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Retirement planning, in a financial context, refers to the allocation of savings or revenue for retirement. The goal of retirement planning is to achieve financial independence.

Without a judicious retirement plan in place, you run the risk of outliving your savings and not being able to maintain the desired lifestyle in your retirement years. You also run the risk of not being able to accumulate enough corpus for your dependant’s owing to unfortunate and uncertain events like death, disability etc.

Retirement planning helps you determine how much to save today for retirement; how to invest your savings to get the desired returns; how to protect your assets and provide for in case of unfortunate events and how to make judicious use of retirement income post retirement.

The process of retirement planning aims to:

• Assess readiness-to-retire given a desired retirement age and lifestyle, i.e., whether one has enough money to retire
• Identify actions to improve readiness-to-retire
• Acquire financial planning knowledge
• Encourage saving practices

Modeling and limitations

Retirement finances touch upon distinct subject areas or financial domains of client importance, including: investments (i.e., stocks, bonds, mutual funds); real estate; debt; taxes; cash flow (income and expense) analysis; insurance; defined benefits (e.g., social security, traditional pensions). From an analytic perspective, each domain can be formally characterized and modeled using a different class representation, as defined by a domain’s unique set of attributes and behaviors. Domain models require definition only at a level of abstraction necessary for decision analysis. Since planning is about the future, domains need to extend beyond current state description and address uncertainty, volatility, change dynamics (i.e., constancy or determinism is not assumed). Together, these factors raise significant challenges to any current producer claim of model predictability or certainty.

Monte Carlo method

The Monte Carlo method is the most common form of a mathematical model that is applied to predict long-term investment behavior for a client’s retirement planning. Its use helps to identify adequacy of client’s investment to attain retirement readiness and to clarify strategic choices and actions. Yet, the investment domain is only a financial domain and therefore is incomplete. Depending on client context, the investment domain may have very little importance in relation to a client’s other domains e.g., a client who is predisposed to the use of real estate as a primary source of retirement funding.

There are various kinds of needs and life-events, some of which are listed below:

• Retirement Corpus
• Buying a Home
• Post Retirement payout
• Job Transition
• Parenthood
• Children’s Education
• Children’s Marriage
• Insurance
• Tax planning

Retirement planning is the process of determining retirement income goals, and the actions and decisions necessary to achieve those goals. Retirement planning includes identifying sources of income, sizing up expenses, implementing a savings program, and managing assets and risk. Future cash flows are estimated to gauge whether the retirement income goal will be achieved. Some retirement plans change depending on whether you’re in, say, India, United States or Australia.

Retirement planning is the process of setting retirement income goals and the actions and decisions necessary to achieve those goals. Retirement planning includes identifying sources of income, estimating expenses, implementing a savings program, and managing assets and risk.

Retirement planning is ideally a life-long process. You can start at any time, but it works best if you factor it into your financial planning from the beginning. That’s the best way to ensure a safe, secure and fun retirement. The fun part is why it makes sense to pay attention to the serious and perhaps boring part: planning how you’ll get there.

Purpose

Money works for you

In the younger days, everyone runs after their 9-5 jobs. Everyone works to earn money and have a good living. However, retirement days are the days where one cannot work any longer. Therefore, it is the time when the money one earned should do all the work.

Stress-free life

This is the most significant outcome of retirement planning. Retirement planning helps to lead a peaceful and stress-free life. With having investments that earn regular income during retirement leads to a worry-free life. Retirement is the age where one has to relax and reap the benefits of all the hard work.

Inflation beating returns

Investing in retirement will help in earning inflation-beating returns. Holding money in a bank savings account will not generate high returns. In other words, the interest earned will not be enough to lead an uncompromised retirement. Therefore, proper investment planning will help one to generate significant returns in the long term. Also, it is important to start investing early. This helps in averaging out the impact of market volatility.

Cost-saving

Planning for retirement at a young age will help in reducing the cost. For example, in an insurance policy the premium amount to be paid will be lesser when the policyholder is younger. While getting insurance during retirement becomes costly.

Need

• Best time to fulfil life aspirations.
• One cannot work forever.
• Start planning early and diversify investments.
• The average life expectancy is increasing.
• Relying on one source of income is risky, e.g., pension.
• Do not depend on children.
• Higher complications, e.g., medical emergencies.
• Contribute to the family even during retirement.

Life cycle Planning

Stages of Retirement Planning:

1. Young Adulthood: Those who are entering an adult life may not have a lot of money to invest, but they can have enough time to let investments mature. It makes a critical and valuable piece of retirement saving. Such investments can make up a large piece of investments with regards to the principle of compound interest. Compound interest allows interest to be calculated on interest the more time you have, the more interest you will earn.
2. Early midlife: This age can bring in a lot of financial stress in terms of mortgages, student loans, and insurance premiums. Therefore, it may be difficult to save in this period.
3. Later midlife: When time is running out to make up for the difference in the actual savings and retirement plans, you will have the last opportunity to fill the gap. Since you will have higher wages and most of your debts would be fulfilled, you can have a larger sum available for investment.

The level of emphasis on retirement planning varies throughout different life stages. During the youth, retirement planning only means setting aside enough funds for retirement. During the middle of the career, it might change to setting specific income/asset targets and taking the necessary steps to realise them. Once you reach retirement, decades of savings will pay out.

The most important part of Retirement planning is ‘Investing’. Investing for retirement has to be very effective. There are several investment avenues that you can opt for retirement planning.

You have spent years accumulating your retirement fund. What is the best way to draw it down. Your retirement fund may consist of a collection of the following:

• Personal Pensions
• Company Pensions
• AVC
• Deferred pensions
• Paid up pensions
• Retirement Bonds

There is no right or wrong solution to retiring your fund. Only your solution. Everyone is different with a different set of needs, assets and objectives. We provide a bespoke solution to all of our clients to ensure that you receive the best solution for your specific situation, be it maximum tax-free lump sum or highest possible life time pension.

Pre

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): Exchange traded funds are considered to be one of the popular securities amongst investors. An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a type of investment that is bought and sold on stock exchanges. It holds assets like commodities, bonds, or stocks. An exchange traded fund is like a mutual fund, but unlike a Mutual Fund, ETFs can be sold at any time during the trading period. Moreover, ETFs helps you to build a diverse portfolio.

Bonds: Bonds are one of the most popular retirement investment options. A bond is a debt security where the buyer/holder initially pays the principal amount for buying the bond from the issuer. The issuer of the bond then pays the holder an interest at regular intervals and also pays the principal amount at the maturity date. Some of the bonds provide good 10-20% p.a.-rate of interest. Also, there is no tax applicable on bonds at the time of investment.

Real Estate: It’s the most preferred retirement investment options amongst investors. It is an investment made in the real estate, i.e. house/shop/site, etc. It’s considered to give good stable returns. To make an investment in real estate, one should consider good location as the key point.

Equity Funds An equity fund is a type of Mutual Fund that invests mainly in stocks. Equity represents ownership in firms (publicly or privately traded) and the aim of the stock ownership is to participate in the growth of the business over a period of time. The wealth you invest in Equity Funds is regulated by SEBI and they frame policies & norms to ensure that the investor’s money is safe. As equities are ideal for long-term investments, it is one of the best retirement investment options.

New Pension Scheme (NPS) New Pension Scheme is gaining popularity in India as one of the best retirement investment options. NPS is open to all but, is mandatory for all government employees. An investor can deposit a minimum of INR 500 per month or INR 6000 yearly, making it as the most convenient for Indian citizens. Investors can consider NPS as a good idea for their retirement planning because there is no direct tax exemption during the time of withdrawal as the amount is tax-free as per Tax Act, 1961. This scheme is a risk-free investment as it’s backed by the Government of India.

Post

Bank Fixed Deposits: Most people consider the Fixed Deposit investment as a part of their retirement investment options because it enables money to be deposited with banks for a fixed maturity period, ranging from 15 days to five years (& above) and it allows to earn a higher rate of interest than other conventional Savings Account. During the time of maturity, the investor receives a return which is equal to the principal and also the interest earned over the duration of the fixed deposit.

Reverse Mortgage As a part of the post- retirement investment options, a reverse mortgage is a good option for senior citizens who need a steady flow of income. In a reverse mortgage, stable money is generated from the lender in lieu of the mortgage on their homes. Any house owner who is 60 years of age (and above) is eligible for this. Retired people can live in their property and receive regular payments, until the death. The money receivable from the Bank will depend on the valuation of property, its current price and well as the condition of the property.

Annuity An annuity is an agreement aimed at generating steady income during retirement. Where a lump sum payment is made by an investor to obtain a certain amount instantly or in future. The minimum age entry for any investor in this scheme is 40 years and the maximum is up to 100 years.

Senior Citizen Saving Schemes (SCSS): As part of the post- retirement investment options, an SCSS is designed for retired people who are above 60 years old. SCSS is available through certified banks as well as the network post offices spread across India. This scheme (or SCSS account) is up to five years, but, upon the maturity, it can be subsequently extended for an additional three years. With this investment, tax exemption is eligible under Section 80C.

Financial planning is a process of setting objectives vis-à-vis your current income. It involves assessing your currents savings and assets, estimating future financial needs, and making plans to achieve monetary goals. Retirement Planning goes beyond financial planning or providing investment advice and is aimed at achieving financial security for retirement. It is aholistic solution aimed at enabling people to achieve their financial dreams both before and after retirement.

Retirement planning is not an art but a definitive science which requires taking a 360-degree approach to studying one’s current financial health, long-term goals and risk appetite to design a plan that addresses the retirement and other long-term goals of an individual.

It involves a step-by-step approach:

Step 1: Identifying your financial and retirement goals

Step 2: Analysing your current financial situation

Step 3: Risk Profiling

Step 4: Asset Allocation

Step 5: Investment Allocation Strategy

Step 6: Periodic Monitoring and Rebalancing

Strategies

• Cut down expenses.
• Seek expert advice / professional help to create a roadmap for you to maximise your savings without compromising your standard of living.
• Choose investment options that give you higher returns.
• It is good to have a working spouse to generate an additional income stream.
• Look for additional income through another job / business simultaneously if possible.
• Start immediately.

Planning

Decide Your Retirement Age

The most common retirement age is 60 years, but it may vary from person to person.

Some may wish to work beyond 60 years of age, while a few even wish to retire at 50 basically it’s a matter of choice.

Estimating your retirement age is an important step, because after this age your regular income stream will stop or at least reduce considerably (in case you are eligible for pension). You will have to depend on your savings and investments to take care of your retirement needs.

Start Early to Retire Peacefully

Like any other goal, start planning your retirement as soon as possible. With several years in hand, you have time and the power of compounding in your favour.

Never delay retirement planning or else you might have to compromise your goal. Worst case you might have to be financially dependent on your children or family. Hence, start early, start now.

Most individuals who are in their 20s and having recently started earning might think that retirement is a distant reality. For them, planning for retirement at this early age may seem like being overly cautious.

Determine Your Retirement Corpus

Retirement corpus is the amount you require post retirement to meet your expenses and continue with the same lifestyle and maybe pursue your other personal goals.

For this, first ascertain your annual expenses at present.

For that you need to first write down monthly expenses on various categories such as household, medical, entertainment, travel, EMI, and children’s school/tuition fees, and so on.

So, it is important that you make an accurate estimate of how much amount you will require, to maintain your present lifestyle after you retire.

Wealth creation is the process of investing in different asset classes where the investments will help in fulfilling key needs. These investments should also be self-contained that can generate a stable source of income, helping one to fulfill their aspirations.

The wealth creation process will be most effective if started early. Starting investments during the early stages of life will give a head start for achieving goals. It also helps in generating higher growth in the long term. This is due to the power of compounding. Power of compounding is a concept that will help in building a considerable corpus in the future. The concept of compounding revolves around reinvesting the returns back into the fund to earn higher growth. Therefore, the longer one stays invested, the higher will be the gain in wealth.

Wealth creation is a process of investing in multiple asset classes that eventually help in meeting one’s livelihood needs. Therefore, wealth creation as an investment strategy plays a significant role.

No one really knows what the future holds for them. Hence, it is better to start planning for the future from the beginning. Starting investments early will help in creating wealth in the long term. Short term investments will not always create wealth.

Each one of us will reach a point where we are unable to work any longer or earn an income. Planning for a safe and secure livelihood in the future is what wealth creation is all about.

Factors

Goal based investing

Goal based investing is the best way to measure one’s financial success. All of us have goals and dreams about the future. Prioritizing and achieving one goal at a time will give the utmost satisfaction. To do so, one should list down all the goals along with timelines and start investing towards them. Starting small and early will help in wealth creation. Having a separate investment fund for each goal will help in achieving them sooner. Therefore, aligning investments to financial goals will help individuals to create wealth.

Retirement planning

The benefits of investments are realized to a greater extent during post retirement years. Having a separate retirement fund will help investors in leading a stress free and healthy retirement. Retirement is the time where one’s savings or investments do the work for them. To create one such fund, it is important to start early and invest regularly.

Regular income

Investments into good assets will help in generating alternate sources of income. For example, investments in equities, mutual funds or debt instruments will help in generating income through interest or dividends. Therefore, during retirement, these investments will be an additional source of income that will help one in retiring peacefully and have financial independence. Also, in times of emergencies or health crisis, these investments will help in addressing the contingencies.

Strategies

• Make money. Before you can begin to save or invest, you need to have a long-term source of income that’s sufficient to have some left after you’ve covered your necessities and debts.
• Save money. Once you have an income that’s enough to cover your basics, develop a proactive savings plan.
• Invest money. Once you’ve set aside a monthly savings goal, invest it prudently.

Principles

Fundamental Factors

The returns an investment generates will be based on its fundamental factors. Analysing fundamental factors only will lead to a long term success. There is a lot of difference between taking one right investment decision by fluke and taking right investment decisions regularly by analyzing the fundamental factors.

Risk Vs Safety

Whatever the long term savings you have got you can invest in risky assets like equity funds. You will be adequately rewarded for taking risk in the long run. Whatever the short term savings you have got you can park it in FDs or debt funds.

 Investing your long term money in safe avenues will be a destruction to create long term wealth. You will not be able to beat inflation. Similarly investing your short term money in risky investments is also dangerous.

Asset Allocation

Depending upon your financial goals, you need to arrive at the required rate of return from your investments. You need to decide what kind of allocation needs to be given to different kind of investment avenues like Fd, Debt funds, balanced fund or a high risk Equity Funds.

Income tax is levied on the income earned by all the individuals, HUF, partnership firms, LLPs and Corporates as per the Income tax Act of India. In the case of individuals, tax is levied as per the slab system if their income is above the minimum threshold limit (known as basic exemption limit).

Indian Income tax levies tax on individual taxpayers on the basis of a slab system. Slab system means different tax rates are prescribed for different ranges of income. It means the tax rates keep increasing with an increase in the income of the taxpayer. This type of taxation enables progressive and fair tax systems in the country. Such income tax slabs tend to undergo a change during every budget. These slab rates are different for different categories of taxpayers. Income tax has classified three categories of “individual “taxpayers such as:

• Individuals (aged less than of 60 years) including residents and non-residents
• Resident Senior citizens (60 to 80 years of age)
• Resident Super senior citizens (aged more than 80 years)

Income tax slab rate applicable for New Tax regime – FY 2020-21

Income tax slabs rate for Old Tax regime -FY 2020-21

Income tax slabs for Individual aged below 60 years & HUF

NOTE: Income tax exemption limit is up to Rs.2,50,000 for Individuals, HUF below 60 years aged and NRIs for FY 2018-19

• An additional 4% Health & education cess will be applicable on the tax amount calculated as above.
• Surcharge:
  1. 10% of income tax, where total income exceeds Rs.50 lakh up to Rs.1 crore.
  2. 15% of income tax, where the total income exceeds Rs.1 crore.

Income tax slab for Individual aged above 60 years to 80 years

An estate plan is an arrangement for the use, conservation and transfer of one’s wealth. The process involves the creation of an estate, the growth of the estate to meet the needs of the owner and his or her family and the preservation and protection of the estate from unnecessary taxes and costs.

Estate planning is the preparation of tasks that serve to manage an individual’s asset base in the event of their incapacitation or death. The planning includes the bequest of assets to heirs and the settlement of estate taxes. Most estate plans are set up with the help of an attorney experienced in estate law.

Estate planning is often a cooperative effort between you, your attorney, and other appropriate members of an estate planning team, such as a financial planner, a life insurance agent and a CPA. The plan should not be thought of as a series of separate transactions but, rather, as an ongoing process that evolves as your needs, goals and family change, as laws change, and as new estate planning tools and techniques are developed. Proper planning requires professional thoroughness that respects the overall wellbeing of you and your family. Most importantly, however, it should be a plan that is carefully designed to meet your goals.

Estate planning goals should include the following:

• A business exit strategy if you have an ownership interest in a business.
• Preserving the assets of your estate by minimizing taxes and post death administrative costs not only in your estate, but also in the estates of your spouse and descendants
• Providing instructions for your care and the management of your assets for you and your family if you become incapacitated.
• Avoiding probate.
• Provisions for asset preservation if you or a family member require long term health care.
• Your control and best utilization of your assets during your life.
• A plan of distribution that will leave your assets to whom you want, when you want, and with whatever controls you want.

Estate planning tasks include the following:

• Limiting estate taxes by setting up trust accounts in the names of beneficiaries
• Establishing a guardian for living dependents
• Naming an executor of the estate to oversee the terms of the will
• Creating or updating beneficiaries on plans such as life insurance.
• Setting up funeral arrangements
• Establishing annual gifting to qualified charitable and non-profit organizations to reduce the taxable estate
• Setting up a durable power of attorney (POA) to direct other assets and investments

Will

Will is a type of legal document used to transfer the property of a person after death as per his/her wishes. The importance of Will cannot be stressed enough as lakhs of civil cases are pending before various Courts for resolving inheritance disputes. Further, all Wills are revocable at any time during the life of the person and is a confidential document. Hence, it is important for everyone to know about the benefits of having a Will and create a Will

Types of Will

Privileged Will

Privileged Wills are Wills that may be in writing or made by word of mouth by those in active services like a soldier, airman or mariner. The legal requirement for the validity of a privileged Will has been reduced to enable certain persons to quickly make a Will. The following conditions are applicable for a privileged Will:

• The testator writes the whole will with his own hand. In such a case, it need not be signed or attested.
• If a soldier or airman or mariner has given written or verbal instruction for the preparation of a Will but has died before it could be prepared and executed. And such will is a valid Will.
• The testator should sign the privileged Will written wholly or in part by another person. In such a case, there is no requirement for attestation.
• A Will written wholly or partly by another person and not signed by the testator is a valid Will if it is proved that it was written by the testator’s directions or that the testator recognized it as his/her Will.
• A half-completed privileged Will is also considered valid if it is proved that non-execution was due to some other reason and does not appear to be an abandonment of intentions to create a Will.
• A privileged Will can be made by word of mouth by declaring intentions.

Unprivileged Will

Will created by a person who is not a soldier employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare or a mariner at sea is known as an unprivileged Will. For an unprivileged Will to be valid, it must satisfy the following conditions:

• The person creating the Will must sign or affix his/her mark to the Will. Else, some other person should sign as per the directions of the testator (Person creating the Will) in his/her presence.
• The two or more witnesses should attest to the will. The witnesses must have seen the testator sign or affix his mark to the Will or has seen some other people sign the Will, in the presence and by the direction of the testator.
• The signature or mark of the testator or the signature of the person signing for the testator must be placed so that it appears that it was intended to give effect to the writing as Will.

Conditional or Contingent Wills

A Will can be expressed to take effect only in the event of satisfying certain conditions or can be contingent upon other factors. Such a Will, which is valid only in the event of the happening of some contingency or condition, and if the contingency does not happen or the condition fails, is called a conditional or contingent Will.

Concurrent Wills

Concurrent Wills are written by one person wherein two or more Wills provide instructions for disposal of property for the sake of convenience. For instance, one Will could deal with the disposal of all immovable property whereas another Will deals with the disposal of all movable property.

Joint Wills

Joint Will is a type of Will wherein two or more persons agree to make a conjoint Will. If a Joint Will intends to take effect after the death of both persons, then it would not be enforceable during the life-time of either. The person at any time during the joint lives or after the death of one can revoke the joint will.

Duplicate Wills

The testator will create a duplicate will for the sake of safety or safekeeping with a bank or executor or trustee. However, if the testator destroys the Will in his/her custody, then the other Will is also considered revoked.

Holograph Wills

Wills which are handwritten by the testator himself are known as Holographic Wills. These kinds of will have their own merit. Due to the fact that they are completely handwritten by the testator himself, raises a strong presumption9 pertaining to their regularity and execution. It is held in various judicial pronouncements that “If there is hardly any suspicious circumstances attached to the will, it will require “very little” evidence to prove due execution and attestation of such a will”

Requirements of a Valid Will

Testator Details: Name, age, address details of the person making the Will

Legal declaration: A Will is a declaration. A Will is by which a living person (called testator) declares his desires or intentions. A Will is never an agreement or contract or settlement. It is for this reason that the beneficiaries of a Will should not be parties to the Will. The declaration must be legal. A declaration that is illegal either by way of the ultimate objective or in some other way will not be considered as a Will.

Intention of testator: A Will is a declaration of intention of the person making the Will. By definition, intention relates to the future and is different from statement of narration of facts as at present. A Will that only narrates the present state of affairs and does not carry a clear exposition of the intention of the testator is not a Will. Similarly, if a Will made by a wife stating what her deceased husband always desired before death is not a Will; since it carries intentions of the testator’s deceased husband and not of the testator.

With respect to his / her property: A Will can only be made with respect to the property that the testator owns or has rights over. The simple rule is that one can only give what one has. There is no way that one can give away something that one does not have.

The details of the properties which the testator wants to give to his beneficiaries under his Will like the description, the registration number, the date of registration and whether it is his self acquired property etc. If it is a movable property, then the details and description of each should be clearly and individually mentioned.

Beneficiary Details: In case of multiple beneficiaries, the details of each beneficiary like name, age, address, relationship of the beneficiary with the Testator.

Desires to be carried into effect after his / her death: The Will must state clearly that the testator desires that it comes into effect after his / her death. A renunciation during one’s lifetime does not amount to a Will. If the document desires to partition property among the testator’s sons while the testator is still living, the document cannot be called a Will.

Guardian for Minors: If the Testator wishes to give his property to any beneficiary who is a minor, then definitely he should appoint a guardian who will take care of the minor’s property till the minor attains majority.

Executor of the Will: The Testator should appoint an Executor to his Will. An Executor is a person who shall implement the Will after the Testator’s death.

Signature and Date: The Will should be clearly dated and signed by the Testator at the place in the document just below the last sentence in the document.

Exclusions: The Testator cannot give any property that is joint family property or ancestral property that is common to many other members too. Such a Will becomes void.

Trust

A trust can be created by not just the high –networth individuals but even by ordinary men and women. The provisions of the Indian Trust Act, 1882 (referred to as “The Act” in this article) governs only private trusts.

Public Trusts are usually governed by state-specific legislation. Eg: The Maharashtra Public Trust Act, 1950. The Indian Trust Act extends to the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Further, this act is not applicable to the Waqf, religious or charitable endowments and to a few others.

Parties in a Trust

• Author/Settlor/Trustor/Donor (Mr X): The person who wants to transfer his property and reposes confidence on another for the creation of the trust.
• Trustee (Mr Y): The person who accepts the confidence for the creation of the trust
• Beneficiary (Mr X’s granddaughter): The person who will benefit from the trust in the near future.

A trust may be created by:

• Every person who is competent to contracts: This includes an individual, AOP, HUF, company, etc.
• If a trust is to be created by on or behalf of a minor, then the permission of a Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction is required.

Types of Trusts

• Private Trusts: A private trust is for a closed group. In other words, the beneficiaries can be identified. eg: A trust created for the relatives and friends of the author.
• Public Trusts: A public trust is created for a large group, i.e., the public in large. eg: Non-Profit NGO’s Charitable Institutions for the general public.

Return on Investment or ROI shows you the return from your investments. It helps you to choose the best investment across different investment options. You may evaluate the investment based on your financial goals and risk tolerance. You could also gauge the cost of your investment and look for hidden charges that could eat up your returns. The return on investment is usually expressed as a percentage. In simple terms, the return on investment is a financial ratio that helps you determine the benefit of your investment against the costs. You may calculate the return on investment using the formula:

ROI = Net Profit / Cost of the investment * 100

Compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) is one of the most commonly used terms in the mutual fund industry. CAGR represents the compounded growth rate of your investments made in mutual funds. It helps you gauge a mutual fund scheme’s average annual growth over a given time period.

Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is the rate of return that would be required for an investment to grow from its beginning balance to its ending balance, assuming the profits were reinvested at the end of each year of the investment’s life span.

The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) formula is:

CAGR = (Ending balance/beginning balance)^1/n – 1

Here,

Ending balance is the value of the investment at the end of the investment period

Beginning balance is the value of the investment at the beginning of the investment period

N is the number of years you have invested

Use in Mutual Fund:

Compare returns between different funds and benchmarks. You can also use the CAGR calculator to compare the returns you earn on a particular fund against similar funds. This can help you understand how well the mutual fund is performing compared to its peers. You can also compare against the benchmark indices for greater clarity.

Better investment decisions: The CAGR calculator is a very handy tool to help you analyze your investment decisions every year. For instance, if you have purchased an equity mutual fund five years ago, the CAGR calculator gives you the average rate of returns you have earned every year over the past five years. This can help you understand whether the fund’s returns are as per your expectations or not. If the fund is not performing well, you may want to reconsider your investment in the future.

Post Tax Return

An after-tax return is any profit made on an investment after subtracting the amount due for taxes. Many businesses and high-income investors will use the after-tax return to determine their earnings. An after-tax return may be expressed nominally or as a ratio and can be used to calculate the pretax rate of return.

After-tax returns break down performance data into “real-life” form for individual investors. Those investors in the highest tax bracket use municipals and high-yield stock to increase their after-tax returns. Capital gains from short-term investments due to frequent trading are subject to high tax rates.

Businesses and high tax bracket investors use after-tax returns to determine their profits. For example, say an investor paying taxes in the 30% bracket held a municipal bond that earned $100 interest. When the investor deducts the $30 tax due on income from the investment, their actual earnings are only $70.

High tax bracket investors don’t like it when their profits are bled-off in taxes. Different tax rates for gains and losses tell us that before-tax and after-tax profitability may vary widely for these investors. These investors will forego investments with higher before-tax returns in favor of investments with lower before tax returns if lower applicable tax rates result in higher after-tax returns. For this reason, investors in the highest tax brackets often prefer investments like municipal or corporate bonds or stocks that are taxed at no or lower capital tax rates.

An after-tax return can be expressed nominally as the difference between an investment’s beginning market value and ending market value plus any dividends, interest, or other income received and minus any costs or taxes paid. After-tax can be represented as the ratio of after-tax return to beginning market value, which measures the value of the investment’s after-tax profit, relative to its cost.

Net worth is the value of the assets a person or corporation owns, minus the liabilities they owe. It is an important metric to gauge a company’s health, providing a useful snapshot of its current financial position.

Your net worth, quite simply, is the amount of your assets minus all your debts. You can calculate your net worth by subtracting your liabilities (debts) from your assets. If your assets exceed your liabilities, you will have a positive net worth. Conversely, if your liabilities are greater than your assets, you will have a negative net worth.

The term “net worth” refers to the book value of the equity owned by shareholders of a company. It can also be seen as the net value of a company that can be claimed by its shareholders in case all its assets have been liquidated and all its debts are repaid. In other words, it is the dollar amount of assets left after all the liabilities have been paid off. The net worth of a company is also known as stockholder’s equity and shareholder’s equity.

Your tangible net worth is similar to your net worth in that it totes up your assets and liabilities, but it goes one step farther. It subtracts the value of any intangible assets, including goodwill, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property.

Businesses, for example, calculate tangible net worth to determine the liquidation value of the company if it were to cease operations or if it were to be sold. This figure can also be important to individuals who are applying for personal or small business loans, and the lender demands a “real” net worth figure. Your lender may be interested in your tangible net worth because it provides a more accurate view of your finances and how much the lender could recoup if it had to liquidate your assets if you defaulted on their loan.

Tangible Net Worth = Total Assets−Liabilities−Intangible Assets

Net Worth in business

In business, net worth is also known as book value or shareholders’ equity. The balance sheet is also known as a net worth statement. The value of a company’s equity equals the difference between the value of total assets and total liabilities. Note that the values on a company’s balance sheet highlight historical costs or book values, not current market values.

Lenders scrutinize a business’s net worth to determine if it is financially healthy. If total liabilities exceed total assets, a creditor may not be too confident in a company’s ability to repay its loans.

A consistently profitable company will register a rising net worth or book value as long as these earnings are not fully distributed to shareholders as dividends. For a public company, a rising book value will often be accompanied by an increase in the value of its stock price.

Net Worth in personal finance

An individual’s net worth is simply the value that is left after subtracting liabilities from assets.

Examples of liabilities, otherwise known as debt, include mortgages, credit card balances, student loans, and car loans. An individual’s assets, meanwhile, include checking and savings account balances, the value of securities such as stocks or bonds, real property value, the market value of an automobile, et al. Whatever is left after selling all assets and paying off personal debt is the net worth.

Calculating Liabilities

Liabilities include any financial obligations that need to be repaid. It can include loans, mortgages, rent, or bills. When calculating liabilities, take the repayments that are currently outstanding not something that will be due in the near future.

For example, if we are computing the net worth of an individual at the end of the year, and they pay their utility bill each month, we will only take the amount due for that month (say December) and not include subsequent amounts for January or February of next year.

Assets are defined as resources owned by the company from which future economic benefits are expected to be generated. Total assets are the sum of non-current and current assets, and this total should equal the sum of stockholders’ equity and total liabilities combined.

The formula for Total Asset is:

Total Assets = Non-Current Assets + Current Assets

Non-Current Assets: Non-Current Assets are those assets that a company holds for more than one financial year, which are not readily convertible into cash or cash equivalents.

Current Assets: Current Assets are those assets that are expected to be converted into cash or cash equivalents within one financial year.

Asset for Small Business

• Cash
• Accounts receivable (money owing)
• Customer deposits
• Office furniture and equipment
• Cell phones
• Computer hardware and software
• Tools, machinery and equipment
• Vehicles
• Real estate (buildings etc.)
• Lease agreements and money spent to improve a leased space
• Inventory
• Investments that mature in less than 90 days (i.e. stocks, U.S. treasuries, bonds, mutual funds)
• Pre-paid insurance
• Intellectual property (i.e. know-how)
• Brand equity (recognition)
• Company reputation
• Copyright
• Trandmarks
• Patents
• Franchises
• Licensing agreements
• Domain name
• Employment contracts
• Customer lists
• Client relationships