Towards financial freedom

• Importance of financial freedom
• How to address financial needs and secure for contingencies
• Accumulate for financial goals, preserve capital, generate passive income streams

We all take inspiration from the past to shape our future. As we celebrate the 74th year of our country’s Independence, it gives us an opportunity to ponder over becoming financially free. But, what is financial freedom? Ask a college going student about financial freedom and chances are high that they would respond to that as earning on their own. But, someone with a home loan repayment for the next 15 years may tell you that when they are done with the debt, they are financially free.

Financial freedom means different things to different people, but broadly it is to reach a stage in life when one finds self-created income streams to take care of their financial needs. This is achievable, but it requires a lot of hard work and planning to achieve your desired financial freedom.

Working towards financial independence, like most financial goals starts when you set a date, when you wish to become financially free. Time was when people had a defined working career, when they retired, when they turned 60, so setting a target date wasn’t very difficult. However, today, many aspire to quit their active careers much earlier. There are also circumstances, which may curtail one’s potential working years. For instance, many pilots today, owing to the corona pandemic may be forced to retire earlier than their planned retirement years.

Address financial needs
At a rudimentary level be adequately insured with the right life and health insurance policy and buffer to address financial emergencies. Having a strong financial foundation will help you face up to any financial challenges that may come your way. Once this financial foundation is built, start listing your life’s other financial goals with clear timelines and target sums. This exercise will help you break down your financial goals into different buckets to look for suitable financial instruments to put in money to reach these goals.

A choice among financial instruments that could beat inflation and create wealth is those with equity allocation, such as mutual funds. The systematic investment plan (SIP) route to mutual fund investing is a very convenient option because it forces you to invest regularly each month and can be automated. You factor your investments based on your current cash flows and invest towards each financial goal.

The aim is to invest in a manner that you accumulate funds necessary to achieve the listed financial goals. There are several equity mutual fund schemes to choose from depending on your investment time frame and risk taking capability. But, a portfolio of mutual fund schemes towards each of your financial goals will help you navigate and select appropriate funds.

Accumulate and withdraw
When working towards financial freedom, factor the reality that you have a finite number of years to invest and build wealth. In contrast, you have a fairly uncertain number of years for which your savings and investments will be used to live off. You would definitely want to avoid a scenario when you outlive your savings and investments. Your plan needs to ensure capital protection for as long as possible and create passive income streams to address your financial needs for a long time, when you may not have fresh investments to add.

As much as one would wish to be financially free at a young age, chances for the best laid plans to not go as planned is a possibility. This should not discourage you, as ideally you should be tracking your financial plans and be willing to modify it given the changing circumstances faced by your investments. You could also get yourself a trusted and experienced financial advisor who can help you, the way a personal trainer helps you get in shape to attain financial freedom.

Next steps

• Decide a date by which you want financial freedom
• Take stock of your liabilities and plan your investments
• Implement and review your investment plan, periodically