Best Ways To Build Retirement Corpus

5paisa Research Team 5paisa Research Team 16th December 2022 - 07:09 pm

As the regular income stream dries up as you draw near to your retirement, it is critical that you build a retirement corpus sufficient to cater to your expenses post retirement. Each individual has different expenses and family circumstances. Therefore, the amount of money needed post-retirement varies from person to person. This is where the importance of planning a retirement corpus comes into the picture. In the following pointers, we have tried to indicate some of the best possible ways a person can ensure a comfortable retirement.

Estimate Post-Retirement Expenses

The hard fact about life is regular income stops, but expenses don’t. Major retirement expenses include monthly household expenses, medical expenses, vacations or family visits etc. What will one spend would depend on the kind of lifestyle he/she leads post-retirement. Future expenses must be carefully projected so that the arrangements can be made while the person is still working.

Balance Between Spending & Savings

Typical human tendency is to spend more during early years. This needs to be attended as soon as we start earning. Whatever is your income, every young person should learn to live within his/her means in order to avoid unnecessary spending.

Keep An Eye On Effect Of Inflation

Inflation greatly effects retirement planning. To get fixed returns when retired, people usually invest money for long-term. But inflation keeps increasing, and we don’t make much money in reality. A person should invest in such a manner that he/she is able to hedge against the effects of inflation. One can invest in inflation protected schemes and funds, equities and mutual funds (since the returns are historically more than 12%).

Inflation rate	6%		7%		8%
Years to retire	30	40	30	40	30	40
Present monthly expenses (Rs.)	50,000
Future Value of monthly expenses ( Rs lakh)	2.9	5.1	3.8	7.5	5.0	10.9
Corpus required at retirement age (in Rs. cr.)	5.3	9.5	7.6	15.0	11.0	23.8

Invest Smartly

As said above, people should identify the best possible investment avenues to plan build a fair corpus of their retirement. There are several financial assets where one can put in money regularly till retirement. Let’s have a look at some of the ideal assets to invest money to get fixed returns during retirement:

Investment Assets	PPF	Mutual Funds	NPS	EPF
Why Invest	Protection of capital and accumulated interest on PPF is guaranteed by the government, thus completely safe.	Managed by asset management companies (AMCs), which channelize people's money into collective investments in equity, debt and other financial products managed by investment experts.	National Pension System is a voluntary, defined contribution retirement savings scheme designed to enable subscribers to systematically save during their working life.	It is the most popular retirement saving instrument in India. Investors should opt for EPF transfer whenever there is change of job. This lets investors reap the benefits of guaranteed returns along with power f compounding.
Risk	Carries interest & rate risk	Though, managed by expert fund managers, they still face market-specific risks.	Fund performance depends on fund manager and the asset class choice	Carries interest rate risk
Taxation	Comes under exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) category	Long-term capital gains on equity funds are tax-free	This product is EET (exempt-exempt-taxable)	Offers deduction up to 1 lakh limit under section 80C
Returns	8.7%	14-15%	8-11%	8.75%

But before you decide where all you can invest your money, it is important that you determine your risk appetite first. Risk appetite is the amount of risk an investor is willing to take while investing. An investor’s risk profile can be conservative, moderate, moderately aggressive or aggressive. Investors should ideally go for those particular financial tools that suit their overall investment risk profile.

Conclusion - Whatsoever your financial position is at present, you should be able to live financially independent when you retire. Therefore, planning your retirement from financial point of view is crucial and an integral part of financial planning.