Knock Knock Knocking on Opportunity door!

The first rule of investment and creating a nice nest egg is to "Spend Less than you Earn" and while this is very common knowledge we usually never track against a budget and everytime we face challenges as we near the end of the month.

Sometimes we get additional money in our pocket due to any special situations -- tax rebates in 2010 budget, more than expected bonus, lower than expected spending in the month ( lower telephone bills since you were on vacation and not at home), increased bank interest in savings account ( look out for my next post on this). These opportunities are usually lost in since we dont do anything specific with the money we get and we most probably spend the additional money on something wasteful.

So one of the actionable tips that I have for you is to utilize these specific times and have targetted investments for such times.

Here is an example

For someone earning more than 8L/annum- the budget puts back 50,000 Rs because of changes in the tax structure. If I was to use this money and start a SIP for 4100/- a month into say an infrastructure fund ( because infrastructure is one area which will definately grow) or into a debt fund depending on your risk profile.

So if you invest 50,000 Rs every year,  here are some examples of what you would create when you are 60 yrs ( Retirement)

Age     Investment     No of years        Annual Return        at 60 yrs
36        50000                  24                       15%                       30L
23        50000                  37                       15%                       1.8cr




You can use the excel sheet to evaluate what your savings can be by downloading the flile here

You can do this without actually changing your lifestyle or saving more by reducing your monthly budget!

So please dont miss such opportunities --   -- Plan out what you are going to do with the additional income before you get your first cheque at the end of April!..Start your money plant...  I know I am...

Happy investing..