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…

A reader says, “How do we forecast returns on a diminishing retirement corpus? My corpus presently returns 13% annually. I have calculated my withdrawal rate in retirement as 2% per year. So, in theory, my corpus would increase by 11% per year in retirement! But, as the corpus starts depleting, I expect the returns will…

A reader says, “For your Let’s Get Rich With Pattu Podcast, can you make an episode on ‘Things that Single and Childfree People’ should take care of for their retirement? Additionally, given that many things are not to be taken care of for these people (Like children’s education, Marriage, etc.), how much is it that…

A reader wants to know how to account for taxes while planning for retirement — a discussion. Tax is always tricky to guess. Many individuals assume their tax liability will reduce after retirement, and this need not be the case. If we want to achieve comfortable financial independence after retirement, we should probably hope to…

A reader says, “I am 30 and plan to remain single. My current expenses are about Rs. 50K, I have a corpus of Rs. 75 Lakhs but only 40% equity. Can I become financially independent by 40? I can invest a little more than two lakhs a month.” You can invest about four times your…

A common criticism from those who read our robo advisor-based illustrations is,  “Why are you recommending small equity exposure even to early retirees?” We shall try to explain in this article. If you have not read these illustrations, see: Retirement plan review: Am I on track to retire by 50? I am 30 and wish…

A reader asks, “Leaving aside the emotional component, is it “better” for a retired couple to live in a rented flat rather than buy a flat with the sale proceeds of their home?” This is a tough one as there are many factors to consider. Assuming they lived in an old independent house, the usual…

Here is how you can review your retirement portfolio in seven easy steps. If you have not yet created a proper retirement plan, you can quickly do so using the freefincal robo advisor. The robo advisor can handle up to three post-retirement income streams; provide an automated asset allocation schedule to reduce sequence of returns…

We discuss how to deploy money in a retirement bucket strategy. A bucket strategy is a post-retirement investment plan to manage inflation-protected withdrawals (income) and investments for the near and long term. So, we have investments purely for income generation (regular withdrawal), fixed income, and equity investments. Retirement buckets are mental partitions of these investments….

A reader asks, “I am 38 years old, currently have a corpus of 2.25 Cr. 70% is in debt { SCSS (30), EPF (25), PPF (25), Arbitrage Funds (70), Debt MF (rest) } and 30% in equity MF. I invested in arbitrage funds as they provide good returns (vs FD) and a means to balance…

A reader wanted to know if he could invest his entire retirement corpus in mutual funds (of varying risk) and draw an income from them via systematic withdrawal plans — a discussion. Short answer: It is silly to put 100% of a lifetime’s effort, toil and hard work into capital market-linked products. Diversify keeping safety…

Broach the subject of retirement planning to a young earner, and you might get a response like, “I have just started earning. Let me enjoy life for a while and worry about this later.” When that “later” does arrive, it does so with its bag and baggage – home loan, car loan, older parents, older…

Many investors recognise the importance of equity investing pretty late. Even if they have some SIPs running, the amounts are quite small compared to their fixed-income investments (EPF, FDs, etc). This means their portfolios are loaded with fixed income. Readers often ask how to increase equity exposure from 10% to 50-60%. A discussion. In my…