As you start your retirement planning, there are two key things to keep in mind: your monthly withdrawals should support your lifestyle, and the corpus should not run out during your lifetime. To achieve this, it’s essential to take into account factors like inflation, asset mix, liquidity, and medical emergency fund, among others. Here, we discuss seven points you can consider for a smooth retirement.
1. Plan for adequate corpus based on lifestyle and expenses
When you plan your retirement, it’s important to figure out a corpus that can support you for at least 20-25 years. The corpus should be based on your current lifestyle. But if you have liabilities like a home loan or responsibilities such as a child’s marriage, make sure to account for those costs too.
2. Don't forget to factor in inflation
Ignoring inflation can deplete the value of your retirement corpus. For example, if you are 40 years old today and have Rs 50,000 as monthly expenses, at 60 years of age, you need Rs 1.09 lakh to maintain the same lifestyle at a 5% inflation. At 80, the same expenditure will cost you Rs 2.40 lakh/month. So, remember, you are planning for the future, not for today. Build a corpus that will be adequate for your retirement.
3. Have separate provision for medical funds
Many people don’t have a medical insurance plan for old age. For many others, medical cover ends when a person reaches a certain age. Sometimes, a medical insurance plan can have sub limits and may not cover certain diseases. For these reasons, you need to plan for a medical emergency fund from your own resources.
So, you can keep aside a fund to deal with medical emergencies. Since medical expenses rise with time, your fund should be adequate to cover them.
4. Give some equity exposure to your retirement corpus
If you put your entire fund in safe assets, it may not be able to beat inflation and generate adequate income. So at least some part of the corpus can be invested in equity for higher returns. You can invest a portion of your corpus in equity that you may require after 5-7 years. You may also follow the bucket strategy from where you can shift profit of the equity investment to debt buckets as it may be used to meet short-term liquidity requirements.
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5. How your asset mix should change with age
With age, your risk appetite comes down. So, your risk exposure should also reflect your age. Equity is considered to be a risky asset which also gives higher return in the long term. Giving an equity exposure to your retirement corpus can help it grow in the long term. However, as your age increases, you can decrease your equity exposure and increase debt exposure.
For example, at 60 years of age, you can invest 40% of your corpus in equities, but in the next 15 years, you can bring it down to 25%. Such a strategy will ensure growth and liquidity both.
6. Clearly mark fund for own consumption and succession
You can also leave a part of your retirement corpus for your heirs. However, for that, you need to clearly mark the corpus required for your own needs and for succession. Scheme such as Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, RBI floating bond, Monthly Income Scheme provide you an interest while your principal remains invested. If you want to leave the principal amount from such schemes for your heirs, you should nominate them and write their names in Will to ensure smooth succession.
7. Have provisions for emergency liquidity option
Sometimes, your retirement corpus may not be enough. In those times, you may use some asset to generate an income or use the legacy fund left for heirs. For example, if you have gold, you can invest it in a gold monetisation scheme from where you can get an amount that you can invest to generate an income from interest. Or, if you have a home, you can keep it as a collateral and take a reverse mortgage loan on it, from where you can get periodic payments.
If you are left with no other option, you can also use some corpus from the legacy amount.
You should focus on generating sustainable income while preserving the corpus during retirement. But you should also factor in inflation, lifestyle needs, liabilities and healthcare costs while estimating a retirement corpus.
Maintaining an appropriate asset mix, giving some exposure to equity and shifting to debt with age can ensure liquidity and growth both. Plan for the corpus you need for yourself and want to leave for your heirs but also be ready with an emergency liquidity option to meet unforeseen financial requirements.
