Plan Early For Sunny Winter Of Life

Approach towards retirement is changing and so are the needs

- Aparajita Gupta and Sampurna Majumder

You work and work

For years and years

You’re always on the go

You never take the minute off

Too busy making dough…”

The famous Doris Day number holds true for every working individual. We spend most part of our lives earning money to make ends meet and save for retirement. But how much is enough to lead a contented life even after superannuation?

People’s approach towards retirement is changing and so are their needs. After hanging up their boots people persue those goals that remained unfulfilled during their working life. Of course maintaining a proper lifestyle beating inflationary pressure is a major focus area too.

Now the question is when and how should one start investing? Domain experts suggested that for a sound retired life, the earlier one starts investing the better it is. Apart from traditional tools like fixed deposits, life insurance and public provident funds, experts harped on having mutual funds and systematic investment plans to beat the inflationary pressure.

The Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey 2017 found that Indian workers score highest among 15 countries surveyed when it comes to retirement preparedness. They also take their health seriously, with many establishing healthy habits in order to safeguard their future health in older age.

It highlighted that while Indian workers feel they are doing well in terms of retirement preparedness, especially compared to respondents in other countries, there is more that can be done to make sure that they are retirement ready. Conversely perhaps to other countries in the survey, the changes required tend to be more structural in nature in terms of the retirement options provided to them by both employers and private savings products.

This report focuses on the responses to an online survey of 1,000 people in India, including 900 workers and 100 retirees.