Why Is Mirae CEO Worried About Falling Short on Retirement Funds?

Mohanty Outlines His Strategy to Grow His Nest Egg Amid Rising Life Expectancy, Inflation and Healthcare Costs

- Jash Kriplani

Swarup Mohanty, 54, chief executive officer of Mirae Asset Mutual Fund, is "paranoid" about his retirement corpus. "People are going to live longer. Most people plan for life till 80 post-retirement. If they start to live beyond that and there is no planning for that, it can start to really pinch. Besides this, if I have worked so hard during my working life, I should have a better life in my retirement. So, it is important for me to plan for a larger retirement kitty to take care of my inflation-adjusted lifestyle expenses," Mohanty said.

Mohanty says these factors have prompted him to target a higher retirement corpus. "I have crossed the minimum target on my retirement corpus. As these are the last years of my accumulation phase, I want to make most of it by continuing my investments and even take tactical calls, and get as close as possible to my new target," Mohanty said in an interaction with Mint on 'Guru Portfolio', a series where leaders from the financial services industry share how they manage their money.

Investment mix Mohanty maintains an asset allocation mix of 70% in equities, 20% in debt and 10% in alternates. The alternate pie includes his investments in art and startups.

Over the past 12 months, his portfolio has delivered returns of 6%, while over the past five-year period, it has returned 23% annualized returns.

Mohanty says what worked for his portfolio over the past year was his large-cap exposure. "Large-cap funds outperformed their respective benchmark indices. Thematic investments such as healthcare and banking also did well."