The cost of living is going up in India and therefore, it's important to start saving for your future as early as you can. The sooner you start building your retirement corpus, the more time you can get to grow it. Once you retire, the accumulated funds will be the sole source of money to fall back on, whether it's a medical emergency or other needs. Therefore, the savings should be adequate to make up for the lack of active income that is available during the working years.
To help you get started, here is a step-by-step guide to planning your retirement in India.
Decide Your Retirement Age
Usually, the assumed age of retirement is 60 years. However,
some people may have different preferences. For instance, you may like to
retire early and fulfil your dreams of travelling around the world which you
couldn't do in your busy working years. It's good to decide your retirement age
early so that you can get the maximum possible time to invest in a pension plan
for your golden years.
Determine Your Retirement Spending Needs
Consider the expected spending needs after you retire.
Since health weakens more as people age, medical expenses should be at the top
of the list. Besides, you would get a lot of time to travel without worries to
all the places on your bucket list. So, that can be the second category of
expenditure. If you need to repay a loan post-retirement, you can count its
EMIs as yet another kind of expense. Apart from these, common expenses would
include household, utilities and entertainment. Make a list of the expected
costs to incur after retirement so you can decide the required corpus for them.
Consider the Inflation Factor
Inflation can cause your returns to go down. So,
before choosing a pension plan, it's a good idea to take into account the expected price-rise
projections in the upcoming years. Factor that in when ascertaining your
retirement corpus.
Decide Your Retirement Corpus
Now it's time to determine your retirement corpus. For
that, you can use a retirement calculator on the website of an insurance
provider. After that, start investing a specific percentage of your income
regularly towards the retirement corpus.
Start Investing in a Pension Plan
Educate yourself about different retirement investment plans. You can choose the most suitable one based on your affordability, convenience and needs.
If you wish to pay a single/one-time premium in exchange for regular lifetime income through annuity payouts, you can choose Saral Pension Yojana. You can get the flexibility of picking from annual, half-yearly, quarterly and monthly payouts. Both yourself and your spouse can be covered. Also, you can take a loan after the first 6 months of activating the Saral Pension Yojana.
Else you can choose a pension plan with attractive
features like 7 annuity options to choose from or a plan that promises to pay
210% of premiums at maturity and protect your family financially in the event
of your demise.
Follow these steps to generate an ideal retirement corpus. Make sure not to use any part of it before retirement.
