Our grandfathers, fathers and Uncles have come from a very different time when there were no choices other than LIC polices and FD’s. The education was cheap, no competition got exists, every one’s desires were limited and people were happy with their limited environment. They were lived in joint families and every member of family was ready to get financial help for his family. There was no major impact on their lives from inflation and taxes. In those times, Fathers generally did not handle money in right way because of lack of knowledge and a different attitude. Hence, they had absolutely no clue about financial planning.
Modern Times
Things have changed today and now we are in a different world which has added pressure, high expectations from life, Education needs lacs today, the costliest one is for the kids these days, forget adults. People are eating out more, people are spending more, choices are more, want more (not need more and to achieve all that we need to grow our more smartly. Buying simple FD’s and Endowment policies will Kill you some days without letting you know.
In today’s world most of the fathers and Uncles have no idea how to take investing decisions. It’s a new and different world now compared to their days. They have not much idea of how things should happen in today’s world.
Most Parents today do not understand how to take investing decisions in today’s world and environment. Trusting them with this skill can be very costly in today’s world. There is no harm in evaluating if they should take it in their hand or not. Be bold!!
Time to Change
Why are you letting your Father take the decisions? What’s the reason for it? Is it respect and just because he is the oldest one you know in your family and he has seen more life than you? Do you think it makes him better investor and decision taker than you or someone else? It’s not right!! May be he is totally not suitable, Respect and “experience” is fine, but you can’t just let them take decisions just no these two criteria. It’s dangerous.
It might look rude but believe me, your parents will go some day and all of it is going to come at you some day and not knowing a lot of things that time will be a horrible situation. You don’t know how to invest, where to invest, you not knowing the rules of investing, you don’t know where you took insurance from, when it maturing, etc is. It’s like starting all over again. It can be painful; you are always dependent on your parents then. It’s a bad thing.
As we discussed earlier , today’s world needs better way of handling investing decisions and a better psychology , A person has to be more updated these days than what our Fathers were in their days .
You may also not be aware of where your parents are investing your money! They might not tell you about it or they may forget to tell you where the documents are kept, when is the maturity of some products and issue like these which look small but can become very major when some bad things happens. We are not saying that parents did wrong at their time, We are saying that the same thing may not work today!
Counter Scenario
On the other hand, we have Father or elderly relatives who are really good; they are experts in field of direct stock investing. Understanding financial planning and have good experience of investing with today’s environment, it’s always advisable to take their help or at least the guidance in many cases. At the end you have to decide if your parents are the right ones to take decisions for your money or not? It’s a personal evaluation to be done.
Financial Freedom
Most of the youngsters still are dependent on their nearest friends and colleague for whom their parents do not do investment planning. They invest as their friends invested but before doing that they should have investigate the whole thing and understand the objective of investments. In today’s world, they would definitely have to very proactive and take charge of their financial decisions. They should not depend upon their parents / close relatives for proper financial advice. Instead they should do their own homework and get financial planner’s advice and take actions after considering all advices. We have also to understand that parents will not be able to change themselves, so we have to make sure we educate them and change things. We should always involve them in discussions and also educate them. They are helpful while setting goals and exploring unthought-of issues in every goal setting, but the final decision has to be yours only. it’s like “Suno sab ki , karo mann ki” .
Suresh Kumar Narula is founder and Principal Financial Planner at Prudent Financial Planners. He has earned the professional CERITIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and got registered with SEBI as Investment Advisor. He writes on personal and financial planning articles and got published in Dainik Bhaskar, Business Bhaskar and The Financial Planner’s Guild, India. He is also a member of Financial Planner’s Guild India ( An association of practicing SEBI registered Investment advisers) to create awareness about Financial Planning in general public, promote professional excellence and ensure high quality practice standards. Suresh received his an M.com from Himachal Pardesh University and an MFC from Punjab University, Chandigarh. He can be reached at info@prudentfp.in