How should young freelancers decide on their financial goals?

livemint.com:

I am 20-year-old and proud to be a financially independent freelancer. What questions do I need to ask myself before getting started with my investment journey and how can I be consistent with it?

—Premjit Kharwar

In the world of investing, one of the most important learning has been starting early. There are many advantages of starting early as this gives you much better visibility of your finances over the years, helps you build the required corpus with a much lesser amount compared to those who start late and also allows you to take reasonable risk on the long-term investments.

It is always better to first work on the financial goals and their timelines, then start investing. Though, these goals may change over a period as you are just 20-years-old. However, as you progress further in your professional and personal life, having a destination for your investment always works. At this stage, some of the goals could be wealth creation, buying a home, accumulation for business, etc. This is subjective and you will have to do your homework on these goals.

There is a possibility some goals could be in the near term and some would be for a longer period. Based on the timeline of the goals, you can decide on the investment asset class and the avenue for it. A mismatch in this could have an implication on the corpus you plan to accumulate.

For example, if you plan to invest for a goal which is five years from now, it will be better to invest in equity through mutual funds or direct stocks. If you invest in fixed deposits or debt instruments, the returns may be less. So, you may fall not be able to build adequate corpus. Still, you must maintain a contingency fund in your bank account or fixed deposit. It can be