Many people do not have their OWN financial goals, so a cut n paste job has to be done. Which means you will HAVE to take the society’s goals and cut paste on YOUR life.

So let us take the GOALS that SOCIETY wants a BOY to have (sorry for the girl the goals are different)….

At 22 he should have got a nice Engineering degree from IIT (anything else is a compromise)

He should join IIM (A) i.e. assuming he cannot get into an Ivy League school, preferably Harvard.

At 27 he should get married to a nice girl from the same community, at 30 have a kid, at 33 repeat the performance.

He should have a nice big car, a nice house (size depends on the location, but a 3 bhk is a must, if it is 7 bhk, well you are more successful, great), and then he should retire at whatever age.

Clearly a guy will be judged on 2 dimensions – Academic and Professional is the first dimension and Family as the second dimension. There is no 3rd dimension allowed.

Now how does a financial planner deal with a kid who tells him the following:

I have finished my IIM A as per my parents wishes, and I think it is a useless degree. I do not want it. However it has got me a job that pays close to 2 million Rupees in a year. My father earned that when he was 54 years old.

Now what I want to do with my life?

Well I have the following goals:

See Various parts of Africa and South America by the time I am 30.

Work for a few years in the USA and see the whole of US by age 33.

Work for 4 years in the Gulf in an American Oil major and use the money to do some treks in Europe and use that experience to do some serious Mountaineering in the Himalayas.

If I get a like minded girl, marry her – and assume that she will earn and spend along with me. If we have a kid, great, or we will continue with Mountaineering and Cycling tours till we reach 40 years of age.

At age 40 take up a job in Europe, and see whole of Europe and at age 50 take up a senior management job in India. Hopefully hold it till I retire and then retire to a nice place in the South of India.

Now I am 24 and these are my goals.

How do you think a 49 year old financial planner will react?

His jaw will drop…imagine a 24 year old with no goals to buy a house, car, wife, parents, ….

The planner will run out of your house saying “Do not ask me questions outside the syllabus”….