Securing your child’s future is important to you and education and marriage are part of this prized goal. However, many of us leave investing for our children to the last minute, while others tend to rely on a half-baked plan.

The earlier you plan for it, the greater will the benefits be.

Having a child is undoubtedly a joy, and with it tags along a great deal of responsibility. This means, when you plan to raise your child in the right environment and facilities, you need to do a bit of financial planning first.

That’s because, when you want the best for your child, you must keep in mind the various expenses that you’ll incur in the coming years.

Here’s how you can go about it:

Plan for your child’s future expenses early on

Education costs have been on the rise off late and are only expected to grow further. Inflation can cause costs to spiral further. You can review your plans as and when your child gets older, but it is good to start right at the time of your child’s birth.

Save for all the important events of his or her life. This is crucial as sudden changes can throw you off guard and it is better to be prepared beforehand. Planning early can help you reap the benefits of compounding growth and low risks associated with long-term investing.

Don’t just save, invest

It is but natural to think that saving for your child will suffice for his or her future. Savings aren’t enough to fulfil important goals like education or wedding. If you are putting away money in a savings account, try looking for Equity Liquid funds which can provide around 6% return as compared to Bank savings account 3.5%. Invest in Equity Mutual funds for long duration to beat Inflation in Education sector. You can start investing in a mutual fund for as low as Rs.1000 through a SIP from birth of a child.

Don’t overlook health and term insurance

With the birth of your child, your family has now grown. So, you should plan your health and term insurance coverage. You need to amend your policy to include your child as a nominee in your term plans. Also, it doesn’t matter if it’s an employer-provided Mediclaim plan, or a personal health cover or even a family floater cover, you can include your new-born immediately in your health insurance plan.

The plus point of doing this, you may also find some health plans that cover vaccination costs for your child in the first year as a part of your health cover.

Get Investment and Insurance in One

Depending on your needs and what you want for your child, it may be a good idea to invest in a child plan. Usually people do it within 90 days of their child’s birth to make the best of the plans benefits. Starting early allows you to opt for Mutual fund plansthat serve both purpose- Investment for Minimum 15 years and Insurance cover for child with WEALTH CREATION. Going for a strategy with flexible short, medium and long-term funds may bring market benefits without having to compromise on your Child’s FINANCIAL PORTFOLIO.

Parents today, typically, prefer to live independently rather than live off their children’s earnings. But situations may arise where the child may have to financially provide for them. While that may not affect the child’s standard of living in the present, the rising inflation could put a strain on the pocket later. As such, to either provide for the parents or supplement their income, one needs to do a bit of financial planning.

 

EMERGENCY FUNDING

Senior citizens require easy access to funds, mostly to meet medical emer-gencies. Depending on the needs, a corpus equivalent to 6-9 months of living expenses can be stashed away in Liquid and Debt Fund schemes of Mutual fund as a best alternative to a savings accounts.

GIFTING

Children can gift money to parents without attracting gift tax. One can make investment as a second holder with parent name as a joint holder and then choose the monthly or quarterly interest option or SWP Plans so that the parents’ regular income needs are duly met. As this joint Investment is a gift to the parent, the interest earned on it will not be added to the child’s income.

PARENTS’ FUND MANAGER

Parents usually get retirement benefits, such as gratuity and provident fund. If one is not comfortable making investments with parents, then they can at least take more active role in managing their parents’ retirement funds. If the parents are too old or infirm, one should go for a Power of Attorney in their favour so that their parents’ finances can be managed. Bank accounts may be held jointly with parents.

These days, it is a rarity in the metros and, to a great extent, in the smaller towns in India, to find young couples or families with a single breadwinner.

In these times of rising inflation, a family with both partners working always has a greater economic edge than one with a single earner. The fact that working partners also share household responsibilities only adds to the comfort level.

HOLDING BACK

True, couples with dual income are financially better placed than those with a single income, but financial planning is equally important for them. If things are not planned, they could lose the advantage over single income families. So, before going on that long vacation, or buying that rock-sized solitaire, plan your savings.

SPEED BREAKERS

Attitudes and perceptions towards money, savings and investments differ across individuals. Thus, one partner may prefer to live life king size, while the other may want to save first and then spend. Besides, sociological developments could make some yearn for financial independence more than the other. Spouses need to have better understanding of each other to overcome these differences. The essence is to work towards common goals.

THE UNDERSTANDING

Financial responsibilities should be distributed in such a manner so that individual expenses, such as those on clothes and accessories, as well as on common goals, such as children’s education and their retirement, are well taken care of. That said, both spouses should try to maintain individual financial independence at all costs.

INVESTMENTS

The basic rule to follow is Expenses should be managed as Income minus Savings. What’s left is to be used for non-discretionary household expenses.

That said, both partners should identify their short- and medium-term goals and save accordingly. Long-term savings, especially in tax savings investments, should be linked to long-term goals. Each spouse can earmark his or her savings to a specific goal. Buying a house jointly will help both of them in claiming tax benefits. Other things, such as keeping proper nominations in investments, holding deposits in ‘either or survivor’ mode, and planning retirement savings keeping in mind the higher life expectancy of women, is common for both single income and double income families.

There is a remedy for everything except death. As difficult as it is for the surviving partner to get on with life after the death of one’s spouse, the truth is, life must go on. So to meet the needs of life, the bereaved partner has to, amid all the grief and pain, attend to the money matters. Here’s what a widow or widower could do to manage money after the death of his or her spouse.

MANAGING MONEY

Financial planning must be revised on the death of spouse. Take stock of current assets, including insurance claims, while planning future goals. Prudent handling of the insurance amount should be the top priority. The corpus should be allocated to various investments and income-generating instruments to take care of your current and future needs.

CREATING REGULAR INCOME

Besides tapping into the provident fund and gratuity of the deceased spouse, manage your funds judiciously to ensure regular annuities. There are many products that help create regular income streams, such as monthly income schemes, fixed deposits with monthly income options, or insurance plans with regular cash-back options.

Coping with a child with special needs isn’t easy. But, you can make a difference financially if you are aware of the hurdles that lie on the way to securing your child’s future and plan accordingly.

Long-term planning

Remember, you have to save for two generations-or your own and that of your child-and, at the same time, you must also ensure that financial goals, such as buying a house or securing your retirement years, are not compromised.

Risk-reward ratio

Since you need to create an inflation-beating nest egg, it is prudent to take some more risks with your investments. This, in spite of the fact that you are likely to feel more insecure with a specially-abled child to take care of. So, brace yourself and opt for high-risk, but rewarding investment methods.

Squeeze on income.

Your monthly budget is likely be skewed by regular expenses on your child’s treatment, vocational education and, possibly, the regular cost of employing an attendant. Your capacity to save will not be in line with that of your peers because you may have to manage with a lower disposable income.

GETTING STARTED

There are practical difficulties in bringing up a child with special needs as they require constant care and supervision. This often leaves parents with little time to think about their own and their other child’s financial future. Ideally, you should start planning the moment you detect some kind of permanent disability in your child. Your plan will depend on a host of factors, including your child’s life expectancy, the nature of the disability, his or her future earning potential and housing needs. You also need to factor in issues like medical, educational, vocational and recreational costs. The possibility of financial or other assistance from relatives and friends after your death should also be taken into account.

INVEST IN SKILLS

Disability is no reason to downscale your child’s ambitions-you are sure to find an area where your child can do something special. Invest in developing your child’s skills so that he or she becomes self-sufficient. Also, make sure you give him or her a basic idea of how to manage one’s own finances.

EMERGENCY FUNDS

A child with special needs might have various medical and other contingency expenses that are not always forseeable. Ordinary medical or other insurance policies may not cover these. Keep emergency funds in the form of two-in-one deposits, fixed deposits in banks, and liquid funds.

In today’s social scenario, as the occurrence of divorce has risen many divorced women suddenly find themselves in a situation where they have to manage their finances on their own. Here is a brief guide on the must-dos for women after a divorce.

CREATE REGULAR INCOME

This could be a tough nut to crack, especially for those who are m a n a g i n g finances for the time. You could make a beginning by looking at a monthly income from your lump sum that you might have got from your share of savings or from alimony. You can invest a portion of your money in monthly income plans (MIP) offered by mutual funds that have an established dividend track record. Thanks to their equity exposure MIPs help you counter inflation that tends to dent the purchasing power of regular income. These sources of regular income can be supplemented by your regular salary if you take up work, as many women in these circumstances do.

SECURE YOUR KIDS’ FUTURE

Single women with young children need to ensure that they do not fall short of funds when the children need it for their higher education. To do this you must ensure that their investments grow at a rapid clip. As we are all aware, investments in equity have been found to be the best bet for high growth. If you have 8-10 year or more left for this goal, you could make a simple beginning by investing in Mutual funds every month through systematic investment plans (SIPs). Since this is a long-term investment that gives rich rewards over a long period of time, don’t get flustered with short-term fluctuations in value of investments or market movements. As you get comfortable and acquainted with investing in mutual funds and equity exposure in general, you could consider SIPs in large-cap equity funds with an established track record.

PLAN FOR RETIREMENT

As with children’s future, you need to save for the other important goal of retirement. You can follow an identical approach we recommended for investments for children’s future, i.e., have money in Liquid or Debt fund for Emergencies and other in Diversified Portfolio for wealth creation at a faster speed with our advise.

It’s quite a task in today’s world to make do with just one person’s income and also enjoy life while at it. Therefore, to make both ends meet it has become imperative that both spouses work-managing expenses, meeting future goals and chasing your dreams thus become easier. However, the going becomes diffi-cult when one of you discontinues work to, say, take care of babies or ailing parents.

“NEVER DEPEND ON SINGLE INCOME. MAKE SMART INVESTMENT TO CREATE A SECOND SOURCE WHICH CAN BEAT INFLATION. – WARREN BUFFETT”

PRE-EMPT

Giving up an income is never easy. However, if such a situation arises, be prepared for it. Before giving up an income, prepare a sabbatical corpus, especially when expenses and goals are being shared. This is the fund that will supplement the single income when one of the earners goes on a break. Plan for cash flows to meet at least the next six months’ expenses . Importantly, do not depend or dip into your existing emergency funds made to meet exigency situations.

CHALLENGES

Meeting the existing shared commitments, such as home loan instalments, is crucial. To deal with situations such as this, you might want to either plan well ahead to prepay a lump sum towards your home loan (prepayment brings down loan tenure and the principal amount), or drastically reduce your expenses to make way for instalments. With the burden now on one of the earners, make sure you bring down monthly expenses-if there are personal loans to be serviced, try to prepay them too due to their higher interest rate burden plan.

PROTECTION FIRST

Having all family members covered with health insurance will have half the trouble dealt with. You must know that if there is a break in the job, the group health coverage gets stopped. For maternity benefits, however, the husband’s group coverage might still be used when wife gets hospitalised. It is always better to have individual health policies to be on the safer side. With one single earner and all other family members depending financially on you, consider reviewing your life insurance-increase your life cover through a pure term insurance.

SAVINGS

Rebudget your household expenditure. For future savings, estimate how much you can save on a single income. For this, you need to get a good grip over your current expenses. You might have to reduce some of your discretionary expenses on white-goods, outings and so on, if the savings rate is any lower than 20 per cent of your income. Else, you may have to selectively reduce some highticketcostheads from the discretionary spending, especially, if you do not foresee any major increase in the single income in the near future.

LONG-TERM GOALS

Do not compromise on goals such as retirement and children’s education. See if existing systematic investment plans (SIP) in mutual funds can be continued. Provision for other commitments such as insurance premiums has to be made. Continue with investments earmarked for each goal without breaking or dipping into the funds. Future commitments should be taken after a short gap once you get used to the new income situation.