SUMMARY – Financial Planning cannot be afforded by everyone. You can try planning your finances yourself by referring to good personal finance books, attending personal finance training sessions, personal finance websites and blogs and using personal finance software. These methods will not give you the benefits of hiring a professional planner, who brings in rich knowledge and experience. Nevertheless, these are good resources to help you start planning your finances, rather than not doing anything about it. After all, taking some action is better than taking no action at all.

Expert financial planners are increasingly being engaged by more and more people, as professional advisors bring in the much required experience, knowledge and objectivity to their advice. But can everyone afford financial planning by a professional? We understand that this may not be feasible for many and therefore thought we can let you know of some resources which will help you start planning your finances.

Hiring a professional planner and doing financial planning yourself cannot be compared. Services of a planner also cannot be replaced. The different components of a financial plan like insurance, retirement, goal planning, investment planning and budgeting are interlinked and therefore require you understand the complete picture before making financial decisions. You must also be prepared to go through a lot of paperwork and review your plan regularly. However, we believe that some action is better than no action. Although these resources cannot help you build a comprehensive plan by yourself, it is a good starting point.

Personal Finance Books: Personal finance books can give you knowledge and understanding about various aspects of financial planning. You can visit a library or simply order these books online. Select books which are written in easy language and which explain concepts in a simple manner. You can select personal finance books written by Hemant Beniwal, the Jago Investor Team or Parag Parikh. Ranjan Verma’s Lights Camera Action Steps on Money Management is also another book on financial management concepts. All these can help you understand various personal finance topics. We, at GettingYouRich have already released our free eBooks on Insurance and Mutual Funds and will shortly release our very own Personal Finance eBook as well. Do visit our Free section to read our eBooks. Although books can be a great source to enrich your knowledge, sometimes, information given is pretty generalised and may not cater to your unique needs. A book can also not give you the practical knowledge needed which a financial planner gives you.

Personal Finance Training: Leading Personal Finance experts in the country schedule their training sessions regularly. Such sessions will allow you to learn lot more about personal finance and take result oriented actions. Even if you like to understand more about Financial Planning before you decide on an engagement with a Financial Planner, then attending such sessions may be a good idea. MoneyLife in Mumbai conducts such sessions regularly. These are also made available on YouTube. Jago Investor and The International Money Matters also conducts such sessions. GettingYouRich.com too has an initiative for Financial Wellness sessions. You can check more details about our sessions and schedule by clicking here.

Personal Finance Websites: There are innumerable personal finance websites and blogs available which can give you a wealth of knowledge and information. Blogs by SubraMoney, Manish Chauhan, Hemant Beniwal, OneMint and TheWealthWisher are some such resources*. Goodmoneying, fpgindia, networkFP and the blog by Ranjan Verma also carry a wealth of information. Our own blog has a wide range of articles on various areas. You can read all our articles by clicking visiting our Blog section. Websites and blogs can give you knowledge, but again, like books, not the personal touch required to put your finances in order. You must also be wary of the credibility of the website, as any wrong advice followed can upset your finances.

Personal Finance Software: There are some personal finance softwares and Do-It-Yourself websites available which can help you either partially or completely do financial planning.

• IMyGoals is a website which allows you to understand your financial profile and build a plan.
• Rupee Manager’s financial planning toolkit helps in recording your current situation, goals, risk cover and financial plan. 
• The software by InvestPlus looks at different facets of personal finance. 
• MProfit is a desktop portfolio management software which can help you manage your assets online. 

Other Sources:

• There are various small tips which we display on our social media page from time to time to help you in planning. Our Dilbert’s post for example, is uncomplicated and highlights all important parts of a financial plan you must follow. 
• Independent agencies like Money Life, which promotes financial literacy and consumer and investor initiatives, can help you in specific issues. 
• Independent financial advisors do product based financial planning, where you don’t have to pay the advisory fee, but the commissions from the product suffice for the adviser. However, we don’t subscribe to this view. 
• Another source of help can be your friends and relatives. However, the help provided from this source is not professional and therefore must not be followed blindly. Further, friends and relatives would advise based on their own experiences and this may not be applicable to your financial situation.

The above Do-It-Yourself resources may not give you the advantages which a professional planner brings to the table. Nevertheless, these can be good starting points and can enhance your knowledge considerably. Start today and use these resources to start understanding your finances. You can always reach out to a professional financial planner for complete financial planning.

* Source: Ranjan Verma’s blog on Top 10 Personal Finance Resources in India

Disclaimer: We do not have commercial interest in any of the products mentioned above.