Today is the 15th of August and we Indians are celebrating the 76th year of our country’s independence. While that is a significant milestone in our democracy, financial independence for all is still a distant dream. While job and income security for all is a work in progress, for larger masses, the proper deployment of existing savings is a challenge.
For the majority of us Indians, formal planning for financial independence is not in place. Those who are willing to give it a try, have limited knowledge of available investment options. Hence on their own, they are not capable of taking the right investment decisions. They want to take the help of Financial Advisors who are ethical, transparent and passionate about helping their clients but their tribe is small and they alone are not geared up to scale and support a huge burgeoning population of ours.
Taking Financial Education to the masses
While this may appear a difficult situation, there are ways out. The most important thing for us to do is to take financial education to the masses. While SEBI is putting their effort to increase coverage of financial education, the grass root level initiatives designed to harness the knowledge of those who have the requisite knowledge is more important.
Role of the Individual Investor
The first set of people who can help is the individual investors who have got their financial plan and investments right. They can educate their connections who in turn will educate their connections creating a chain reaction for a larger reach. The most important thing for us to do is to create awareness among this group of people who have the capability and the knowledge to make a difference in the life of people who are closely associated with them. Since the effort is voluntary, the motivation has to come from within.
The initial set of people who can be considered for reach out is your Home Help (e.g. maidservant, cook and driver), Parents, Extended Family, Friends and Colleagues. This can be prioritized so that the people who need the help the most are given preference.
Role of a SEBI Registered Adviser
The second set of people who can make a serious difference are those who by profession are the part of SEBI Registered Financial Advisory fraternity. They have the required knowledge and are regulated by the SEBI to protect the investors, particularly the retail investors. They have signed up for fiduciary responsibility and are flag bearers to make this initiative successful.
They have a reasonably good following through social media. They have been educating their followers through financial education articles and videos posted online on their website as well as through various social media. They are also taking formal education sessions for corporates, society and affiliated groups.
Stay away from non-fiduciary content
While it is important to seek the right educational material, it is even more important to stay away from the content which can be detrimental to the readers. Social media has given rise to many wannabe educators who may be publishing content to grab more eyeballs or whose content is paid for.
Summary
Making every Indian Financially Independent is an ambitious task beyond imagination. A bottom-up self-motivated individual-driven education approach will create a multiplier effect in educating a larger number of people at a faster pace and enabling them to take the right financial decisions towards their financial independence. Together, we can.
If you need any help with a complementary education session on Financial Planning for your company, society, group, or affiliations, please let me know. I will try my best to accommodate. That will be my humble contribution to the larger goal of educating fellow countrymen and in turn making them Financially Independent.
The writer is a SEBI Registered Adviser and Founder of FinMyn (https://finmyn.com). He provides Fee-Only Financial Planning and Investment Advisory services.
He has advised many clients in India, the US, Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia.
To know more about him, click on https://finmyn.com/about/.