How much money should I invest in retirement plans?

According to a report by HSBC, called ‘The Future of Retirement’, about 68% of Indian adults, in their working age, expect that their children would support them in retirement. Do you know what the actual picture is?

Only 30% of the retired individuals actually get the support of their children. (Source: https://www.fortuneindia.com/opinion/is-india-staring-at-a-huge-retirement-gap/103187).

Gone are the days when parents depended on their children for supporting them throughout their lifetime. Modern day millennials have become independent and expect their parents to be so too. That is why, it is better to save for retirement and be financially independent rather than depend on your children, however loving they might be.

When it comes to financial planning for retirement, the question that plagues many is how much to save.

Ask yourself this instead - How much money, do you think, would you need twenty to thirty years down the line when you retire?

? The age when you would retire vis-à-vis your life expectancy ? Dependents after retirement ? Financial responsibilities after retirement ? Expected monthly expenses ? Inflation ? Emergencies Let’s understand –

Factoring in the above-mentioned points, you can estimate a retirement corpus and then discount it to find the savings needed to achieve that corpus. Let’s understand with an example –

Now that you know the corpus needed, you can work backwards to find out the monthly savings needed to create such a corpus. So, if the expected risk-free rate of return is 8% with an investment horizon of 30 years, you would need to save Rs.27, 000 every month to yield a corpus of Rs.4 crores.

This was a basic example which did not consider your existing investments, assets and liabilities. Moreover, no emergency corpus was created. For a more holistic approach to retirement planning, you should take the help of financial advisors . Financial advisors act as investment planners who can help you plan a suitable retirement corpus. Financial planners give their expertise and time to work out the optimal amount of savings which you need to do to create a sufficient retirement corpus.

So, working out your retirement investments need consideration of a lot of factors. It also involves meticulous calculations that ensure that the corpus you create fulfils your needs post-retirement. If you have the time, skill and knowhow to do the calculations yourself, do it and start saving for retirement. If not, engage online investment planners to work out the best retirement plan for you. Don’t take chances with retirement. You need a corpus to be financially independent.