On July 6, when the finance minister rose to present the Annual Budget for 2009-10, the Sensex had opened at 14,962.12 points. By the time he ended, the index had crashed 700 points.
In one trading day, Rs 2,50,000 crore of investors’ wealth was wiped out. This would once have caused panic or, at least, intense speculation. These days, such news gets a far more blasé response. That’s because over the past year or more, key indices swung so much that they made a yo-yo look lazy. Ordinary investors are left bewildered, not knowing whether to stay or to go.
Then there are analysts featured in the pink papers and on TV, who pontificate one day about the dark clouds hovering over the country’s economy and cheerfully announce that all is bright the very next day. Should you believe either version? What does all this mean to you? When jobs are scarce, salaries falling and prices rising, how can an ordinary family save for a house, higher education and a holiday? Compromises have to be made and corners cut. But how do you eliminate one plan without affecting another? Should you remove goals or downgrade them?
It’s your family’s future at stake, so it’s obviously important. Important enough for you to pay a professional to help you make an informed decision. Enter financial planners and advisers.
Here we examine why you need these planners, why you should pay for them, and how you should choose them. With everyone claiming to offer the same solution, we even conducted an informal experiment, where our undercover sleuth approached three different “advisers” seeking help. The results were not terribly encouraging, but did point to the crying need for trained financial planners in the country.
