4 steps to achieve Financial Security – Invest for quality Life

In our society we generally see that after completing education, a large population is searching for a job. They first prefer government jobs, then corporate jobs or jobs in well reputed organizations.

The main objective is to get a secured job to get a regular uninterrupted monthly income and lifelong pension in case of government jobs. After getting such jobs, people want growth in their job so can get salary enhancement to save money to dispose of liabilities of the family, good living and for future security.

These all show that we are looking for a secure life from starting of our career till end of life so life can be lived with ease and with good lifestyle. If you term it rightly this future security is more like “Financial Security”.

What is the traditional way of thinking ?

Now many people are considering that the age of retirement is 58 or 60 years and accordingly people are saving money, doing investment planning and buying pension plans so after retirement they will get regular income or pension which they will get without any effort and life can be live with ease after age 60.

These all are the traditional ways that have engraved in our minds in such a way that we blindly follow the same and after age 60, people realize that all the money they have exhausted in buying a home, family liabilities and left with a pension which is not even good to take care of very basic necessities after age 60. But at that age, you cannot do anything except look for some income stream or depend on your children in your old age. Because of that even after retirement, people keep doing work not for joy but just to live an average life.

What should be the right thinking about “Financial Security”?

This all can be avoided if we should work on ‘Financial Security” at the age when we start earning or whatever age we are.

Why should wait till age 60, why not we should create a monthly income or pension maximum by age 40-45 which can give us income for survival. If someone sets the goal at the right age then comfortably it can be achieved by age 40-45.  

Try to achieve Financial Security before age 45. Even after age 50, it can be achieved if someone has higher earnings.

Many people are investing money without setting any goals or just thinking about financial freedom and their priorities are always to get best returns from the investments. But complete Financial Freedom is little tough in India as it requires large corpus. Achieving Financial Security is much easier if you set a goal like follow these 4 steps.    

What are the 4 steps by which Financial Security can be achieved?

To achieve anything you need to set your goal so you can achieve your goal in time. Similarly, in the case of financial security, you need to set few steps or targets by which you can achieve Financial well before age 45.

Let’s see, what are the 4 steps by which you can achieve Financial Security. You need to set 4 goals and step by step achieve them one by one. This is one of the ways by which you can achieve Financial Security at the right age.

1^st Step – Save an amount equal to 6 months of monthly expenses.

2^nd Step – Your invested money should generate a monthly income which should equal to your current monthly expenses.

3^rd Step – Your invested money should generate a monthly income which should equal to your current monthly salary.

4^th Step – Your invested money should generate a monthly income equal to the money you need every month to live life comfortably.

Let’s see again…

By these four steps, one can achieve financial security. Even after achieving 3^rd step, almost you will be in a comfortable position. To achieve this you need to focus on two very important things apart from earning, savings and investing which we will discuss at in last. As much you focus, you can achieve financial security as early.. It is also important one should enjoy life and build a debt-free home parallally.

Let’s understand these steps with an example

Mr. Mohit started earning regular monthly income at the age of 24. His present monthly expense is Rs 12000/- and his salary is 25000/-.

1^st Step

To achieve 1^st step, he should save an amount equal to six months of monthly expenses. Here monthly expenses are Rs 12000/- so he needs an amount which should equal to six months of monthly expenses is…

= 6 Months X Monthly expense Rs 12000/-   

= Rs 72,000/-

This money Rs 72,000/- should be accessible anytime in case of emergency.

Now Mr. Mohit has achieved 1^st step of Financial Security.

 2nd Step

To achieve 2^nd step his invested money should generate monthly income which should equal to his current monthly expenses.

Now his age is 33 and his monthly expenses are Rs 42,000/-. To achieve 2^nd step his investment should generate an average monthly income Rs 42,000/- per month.

He has saved & invested a corpus of Rs 54 Lakhs in different investment schemes where he is getting average returns @8% per annum so his corpus of Rs 54 Lakhs is generating an average monthly income of Rs 42000/-.

Now Mr. Mohit has achieved the 2^nd step of Financial Security.

3^rd Step

To achieve 3rd step, his invested money should generate monthly income which should be equal to his current monthly salary.

Now his age is 39 and his monthly salary is 120000/-.  To achieve 3^rd step his investment should generate an average monthly income of Rs 120000/- per month.

He has saved & invested a corpus of Rs 1.54 crore in different investment schemes where he is getting average returns @8% per annum then his corpus of Rs 1.54 Lakhs is generating an average monthly income of Rs 1,20,000/-.

Now Mr. Mohit has achieved the 3^rd step of Financial Security.

4^th Step

To achieve 4th step, his invested money should generate a monthly income equal to the money you need every month to live life comfortably.

Now his age is 43 and he needs monthly Rs 150000 to live life comfortably. To achieve 4^th step, his investment should generate average monthly income of Rs 150000/- per month.

He has saved & invested a corpus of Rs 1.92 crore in different investment schemes where he is getting average returns @8% per annum then his corpus of Rs 1.92 Lakhs is generating an average monthly income of Rs 1,50,000/-.

Now Mr. Mohit has achieved the 4^th step of Financial Security.

(Note: This average monthly income has been calculated considering average returns during a tenure of 5 years of investment schemes)

Now Mr. Mohit is financially secure. This Rs 150000/- income per month by investments is like his pension other than his regular income. If he continues to work further he can save 18 Lakhs per annum just by his investment apart from his regular savings by salary. If he wants to do something else that is of his passion then he can also pursue it as he has having income of Rs 150000/- per month from his investments.

Mr. Mohit has vast experience 20 years of his profession so he has started his own consultancy and getting regular income other than Rs 150000/- per month which his investments are generating.

You also can start building Financial Security

Only earning & saving is not enough to achieve financial security. You need to plan these 4 steps and monitor your financial security every month. Two main things you need to monitor

1. Status of your invested corpus.
2. And how much monthly income your investments are generating.

How you can monitor these two main things?

These two main things, first your invested corpus update and second your monthly income from all your investments both you can monitor in Microsoft Excel if you know how financial formulas work in Excel.

If you do not know anything then you can use pre-designed Excel sheet Premium Investment Tracker which will keep updated you about both. Once you fill in the investment amount, tenure and interest rate on which you have invested, auto calculators of Premium Investment Tracker will automatically calculate and update all at one place where you can able to see total corpus amount, per month income from different investment scheme and also can able to see the total monthly income generated by all your investments.

Also here in one place, you can see how much money you have invested in different institutions/ banks and the total of it.

This is a very useful pre-designed sheet that helps you to monitor and achieve your Financial Security status and helps you know your money closely. It is offline and hence completely secured, you can save it on your PC or pen-drive or hard drive with the protection of a password so only you can able to see it.

Your earnings from investment may be from, Fixed deposits, RDs, Insurance schemes Post office schemes, Share Market, Bond, Real Estate, Gold, retirement benefits, startups and any such schemes. You can able to calculate your total invested money and income from all such schemes.

Achieving financial Security is very necessary to live a financially stress-free life. These 4 steps are one of the ways to achieve Financial Security. If you religiously follow these 4 goals and monitor these two things “one is your invested corpus updates” and “second is monthly income from all your investments” then you can achieve it with ease.

At whatever age you are, you should know the status of these both things and further, you can achieve your Financial Security by these 4 steps.    

Achieving financial Security is easier if you are serious towards your financial security at an early age and even if you are late then also there is a vast probability that you can achieve financial security through higher earnings.