I am seen by many as a Retirement Expert – and that I am not! I am at best an expert on accumulation of a corpus for Retirement. And the difference between the accumulation phase and distribution phase is like the difference between lightning and lightning bug. It is really huge. However from my limited knowledge and experience of seeing Retired people manage their money, here are my observations

1. One spouse doing all the work – the work is divided well between Husband and Wife. The wife cooks and the H looks after the money. They assumption is that both of them will die at the same time! Remember one spouse could live for 20 years without the other! Both H and W should know all that there is to know. Buying vegetables, cooking, making tea or coffee, withdrawing money from the ATM, redeeming mutual funds, paying utility bills….the list is endless.
2. Paying too much taxes – many senior citizens keep all their money in bank deposits, senior citizens savings schemes, Pradhan Mantri Pension plan, – remember this could be tax inefficient. Some of the money should be in tax efficient mutual funds – and having the ability to handle some variability.
3. Not having a withdrawal plan – many (or most) of the 60 year old people ASSUME that they will die at 72. What happens when you are alive at 92? You surely need a withdrawal plan WELL WRITTEN DOWN, investment buckets, and some ability to handle variability. Most lack that training.
4. Ignoring inflation – ignoring inflation is not so bad if you are talking of retiring at 65 and dying at 72. When you retire at 55 and live till 95, you cannot ignore inflation for 40 years. This is very basic, and many people forget that.
5. Having a very complicated portfolio – people at age 80 do not need to have such a huge array of assets – from liquid funds, short duration, ultra short duration, gilt funds, thematic funds, – they can make it much simpler. When one spouse complicates it so much, the other spouse has no chance in hell of being able to understand what is happening!
6. Not having enough respect for the Risk and Return equation! Well they think that equity is for the long run, so we should not invest in equities! Wrong Completely wrong. At 94 ignoring equity is fine, but not when you are 59! There is a co-relation between risk, volatility, inflation, and the ability to stay calm. However at say age 80 you may (depending on the corpus) even shift to a pension plan – without ROP. Well, if you think it is complicated, it is.
7. Not having an Adviser – Withdrawal phase is far far more difficult to manage than the accumulation phase. More importantly, forgetting could be a real threat to your portfolio. I see some senior citizens with many fixed deposits – the hassles of the clerical work is unbelievable. Understanding, remembering, executing – could be a real challenge as you get into your 80s. I know, I deal with panic attacks – of not being able to pick their phone (smart phones are not easy), not finding their purse, their debit cards, not knowing the difference between the credit card and debit card – the list is endless. Please simplify, get an adviser.
8. Not having a will – many people (most?) do not understand the need for a will. Even assuming that you own the property on a joint basis, without a will (giving it to each other presumably) the surviving spouse will NOT BE ABLE TO sell the real estate.

there are more….but I have reached my word limit…