Retirement Planning

Some like it. Some don’t. But retirement is a reality for every working person. Most young people today think of retirement as a distant reality.

However, it is important to plan for your post-retirement life if you wish to retain your financial independence and maintain a comfortable standard of living even when you are no longer earning. This is extremely important, because, unlike developed nations, India does not have a social security system

Retirement Planning is crucial because of the fact that though longevity of life has increased but the numbers of working years have not.

In simple words, retirement planning means making sure you will have enough money to live on after retiring from work. Retirement should be the best period of your life, when you can literally sit back and relax or enjoy your life by reaping benefits of what you earn in so many years of hard work. But it is easier said than done. To achieve a hassle-free retired life, you need to make prudent investment decisions during your working life, thus putting your hard-earned money to work for you in future

• Computation of retirement corpus in order to maintain the current lifestyle. This is done after taking inflation and time value of money into account.
• Building your Retirement Corpus using Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) and other long-term growth orient products.
• Ensuring adequate post-retirement income through a variety of safe investment options.
• Portfolio rebalancing, if required

The asset allocation and selection of investment vehicles keep changing as your risk-bearing capacity diminishes.

India, unlike other countries, does not have state-sponsored social security for the retired people. And after several decades when pensions provided many people with a large chunk of money they needed to live comfortably after they retired, things are changing. While you may be entitled to a pension, or income during retirement, in the new economic era, you are increasingly likely to be responsible for providing for your own needs.

Steps for making Retirement a Success. People have different plans for retired life. For example you may think of retirement as a time to relax, to laze around, to spend more time with family, travel or write a masterpiece. Attaining financial independence after retirement will not be just a dream if the following steps are followed with steady discipline and smart investment strategies.

Start saving early Nobody takes retirement seriously. But the fact is that even a small sum of money saved regularly and invested regularly makes a big amount which will come in very handy after retirement (Power of Compounding) One should not believe that after retirement, one can place all savings into income generating investment and spend rest of life in happiness. If you don't plan early, you cound end up eroding your principal savings in order to have to supplement your monthly income.

The key to a financially independent future is "sooner the better". Cautious investors believe in this principal and plan their retirement accordingly. They not only save, they save early and regularly. . The catch is to make the power of compounding work in a proficient manner

Retirement should be your top priority Retirement should be kept as a top priority because if one does not keep it at the top one might end up depending on one's children, which probably no one would relish.

Create a Retirement Plan Develop a plan for saving based on your requirements at the time of retirement. The goals you keep for saving depend on your lifestyle but you will need at least about 60% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living when you stop working.

Save and Invest Regularly Saving and investing regularly makes a big difference at the time of retirement. Investing at regular intervals builds your retirement fund over time and helps you to minimize risk and gives a tension free retirement-a time to pursue your hobbies, fulfill your dreams and passions.

Power of compounding is the key