Retirement is often thought to be a state when one stops working. But in reality , retirement is a state of mind of being financially free -when one works because he/she loves to and not because he/she has to. This is the reason why retirement years are also called the golden years of life.
Currently , many lead a life as if there is no tomorrow and concentrate on spending on wants rather than needs.
When people are asked to plan for retirement, we often hear them saying, “I want to enjoy now and I’ll plan for it later.“
But what we forget is each one of us will grow old and would need money to retire as one can be young without money but can never be old without it.
That’s why for every individual retirement planning becomes an inherent need.
Planning for retirement a must With rising life expectancy, one is expected to live long -meaning a longer -retirement life than earlier. At the same time, medical costs are rising at a fast clip, which means as one ages, these costs would also rise. With a long retired life, medical expenses would be an addition to your expense kitty along with basic living expenses. Also, the nuclear family is the in thing.
So unlike their parents, the young parents of today should prepare to manage on their own when they retire.
How much would be enough for retirement?
Assuming you are 35 and your monthly expenses on basic living is Rs 35,000 (yearly Rs 4.2 lakh), with an average inflation rate of 7%, this expense will be Rs 23 lakh, Rs 45 lakh and Rs 88 lakh annually at the age of 60, 70, 80 years respectively .
Do it the SIP-SWP way A combination of a systematic investment plan (SIP) and a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) is the best method for retirement planning and is also easy to implement.
Since retirement is a long-term financial goal and if you have 20-30 years in hand, SIPs in diversified equity funds are the best bet. Also, increase your SIP amount as your income grows every year. Then as you are near retirement, slowly shift to a balanced approach using the mutual fund route and, apart from equity, add debt funds which would bring stability to your retirement corpus. Reduce the equity component gradually, but do not make it zero. When you retire, start withdrawing from the debt fund you have created in the corpus for fulfilling your retirement wish list.
In the end, remember that it’s not the years in your life that count, but it’s the life in those years that matters. So plan ahead of time to make the most of your golden years.