When our finance professionals want to charge like the American professionals, they should ask themselves one question:

ARE THEY WILLING TO SPEND money (like the American bodies do) to analyze the state of the economy, the level of people’s knowledge, the quality of websites, the research, etc? Sigh.

Well on the basis of my interaction I can answer this question only too well.

What is the Retirement IQ of the people who I meet? Sad to say, not much.

– Most of them do not have a written plan for their finances – children’s education or retirement.

– None of them has calculated the amount that they will require for retirement.

– to think 30 years ahead is considered foolish.  They have no clue about some expense that is 10 years away.

– a question like ‘if you had Rs. 10,00,000 in a bank account, how much will you be able to withdraw EVERY YEAR FOR 20 years is like ‘OMG’

– none of them have spoken about retirement finances to their SPOUSE – even in their 40s. The dialog starts nearer retirement.

– most of them underestimate how long they will live. Those people whose grandparents are living into their 90s, think they will live till 70.

– almost everybody under 60 KNOW that their children will not take care of them

– many believe that their RE will grow so much as to give brilliant rental yields to fund their retirement needs

– some have bought a pension plan (thank you Relationship Manager) and believe that their retirement requirements are met.

– if you have a classic pension plan, you would be doing terribly