What are my biggest worries about most retirement portfolios? Well let me tell you some of them:

1. starting to invest late: The 24, 34 and even 44 year old does not understand the power of TIME on their portfolios. So there is a tendency to start late – they keep postponing the starting.
2. underestimating how long one will live: even when they see their 98 year old grandparents, uncles, aunts, parents, people believe that they will retire at 58 and promptly die at 62 years of age.
3. cheating on the Investment fund to meet other goals: Not being able to understand the difference between URGENT and IMPORTANT. So cheating retirement fund to pay for daughter’s wedding is a given.
4. over estimating the ability to invest in the later stages of life: if you are 35 years of age and you think that you will save / invest more from age 45 to 60, think again. You may be pushed into retirement much earlier than you think or wish.
5. reading American literature on retirement: Completely USELESS. We do not have enough old age homes, long term care, or social security. Wake up.
6. over estimating their own investment skills : spoken enough about this
7. Over estimating Investment returns: if you get 12%p.a. returns in equity and about 6% in debt in a country with about 9% retail inflation CONSIDER yourself lucky.
8. Not understanding that from age 73/75 they will have to shift to a poorly priced annuity + tax inefficient bank fixed deposit – which means the CORPUS has to be huge to last say 20 years.
9. Not appreciating that children will not have time or may not have enough money to spend on your old age medical / care expenses.
10. OMG, I have run out of points…..sorry there are many more, but hitting you with 10 is fine…more and you will start cursing me.