Topic 3: Retirement Planning in 3 Easy steps
Retirement is one of the most important stages of your life for which you work and should save for. With the break-up of the joint family system in India, increase in longevity (life expectancy) due to advanced medical innovations, shorter work-span and lower job security; ‘Retirement Planning’ assumes greater importance.
If you are creating an Investment Plan, your top most priority should be to save and invest for your retirement. Do not think that it’s too early to start planning for retirement. It is very important that you start early for your retirement.
Let’s understand the stages of Retirement planning.
Stages of Retirement planning
Retirement Planning in 3 Simple Steps
Let’s now calculate the retirement corpus and the required amount of savings to achieve your retirement goal. You can do this in 3 simple steps as below.
Example : Mr Raj (35 years) wants to plan for his retirement. His current annual living expenses are around Rs 3.6 Lakh. He wants to retire at 60 years and expects his life expectancy to be 80 years. He would like to know the projected / required retirement corpus and what is the required savings to meet his retirement goal amount?? So, Raj has 25 working years and would like to enjoy 20 years of retirement life.
Step 1 – Project your Expenses
We are all aware that the living expenses may not remain the same. They keep increasing. So, we need to first project the expenses by assuming a certain rate of Inflation (let’s assume it as 7%).
The current expenses of Rs 3.6 Lakh p.a. will be projected to be at Rs 19.53 Lakhs, in the first year of Raj’s retirement. He needs Rs 19.63 Lakh to continue with the same spending pattern in the first year of his retirement.
However, he assumes that some of the current expenses may not be relevant when he retires. So, he assumes the projected expenses to be Rs 14.65 Lakh only (75% of 19.63 Lakh).
Step 2 – Calculate the required Retirement Corpus
Raj expects to earn 8% from his investments after the retirement. So, we now need to calculate the required retirement corpus. At 8% ROI and 7% inflation rate, the real rate of return is 0.9346% (Real rate of return is generally used in ‘withdrawal phase’ of the investments).
To withdraw inflation adjusted expenses of Rs 14.65 Lakh for 20 years (retirement life) at 0.9346% real rate of return, the required Retirement Fund is Rs 2.66 crore.
Step 3 – Calculate required savings per year / month to accumulate your retirement corpus
In this step, let us calculate the required savings amount to achieve the retirement goal amount (Rs 2.66 cr).
Raj wants to invest in safe fixed income securities only, and expects 9% rate of interest from his investments. To accumulate Rs 2.66 cr in 25 years, at 9% ROI, Raj has to save and invest Rs 3.14 Lakh per year or Rs 23,743 per month.
You may try the calculations using the Retirement corpus calculator.
If you are creating an Investment Plan, your top most priority should be to save and invest for your retirement. Do not think that it’s too early to start planning for retirement. It is very important that you start early for your retirement.
Let’s understand the stages of Retirement planning.
Stages of Retirement planning
- Accumulation phase – During this phase, you save and invest for your retirement. This is the stage where you invest to generate a decent corpus which is assumed to take care of you / your family during retirement.
- Transition to Retirement – This is an individual’s transition from work into retirement.
- Withdrawal phase / Wealth Consumption– In this phase, the retiree withdraws the income from the accumulated fund and enjoys the retired life.
Let’s now calculate the retirement corpus and the required amount of savings to achieve your retirement goal. You can do this in 3 simple steps as below.
Example : Mr Raj (35 years) wants to plan for his retirement. His current annual living expenses are around Rs 3.6 Lakh. He wants to retire at 60 years and expects his life expectancy to be 80 years. He would like to know the projected / required retirement corpus and what is the required savings to meet his retirement goal amount?? So, Raj has 25 working years and would like to enjoy 20 years of retirement life.
Step 1 – Project your Expenses
We are all aware that the living expenses may not remain the same. They keep increasing. So, we need to first project the expenses by assuming a certain rate of Inflation (let’s assume it as 7%).
The current expenses of Rs 3.6 Lakh p.a. will be projected to be at Rs 19.53 Lakhs, in the first year of Raj’s retirement. He needs Rs 19.63 Lakh to continue with the same spending pattern in the first year of his retirement.
However, he assumes that some of the current expenses may not be relevant when he retires. So, he assumes the projected expenses to be Rs 14.65 Lakh only (75% of 19.63 Lakh).
Step 2 – Calculate the required Retirement Corpus
Raj expects to earn 8% from his investments after the retirement. So, we now need to calculate the required retirement corpus. At 8% ROI and 7% inflation rate, the real rate of return is 0.9346% (Real rate of return is generally used in ‘withdrawal phase’ of the investments).
To withdraw inflation adjusted expenses of Rs 14.65 Lakh for 20 years (retirement life) at 0.9346% real rate of return, the required Retirement Fund is Rs 2.66 crore.
Step 3 – Calculate required savings per year / month to accumulate your retirement corpus
In this step, let us calculate the required savings amount to achieve the retirement goal amount (Rs 2.66 cr).
Raj wants to invest in safe fixed income securities only, and expects 9% rate of interest from his investments. To accumulate Rs 2.66 cr in 25 years, at 9% ROI, Raj has to save and invest Rs 3.14 Lakh per year or Rs 23,743 per month.
You may try the calculations using the Retirement corpus calculator.