A New Year provides an excellent opportunity to introspect on the year gone by and start afresh. This simple thumb rule should be applied to our financial goals also. Therefore, let us embark on a journey of doing some serious financial planning and setting realistic financial goals for ourselves in 2019.

Setting short-term, mid-term and long-term financial goals is an important step towards becoming financially secure. If you aren’t working towards anything specific, you’re likely to spend more than you should or what your income would permit.You may get stuck in a vicious cycle of credit card debt and feel like you never have enough cash to get properly insured or even meet your monthly commitments, leaving you more vulnerable than you need to be to handle some of life’s major risks. When you don’t lose sight of what you have set out to achieve, then there exists a higher probability of staying true to your goals.

Let us discuss in greater detail what are the goals that we can set in 2019:-

Short Term Goals:-

• Establish a budget (preferably make it a habit to live within your means)
• Create an emergency fund (which should be equivalent to atleast 6 to 9 months of living expenses)
• Pay off your credit card bills on the due date in full (avoid rollovers

Mid Term Goals:-

• Get life insurance / term insurance, a basic health cover, a critical illness cover and a personal accident / disability cover
• Pay off student loans
• Buy a first home (however, this should not impinge upon other essential life goals)
• Plan for a vacation
• Extend your family

Long Term Goals:-

• Estimate your desired annual living expenses during retirement
• Subtract the income you (and your spouse) will receive
• Estimate how much in retirement assets needs to be accumulated on your desired retirement date
• Increase retirement savings with these strategies.

Now that your financial goals have been segregated into different buckets depending upon the time-frame, you can employ the following measures to achieve these various goals:-

1. Plan to the tee – Be as precise as possible and set clear goals which will give you a sense of direction, making it possible to utilize your available limited resources judiciously.

2. Be disciplined –Stick to your financial plan without getting swayed either by emotions or external circumstances. Work with your spouse or other family members to make smart financial or money choices. Ensure that your investments are in line with mutually agreed or shared goals.

3. Tax planning – Develop a thorough understanding of the tax benefits that you can claim under the various exemption heads within the existing tax structure. Always consider the tenure, returns offered and the taxability of returns while selecting any tax-saving instrument.

4. Invest wisely –Stick with your investments that you have made after doing thorough research. Completely stay away from schemes which promise unrealistic or excessively high returns within a short span of time.

5. Mid-year review –Always conduct a mid-year review to see how your investments are performing. If certain investments are not yielding the expected returns and are becoming a drag on your portfolio, it would be better to get rid of these and explore alternative investment avenues.

6. Control impulse purchases – Don’t fall prey to marketing and advertising gimmicks whenever you go out for shopping. Don’t stretch yourself financially simply on account of peer pressure.

7. Secure your financial future – Whether you are planning for a child or going on that dream vacation or saving for your retirement, start accumulating funds through disciplined investments by putting aside money consistently in different asset classes, as per your risk profile, such as regular Systematic Investment Plans, Fixed Deposits, PPF, etc in order to adequately secure your financial future.

We sincerely hope that this blog will encourage you to set practical financial goals for yourself and work in a disciplined manner towards achieving these goals – if you were to achieve this, you would have reason to expect that a financially rewarding life awaits you.

Therefore, go ahead and make financial goal-setting your top-most resolution for 2019!

Founded in 2005 by new–age entrepreneur Abhishek Bansal, the Abans Group has evolved into a globally diversified conglomerate, providing expertise in Broking Services, Non-Banking Financial Dealings, Financial Services, Agri-Commodity Services, Warehousing, Realty & Infrastructure, Gold Dore Refinery & Manufacturing, Trading in Metal Products, Pharmaceuticals, Software Development & Wealth Management. The Group is a comprehensive financial and non-financial services and solutions provider, aiming to provide end-to-end solutions to its clients.