The festival of Raksha Bandhan, a symbol of unbreakable bond between brothers and sisters, is here again. On this day, a sister ties a rakhi on her brother’s wrist with a prayer for his safety and prosperity, while the brother gives his sister a token gift (usually some cash) and vows to protect her from all the troubles of the world. Earlier the gift used to be symbolic only, but with the passage of time, growing prosperity as well as the number of working women growing by the day, the tradition of giving gifts has also undergone a sea change and now-a-days both brothers and sisters prefer to give gifts to each other. Not only this, like everything else, the method of giving gifts too has started changing in India, as a result of which apart from cash some other gifts are also given, like mobile phones, watches and jewellery, among others.

If you can afford it, there is no harm in giving gifts, either to the sister or brother. However, are you aware that despite choosing your gift carefully, happiness from tangible gifts hardly lasts? Therefore, instead of buying traditional gifts or resorting to cash, won’t it be a better idea to give some alternative gifts to your loved ones? Here we are taking a look at some of such financial/ alternative gifts which may be more useful for everyone:

Investment Plan: If your sister/ brother is still a kid and you are working, then you can buy her/him a savings or investment plan which can help her/him in the long run. “The tradition of gifting cash, gold or clothes is an old fashion. The better option is to gift one a long-term investment like a diversified equity mutual fund that not only fetches better tax-free returns but also creates serious wealth in the long term. Keeping the promise of shielding your sister or brother always, this takes care of protecting her/him from financial worries in the long term,” says Atul Surana, Certified Financial Planner, Catalyst Financial Planning.

According to Surana, just Rs 20,000 invested in an equity diversified fund on Raksha Bandhan Day every year could help one get over Rs 29.87 lakh over 25 years, assuming 12% CAGR. Your investment is a meagre Rs 5 lakh over 25 years.

Gold: Gold jewellery is the most preferred gift for women across the nation. However, physical gold has a few downsides, particularly related to jewellery-making charges, purity and safekeeping. If you want to gift gold without having to worry about these things, then there are some other ways to buy gold smartly. For instance, you can buy Sovereign Gold Bonds, which not only ensure capital gains through the appreciation of gold, you also earn an interest on your investments of 2.5% per annum. SGBs are available both in demat and in paper form and can be bought through trading accounts, banks, post offices, NBFCs, and stock exchanges.

“You can also buy gold exchange traded funds (ETFs), whereby your gold is stored digitally in your demat account, with no risk of theft or purity, or charges on making. These do not carry entry and exit loads, and investment returns are linked to gold prices. Several mutual fund companies also have schemes that invest in gold ETFs. You can avail these schemes with amounts starting from Rs 500 per month. This provides you the advantage of buying gold digitally at nearly a sixth of the prevalent gold prices today. Gold funds are treated at par with debt mutual funds in terms of taxation of capital gains,” says Adhil Shetty, CEO, Bankbazaar.com.

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Help Acquire A New Skill: What would be a better Raksha Bandhan gift than helping someone acquire a new skill? If you bother or sister, for instance, wants to learn driving or the art of painting, then why not help him/her join a driving school or a painting class? Learning martial arts is an added advantage, especially for girls, in today’s times. You will be able to protect your sister in a better way if you could help her learn the art of self defence.

Club/Gym Membership: If you can’t afford any investment scheme or digital gold, nor are you in a position to make any long-term commitment, then you can look at some other options. One such option is gifting the membership of a club, gym or library of one’s choice. These days many people usually want to become the member of a club or gym for keeping themselves engaged or being physically fit, but won’t necessarily buy the membership themselves. You can surprise your brother or sister by gifting such membership. The annual membership of a good gym, for instance, can be bought for Rs15,000-Rs20,000.

Health Insurance: If your sister or brother is middle aged and don’t have a medical insurance policy, then the first thing you need to do this Raksha Bandhan is to buy a mediclaim cover of at least Rs 3 lakh. And if one already has a policy, then you can get that renewed. Owing to change in lifestyle and lack of physical exercise, one is more likely to become ill these days and a medical cover will be more helpful in times of crisis.