Where should I invest my retirement corpus of Rs 50 lakh?

I will be retiring this year and have a corpus of Rs 50 lakh with me. I am planning to invest Rs 15 lakh in Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS), Rs 9 lakh in Post Office Monthly Income Scheme (POMIS) and the remaining money in mutual funds to set up a Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP). Would it be a right approach?
- Narendra

It's difficult to comment as one needs to understand the income requirements out of this money. That said, the chosen investment options for your initial Rs 24 lakh are absolutely safe. There you are actually lending your money to the Government of India and therefore, the likelihood of anything going wrong is almost nil.

And your plan for the remaining money is fine, too. Nevertheless, I would like you to be cautious on two counts. One, if you have never invested in the market, then be more conservative. Two, never invest this money at one go. Put the money in a fixed-income fund and over a period of 18-20 months, move your money in a staggered way into the selected equity funds through Systematic Transfer Plan. It is important to do so because this money will be invested for a lifetime.

This article was originally published on April 19, 2019.