Start from the goal, not the product
Every plan we build begins with a date and an amount. Once those are fixed, the choice of instrument is close to arithmetic.
Wealth Creation
The open-ended goal — growing capital without a fixed deadline.
Plan this goalRetirement
Fund a thirty-year second innings that inflation keeps repricing.
Plan this goalChild Wedding
A large, discretionary, socially-pressured expense — worth funding early.
Plan this goalFund them in this order
Emergency fund first, because it is what stops every other goal from being raided. Then anything with a fixed, non-negotiable deadline — education ahead of a wedding, a wedding ahead of open-ended wealth creation. Retirement runs alongside all of them, because it is the only goal you cannot borrow for.
Most people have four goals competing.
Working out which to fund first, and what to underfund deliberately, is the part worth doing with someone.
Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Read all scheme related documents carefully before investing.