Securing your retirement income

If you thought that getting to a good-sized retirement corpus by the time you turned 60 was tough, here's further bad news. Setting up a predictable income stream to see you through retired life is not a cakewalk either. Given that most of us, whether in the government or in the private sector, no longer receive an inflation-indexed pension from our employer, it is wholly up to us to invest our retirement benefits and the wealth we have created in our working years smartly enough to take care of our living expenses post retirement. If you are retired and are in the process of selecting investments for your regular income needs, here are five things to keep in mind. One, in choosing investment options after you retire, you can afford to make far fewer mistakes than you did during your working years. Therefore, prioritise safety of capital over return on capital. Even if safe options such as bank deposits or post office offer lower rates, stick to them and avoid the temptation to go for 'high-return' products where you have no idea where your return is coming from. This means saying no to unregulated 'privately placed' bonds, deposits with unregistered benefit funds and chit funds and land, agriculture and orchard schemes that promise sky-high returns. A simple thumb rule to avoid a high-risk debt investment is to c

This article was originally published on August 11, 2021.