4 Actions To Be Taken in New Financial Year

Rules To Follow At The Start of New Financial Year

Introduction

When a new financial year starts, one should immediately start taking actions wisely on the financial planning and the investments. In this article, we will see the actions to be taken in the New Financial Year from a personal finance perspective.

What Actions One Should Take?

1. Plan your Section 80C Investments

• The earlier one makes investments for Section 80C the better it is for that person. If one makes investments on 1^st April itself, then one can get the interest on it for the whole year.
• If you are a salaried person, then you have already calculated your deductions and are known whether you are availing the full benefit available Section 80C.
• In case not, then one can invest in various tax saving schemes such as Public Provident Fund (PPF), Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS), 5-year Fixed Deposit (Tax Saving), or other tax saving schemes. These investments are not linked to the markets directly but are dependent on interest rates. This is a very good advantage. There is no uncertainty or volatility risk in these investments.
• The best way to combine long-term wealth creation with tax savings under Section 80C is to invest in Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS), popularly known as tax-saver mutual funds. Instead of waiting till March, you should start investing in ELSS in April. It will allow you to diversify the risk across time instead of putting in a lump sum at the end of the year.
• If one is a risk-averse investor and want to invest in fixed income securities, under Section 80C for tax saving, then one can definitely invest in such schemes.
• You can find more about these investments and their interest rates here.
• Public Provident Fund (PPF)
• Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS)
• 5-year Fixed Deposit (Tax Saving)

2. SIP Planning

• SIP planning is another important action, which is better to be executed at the start of the financial year itself.
• One also needs to check their inflows and outflows. After deducting the outflows from inflows, the surplus that might be left can be used as additional SIP.
• Some people may have planned to step-up their SIP’s every year. Then this is the time for them to do so, because one can allocate that much amount towards SIP from the start of the financial year itself and not tend to utilize it elsewhere.

3. Complete Your Financial Planning

• If one has not undertaken their financial planning, then one shouldn’t delay it anymore and get on it without further delay. They should immediately take actions to plan their financials and take actions accordingly.
• When one undergoes financial planning, it provokes a thought process through which one can understand about their financial goal, risk profile, and thus, investment strategies on the basis of those things.

4. Review the Financial Plan

• If one has already completed their financial planning, then this is the time to review the already built financial plan.
• Study and analyse various things such as last year’s performance, how have the plan progressed towards the goals, which goals got achieved, is my asset allocation strategy still correct, what changes need to be made etc.
• If one hasn’t reviewed their portfolio for a while, there is a good chance that relative market performance of asset classes in last one year may have changed the investment mix, causing the combination of mutual funds, stocks, bonds and cash to drift away from the financial plan. Postponing reviewing of one’s financial plan can add risk, which might cause financial goals to be not achieved as per planned periods.

Summary

1. The above mentioned 4 actions are very important factors financially.
2. A risk-averse investor can always opt to invest in fixed interest and fixed income securities, and should do it as soon as possible.
3. One should immediately go and carry out their financial planning. And for those who have, they should review the plan and take calls on it after, if necessary, studying and analysing it.
4. Plan your SIP’s smartly and make additions to it if there is a new surplus available.

Notes: –

• We are not suggesting anyone to immediately go and buy stocks or invest in the stock markets.
• We are also not suggesting anyone to invest in any specific scheme mentioned above.