A Cheatsheet for Automatically accumulating Funds for Future Repeat Purchases

If one observes carefully, it can be deduced that the prices of these products generally reduce over their lifetimes. But due to technological advancements, newly launched products offer additional comforts and features. And therefore, one is keener to buy an upgraded and superior product – which ofcourse comes at a higher price.

Now lets be honest…

We will always buy improved and upgraded products even though it might cost us more. Isn’t it? Under normal circumstances, our aspirations and needs are ever-increasing.

These days, the trend is too simply go and buy whatever you want.

How to pay for it? Use your credit card. Find it tough to pay your credit card bill? No worries. Convert it into EMI.

That’s it. Life is easy.

Credit is easily available for even very small purchases. And what is the justification for these increased credit-funded purchases? One is instantly able enjoy the benefits of product, without waiting for years. It is another matter that significant amounts are paid as interests, processing fees and insurance charges, even before you start using the product. Not to mention the continuous mental pressure of making the payment on time.

But if you are young, then you might not have many responsibilities and buying the product on credit may still not be a very big issue for you.

However when you have to repeat your purchases in future, say after 10-15 years, you would have additional responsibilities like higher family expenses, child education, medical expenses and so on. At that time, you might not be in a position to forego that comfort and may even have to pay much more to buy a superior product.

The question then is that how should one fund these repeated product purchases, without straining the regular cash flows?

I take television as an example for this study. This product is a perfect fit for the category that has undergone numerous technological advances.

So while the price of the old product has come down significantly (and some have become obsolete), there are other superior products available at much higher prices.

Also it is a kind of product you tend to replace after quite a long time, say 10 to 15 years (I used my last CRT TV for 15 years without any trouble before switching to a larger Smart LED TV).

In 1999, the cost of a 21-inch CRT television was approximately Rs 20,000.

In comparison, a full HD Smart 32-inch LED television costs Rs 44,000 today (in 2015).

As for the old tech 21-inch CRT television, it is still available at some places at a price as low as Rs 8500. But I am pretty sure that almost everyone these days will prefer buying a LED or LCD television and not the CRT one.

Now if given a choice, everyone would prefer to live a debt free life. But that is only possible if either you have loads of money; or if you can meticulously plan for most of your purchases in advance.

In my opinion, one should opt for loans and EMI only for buying the first house for self-occupancy – which also provides tax benefits. All other items bought for comfortable living and luxury, should be funded through savings and investments through proper planning.

In this case study of television, I have assume its useful life to be about 15 years. Lets see how we can fund the repeat purchase after 15 years.

Cost of CRT television in 1999 – Rs 20,000

Cost of LED Television in 2015 – Rs 44,000

Now here is the hypothesis. After buying the television in 1999, if a small percentage of the initial purchase value is invested in an investment option, whose ideal maturity period, matches that of the remaining time left for the repeat purchase, then it will automatically fund the future repeat purchase.

Sounds lovely? Automatically funding your repeat purchase? Read on…

Let’s say that 10% of the TV purchase amount (i.e. Rs 2000) was allocated for future repeat purchase. And this was invested in a financial product, which matched the expected duration of the repeat purchase.

In this case, the repeat purchase is expected after 15 years. Let’s see whether the purchase could have been funded automatically by this investment or not?

Since the investment duration is 15 years, the obvious choice of investment option is Equity Mutual Fund.

Let’s analyze by investing 10% amount (Rs.2000) in Franklin Prima Plus Fund on 01-Jan-1998. Rs 2000 Invested on that date, would have grown to Rs. 88,608 and would have easily funded your repeat purchases for not one but two televisions.

Lets pick another fund…

If Rs 2000 had been invested in Reliance Growth Fund, it would have grown to Rs 119,220 –good enough to fund almost 3 such televisions.

But for sake of being unbiased, lets choose another fund. And this time, lets pick up a fund that is not known to be a great one.

Lets take the worst performing fund of last 5 years in its category.

So now if the amount of Rs 2000 been invested in Sundaram Growth Fund, it would have grown to Rs 31,142. Agreed that it would not be good enough to fund a new 32-inch LED Smart TV. But it would still have been sufficient to buy a 32-inch regular LCD TV.

The point that I am trying to make here is that, by investing even a very small % of the actual amount spent on the initial purchase, you can more or less fund the repeat purchase of the item in future. And that too very easily.

For a moment lets assume that you are not able to contribute this 10% (for future repeat purchase fund) at the time of initial purchase.

No problem at all.

Divide the amount (Rs 2000) by 12 (~ Rs 200) and start a SIP for the divided amount for next 12 months.

Contributing Rs 200 monthly would not have been a problem for someone who is spending Rs 22,000 for buying a TV in 1998-99. Even this approach of breaking the amount into a small SIP would have yielded almost the same result.

Lets come back to 2015 now…

Now even today, if you are buying a LED TV for Rs 44,000, then contributing a small amount of Rs 600 per month for next 12 months should not be a very big issue.

But what if you don’t want to wait for 15 years to change your TV?

Suppose you want to change it every 7 to 10 years.

Even then, the suggestion would be to go for equity mutual funds. But since the expected duration is less (i.e. the time remaining in the next repeat purchase), your percentage contribution of the initial purchase value needs to be increased to say 20% to 25% as per the duration.

Lets take another example…

In year 2005, the cost of Honda Activa was Rs 44,000. And in 2015, the cost of same vehicle is Rs 58,000 approximately.

Now if one had invested Rs 16,000/- (in a fund for repeat purchase) in a diversified equity mutual fund in 2005, the money would have sufficiently grown to fully fund your new vehicle in 2015. And just to share some numbers, Rs 16,000 invested in Sundaram Growth Fund in July-2005 is now worth Rs 58,300. The same amount invested in Franklin Prima Plus Fund is now Rs 1,19,539.

Its quite understandable that as when you buy a vehicle for Rs 44,000, it is very quite tough find additional Rs 16,000 for something, which is to be bought 10 years later. But even if you cannot afford a one time investment, you can again divide this amount into small parts and do a SIP of 1 or 2 years.

But it is also possible that you don’t want to wait for 10 years. You want to buy another similar vehicle in 5 to 7 years. If that is the case, then it’s recommended to go for Recurring Deposits.

As a conclusion to this already long post, I would say that in order to maintain or improve one’s life style, one has to make some provisions for future. Proper, sensible planning….combined with investing a portion (10% to 20%) of the initial purchase value, will go a long way in giving you the financial comfort and also help you avoid getting trapped in loan-EMI cycle. In addition, it will not strain your regular cash flows during your middle ages, when there are other expenses that take precedence over these lifestyle related expenses.

Do let us know how you make provisions to fund future repeat purchases of necessary items.