Plan your life, on line

Here’s how it works. Get on to the net, and log on to http://www.iciciprulife.com, for instance—that’s the web address for insurance firm ICICI-Prudential Life Insurance Limited. Now fill up the form that pops up when you click on the retirment planning module. This asks for details like your current salary, the annual salary hikes you get, and the income level you think you need to live a comfortable retired life (a tip: you can live on 70-80% of your pre-retirement costs, usually). It then asks for the break-up of your assets in provident funds, PPFs, and other taxable savings, your annual addition to these savings, and so on. And then, the moment of reckoning—press a button, and you’ll be told if your current savings plan will be enough to take care of your retirement (tip: don’t panic if it says your savings are too low, it happens to each one of us. Just keep trying, and increase your savings, and finally ICICIPru will tell you you’ve saved enough). The website also offers a tool ‘explain’ that will help you understand the options you choose.

Another useful site is http://www.pioneeriti.com. Check out the Pioneer ITI Financial Pathfinder that suggests a plan keeping in mind your stage in life. For a regular tax-free income, fill in details of current financial assets (stocks, deposits, gold, property, etc), and then give some details of your risk profile— do you want your principal completely safe, or do you want to take a bit of a risk? Fill in the annual income you want post-retirment, and pray to god you don’t get this message ‘There is a Mismatch’—your savings are not adequate to meet your income needs.’ Of course, if you do get this message, change some of the parameters, and try again.

It’s not just the financial services’ agencies (such as ICICI-Pru) that are offering such services. Personal finance magazine Intelligent Investor (www.iInvestor.com) also, for instance, offers a ‘retirement toolkit’. Once again, fill in the details of your income, your expected retirment age, details of your assets, current savings plans, retirement needs, and a few other details. Press a button, and the back-end calculator will tell you how much money you have on the day you retire, and compare this with what you need post-retirment. My calculations showed that, if I stopped saving today, my money would run out within ten years of my retirement. I had a shortfall, the website said, of Rs 20 lakh, and then offered me some savings options.

Also, are you aware what returns the Reliance shares you bought three years ago are giving you? Or the Satyam ones? You can track that easily at http://www.valueresearchonline.com, after giving in the stock details — the date of purchase, brokerage percentage, the price you paid, and such details. The website will then track down each company’s dividend payments and give you the complete idea.

Other websites worth visiting are http://www.walletwatch.com and http://www.myiris.com. Both these websites also offer tools that assist you in financial planning. At Myiris.com, your risk preference is ascertained, and various options, especially mutual funds are offered as possible solutions.

Tip: Some of the options suggested by various websites may not be the best, or are so general, they’re of little use. iInvestor.com recommended, for instance, that I invest Rs 17,139 per month in instruments that return 12 per cent per annum—which are these instruments in this day and age? So, depend on the websites to help you calculate your savings target, and broadly how this needs to be divided between stocks and fixed-income securities.