‘Ab Zamana badal gaya hai”, This phrase must have been heard n number of times, especially by my generation (people who are in their late 40’s) from their elders. Ours is the generation who has seen the unprecedented pace of change- from B/W TV to OTT, landline to mobile, manual working to AI.
It has not only deeply impacted our thinking, workings, habits, lifestyle but also, even our belief, family traditions and social values. People mindset is changing rapidly. Things considered taboo 10-15 years are new normal. One of such topics which is pretty hot and close to my heart is ‘Retirement planning’. Let’s look how conversations around this important topic have changed.
- ‘Retirement matlab Sanyas: When we were growing up, have seen our grand parents slogged hard to raise their children. Once retired, usually they had two motives- first construct a house and playing with grand kids. If, some money and time still left, do a char dham yatra.Retirement was a time for Satsang and lobby the God for Swarg.
Now days, retirement mean – exotic vacations, adventure sports, different hobbies and natural farming to name a few. It means fulfilling your dreams, hobbies. No more thinking about swarg/narak, but enjoying the life. Time to turn dreams into reality. So, rather than useless, retirement is gradually becoming most important phase of life. Perspective is changing.
- Log Kya kahenge: Parents living separately from children after retirement! forget about doing, even thinking about it was considered a sin in India. What will people say? was the common refrain. As an ideal child, you were supposed to take care of your parents’ post-retirement.
Now, even parents are not willing to live with their children after their retirement. No one wants to bind himself and become a burden on their children. Everyone wants his/her own space and a life of its own. Nobody cares what people say, what matter is what I want.
- Bhagwan pe bharosa rakho: Earlier If you retired and diagnosed with a serious illness e.g. cancer, heart problem, you were Bhagwan bharose, public medical facilities were poor, private treatment was expensive and people didn’t take health insurance. Unless you had good family money, people solace you with Bhagwan pe bharosa rakho, sab theek ho jaayega. More hope than belief. In any case, retired, you were not considered a priority to spend huge money on your treatment.
Now medical insurance with good hospital care is available and people don’t want to die just because they are retired. They want to live to the fullest. So, they take care of their health requirement in old ages through medical insurance.
- Ek bangla bane nyara: Just like this famous song of K.L. Sehgal, every parent wanted to build a house post retirement and live in it with their children and grand-children. House building was an epic effort, with both hard-earned PF money and emotions attached to it. In most cases, children couldn’t explore better opportunities outside their home states because their parents didn’t allow them to go. Who will take care of property if anything happens to them.
Now career is top most priority, no child sacrifice career in order to stay with parent So no more building houses in the hope that kids will stay with you after retirement.
- Allah ke naam pe de de: Earlier, in most cases, parent put all their savings in house construction or children’s marriages. So in their old ages despite having fixed properties, they were financially dependent on their children. We have seen so many cases, where people with good income during their prime, lived miserably after retirement because they had no fixed source of income, depend squarely on their children, who didn’t take good care of them.
Now things are changing, people don’t want to be financially burden on their kids, wants to have a dignified post-retirement life. They plan/invest to ensure having enough of their own money than can be spend as per their wishes after retirement.
I am sure, a lot of people will be able to relate with this observation. Many of us already doing some sort of retirement planning. There are certain things which needs to be keep in back of your mind while you are doing retirement planning.
- Bhai, aur bhi ghum hai zamane me: This is the cliché, If, you ask a young person about retirement planning. Girl friend, boy- friend, vacations, latest gazette, Netflix etc. etc. are much ahead on their wish list. My advice, put it in top 3 priority. Due to tech advancement, working life span is getting shorter every day. You never know when your job becomes redundant. So, make the hay when its sunshine, start planning ASAP. Early you start better it will be.
- Apple har saal price drop deta hai, mutual fund nahi: Don’t invest too much in assets which depreciate every year, like gadgets, cars etc. Instead invest in financial market – buy equities, invest through mutual funds. These are the things which gets appreciated, will build a corpus for you for your retirement to ensure you buy your dream choicest gadgets even after retiring.
- Rome didn’t build in one year: Keep investing in your retirement planning. Longer the investment horizon, more time it will give your money to work. This will ensure even after your retirement, your money will not and keep earning for you.
- Mehangai dayan khaye jaat hai: This is the demon which has capacity to quickly reduce your money value in short span of time. A Rs. 30/kg potato with 6% inflation will cost you Rs. 130/kg in 25 yrs. So, while doing retirement planning, calculate how much money you will need in your retirement considering the average running rate of inflation.
- Jaan hain to jahan hai: Make sure you take a comprehensive health insurance for yourself and your spouse (at least) covering all health care expenses post your retirement. Any sudden health treatment shouldn’t make a deep hole in your picket, made all your retirement plans haywire, making life a struggle rather than fun.
- Maal hai to taal hai: when you have money in your pocket, everybody listens to you, that’s hard-core reality of life. Make sure you invest in retirement planning in such a way to get enough money post-retirement to make you financial independent. Believe me, money talks. If you are not financially dependent, you can have peace of mind and you will have wonderful second innings.
- Use financial planner: Don’t believe, you know the best about in investment and planning. Take help of a experienced financial planner to plan your retirement. They will help building a plan in such a way which will take care of your expenses, ensure a fixed stable income, health care expenses, tax rebates, contingency fund, preserve your capital and simultaneously grow your investment in your retirement, so that not only you have peace of mind but will leave a legacy for your families.
- Don’t out all eggs in one basket: It’s imperative to not put all money in one instrument. Diversify your investment, spread the risk. Diversification increased your ability to take risk. It is a very good tactic to meet your goals with different time lines.
- Don’t take too much WhatsApp gyan: Last but not the least, stop taking WhatsApp Gyan. Stay patient, don’t react every day. If, you go by these gyanis, your will be tense everyday because of FOMO (fear of missing out). Stay invested, back your judgement. Look at the data, take a long-term view of things, do a periodic review and then take informed decision.
Pace of change is frightening. If we don’t accept, adopt and change ourselves, change will change us. Some things never change, like a good old song- “Mein jindgi ka saath nibhata chal gaya, retirement planning ke saath, har fikr to dhooene me udata chala gaya”