One person came to me saying ‘This is a financial plan that my planner has done, is it good?’.

The plan was elaborate – cash flows for 10 years into the future, what product for each goal, rate of return assumption, – all this was there.

It ran into 59 pages and could be called comprehensive too, but there was just too much information based on the products that he already had. The planner had sold him a lot of life insurance plans (some ULIP and some endowment). He had then smartly used a term plan as a top up. 

Sir you need Rs. 2 crore life insurance….the Rs. 800,000 premium gets you about Rs. 50L of cover, so let us top it up with a ‘term’ plan. 

He had made him do some SIPs, but with no logic of why which scheme. A couple of good schemes, and a few bad schemes from houses where performance has never been seen. 

The Housing EMI assumed that husband and wife would continue to earn for another 30 years – the wife was OBVIOUSLY planning a maternity break of 6-8 years – to have 2 kids. This was not considered.

Both H and W were dependent on the company’s medical insurance. Both had parents who were currently NOT staying with them, but could be moving in. This was not considered while considering life style changes. Kids were studying, fees was provided for – at a reasonably accurate amount of SIP, but at an aggressive assumption that a ULIP would give 17% return. Assuming this rate for 6 years, is aggressive – I am not commenting on whether it will be achieved. 

He was saving/ investing too little for this retirement, and ONLY endowment policies for retirement, did not make too much sense. He also had a pension plan from a Life Insurance company – and this would obviously be a compulsory annuity, at very poor rates.

The worst thing he/she is expecting me to answer in one word: 

Is this a good plan or not. 

My answer: LEARN financial planning. The financial services industry has to many banana peels around. I know of brilliant IIT, IIM, super intelligent people falling saying ‘it is only 6 lakhs’ ..i have seen older people cheated,…the list is endless..nothing like protecting your own backside. I keep saying, the only protection that a girl has from any molestation attempt is to learn karate…In Sholay Gabbar Singh says ‘aapko Gabbar se…ek hi aadmi bacha sakta hai…aur woh hai Khud gabbar…’ I hope the clients do not believe it when the financial industry says this to them…:-) 

 

 

 

  1. Subra sir,

    The financial services industry has to many banana peels around.

    I think it should be …… has too many…..

  2. Sir,

    Excellent Article…

    I owe my entire financial planning understanding to you..Thanks for changing my life…

    I would like your advise on following mutual funds

    Quantum Long Term Equity and IDFC Nifty fund. I am fine with above average returns compared to benchmarks but my chosen funds have a relative low expense ratio which I think should be deciding factor for people who invest regularly in MF for long term(above 20 years). Please guide me..

  3. hmmm .. interesting .. sirji found find to respond to a post after me .. but not to mine

    i guess the criteria must be that u either have to have a girls name or suck up to subra ji ji ji .. to get his attention ..

  4. John,

    To answer your question Please read this book “RETIRE RICH INVEST RS 40 A DAY “. This will give you some ideas.

    Please mind your words next time. Others who are reading your comment like me want to help. But you are creating a restraint for yourself.

    Subra may be busy or he is not interested to comment. It is his personal choice.

  5. John ur very thot itself puts u in a hurdle situation. Think positive always and learn to respect women. I guess u would do well to practice what one of my best and dear friends, J. Christ preached. Pls do not take offense and pardon me if u felt even an iota of it.

  6. lakshmipathy,

    every few months somebody comes and writes something on my blog.
    the best is to ignore 2 year olds right? it has worked for me. No restriction, no editing…these kids soon go away as long as they are ignored….

  7. Subra Sir,

    I am one of the silent admirers of your ideas and the blog. Personally i have benefited from your book. This brought me to interact with you 🙂 Thank you for all your works.

  8. lakshmipathy and jai ho .. sorry to offend you guys .. but i don’t see that i used any foul language or disrespect for women in what i wrote .. and thanks for the book tip (i know its by subra) .. i can’t buy it here .. but will try to get it next time i am in india ..

    And yes revered subra sir ji .. you are right .. i was annoyed that you could respond to a comment that was posted after mine .. which didn’t even have any question .. but mine was completely ignored although it was very much relevant to your post ..

    so it was my mistake that i wrote an honest note about what was in my mind .. when i saw that ..

    i like reading your blog posts .. and try to learn from them along with reading books by robert kiyosaki and warren buffet .. also i respect your decision for no restriction and no editing .. which implies freedom of expression by default ..

    but you are right .. i am just a 2 year old kid .. and now, as you mentioned, will go away knowing that you don’t care about honest opinions or about answering questions ..

    thanks for teaching me that you should rather not be honest while writing to someone .. and instead keep showing false respect for something that you didn’t like .. happy teachers day to you and good luck

  9. Hi,

    I am 25 Years old and I started earning very recently. I am seriously planning to invest for my future but I am searching for some guidance as where and how to start with.
    I have seen in many websites that b4 starting to invest, we have to keep some savings for 3-6 months expenses for unseen situations.
    I am earning 30K per month and I do not have any insurance policies for me nor my parents who are dependent on me, other than the medi-claim policy offered by my organisation.
    After all my expenses i can save 10-12 thousand pm. I am planning to invest in SIP for around 20 yrs and i want to have around 50 lakhs for purchasing a house in the next 10 years.

    Kindly suggest me the ways and proper funds to start my investments.

    Thanks,
    Yoginder

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>