A comprehensive review of your retirement plan — from corpus adequacy to estate planning. Use this every year from age 40 onwards.
Rule of thumb: Your retirement corpus should be 25× your annual expenses (the 4% withdrawal rule). At ₹60,000/month expenses today, adjusted for inflation over 20 years, you need approximately ₹4–5 crore. Use the Simplegence Retirement Calculator to get your exact number.
The most common guideline is 25× your annual retirement expenses (4% safe withdrawal rate). If your post-retirement expenses are ₹60,000/month (₹7.2L/year), you need ₹1.8 crore at today's value. But accounting for 20 years of inflation at 6%, that ₹60,000 monthly expense becomes ₹1.93 lakh/month — meaning you need ₹5.8 crore. Use the Simplegence Retirement Calculator to personalise this.
For most salaried Indians earning ₹10–30L/year, EPF alone covers only 20–40% of the required retirement corpus. A 30-year-old earning ₹15L with 12% EPF contributions can expect ₹1.5–2 crore at 60 — but needs ₹4–6 crore. EPF is a good foundation, not a complete plan. Supplement with NPS and equity mutual funds.
The age-based thumb rule: keep equity = 100 minus your age (so 60% equity at 40, 40% at 60). A better Indian rule given longer life expectancy and higher inflation: equity = 110 minus age. Begin gradually shifting from 50 — reduce equity by 5–10% every 2–3 years. Never go to 0% equity even in retirement — a 30-year retirement needs growth assets.
Five years is still meaningful. Steps: (1) Aggressively increase savings rate — cut non-essential expenses and direct the savings to SIPs; (2) Consider working 2–3 years longer — each additional year of work has a double impact (more savings + fewer years to fund); (3) Reduce retirement expense expectations — downsizing, relocating to a smaller city; (4) Consider part-time consulting income in early retirement to reduce corpus drawdown.
