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Porfolio Structuring (PS) Step 1: Evaluate Current Status

The first step to any long term investment plan is to understand where we are at present. So, to start with you need to list down your existing networth. For example, you can have a list as follows:
Provident Fund 100,000
PPF 50,000
Bank FD 50,000
Mutual Funds-Equity 150,000
Mutual Funds-Debt 50,000
Cash In Savings Account 30,000
House 2,000,000
Housing Loan -4,000,000
Others 0
Total -1,570,000

A couple of things to note here.

1. I am not calculating the value of any gold/silver jewellery that you may be having. Indians, typically are not very keen on selling their family gold/silver so it really does not count as investment. You can think of it as an additional bonus if you do have gold/silver.
2. I am including the housing loan you may have as a negative here under the assumption that that is your primary home and not a second home bought for investment purpose. Also, I am taking the full value that you need to repay to the bank for the loan as your liability. This approach may not be exactly orthodox, but it gives a fairer reflection of your financial status. A more accurate reflection of the value of your house and its loan can be achieved by calculating the liquidation value of your house and prepayment value of your loan, but that might be an overkill for basic investment purposes.

With this exercise you will have a fair idea of what is it that you have been able to save till date. Many people forget to count their PF contributions while calculating their savings. But, PF is a good solid way of building up a stable long term investment corpus.

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