Sukumar Singh works in Hyderabad and stays with his homemaker wife and two children, aged 11 and six. He gets a monthly salary of Rs 1.6 lakh, of which, Rs 75,000 goes in household expenses and kids’ education. Other expenses include insurance premium of Rs 4,250 and loan EMIs of Rs 28,000. Singh has taken three loans—Rs 10 lakh for home, Rs 5 lakh for car and Rs 3 lakh for gold. After considering investment of Rs 50,000, Singh is left with a surplus of Rs 2,750. His portfolio includes equity worth Rs 9.3 lakh in the form of stocks and mutual funds, debt of Rs 23.3 lakh as and NPS , and cash of Rs 3 lakh. His goals include building an emergency corpus, saving for his children’s education, and . Financial Planner Pankaaj Maalde suggests he start by building an emergency corpus of Rs 3.2 lakh, which is equal to three months’ expenses. This can be funded by allocating the cash holding of Rs 3 lakh and investing it in an ultra short-term fund. He should increase this amount to six mont...