Living on Her Own Terms

It’s natural for a single woman to wish to retire with financial independence. She needs better planning and smarter allocation to ensure a life without a support system

- Jyotika Sood

It was by choice. Being an only girl child, Ruchi Sharma decided to take care of her parents, instead of embarking on married life. She was unsure about her partner or husband’s support when it came to taking care of her parents and fulfilling her duties.

She does not have any remorse for her decision. “It was purely out of love. My close ones tried to convince me but I wasn’t ready to leave my parents alone,” says Ruchi, who works as a fashion designer in New Delhi. She confesses that all her finances were taken care of by her father but last year she lost him in Covid complications.

Ruchi is in her late 40s and just has one more decade of work before she is formally retired. She has knitted plans to enjoy life but is unsure if the finances will support her dreams. Also, if it is too late.

Just a few kilometers away, Rashmi Khandelwal is a single mother of a daughter. Her needs are very different from Ruchi’s but the goal remains the same – retirement with independence.

According to the 2011 Census, the number of single women in India has grown over 39 per cent between 2001 and 2011 from 51.2 million to 71.4 million. They include widows, divorcees, spinsters, and those separated from their spouses. The number is expected to have risen exponentially in the last decade with changing lifestyles and professionalism.

According to financial planning experts, one should focus on the corpus they would require for their post-retirement sustainability. The three main factors to consider are the number of years left for retirement, the expected inflation rate, and desired monthly expenses in retired life.