Many readers are shocked to see the results of a retirement planning exercise. The target corpus required is too high relative to what they imagined and so is the required investment amount. This leads to sleepless nights and panic. “Is there any hope for me?” asks one such reader. If you are not shocked at…

There is a lot of hullabaloo about glass ceilings and pay gaps based on gender across industries. However, the debate often fails to recognize that this leads to a disparity in retirement savings. About the author: Smriti is an author, artist, freelance content writer and avid reader. She quit her six-year-long IT career to embrace…

Here is a simple thumb rule young earners can follow for retirement planning. If this rule is implemented immediately after starting a job, the chances of achieving financial freedom by age 50 or even earlier are exceedingly bright! We would like to emphasise the following suggestions are only applicable to those below the age of…

A reader writes, “Congratulations on freefincal’s 10th anniversary. Looking at the body of work the site has published over the years, I wonder if there is any new ground left for you to cover in personal finance or will you only rehash old content for new audiences?” Although a touch insinuating, it is an interesting…

Use this annuity ladder calculator to find out how to beat inflation after retirement using multiple income streams. We all appreciate the importance of a secure income (pension) after retirement. However, inflation also has to be factored in. The primary requirement for fighting expenses increasing in retirement is a robust corpus. To accumulate this, we…

In this article, we shall explain what is income laddering or annuity laddering and how to use it for retirement planning. In preparation for this article, we had earlier published a series of introductory texts. We recommend that new readers go through these first. Part 1: What are the annuity rates of LIC Jeevan Akshay VII…

Yesterday we addressed the first part of a reader’s question: I need a pension: Should I buy an annuity or a govt bond? Today we will consider the second part: “how to buy a pension? Which option offers the best return?” As mentioned in the first part, a bond is a better choice for those…

A reader wants to know, “Sir, I am about to retire (at age 55) and am looking for a pension. I essentially see two choices: Either buy an annuity plan from an insurer or buy a bond from the RBI portal (thanks to your article) – How I used RBI Retail Direct to buy govt….

In this article, we look at how LIC’s immediate annuity plan Jeevan Akshay’s annuity rates have over the last 20 years. This study was triggered while preparing a retirement planning illustration based on laddered annuities. Annuity rates tend to follow interest rates and inflation movements over the long term*. The first version of Jeevan Akshay…

In this article, we list the annuity rates of LIC’s Jeevan Akshay VII (Plan No. 857, UIN : 512N337V02) launched in Feb 2022. While preparing a retirement planning illustration based on laddered annuities we wanted to find the latest Jeevan Akshay VII annuity rates. Unfortunately, neither the sales brochure nor the policy document mentions this!…

A reader asks in response to our recent article – How to beat inflation after retirement along with guaranteed pension – “Is it wise to retire early in my 40s if my portfolio is sufficient?” There is more to retirement planning than determining if the corpus is large enough to handle inflation! Financial independence and therefore…

Getting a guaranteed pension after retirement and beating inflation after retirement has traditionally been two extreme solutions in retirement planning. In this article, we explain how these solutions can be combined to build a robust and nearly fool-proof retirement plan. In the former, we talk about buying an annuity from life insurers for a guaranteed…

A reader posed an interesting question: Suppose I wish to hold my entire retirement corpus as cash without investing it or saving it or buying pension or monthly income products, what will be the corpus required?  At a first glance, this may seem like a silly question. Yes, it is certainly impractical, but working this out…

A reader writes, “I have now been reading your articles on the importance of asset allocation for a few months now. The impact of inflation is scary! I have no equity holdings in my portfolio and have never planned for retirement in a systematic way. Is there any hope for me or is it too…

A reader wants to know why a retiree needs to complicate life with multiple retirement buckets when all he needs is a single portfolio with equity and debt after retirement which is much easier to manage. About 10 years ago, I would have probably thought the same. Age and experience change perspective. See: I thought a…