Anyone who has just joined the workforce for the first time has a list of things to spend on—from clothes to gadgets, and more. Saving and investment rarely feature in this list. This may sound boring and even unimportant, but if you don’t want to be financially lost, you must plan your finances. Here are a few things you can do with your income in the early stages of your career.

Start early

When it comes to growing your money, the earlier you start saving and investing, the easier it will be to build a corpus. “You should understand the power of compounding. Unfortunately, people don’t understand it and how starting early will enable lower investment savings," said Dilshad Billimoria, director, Dilzer Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

Say, you are 25 years old and plan to retire at 60. If your current annual expense is 10 lakh, the expenses in your first year of retirement would be 77 lakh, assuming annual inflation of 6%. So, you will need a corpus of 10.7 crore at age 60, for which you need to invest 28,000 per month till retirement age and earn return of 10% on it. If you delay and start investing only when you turn 30, you would need to save 35,365 per month. So, the later you start, the more you need to save.

Identify goals later

You may be wondering, why invest when you don’t have goals. Imagining about retirement or any other kind of long-term goal is difficult when you are in your 20s. “Many financial commitments come in the form of events. The older you get, the more difficult it gets to catch up to the expenses. People don’t think about this in their 20s," said Leo Puri, managing director, UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd.

How does one overcome this difficulty?

“It is a simple thing. Generally, your financial goals will include retirement, buying a house, marriage, children, their higher education and marriage, your higher education, travel and spending on gadgets or white goods. Even if none of these make into your list right now, they will soon creep in," said Suresh Sadagopan, a Mumbai-based financial planner. Even if you don’t have a goal, keep a part of your salary aside to be used for future needs.

Insure yourself

Once you have decided to save a certain portion of your income, the next step you may assume is to invest. It’s not. the next step should be buying health insurance so that medical liabilities are taken care of. “Life insurance can wait. But you should take medical insurance immediately. You may think that your employer will take care of it. But health issues can occur any time, say, when you are in between jobs. Consider taking health cover of at least 3 lakh, which will cost you under 4,000 per annum," said Sadagopan. You don’t want to dip into your savings or investments when you have an option to hedge.

Understand products

After health insurance comes investing. You must remember that over time, money loses value due to inflation and taxes. So, leaving all your money in a savings account is not prudent. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you invest in any product that gives you higher returns than a savings deposit. You should calculate the returns you get after factoring in inflation and tax. “People don’t understand the difference between real return and nominal return. They misunderstand nominal return to be the real return. Always remember to factor in inflation when you are investing," said Vivek Dehejia, professor of Economics at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

So, which product to choose? Since you have time on your side, you are in a better position to take risk.

“Equity-oriented products are a good option. But you should invest at least 40% of your money in lock-in products such as Public Provident Fund as it will help you build financial discipline," said Sadagopan.

You can create a corpus by investing in short-term products such as debt funds or even bank fixed deposits. This will help build financial discipline.

Though you should save and invest regular, it doesn’t mean that you can’t indulge. “You can buy a new gadget or go for a vacation, but it doesn’t mean that you go overboard with you credit card and spend more than you can afford," said Sadagopan.

If you have basic understanding of financial products and how they work, you will be able to make the right decisions about your money life. Doing so will earn healthy returns.

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