More often than not, millennials in their mid-twenties, shy away from taking responsible financial decisions. As a  25 something, you may aspire to do a lot of things but somehow financial planning, investing and budgeting, don’t make it to your bucket list. After all, With your whole life before you, exciting things waiting to happen, all you would like to think of is to have a good time and spend your salary as soon as it comes in. Right? What if you look at it from a different angle then? Let’s say in another 30 years from now or maybe even earlier, you may want to leave what you were doing and take a trip around the world; you may want to start your own thing, or just relax.  For all this to be a reality, however, you need the money and lots of it. So how do you go about building a corpus that can give you financial freedom? Here are a few ideas for you to get a headstart in the investing game. 

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Speaking on a sound and foolproof planning as far as an investment for retirement is concerned Kartik Jhaveri, Manager — Wealth Management at Transcent Consultancy said, "For retirement planning, your investment should be diversified. One should make his or her portfolio in such a way that it has some exposure in equities, Public Provident Fund or PPF, insurance, some investment in real estate and NPS (National Pension Scheme)." He also added that the percentage of exposure in various options depends upon the risk-taking ability of the investor and his or her risk appetite.

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Invest In Equities

Stocks and shares, as an asset class, have proved to be the best performing over the long term. The benchmark indices (BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50), for instance, have given returns in excess of 16 per cent annually over the last 10 years. This means that if you had invested Rs 10,000 every month over the last 10 years you would have more than Rs 29 lakhs by now. A more conservative estimate would assume that stocks give a 10% return every year. If you invested Rs 10,000 every month for the next 30 years, you would get an amount of more than Rs 2 crore. 

Speaking on the investment in equities Omkeshwar Singh, Head of Rank MF at Samco Securities said, "If you have the risk appetite, you can invest in stocks and watch them grow over the next 20, 30, 35 years. You can invest either a lump sum or a little bit every month thus optimising your cost. If you would like to lower your risk but still be in equities then you can try equity mutual funds. Monthly investments in equity schemes in the form of Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) can help you build wealth over a long time horizon. Mobile investing platforms can also help choose and easily invest in the right mutual fund for your any kind of financial needs, with optimal returns." 

Public Provident Fund (PPF)

If you are a conservative investor seeking fixed returns with no risk, then PPF is a good investment. 

Vijay Kuppa, Co-founder at Orowealth said, "PPF is a 15-year scheme that you can extend by another 5 years. You can invest anything from Rs 500 to Rs 150,000 a year. If you invested the maximum permissible every year, you would have a corpus of Rs 44 lakhs at the end of 15 years. A good thing about investing in PPF is that the returns are guaranteed. Another advantage of investing in PPF is that the returns are tax-free and you can get a tax relief of up to 1.5 Lakhs if you invest in PPF. So PPF gives you tax-free returns as well as a chance to reduce your tax outgo. 

Insurance

Insurance is strictly a protection product and not really an investment, but some of them can double up as investments to create a sizeable amount over the years. There are policies that mature after 25 to 30 years such as endowment covers.  Unit-linked insurance plans are for both protection and investment products. Compare products online to save time and get started with beneficial insurance plans. 

Real Estate Investment 

Building a house comes with many benefits. Firstly it can help you claim tax breaks on the principal and the interest amount you pay. You can buy a house whose EMIs roughly equal the monthly rent you pay. That way you will have your own asset after a few years that will only appreciate over time. You can sell it if need be or pass it to your children as and when needed. 

Investment in NPS (National Pension Scheme)

The NPS is compulsory for central government employees while others can contribute voluntarily. Over the last 10 years, the NPS has given returns between 8 and 10 per cent annually. Assuming a return of 10 per cent, if you invested Rs 10,000 annually in the NPS, after 35 years you would have a corpus of 3.8 crores. On retirement, 60% of the corpus can be withdrawn without any tax implication, while the remaining 40 per cent will serve as annuity (pension) payouts over the life of the individual.  In the example above, you can get Rs 75,600 as monthly payouts. If you want more you can increase your monthly investments. Up to Rs 1.5 lakh is tax-deductible under Section 80C and another Rs 50,000 under Section 80CCD. Therefore, an investment in NPS helps you reduce your tax outgo reduced.

On when to start investment in NPS Vijay Kuppa, Co-founder at Orowealth said, "The best time to start a retirement fund is when you are in your 20’s because then you have a lot of time on your hands since you get the advantage of compounding, which is earning interest on interest. Most asset classes do well over the long term. The earlier you start the faster you can realise your dreams and ambitions. So don’t be afraid of exploring different investment tools, hire a fund manager if needed and get going with meaningful investing."