Make Hay While The Sun Shines
Note to: Clients of Yudhajit Financial Services
From: Yudhajit Baul
Date: 17/7/2020
Re: Make hay while the sun shines
‘You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing’ – George Bernard Shaw.
We dread to think of retirement. In fact, to some people the very idea of retirement is ominous that they tend to avoid discussing on this inevitable transition. One of the reasons why we avoid to introspect on post retirement lifestyle is, because of our natural disposition of nurturing a tunnel vison revolving around only money. Is retirement all about money? For some it is, but for most, retirement is about happiness in accomplishing a vision envisaged long ago. The pleasure one derives on self-reliance after fulfilling all responsibilities, the joy one gets creating legacy for children, the contentment one has in the company of family and the satisfaction one has contributing to a social cause are perhaps invaluable. While these thoughts may sound Utopian but any vision without proper planning and execution will only be illusory.
Retirement planning is a concept which originates with the vision of a post retirement lifestyle complemented by meticulous preparation and flawless execution. Some of the most recognised facets of retirement and how we should deal with it are as follows.
1. Health and wellness: As per a survey done by a leading financial advisory service firm, it was discovered that concerns on medical attention and care occupy the top position on the list of priorities of retirees. With medical inflation in low teens, the cost of hospitalisation can drain considerable savings of retirees. Therefore, a comprehensive health insurance with a decent cover throughout life will make a significant difference in managing the risk. We tend to underestimate the care we may need as we grace with age, the cost of providing care needs to be budgeted for at the planning stage of retirement. A balanced diet, regular exercise and adequate rest will only help us reduce these costs and lead a healthy life.
2. Lifestyle and financial comfort: No one would like to retire with a legacy of debts therefore it is imperative to plan well in advance to clear all the liabilities in terms of housing etc. Compromising on lifestyle is the most difficult to adjust, but with inadequate planning and investment strategy many retirees end up in borrowing from relatives or depend on children to sustain which often leads them to depression. One of the most important aspect of retirement planning is maintaining a desired lifestyle. We need to plan carefully and most importantly invest our savings in the right products maintaining asset allocation suitable to our risk tolerance. One needs to have a clear understanding of the concept of risk associated with various financial products. We have come across clients who have retired in last five years and are now struggling to make ends meet. Due to lack of proper understanding and guidance, many had invested all their savings in fixed income products which few years back offered attractive interest rates. With the decline in interest rates, their returns on investment post tax is short of inflation. This means, if this low interest rate regime sustains few more years then there would be significant devaluation of their financial assets and a loss of purchasing power. In this context, the value of Rs 10,00,0000 discounted by 2.5% per year for 5 years, is Rs 88,38,542. 2.5% is the difference between inflation of 6% and post-tax return on fixed deposit of 3.5%. A loss of approximately Rs 12 lakhs over 5 years in terms of purchasing power. Therefore, one needs to plan and invest early in the right asset class to generate adequate retirement corpus that will sustain throughout life. It is common knowledge that equity is the only asset class which has delivered real return across geographies in the long term. Post retirement corpus must have some allocation in equity to generate real return on the portfolio.
3. Social Relationships: It is difficult to reconcile with the transition in retirement particularly when one has maintained an active social life in the company of colleagues and friends. People often choose to settle down in their native places or where they have adequate social infrastructure. One needs to plan well to meet this demand of settlement smoothly.
4. Creating a legacy for legal heirs: Every parent has a desire to create a legacy for their children and grandchildren, but few successfully can do so. Creating a legacy require planning of acquiring assets when one has the financial ability and the risk tolerance. Needless to say, to achieve this goal one has to prepare methodically in advance.
5. Estate Planning: After one acquires assets one needs to draft a will and register the same so that on his absence his assets gets divided and distributed as per his wish.
6. Coping with the loss of spouse: One of the most difficult and one of the most traumatic experience is loss of spouse in your old age. As this phenomenon is inevitable one needs to emotionally prepare to deal with the circumstances. In general women live longer than men, regardless of the gender we recommend one needs to apprise his or her spouse about their finances so that the loss of a spouse should not materially impact the way the finances have been managed.
7. Supporting a benevolent cause: We have come across an overwhelmingly retired majority donate to not for profit organisations. On conversing with them we realise that it gives them joy to support the institutions engaged in service of development of the underprivileged and most confessed that they could not associate with such causes earlier therefore to engage in humanitarian activities now make them happy. Building a corpus for philanthropy also needs planning in advance and proper investment strategy.
Retirement is an opportunity to re-evaluate life in its entirety therefore the conversation dominating retirement planning must go beyond the pecuniary needs. At Yudhajit Financial Services we have always evoked and stimulated our clients to adapt the conversation on retirement from money to vision. We have helped our clients to visualise and prepare for the various emotional, physical, social and financial changes that they would experience at different stages of their retirement which have helped them to enjoy their life with poise.