Financial planners, mutual fund sellers, bank RMs, all of them have a knack of racking up a large number when it comes to your retirement corpus! Normally they do this so that they can galvanize the client to act. However, from what I have seen it normally has a negative effect!

When people look at a huge number – say Rs. 5 crores – the immediate thought is “Oh, my God!” I cannot do anything about this! However this is not true, nor desirable.

You as a customer (client) should understand that this is a nice round figure, but if you do reach Rs. 4 crores, it is not the end of the world. Also you need to understand that if you start to save, say 30 years in advance, you may need to invest only Rs. 80 a day to reach there. However if you start 5 years before retirement, you may need much, much, much more – say Rs. 6 Lakhs a month (or Rs. 20,000 a day!!).

So instead of killing your adviser, start, albeit with a small amount. Starting is more important than the amount with which you start. It is like getting a root canal treatment done – do not try doing 12 teeth at a time!