Holi is around the corner, and thousands of graduates who have managed to get a break into the corporate world will be taking their first steps into financial independence.

Most lean on their parents for financial advice, which very often takes the path of least resistance – Investment for Tax Savings, leading directly to Insurance. We have gone into some detail about these investment options in our previous articles -
Is insurance really an investment?
ULIP – Real Returns and Hidden Costs.

Although not explicitly stated – insurance is actually a Retirement Planning investment; which begs the question – Is saving towards retirement the highest priority goal for someone in their twenties? When you ask this question, more often than not – there could be very reasonable goals such as funding higher education, buying a vehicle, repaying personal or family debt etc., which would take precedence.

Let’s take a look into the 5 steps to Take Control of Your Finances.

Step 1 will be to figure out what the immediate financial goals are. Look up our article on Pay your debt or invest? to help with this process.

Step 2 will be to figure out the monthly savings required to achieve these goals. The Mishree app allows you to add goals, based on which it not only calculates the target monthly savings but also recommends the most appropriate financial investment which will help you achieve your goals.

Step 3 will be to start tracking your expenses, to figure out if your lifestyle and expenses enable you to meet your financial goals. Here again, Mishree app automatically tracks your savings progress towards each goal and helps you visualize and optimize spending.

Step 4 and the most critical step is to start Budgeting – to make sure you can consistently meet your financial goals over the long term. We recommend the time tested Envelope based budgeting system which has been modernized by Mishree to suit today's digital age.

Step 5 will be to invest in the right financial instrument to invest in – based on the timeline and schedule of the investment goals.

The first few years are the most critical in setting the right financial habits. The Mishree app is designed to help you automate financial tracking, plan your expenses and invest better to meet your financial goals.