Will you Retire?
When I talk about creating a pension by creating a Retirement basket I get various excuses…
- I am too young – a typical 24 year old CA or Mba or…have this excuse to offer. Sure, at that age you have other priorities but starting at that age has such a huge, huge advantage that ONLY an early start can provide. Nothing like extra time for the money to go. So start small, but do start young. Even if you are putting away only Rs. 3000 per month, make sure that it increases by 5% every year (5 is very small right?) see the impact over a long period of time.
- I am a doctor and I will work till I drop dead: Sure, many of us want to work till we drop dead…but what happens if we cannot? What happens to my talking assignments if I cannot stand or lose my voice? what about a dentist whose wrist is damaged due to over use? Or a surgeon whose hands start shivering due to some illness? We have to understand that we all are subject to these kinda risks – and we maybe FORCED TO retire at an age when we do not wish to retire. Remember even for businessmen retirement is not always voluntary.
- A boy or girl who is now 24 takes up a job. At 33 if he/she wants to change their career and needs to take a 2 year break from earning THAT TOO IS A TEMPORARY loss of cash flow – let us call it temporary retirement? well we give it a new name “sabbatical”. Well, well.
- A policeman retiring at 60 is sure that the stress in his job was so much that he will die. I know of at least 4 policemen above 90 and a few in their 80s. Stop fooling yourself, we will all retire, and maybe live 20 years in retirement.
- Army people who think that their pension will be enough for their retired life, have no clue how cruel the impact of inflation can be in civilian life.
- Sportsmen may be forced to retire earlier than what they planned for – Virat Kohli may not play to the age that a Sachin Tendulkar or M S D. He too needs to prepare for retirement. And so should Anushka Sharma!!
How many of you are still thinking that YOU are different and do not need to save/invest for retirement?
karthik
So in effect retirement could be defined as “absence of regular cash inflow”. Could we also call unemployment also a kind of retirement?
Pradeep
All the category of people whom you have referred to the above post have the potential to earn a fortune during their working days.
CAs, MBAs, Doctors, sportsmen like Virat Kohli’s whose annual earnings in the past year alone is estimated to be 150 crores as per Forbes should have no worries about their retirement.
Armymen are covered by pension and medical insurance, Police take enough bribes (they don’t even pay for food and travel when in uniform) and they also get pension.
Are these the people who need to worry about retirement and inflation?
Well for most of the others (read middleclass) they need to plan for retirement.
Poor anyway have no means to think about retirement forget investing.
I am speaking Indian situation anyway.