App.