The first brush with a retirement calculator is typically memorable, if not unforgettable(!) for pretty much all investors – including ones who do not take them seriously. The typical responses would be, ‘Why do I need such a huge corpus for retirement?’ ‘How do you expect me to invest this high an amount each month?’…

LIC agents  are busy advertising  the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana. An annuity product which would hand out a ‘pension’ against a lump sum payment at an annual return of a little more than 9%. Here is why you should not consider any pension product at face value. The pension received is typically constant for life. If…

While planning for retirement, we encounter several rates: rate of return before  and after retirement rate of inflation before and after retirement While calculating the corpus required and the monthly investment required, we assume these rates are constant for each year before retirement and during retirement. In reality, all these rates can vary quite a…

Given a lump sum, how does one generate an income from it? How do we tackle inflation in retirement? Not too long ago, I was under the impression that such questions are asked only by senior citizens.  I soon realized the problem is extremely common. Many children are trying to optimize income from their parents retirement…

Last week I wrote about an inflation protected income can be generated by dividing a corpus into 4/5 portions and investing each into financial instruments of varying risk and tenure, while setting up an income ladder for the first few years. As the investment in each bucket matures a new income ladder will be set up…

Retirement planning is the single most important financial goal common to every individual.  It is the only financial goal in which a corpus would get spent over the course of decades! Retirement planning is simply non-negotiable.  The cost of postponing systematic retirement planning is more dangerous than inflation. Regular readers would be aware of that…

The importance of a solid retirement plan cannot be stressed enough. The importance of ‘stress testing’ a retirement plan also cannot be stressed enough! Here is an Excel Monte Carlo Retirement Calculator that allows you to do just that! If you wish to plan for your retirement, recognise its importance: The cost of postponing your…

Nandish Desai and Manish Chauhan run Jagoadvisor – a portal for financial advisors. Recently, they posed the following retirement planning challenge, Scenario: ‘You meet a 55 year old with a corpus of Rs. 70 lakhs. The person seeks financial independence in retirement and expects an annual inflation of about 8-9%. He would like to invest the corpus in…

A retirement plan is a road map that helps you understand, plan and prepare for a financially independent life post-retirement. Well, that is what it is supposed to be! Unfortunately, each person’s retirement roadmap is unique.  While past and peer experience can aid to a certain extent, it is entirely up to us to chart…

This is a guest post by Jitendra Kumar, Sr.Business Analyst- Fiserv. Mr Kumar is a certified financial planner. His additional qualifications include MBA and Certification in Investment & Portfolio Mgmt. (IIMB). He is also a certified associate of  the Indian institute of bankers (CAIIB).  ~~~~~ Traditional Financial Planning works on certain assumptions on returns, risk, inflation, savings growth…