At the age of 30, what kind of savings are suggested...?
Ans: Before giving this answer, I assume the following:-
• You have a job with some capacity to invest for your future financial goals.
• You have not done any investments so far and are starting afresh.
Whatever you have already done or are already doing can be discounted from what I have written below.
As a young person with family responsibilities right now or coming up in future, you should be doing the following:-
• You should have an emergency fund at the very outset, equal to 6-12 months’ worth of your expenses, to cater for unforeseen circumstances like a job loss or gap while transiting to another job. If you do not have it, create earliest through a lumpsum or slowly contributing to it, as convenient to you. It should be invested in small bank FDs or Liquid mutual funds from where you can take it out in a short period of time.
• Have a term insurance plan with a life cover equal to about 7 years of your annual income, in case you have any financial dependencies.
• Even if you have a medical insurance cover given by your employer, have your own cover too for about Rs 3-5 Lakhs to cater for employer provided cover not being there.
• Subscribe to EPF to the extent of Rs 2.5 Lakh (own contribution) per year which is the maximum tax-free amount you can contribute to it.
• Depending on your risk profile, invest in SIPs (Systematic Investment Plan) of Equity Mutual Funds for your long term goals occurring at least 5 years from now. In case you have any goals coming up withing 5 years, the investment should be done in a combination of FDs/RDs, debt funds and hybrid funds as per the amount available with you and your risk profile. Increase these SIPs as per your salary increase every year.
• Your financial goals would pertain to your children, house, retirement, vacations, vehicle and many more as per your own perception and requirements. For retirement goal, NPS (National Pension Scheme) would also be a good way to go ahead with in the form of SIPs there.