Rajiv Sabharwal shared his insight on financial planning. He believes that if we have our goals in sight, with hardwork and commitment we can maintain our financial health. This had been his key takeaway from his long experience with the financial industry. The most important thing to achieve your goal is to believe in yourself. 

Rajiv then shared his input on how the pandemic situation has affected financial planning for individuals and SMEs as Divya questioned how individuals or SMEs plan their finances when incomes were stalled or affected by the pandemic. Rajiv informed that as we say in marketing there are different segments of customers. There are people whose salaries continued through the pandemic, their incurred expenses went down so their savings went up and to avoid uncertainties in life these set of people pre-paid their loans. Then there were other sets of customers whose income was actually affected by covid. These customers then relied on their savings to help with the situation. But the good part was that the Indian economy showed the momentum to bounce back and people who were affected by this situation got their income revived. There were many industries that were adversely affected like Hospitality, travel; they have seen an extravagant bounce back in the last 6 months. So different segments were affected variedly. RBI got many amendments so that many SMEs and other affected customers could restructure their loans and get back to stronger positions. 

Rajiv also shared his input on Divya’s question on how we can manage well when our lives are under risks of climate change, geo politics issues, infections etc,. He said there are many types of risks, related to health and life. But what is important is how you should prepare yourself to manage those risks. He shared that to be financially secured we have to build our savings kitty. We need to have enough liquid savings based on family size and individual requirements. 

Divya discussed that people have different plans and questioned how those financial products can complement each other. Rajiv informed that there are different segments of people. There are individuals who have more money and they take loans to augment their lifestyles or save for different situations. There are people who don’t have enough savings, they take loans for cars or homes, they should plan to take insurance along with the loan. They should time their insurance in the same period as their loans. Divya then shared there are people who have money and they still want to take loans as rates are down. On this point Rajiv said everybody chooses the way they want to plan their finances. If they believe money can bring better returns than self-financing, that is their perspective but the most important thing is to understand their positioning and then plan. Rajiv shared that whenever you take a loan, pay it on time to maintain a better credit score and plan your finances well to protect it. When you take a loan ascertain how much loan you can take and understand your financial stability. Another important point is to know from whom you are taking your loan. Your service provider should be always accessible, it should be a brand you can trust. Third most important thing is how you can protect your loan. Fourth most important point is if you have surplus to pay your loan you should understand there is no penalty in pre-payment for that loan and hence, it can be a good way to manage an exit loan. Divya concluded that every individual should therefore, understand the quantum of loan to be taken and from where.

Rajiv spoke about his team and Tata group on how they are key to help and pass through various challenges that they face as a company. He said uncertainties are here to stay but what we can achieve together can make a difference. He also credited RBI for its proactiveness with various policies to manage situations due to external crises. Rajiv highly spoke about youngsters in their knowledge to better plan their finances. He concluded you should ensure you are protected for health and life and have the best financial portfolio.