🔷️Everyone has their own living style and financial dreams. Some people are Frugal while many are spend Thrift.
🔷️However, when it comes to investing, all these kind of people are confused by the same question- where should I invest my money?
🔷️Where can I get the best returns on my investments?
🔷️In this post,we are going to give a simple answer to where should you invest your money so that you can plan your financial journey ahead.
Factors affecting your investment decision :
🔷️Before discussing the various investment options available in India, first, we are going to understand the factors that will affect your financial decisions. Here are the 4 pillars of for making a sound investment decision:
1. Investment Goal
Before you decide where should I invest my money, you need to define your investment goal. Your investment amount will depend a lot on your goals. Your goal can be anything like buying a new car, buying a new house, savings for marriage, to fund your higher education, retirement etc.
Now depending on your goal, you have to adjust your investment amount. If you are investing to fund your higher education (after 2-3 years), then you need to save more and invest frequently. Here the time horizon is small and hence the power of compounding will not be that helpful.
On the other hand, if you investing for your retirement, then even the small amounts will add up to a huge sum when compounded over a large period of time.
2. Risk appetite
This is the amount of risk that you are willing to take. Not everyone believes in ‘high risk and high reward’. Many people want minimum risk for their investment so that they can sleep properly (Yes, many people can’t sleep if their investments are in a loss).
Your risk appetite will decide your investment style. We will discuss the risks involved in different investment options later in this article.
3. Current financial situation
If you have a huge debt like education loan, car loan, house loan etc, they pay it off first. There’s no point getting returns from your investment and directly giving it back to your lender. Therefore, get rid of your debts first.
Next, your investment decision will depend a lot on your financial situations. If you have dependents, then you first need to have medical insurances, Term Insurance etc. If you are single with no dependents you will still need insurances, however, you can invest more.
Moreover, you will also need emergency fund so that you can have some financial flexibility.
4. Time Horizon
The longer you remain invested, the greater will be the returns. The time horizon of your investment will vary with your age. If you are in your 20s you will have long time horizon compared to people who are starting to invest in their 40s.
Where should you invest your money?
Now that you have understood the different factors affecting your investment decisions, here are the few of the common investment options available in India-
1. FIXED DEPOSIT (FD)
This is a low risk and low return investment. You can expect a return of 6-8% per annum by investing in FDs. The capital invested in FDs are considered to be safe if you do not count inflation and taxes.
2. EQUITIES/STOCKS
Investing in the stock market involves high risk and high returns. You can expect a return of 15-20% per annum by investing in stocks.
Investing in stocks has been a life changer for many people. Although a number of people have lost money in stocks, however, many of the billionaires in India created huge wealth by investing in stock market.
3. MUTUAL FUNDS
This is a moderate risk and high return investment. You can expect a return of 10-12% by investing in mutual funds. These funds are managed by highly qualified fund managers and hence it doesn’t require much involvement of the investors. However, these funds are also subjected to market risk.
4. GOLD
This is one of the conventional ways of investing which has been followed over thousands of years. This is a low risk and low return investment. The best part of investing in gold is that- it will always retain its face value.
Moreover, it is easily acceptable and highly liquid. You can sell your gold jewelry, gold bar or gold coin to any of your neighbor jewelry shop. The only disadvantage of investing in physical gold is its safety. Nevertheless, after coming of GOLD ETFs, even this problem has been solved.
5. REAL ESTATE
This is a Low Risk and High return investment. One of the best investment option available in a growing economy like India.
If you buy a property and hold it for 10-15 years, your initial investment can give multiple times returns. In many developing cities, the prices of a flat double itself just in 4-5 years.
Overall, the returns from real estate investment are tremendous. However, the two big problems with real estate investment are high initial investment amount and liquidity. You cannot find a seller for your property in a day and it takes time for the paper works.
Nevertheless, don’t stop yourself from investing in real estate just because of these two reasons. The return on this investment is amazing. Moreover, if you do not own a house, it can be one of your biggest investment.
Disc – All views expressed are personal and only for Educational and study purpose only. Consult your financial advisor before investing or taking any position based on above article.
WealthCreatures 