Many who use our retirement calculators often are shocked to see the results. Some lose sleep, and some think the math is wrong. Eventually, many recover and start investing. See, for instance, this reader story: We lost sleep after using a retirement calculator! This is how we recovered. Here is a detailed explanation of the…

A retirement planning calculation is defined by its inputs and assumptions. This article discusses what portfolio return we should assume while planning for retirement. A return has little meaning as it has to be benchmarked to inflation. Also, we should not forget to factor in taxes. Another common mistake investors make while planning is using…

A reader writes, “I am a subscriber to the freefincal newsletter. They have been very insightful. Portfolio rebalancing is very easy to understand but equally difficult to implement, it needs a lion’s heart to move from equity to debt. I have one question about what can be treated as debt”. “I have been investing in…

In this article, we discover what a 35-year-old reader who wishes anonymity should do to retire by age 55. He is married to a homemaker aged 30. We shall plan for retirement income from when he reaches 50 to when his wife (or, generally, the younger spouse) reaches 90. Therefore, he has 15 years to…

A Let’s Get Rich with Pattu podcast listener says, ” I learned about your podcast today and watched an Episode on Stocks vs. MF Investing on YouTube. It was interesting and packed a lot of common sense in a simple and interesting way. I have a question which I request you to answer”. “I shall…

We simplify retirement planning into nine easy steps to help beginners start their journey. For this process, we’ll work with the assumption that retirement is 25 years away. The first step involves defining your target. The purpose for the funds and the timeline for when they are needed are already established, accounting for 25% of…

What if I cannot manage my retirement corpus in retirement due to ill health or disability? Who can help my spouse with the retirement corpus after my demise? These are tough but essential questions to consider. In a previous article, we discussed some simple situations where a spouse, trusted relative or SEBI-registered fee-only advisor can…

A reader says,  “I am quite confident and optimistic about reaching my target retirement corpus. My biggest fear is managing retirement assets in old age (esp. post 70-75 years). At some point, even we’d need someone’s help to change our adult diaper – how do we keep our corpus last another decade or two? Do…

A reader says, “You have repeatedly demonstrated how to deploy a retirement corpus into different buckets using the freefincal robo advisory tool. In all these examples, you assume the retiree will have or should have enough money in a safe income bucket to handle inflation-indexed expenses for the first 15 years of retirement. I find…

The number of equity investors (stocks + mutual funds) in the last 5-7 years has increased dramatically. Most of these investors are young and have much to learn about market risk vs reward. Meanwhile, there is a silent transformation underway. More and more Indians are retiring in their 50s with higher and higher capital market-linked…

Many state and central government employees are against the national pension scheme (NPS) and want to restore the old pension scheme. Some state governments have also reverted to the old pension scheme. Unfortunately, this is financially unsustainable. Take, for instance, the DA announcement on Sept 28th 2022. “The additional financial implications on account of this…

Recently, a reader shared his post-retirement investment strategy: Hold expenses for five years in a cash bucket (savings funds + liquid fund + money market funds + safe bank fixed deposits) at all times during retirement and invest the rest in equity! I do not share the reader’s enthusiasm and would prefer the approach adopted…

A reader recently asked  — in response to the article, Why are you recommending index funds but not investing in them yourself? — “What is the equity exposure of your retirement portfolio?”. I said, “It is currently about 62%.” He said, “is that not too much equity at your age (48, well, almost 49)?” There…