Deep Blue Publications Group

Take charge of your finances with this eight-step guide by Deepali Sen, a consultant at Winvestor, DSP Blackrock's investor education initiative

dnaIndia.com
According to a Neilson study sponsored by DSP Blackrock, 77% of working Indian women do not take their own investment decisions, primarily because they are afraid to take risks. You worked hard for it, you saved it; are you ready to learn how to make it work for you? Presenting baby steps to making good investments.

Find a Reason to Invest
Even if you save every rupee you earn today, its value after 10, 20 or 30 years, is not going to be able to buy you the lifestyle you lead today, simply because inflation raises prices, on an average between 7.5% to 8.5% per year (the last 10 years CPI shows an average 8.2% rise).

Take Stock
Get all your investments together—from bank statements, fixed deposits and real estate, to insurance, stocks, bonds and gold. Make a list of your liabilities (loans, credit card outstandings...); What are your post-tax inflows from salary/ professional/ rental/ dividend income?; What are your outgoings (groceries, annual maintenance contacts, mediclaim premiums, entertainment expenses...)? Note down what doesn't make sense; you can either do your own research or get an expert to answer your queries. If nothing more, atleast you now know your net worth.

Stay Reasonably Liquid
Keep three to four months worth of outgoings liquid to deal with contingencies.

Tag Goals to Assets
Identifying goals and tagging investments to them, make goals more tangible. This will also indicate whether or not you need to make additional investments. Tag short-term assets to short-term goals and long-term assets to long-term goals. If you are getting married in six months, equity is not a great idea. On the other hand, if you want to buy a house in seven years, equity is your best bet.

DSP Money Manager, HDFC Cash Managment Fund and ICICI Prudential Savings Fund are good options for parking contingency funds; while HDFC Top 200, DSP Top 100 and ICICI Focused Bluechip could help you meet future goa