Have You Put Away Enough For Your Retirement Years?

Have you thought about investing for your retirement years? Is your current investment enough? A thoughtful post.

It was a very interesting discussion I had with a friend of mine recently. She and her husband were ecstatic discussing their planned Europe trip. While casually speaking about the amount of funds they would be using for the trip; she shared the pleasant surprise which they received a few days back while going through their investment portfolio.

She shared that over the last 10 years, she and her husband had invested close to 25 Lac in the equity mutual funds and they were hoping that the portfolio would be close to 50-55 Lac when they decided to check it a week before. But to their pleasant surprise the portfolio value was close to 1.4 Cr. They were over the moon and started laying down plans to upgrade to a better car and travel abroad as now they have enough.

I again asked her, but what is your budget for the trip you are heading to? She gave me a questioning look, as she did not think it to be relevant, as now they have a good amount of surplus with them to worry about the budget of the trip.

Well, the excitement and the euphoria both came down when I made them sit down and have them calculate the portfolio value they would need for the retirement 15 years down the line and both kids’ higher education 10 years from now and the Europe trip expenses today.

Then realization struck them, that at the current rate of saving they would not have enough to sustain for their retirement years, if they were to take care of their kids’ educational needs, forget about having a foreign tour. Even a rough calculation of the inflation and the amount needed to sustain the current lifestyle 15 years down the line month on month was a frightening experience.

What happened with my friend is nothing new, to what majority of my client experience. When we actually sit down and do the real number calculations, what looks to be a comfortable financial position; needs a lot of working towards your goals and planning to reach them.

There is only one simple answer as to why this happens; we really do not manage our finances well. We do not plan the investments based on the financial needs we would be having in the future. We save and invest what is left after all the expenses and live under a false pretext of it being enough to take care of our future needs.

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So, keeping the guesswork aside and being happy with what we are able to invest; what is really needed is to know what we are going to need when the time comes and to have enough; what we need to save to achieve the magical figure, today.

Plan right, invest wise.

Published here earlier.

Image source: pxhere

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