With recent advancements in healthcare, personal care and better standards of living, the lifespan of an average Indian has gone up to 80 years as compared to 65 years, back in the seventies.
The days are not that far into the future when an average Indian would be living up to 85 years or even more. Development of medical facilities, socio-economic standards and the increasing prevalence of health consciousness among today’s citizens ensure that this day is approaching very soon.
Hence, we need to plan for an average of 20 to 30 years of retirement post our working lives and these plans need to be put in place during the time we are working and earning.
Moreover, inflation is the biggest enemy of money. It brings down the purchasing power of money and the returns on your investments. Inflation adversely impacts the cost of living, thus increases the prices of food, petroleum products, medical care, education etc.
Old and outdated retirement investments in debt-oriented instruments( PPF, Bank FDs, NSC etc) may not be able to beat inflation. To give an example of how inflation eats up the buying power of money, today’s monthly expenditure of Rs 25000 would amount to Rs 48500 after 10 years assuming a uniform inflation rate of 7% per year.
By investing in these so-called ‘safe, fixed-return’ instruments for your retirement corpus, you stand a very good chance of falling short of meeting your retirement corpus. It may seem like the safe choice today to not invest in equity-based financial instruments, but if you don’t, you might end up facing a severe financial crisis in your old age.
Don’t let that happen to you. You deserve a safe and secure future where you get to retire in peace with the certainty that all your finances are taken care of.