Introduction

Investment planning is the process of matching one’s financial goals with their financial resources. It is important to plan investments as it helps in fulfilling life goals and meeting financial emergencies. Scripbox is an investment platform that guides one to plan their investments through their predefined investment plans.

What is investment planning?

Investment Planning is a process of identifying financial goals and creating a plan to invest in achieving them. Investment planning is part of financial planning.

Primarily, investment planning begins with the identification of objectives and goals. Upon identifying the goals, it is essential to identify financial instruments that will help in achieving the goal. There are a variety of investment alternatives; choosing the right one that perfectly aligns to the goal is essential. Each asset class has different characteristics and having the right mix in a portfolio is a deal breaker.

Depending on the investor’s age, income, risk tolerance levels, and investment duration, one can narrow down on the financial products to invest in.

Additionally, investment planning does not end at identifying goals and investing. It is important to track the progress of the investments. Furthermore, necessary portfolio revisions have to be done in order to keep the investments at par with market volatility and dynamics.

How to build an investment plan?

Building an investment plan isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Here are a few basic guidelines that will help one build an investment plan.

Savings

A person’s savings journey has to start once they are employed. Saving a part of income for retirement or unforeseen expenses will help in dealing with any events in life. Moreover, everyone has goals like building a dream home or going on a vacation or buying a car. All this needs money. Setting aside a small amount every month will help in fulfilling these goals easily. Many investment options allow investors to invest in small amounts regularly. This will ensure financial discipline and regular savings. Ideally, one should save 25-30% of their income.

Purpose of investing

Doing something with no goal tends to get demotivating somewhere during the process. Hence having an end goal in mind before starting something is essential. Similarly, for investing, one needs to have a purpose. Investing aimlessly with no end goal is pointless. Investors will get discouraged to do so.  Hence have a purpose for investing. The purpose can be as small as investing towards buying a watch or handbag. But having a purpose is fundamental.

Recognize the financial goal

Once the purpose of investing is set, one has to identify the purpose as a goal. Recognize the goal based on the number of years one needs it to achieve it. For example, retirement is a goal, but one doesn’t retire until they are 60. Hence, this can be a long term goal. Recognize a goal based on the time period. Goals which one wants to achieve in the next 2-3 years are short term goals. Medium term goals have a time period of 3-5 years. And long term goals are any goal with a time period beyond five years.

Understand the risk of investing

While investing in any investment avenue, one has to understand the risk that comes with it. One has to also assess their risk tolerance. By doing so, one can understand what investment options are available for them. Investors need to choose those options that will best suit their requirements.

Gain knowledge about different investment options

The market is full of investment opportunities. One has to gain knowledge about all of them before picking the one that is most suitable to them. There are multiple asset classes like equities, fixed income, real estate, gold and commodities. Picking an asset class to invest is not easy without having any knowledge about it. Hence investors are advised to educate themselves about the different investment options.

Decide on which investment option to invest

After gaining knowledge about market investments, it is a cakewalk to select one to invest. All one has to do is match their financial goals with their understanding of risk to the investment options available in the market. By doing so, choosing an avenue doesn’t take much time. However, most investors lack time to do this tedious exercise. Hence one can always take the help of a financial advisor to help them pick the right investment options.

Build the portfolio

The next step in investment planning is to build a portfolio of different investments. One has to understand that a portfolio must have multiple asset classes, so the risk is spread across the portfolio. This ensures adequate diversification to the portfolio. Once a portfolio is constructed, the investments in it have to be reviewed periodically. One has to see that the investments made are progressing towards the said goal. If not, the portfolio has to be rebalanced. Monitoring an investment portfolio is as important as building one.

Benefits of investment planning

Investment planning helps investors in different ways. For some, it’ll help in making disciplined investments, for others achieving their life dreams, and so on. Following are some significant benefits on investment planning.

Efficiently manage income and savings

Efficient planning helps in managing income and expenditure. Therefore, one can easily set aside some savings and invest. Through investment planning one can keep a tab on the investment amount and aim to increase them gradually.

Defining goals

Investing to achieve a goal is a strategy that can never go wrong. Goal based investing also motivates investors to keep the investments going on. Bigger goals will start to seem achievable with consistent and disciplined investments. Goals can be anything from earning INR 1 crore in 10 years, or to buy a car, or to save for an international trip.

Knowing what one wants to achieve will help in choosing the right investment avenues and strategies. Defining goals will help in looking at a bigger picture while creating and assessing an investment plan.

Designing a comfortable plan

With investment planning, one can create a plan that is comfortable for them. Through this, one can invest in products that align with their understanding of risk. Gradually, one can also start setting aside additional money for new investments. Therefore, through investment planning, one can aim to achieve their goals in the future without compromising on the current lifestyle.

Generating significant returns

A well designed plan will always help in generating significant returns. Similarly, with investment planning, one can identify the right asset mix. Also, one can curate an investment plan that will help them achieve their goal while generating significant returns. Most importantly, one should carefully analyze the products before investing. Understanding the volatility of the investment product will help in estimating their future returns. Also, periodic review of the investment portfolio is necessary to keep up with the ever changing market dynamics.

How does Scripbox help you plan better?

Scripbox is an online platform that helps investors in starting their investment journey. Scripbox scientifically shortlists the best performing mutual funds and curates investment portfolios for its investors. They also have a few pre designed goals (goal based investing plans) that help investors start their investments towards a goal.

The most popular plans offered by Scripbox are

  • Build Wealth
  • Save Smart
  • Save Tax
  • Be emergency ready
  • Principal Protection and Growth

The Scripbox Promise

  • Fund Selection: One doesn’t have to worry about what funds to choose. Scripbox will suggest the best ones.
  • Continuous monitoring and action alerts: Scripbox will track the recommendations, suggest changes and fund exits whenever required.
  • Assistance: Scripbox is available throughout the week to assist their customers.
  • Annual Review and course correction: Scripbox reviews investments and makes course corrections yearly to make the best out of the investments.

Investments through Scripbox are 100% paperless. Also, investments and withdrawals are very easy. Therefore, investors seeking professional advice can invest through Scripbox and manage their investments easily. One doesn’t have to worry about what funds to invest and keeping track of their investments. Scripbox’s algorithm will do all the heavy lifting.