Financial planning is very important in our life. We may get any amount of money but its management viz. spending and investing it, should be planned properly. This topic has been discussed in an article in Times of India dt. Feb 07, 2012. When a person gets his salary, especially during the initial period of the career, he is excited and wants to do many things, spend it and enjoy with friends and family. But to face the vagaries of life, we must know where our money is going and plan for emergencies, health and wealth for future. We must list heads of our expenses like rental, living, loan for vehicle and entertainment etc. which are short-term. Then there are the medium to long-term heads like emergencies, medical, house, children’s education and marriage and retirement etc. For the latter type of expenses it is better to start savings early in our life. For this purpose, it is better to open a systematic investment plan (SIP) account in a bank. In this way, some amount will be saved every month and we can decide on its investment on a suitable mix of equity and debt. Besides this, we should also save for emergency needs, company or own medical insurance plan and for a house. However, this basic plan has to be reviewed, updated and re-aligned with increases in salaries etc.