Financial planning is the process of assessing financial goals of an individual, taking an inventory of the money and other assets which the person has, determine life goals and then take necessary steps to achieve goals in the stipulated period. It is a method of quantifying a persons requirement in terms of money.

It is the process of meeting life goals through the proper management of finances. Financial planning is a process that a person goes through to find out where they are now (financially), determine where they want to be in the future, and what they are going to do to get there. Financial Planning provides direction and meaning to persons financial decisions. It allows understanding of how each financial decision a person makes, affects the other areas of their finances. For example, buying a particular investment product might help to pay off mortgage faster or it might delay the retirement significantly. By viewing each financial decision as part of the whole, one can consider its short and long- term effects on their life goals. People can also adapt more easily to life changes and feel more secure that their goals are on track.

In simple, Financial Planning is what a person does with their money. Individuals have been practicing financial planning for ages. Every individual who received money had to make a decision about the best way to use it. Typically, the decision was either spend it then or save it to spend later. Everyone had to make the same decision every time they receive money.
Financial Planning is an advisory service provided by the finance industry. Although financial planning is not a new concept, it just needs to be conducted in organized manner. Financial Planner on other hand is a service provider which enables an individual to select proper product mix for achieving their goals.

The major things to be considered in financial planning are time horizon to achieve life goals, identify risk tolerance of client, their liquidity need, the inflation. Keeping all this in mind financial planning is done with six step process. This are self assessment of client, identify personal goals and financial goals and objective, identify financial problems and opportunities, determining recommendations and alternative solutions, implementation of appropriate strategy to achieve goals and review and update plan periodically.

A good financial plan includes Contingency planning, Risk Planning (insurance), Tax Planning, Retirement Planning and Investment and Saving option
 
Study of various factors
Things to consider while doing financial planning are
 
Risk tolerance
Every individual should know what their capacity to take risk is. Some investments can be more risky than others. These will not be suitable for someone of a low risk profile, or for goals that require being conservative. Crucially, ones risk profile will change across their lifes stages. As a young person with no dependants or financial liabilities, one might be able to take lots of risk. However, if this young person gets married and has a child, the person will have dependants and higher fiscal responsibilities. So, the persons approach to risk and finances cannot be the same as it was when they were single.
Liquidity needs
How quickly one can access the money, when it is needed. If investment made on an asset needs to sold to procure funds in order meet a goal, then it needs to be understood how easily one can sell the asset. Usually, money market and stock market related assets are easy to liquidate. On the other hand, something like real estate might take a long time to sell.
Inflation
Inflation is a facet of the economic life in India. The product that is brought today is almost double the price of what it was ten years ago. The purchasing power of money is going down every year. Therefore, the cost of achieving goals needs to be seen in terms of what the inflated price would be in the future.
Need for growth or income
When an individual makes investments he/she needs to think about what is required, whether capital appreciation or income. Not all investments satisfy both requirements. A young person should usually consider investing for capital appreciation, to take advantage of their young age. An older person however might be more interested in generating income for themselves.

Six steps process of financial planning
1. Identify financial, personal goals and objectives
Clarifying present situation, is a preliminary step someone has to complete prior to planning their finance. Doing a self assessment enables a person to understand their present wealth status and responsibilities. Self assessment should contain following

- Prospective retirement age - Main source of income - Dependents in family - Expenses and monthly savings - Current investment status
One should identify their wealth status prior to moving with financial planning.

2. Analysis of Current Financial Situation
One should identify their wealth status prior to moving with financial planning.

Each individual aspires to lead a better and a happier life. To lead such a life there are some needs and some wishes that need to be fulfilled.

Money is a medium through which such needs and wishes are fulfilled. Some of the common needs that most individuals would have are:

Creating enough financial resources to lead a comfortable retired life, providing for a childs education and marriage, buying a dream home,

providing for medical emergencies, etc.
Once the needs/ objectives have been identified, they need to be converted into financial goals. Two components go into converting the needs into financial goals. First is to evaluate and find out when it is needed to make withdrawals from investments for each of the needs/ objectives. Then person should estimate the amount of money needed in current value to meet the objective/ need today. Then by using a suitable inflation factor one can project what would be the amount of money needed to meet the objective/ need in future. Similarly one need to estimate the amount of money needed to meet all such objectives/ needs. Once a person has all the values they need to plot it against a timeline.

3. Identify financial problems or opportunities
Once goals and current situation are identified, the short fall to achieve the goal can be assessed. This short fall need to be covered over a period of time to fulfill various needs at different life stages. Since future cannot be predict, all the contingencies should be considered will doing financial planning. A good financial plan should hedge from various risks. A flexible approach should be taken to cater to changing needs and we should be ready to reorganize our financial plan from time to time.

4. Determine recommendations and alternative solutions
Review various investment options such as stocks, mutual funds, debt instruments such as PPF, bonds, fixed deposits, gilt funds, etc. and identify which instrument(s) or a combination thereof best suits the need. The time frame for investment must correspond with the time period for goals

5.Implement the appropriate strategies to achieve goals
A person needs to implement the plan into action.Necessary steps needs to be taken to achieve financial goals. This may include gathering necessary documents, open necessary bank, demat, trading account, liaise with brokers and get started. In simple terms, start investing and stick to the plan.

6. Review and update plan periodically
Financial planning is not a one-time activity. A successful plan needs serious commitment and periodical review (once in six months, or at a major event such as birth, death, inheritance). Person should be prepared to make minor or major revisions to their current financial situation, goals and investment time frame based on a review of the performance of investments.