Defence Personnel: Take Charge!
If I were to write a book on personal finance, personal fitness, diet….I would love to call the book
“Take Charge”
Simply because that is exactly what you need to do with your health and /or your finances. Also only when you take stock of the current situation (i.e. make your balance sheet) will you know how much you have in assets and how much are your liabilities.
Assets: things that you own and for which there is a reasonable market value. If you have some old watches and pens that your great grandfather used, it is likely to have no commercial value.
So all the mutual funds, life insurance policies, your bank balance, your demat account balance, house, car, white goods, etc. are all your assets. Do not forget your PF account, etc. …too. Once you add all this, the total that you arrive at is the TOTAL assets that you have.
Now if you have funded all these purchases OR some of the assets, the money owed on that is called your LIABILITY (LIABILITIES in plural).
Now if you deduct your liabilities from your assets the figure that you get is called your NET WORTH.
Once you know your networth (balance sheet tells you where you are), you should then make your Goal sheet (where you want to go), then see how much you are earning and how much you are spending (Income & Expenditure account), then you make the Cash flow statement (how much of cash you received and how did you use it).
ONCE you have all the 4 documents (properly filled up) you will know:
a) your networth
b) your income and expenditure
c) the journey – the financial plan which tells you how to go from ‘where you are’ to a ‘where you wish to be’…
What you have done, is just taken charge of your financial life!
So go and take charge!!
And why did I say ‘defence personnel’? Simply because I was talking to a retired person from the army. He said the only thing we are told is to go and ‘Take charge’ – we never take charge of our finances! So if you are a soldier, from the army, navy or air-force, go out there and take charge of your money. It might be the last frontier for you!
Rajeev
Subra,
Defence personnel are protected from real world life due to postings in remote areas and generally being taken care of by the goverment all their working life.
This results in them not being financially literate. They fall prey to the agents of many companies. It is a real need to educate our defence personnel in market realities well before they step out in the retired life.
Regards
krish
Balance sheet for individuals is unthinkable for many but it makes great sense. I have been producing these for myself for the last 3 years and can’t describe what an insight they offer.
subra
Rajeev
it is not easy for the soldier. Given Indian working conditions he/she spend a lot of time filling up forms. They do not know what gets them 80C benefit..and they are posted in areas where they do not even know whom to ask. Really a financially tough life too. There should be a law which says that toxic financial products cannot be sold to defense people. I now know of many army people stuck with toxic ulips and mfs which are unsuitable. Sad. Their salaries are not to great and they keep losing money like this. There is a crying and immediate need for financial literacy of the armed forces. Given their spread, this has to happen through the internet, video conferencing, emails, etc.
A Sunder Rajsn
I am retired Colonel since June 2007.You may contct me.
Regards,
Sunder
Vishal Pal
Sir,
I am serving in IAF, I came across this article while I was looking for Financial Planning for Soldiers. I am afraid to see the lack of awareness among us regarding Financial Planning. Soldiers like me looks for such planning and most of the time get caught by wrong hands.
I request you to please give me insight in this context. I will pass it on to my fellow mates whatever I will assimilate from you.
Thanks and regards,
Vishal Pal
Rajeev
Vishal,
I am an investor like you and feel that the best way to serve the needs of defence personnel will be to teach them how to access the internet based sites like valueresearchonline.com or moneycontrol.com and many others which give various views on investment. Read a lot before you invest. Become financially literate. Track your investments using the facilities given on these sites.
I am sure there are many among the retired defence staff, who are very good at investment. It is entirely possible for someone to start a blog just like this one, to give personalised advise.
Just remember that any advise should be taken with a pinch of salt. Beleive only what your own concience tells you. There are many quacks in this market who want to have your money. Normally most of the quick rich tips are wrong. Money does not grow on trees.
Regards
S Marwaha
Sir,
I am a serving colonel in army. Recently I recd some arrears which along with my savings amount to 1.5 lac. As I already have adequate amount in FDs, I wish to invest it for children education. The boys are aged 13 and 11. In a bullish market please suggest in which fund to invest. Thanks