How shall one plan about taxes to attain their financial goals?

Haste makes waste. The investment may not be a waste per se from a monetary perspective, but it is certainly a waste of an opportunity to move in the direction of attaining your financial goals. That's because you may investing in something that you don't really need.

Investments should be aligned to financial goals. E.g. If you are at a stage in life where you can take risks, investing in NSC, PPF or bank fixed deposits will not serve your purpose.

I have seen that many individual tax payers do not have adquite knowledge of the tax strucature and various tax saving menthods. The present tax Laws are not as complicated as it used to be. So one should gain sufficent knowledge of tax matters. Secondly most of the assessee act only in the eleventh hour this is very bad. Tax planning should start early say in the begning of the financial year. Calculate your income, plan your savings, assess your tax burden, if necessary consult an expert. This will held not only to rduce tax burden, but also lot of headaches.