It is a rare thing to hear of someone who has celebrated their 100th birthday. It is rarer still to meet such a person.
But with improving health facilities a day would come soon that there would be more than a million such people in the country.
As per the estimates of United Nations (UN), there would be five countries wherein the number of centenarian (people who reach 100 years in age), would exceed a million. That too within this century.
China is expected to get there first and reach this milestone by 2069. India would take a little longer and achieve the feat by 2084.
Inference is very simple, you are going to live very long. Infact your retired life will be longer than your working life. Most people aren’t prepared to live a long time or know how to cope with the uncertainty about the lengths of their lives, something the experts call longevity risk.
This being the truth, you need to plan for your retirement income side by side to your other life goals.
Let us not get caught on the wrong foot. Or else ?????
LIVING TOO LONG IS TOO BIG A RISK.
Imagine living jobless for next two years!! If it is difficult to imagine, worse is ahead. A forced joblessness called retirement.
So what can you do to protect yourself against the risk of living too long?
To guard against unpredictable events that may have serious financial repercussions, you must plan for it with numbers like inflation, current costs, time to retire, retirement period span or age expectancy, any alternate retirement income, expected corpus at retirement, corpus gap, etc. and how to fill the shortfalls.
Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. Plan your investments now. Diversifying your sources of retirement income is an instance of a well-regarded strategy, the one that tells you not to put all the eggs in one basket.
Check out what you have that may help you & what cannot– Life Insurance policies, Pension plans, Fixed Deposits, Real Estate, Mutual Funds, Stocks, Bonds, etc. Review and chuck out what is obsolete and meaningless. Replace it with other investments that would prove more beneficial and do asset allocation that is inline with your financial risk profile, Liquidity, Tax efficiency, etc. Do not hesitate to take help of a professional if you feel the need.
Monitor and do periodic reviews on your investment portfolio, changes in your life circumstances and it’s impact on retirement planning. Make necessary changes because proactive adjustments can help you stay on on track.