Recently, a new breed of professionals has emerged who are making financial plans for everyone and are not just restricted to investment planning.  A financial plan includes planning for your taxes, retirement, kids' education and marriage, buying a home, estate planning or any other goals which you may have.

This new breed of professionals known as financial planners, write a plan for you with all your goals specifically laid down and then provides you with a road map on how to achieve these goals. He always gives you a holistic account of all your finances keeping all your assets and liabilities into picture, besides taking care of all the risks associated with you and your family and also the assets owned by you.  These financial planners will first collect all the data related to your finances and the goals you have for  future. These goals may be anything like buying a home, planning for your child's education or going for a vacation. After this exercise of data collection, the

Tax planning is often a ritual that people do not give too much importance and is at best considered a necessary evil. More often than not, for individuals, financial planning itself begins and ends with tax planning. The fact however is that tax planning is the first and a very important step towards financial planning.

Suitability Analysis

Today, tax-saving avenues' offer a good range of investment opportunities with different levels of risk, return and liquidity. Choose an appropriate mix of investments keeping in mind your financial objectives. Most of the time, we either take excessive risk or too less risk. Do not get carried away by past data, for eg. when markets are at a high and about to fall, equities will give you the best track record. On the contrary, when interest rates are at a peak, it is the best time to look at fixed income investment avenues and lock-in the interest rates for the long haul.

Given the current condition of the markets, both equity and

The year 2011 was among the most disappointing years with the high inflation, a depreciating rupee, low output and a failing global economy. Below are a few takeaways from the past year

1. Suddenly many jobs are being lost: Remember slowing down, closing down are not words that happen only to somebody else! It happens to the best. Only your salary is certain, the variable salary is really variable. I now know of several people who are earning about 60% of their claimed CTC. The variable is just not happening.

Learning: When you commit to a life style, EMI, etc. Ignore a big portion of your salary. Assume it's only 50%, it helps.

2. SIP can go wrong: All SIPs started in the past 1-2 years are under water.. Equities will do what it does. Keep your cool. You have to do what you have to do!!

The returns between the period of 1979 to 2011 was at about 18% p.a. — if you add dividends reinvested the returns should be better. However no one year may have got you 18% — there have been years of