A reader says, “I am a senior citizen and an investment banking professional with over three decades in the Middle East. As an NRI, who would return to India”. “The facts: Am a senior citizen , aged 63, with self owned debt free houses. Will live in one of them. A retired life for a…

A reader (age: 41, spouse, 36, wants to retire asap) wants to know, “What should be my retirement corpus if my current monthly expenses are Rs 1 lakh?” We shall use the freefincal Robo Advisor tool to consider some scenarios. 1. Current monthly expenses that will persist in retirement: Rs. 1,00,000. We can exclude expenses…

A retirement bucket strategy is an approach by which the retirement corpus is split into 3-4 buckets of varying risk. As retirement progresses and market conditions change, the retiree is expected to manage the buckets. That is, transfer money from one bucket to another to ensure the expenses (indexed to inflation, with some room for…

We have added a Coast Fire calculation option to the freefincal robo advisor. Coast Fire is best explained with an example. Suppose you are 25 years old and wish to retire by age 55. You estimate the retirement corpus required to maintain your current lifestyle to be Rs. 5 Crores. Suppose you wish to invest each…

Are you shocked to see the corpus required for retirement and the necessary investment amount? See, for example, the results of a retirement planning exercise. Don’t worry. The situation is perfectly normal, and you still have a shot at financial independence in retirement. Here are some generic steps to consider during and after a retirement planning…

I encountered an interesting YouTube comment:  “3% withdrawal is safe to retire at what age? The withdrawal rate is clear, but I am not sure if it has age attached to it. The longer the post-retirement life, the higher the uncertainty?” What does the term “safe withdrawal rate” mean? The safe withdrawal rate, or SWR,…

Retirement planning is a life-long exercise. Ideally, it lasts from when we draw our first salary/income to when we (or the surviving spouse) draw our last breath. During this journey, there are several stages. Each stage teaches us something new. Retirement planning has two stages – accumulation (pre-retirement) and withdrawal (post-retirement). Here are 12 stages…

A viewer on YouTube asks, “I am 45 years old. After watching many videos regarding MFund, I thought of asking you about my investment plan. 50k is my monthly salary. I am in a rented house only. Can you suggest an investment plan for my retirement in my own home?” At 45, retirement should be…

We determine the corpus needed for a 50-year-old to retire immediately if monthly expenses are Rs. 1,00,000?” Let us compute this using the freefincal robo advisor tool. This provides an accurate estimate compared to approximate calculations using spreadsheet formulae. The robo tool can also include three post-retirement income streams.  It also offers suggestions on how…

A reader wants to know how to invest a retirement corpus of Rs 5 Crores.  Age: 55; wife’s age 56; Annual expenses are about Rs. 8.4  Lakhs. This includes health insurance costs. This corresponds to an initial withdrawal rate of less than 2% (8.4L divided by 500L). So a comfortable retirement can be safely planned….

The 4% withdrawal rule for retirement planning assumes excessive equity allocation (50-75%), which makes it impractical. To make this worse, the 4% rule is often misunderstood and misapplied, so it is not a useful tool for retirement planning for most people. Here is an alternative idea. What is a safe withdrawal rate?  The safe withdrawal…

The freefincal robo-advisor tool will now feature equity glide paths for retirement buckets, providing enhanced risk management. We also have an updated video user guide. The updated version has already been sent to all existing users. Those who did not receive the notification can contact us. Those unfamiliar with the tool’s features can refer to…

A reader says, “Thanks for your website. I have been following it for a while, and I thought you could help me with my retirement plan. I also thought my case would be useful to your readers.” “I am 52 years old, and my wife is 49. I’ve been in the IT industry since 2000…

A reader asks, “Can I use a simple equity + debt portfolio instead of multiple retirement buckets? Won’t this be easier to manage?” When I was younger, I would have agreed with the reader. Age and experience change perspective. See: I thought a pension was unnecessary, but age taught me a lesson on retirement planning!…

Mint Newspaper, led by Neil Borate, does a fabulous job reporting and educating about personal finance and investing. In March 2024, Mint featured my retirement portfolio: You only need a fund where returns remain consistent: Freefincal’s Pattabiraman. In June 2025, they published an update on the portfolio: Why Freefincal’s Pattabiraman doesn’t believe in beating the…