A noted American psychologist
developed a hierarchy of needs based on human psychology- Abraham Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs. The pyramid describes the level for the needs in human
life cycle from basic to self-fulfillment needs. The bottom is physiological
needs (What food I need to eat?) to the top of the triangle (What’s my purpose
in life?), which can only fulfilled once basic needs are taken care of.
The same theory can be applied in money matters through
financial priority triangle. We need to identify the first level towards meeting
our financial milestone and keep moving ahead to reach the next level. Sounds
simple? Sure, it is.
Cash flow management is the first step towards financial uplift. It
is critical to understand that ideal scenario is income exceeds expenses. But,
if that may not be the case, then our financial security is in jeopardy. As
higher expenses not only increases debt but also reduce savings and future
potential growth of capital. Hence, the focus needs to be either to increase
income and/or reduce the expenses.
The equation needs to be:
Income- Expenses=
Savings
The next step is to understand level of debt in personal balance
sheet. It is essential to understand the type of debt held in terms on
appreciating assets including education, property and precious metals and avoid
holding debt on deprecating assets like car, travel, gadgets and vehicles. The
idea behind is to understand that our liabilities should not eat away our saving
opportunities.
As interest payment towards debt
not only hampers current savings level, but also makes us lose opportunities to
grow our savings through investments.
Understanding our cash flows,
provides us an overview of the way the money is managed- in building assets or
creating liabilities. It is essential to comprehend the budgeting and attain
asset-liability management, as it impacts the savings rate and potential to
achieve future financial goals.
It is important to achieve the discipline in savings for future
financial aspirations, as saved money can be invested for tomorrow. Furthermore, it is imperative to increase the
net savings rate through minimizing financial leakages including taxes,
interest payment, and credit card dues. The simple method is Know your goals.
Invest your savings. Optimize portfolio performance.
But, investing the money is not
where it ends all, it is equally significant to track the investment performance of the portfolio and at minimum
match the performance to the benchmark index. The focus should be to align your
goals, risk appetite and time horizon rather picking top performers or hot
stocks. Nevertheless, portfolio performance is one of the important parameter
to maximize the goals- but other parameters include knowing the sector
allocation, risk allocation, distribution among risky and less risky assets.
Thus, at the top of the pyramid is optimizing
portfolio performance and employ strategy that maximizes goal achievement.
As the objective, is to move up the ladder from financial security to
sufficiency and wealth creation.
