We professionals, who are self employed in some way or the other, are so busy planning the next strategy to succeed, that we often do not even think of retiring. This is not work, this is our purpose of living, we say, and we keep on toiling passionately. I have to admit that this passion is the best anti-aging medicine ever invented and so to us retirement is an alien word.
But not all senior people are working
because they love to do so. They are concerned about the cost of living, which
is going up exponentially, and the social security, which is conspicuous by its
total absence. An honest taxpayer, who has contributed to the government
coffers all his/her life, is not assured of any healthcare benefits and
societal support when he/she needs them most in their senior years. Retirement,
for them, is a serious decision, which they keep on postponing as long as they
can.
Every time someone starts thinking
about retirement, the very first instinct is panic – more specifically, money
panic. It’s so uncomfortable that many people avoid the topic altogether, but
how can that be helpful? They all have the same question in their mind: “How
much money do I need in super before I can pull the plug on work?” I think it’s
a fun number to contemplate. It’s also the wrong first question.
Your
purpose in retirement doesn’t need to be grand. It just needs to be yours. Most
middle class Indians, the salaried class jump straight into talking about retirement
benefit funds, pension schemes, assets, and pull out spreadsheets, online
calculators and doomsday scenarios, and then delay retiring while they wait for
the “perfect” lump-sum number. Others avoid the conversation altogether. In the
process, many end up chasing someone else’s idea of what a good retirement
should look like, only to discover they’ve waited too long and are suddenly
forced out by a round of retrenchments, a health issue or caring
responsibilities.
But
the starting point for a good retirement isn’t about the numbers. It’s
personal. It’s about understanding where you are in life and setting a vision
for the years you have ahead. Ideally one you can afford, but also one that
genuinely reflects how you want to live and what you want to do with your time,
health and best years. Ultimately, it walks you through five steps:
Thinking about your goals
Before you even glance at your pension
fund and fixed deposits, ask yourself a few prickly questions. What do you want
your mornings to feel like? Where will you be living? Who do you want to spend
your time with? Are you planning to work part-time, or walk away from paid work
completely? Do you want to travel – and if so, where and how often? Will you be
doing some voluntary service in a project you are passionate about? Will you study
or train for something new?
Then
go one layer deeper: what does a genuinely great week look like for you? Not an
idealised Facebook and Instagram version of retirement, your real expectations
of life. The rhythm of your days matters more than you think once the structure
of a hierarchical career stops.
These
aren’t fluffy lifestyle questions. They’re the foundation of your goal setting,
and this comes before the budgeting process. You simply can’t work out what
your future will cost until you know what you want your future to be. And even
the smartest financial adviser can’t set those goals for you. Only you can do
that part.
Exploring how much is enough
Once
you’ve mapped out the life you want, then you can start working out what it
might cost. And this is where people often discover something surprising: their
number is usually far more achievable than they feared.
The
amount you need in retirement isn’t a single magic figure. It depends on four
things:
- the lifestyle you’ve just described
- the income you actually need each year
- how much comes from your remaining income sourses – pension, interests on fixed deposits and debentures, rentals etc.
- your health, longevity expectations and family responsibilities.
Most
seniors will draw their retirement income from a combination of pension,
part-time work, investments, and savings. That means the big lump-sum question
matters far less than people think. Health support from the government like
Aayushman Bharat, Jan Aushadhi Kendra are also making retirement more
affordable.
So
the real question isn’t “What lump sum do I need?” It’s whether you understand
how the systems of retirement work, how the layers of income you could have
interact, and how to put them to work for you. True, government policies will
change over time, but the fact that we will only go stronger economically as a
nation is no more a subject of debate. So, for seniors, tomorrow is certainly
rosier than yesterday.
Run the numbers – then get some help
If
you’ve never run your own “retirement income” calculation before, this is the
moment to start. You can do it yourself by listing your assets and liabilities
or you can take the help of your chartered accountant or even a wealth manager
for a small fee. I have in the past, written a blog on wealth management and
you can read it by clicking: https://surajitbrainwaves.blogspot.com/2024/11/wealth-management-and-inheritance.html
Your
pension fund can give you a projection either through their app or their
guidance team. You can plug some numbers into a simple calculator. And then
take a breath and think about what kind of advice you might need. If your needs
are simple, this level of guidance might be enough. If they’re more complex,
you may need comprehensive advice. Your mutual funds need a revisit, and if
they are predominantly equity in nature, that type of risk is not good for your
senior years and you have to change them to ‘balance funds’, which invest more
in debt instead of all our equities. An overhaul your entire investment
strategy at this juncture is mandatory.
Set up your retirement account
and your drawdown
Once you’ve worked out roughly how much income you’ll need, the
next piece of the puzzle is understanding how to turn your scattered funds into
a regular income stream. You may not be withdrawing dividends but reinvesting
them so far, because you had a regular income source, and you didn’t need the
money. Now you do. So this is the time to change your mutual funds to devidend
payout modality – yearly, half yearly or quarterly. Similarly, banks can be
instructed to renew only the principal amount of your fixed deposits and pay
out your interest to your savings account. The idea is to shift your deposits
from the accumulation phase into the retirement, or “pension,” phase, where the
goal becomes getting a steady, tax-free income while managing risk a little
more carefully. The fact that seniors still have to pay tax on the interest
their FDs earn is a prickly issue, which needs government’s attention.
This is the moment where planning becomes reality. Drawing a
regular sum of money from your thus modified savings is a long-term strategy
that influences every part of your retirement. You need to think about how much
to withdraw, how often, and how you’ll invest the remaining balance so it
continues to grow and support you for decades and all the things you can (or
can’t) do with your money.
Spend too quickly, and you risk running down your balance
earlier than expected. Spend too slowly, and you risk looking at a pile of
money with regrets in your old age. A good retirement investment and drawdown
strategy strikes a balance between having confidence and being cautious. It
assumes you want your money to last, yes, but also that you want enough freedom
to actually live the life you’ve imagined. And if you understand the plan,
you’re less likely to panic when markets wobble because you’ll know you’ve
planned for this.
Dig in on your sense of purpose
Ultimately, the reason you set up your finances is to give
yourself the freedom to spend your time on things you enjoy, care about and
feel energised by. These are things you choose, regardless of what they pay.
And for many people, that shift can be surprisingly difficult to make.
Our identities are often tied to our work and our ego. Stepping
away from a job, a title or a role can leave a space that feels uncomfortable
until you consciously refill it. So take the time to reconsider what you value,
how you want to contribute and what makes you feel useful and connected is an
essential part of the transition. Your purpose doesn’t need to be grand. It
just needs to be yours.
So if you’re thinking
about retiring, start with the basics. And remember, retirement isn’t a finish
line any more. For most Indians, it’s a long, gradual shift into a different
way of living and earning. The more prepared you are going in, the easier it is
to make good decisions and avoid the traps that catch people who leave it too
late. I have a publication in the Indian Journal of Surgery o the retirement
planning of a surgeon. You can read it by clicking: Bhattacharya,
S., Bhattacharya, K. & Bhattacharya, N. Retirement
Planning—Unpleasant but Mandatory for All Aging Surgeons. Indian J Surg (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-025-04318-8
