SAving for your child's future

Are you getting married? Congratulations!

Oh! Not yet married? No problemo! You will soon / someday.
Oh! You are already married and have children too? Wonderful.

Have you thought of your child's need 18 years down the line? No?
Then I recommend you do.

I know a few people who start accumulating shares and gold (especially, if they have daughters).

There are other ways also. A really low risk mechanisms (but with the magic of compound interest thrown in) is opening a recurring deposit. Force yourself to save so that in 18-20 years time, when your kid is ready for higher education you have sufficient amount. Saving Rs. 2000 per month for 20 years at 6% interest will fetch you Rs.7,20,000. (Not sure of the prevailing interest rates; I think the maximum period for which you can open a recurring deposit is 5 years. Feedback the matured amount into some other low-risk investment and open yet another recurring deposit till you reach 20 years).

This does not stop you from going for medium risk investments. We will talk about those some day.