People often don’t realize the benefits of retirement planning and the need to start it early. When one is younger, retirement seems so distant that we believe there is enough to save and plan for retirement. So, it is not at the top of their priorities for most people. However, retirement planning when done right and done early have several benefits, especially for those in the lower income brackets. Let us find out why.
Benefits of Retirement Planning
Before proceeding to understand the benefits of retirement planning, let us delve into what it is.
Retirement planning is more than just creating a steady source of income after retirement; it is the process of creating a roadmap for one’s personal and financial life after retirement. It involves:
- determining income goals
- setting aside funds and investing specifically with that goal in mind
- identifying income sources
- estimating short-term and long-term expenses
- estimating the future cash flow in order to determine retirement income
- creating a strategy based on financial and personal goals, age and income, among others
- managing assets and risk
- implementing a savings program
- making investments, etc.
Retirement planning is a lifelong process, but it works best when started early. It enables individuals to not just create a stable and reliable source of income post-retirement, ensuring financial independence and peace of mind. It enables individuals to meet their life goals and aspirations, meet medical emergencies and overall improve their financial discipline.
Here are the benefits of retirement planning:
Financial Independence
Upon retirement, one’s regular monthly income stops and the living expenses increase owing to increasing medical expenses and other needs. 52% of Indians expect their children to provide for them and ensure financial stability as they age. This dependence on family and children for even sustenance can be prevented if one plans for one’s retirement. One of the most important benefits of retirement planning is that it provides a regular source of income to meet one’s living expenses even when their income flow stops.
By planning and investing appropriately for retirement, you can achieve financial independence, being able to meet your needs and saving up for emergencies and other expenses.
Maintain Your Quality of Life Even After Retirement
More often than not, people without proper retirement planning slip into poverty, fall into debt traps, less assets and so on to even make ends meet as they age. You can maintain your quality of life even after retirement, not having to cut back on basic necessities or other expenses if you start planning your retirement savings and investments as early as possible. This way, you can protect your assets and property while avoiding debt traps.
Equipped To Meet Medical Needs and Emergencies
As one ages, one’s medical needs increase steadily, from regular health check-ups to medication to hospitalization. One of the key benefits of retirement planning is that it equips people to meet their medical needs and be prepared financially for medical emergencies.
Meet Financial and Personal Goals
Retirement is often the time that many get to actually unwind and indulge in different activities such as hobbies, travel, working on a venture, engaging in voluntary/ community work, etc. Proper retirement planning also enables you meet all your financial and personal goals.
Peaceful, Stable Life
80% of Indians in urban areas fear they will run out of money in retirement while 59% believe they will run out of money within 10 years of retirement. Being able to live a peaceful and stable life post-retirement is one of the biggest benefits of retirement planning. The retirement corpus offers you a much-needed safety net and enables you to deal better with uncertainties.
Tax Benefits
Several retirement plans offer tax benefits including deductions in taxable income, tax-free interest rates and so on. So, you will save more and secure your future.
Returns On Investment
Investing in retirement plan instruments such as Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) in India ensures capital appreciation. Through strategic asset allocation towards different asset classes, they ensure that your money grows at a reasonable risk. You can boost your retirement corpus this way.
Maintain Standard of Living Despite Inflation
Inflation in the long run is a real problem and can erode one’s standard of living if one is not prepared for it. How so? In the long run, the cost of food, housing, medication and so on will increase significantly. When the income stops and you don’t have sufficient savings, you will not be able to afford the necessities. The benefit of retirement planning is that you can beat inflation and maintain your standard of living.
Importance of Retirement Planning for Those in Informal Employment
We now know the benefits of retirement planning. But is it accessible to all? No. 90% of the country’s workforce is in the informal sector working as domestic workers, temporary workers, casual labourers, agricultural labourers, gig workers and so on. For this section of the population, there is both a lack of awareness and the inability to access retirement planning.
To understand the criticality and benefits of retirement planning for the informal workers, we need to understand their plight first.
Informal workers have meagre earnings. From rent, water and food to education, conveyance, medical expenses and loan repayments, their living expenses are high and often much higher than their earnings. This deters them from saving. If they were faced with a sudden contingency, medical emergency or other socio-economic eventuality, they would be forced to borrow more and would be pushed deeper into extreme poverty.
And without a retirement corpus or savings, they will not be able to make ends meet as they age. They will be forced to continue working even when their age and physical health don’t permit it. Further, they may not be able to get the right medical treatments and care owing to resource constraints and inability to access quality healthcare providers.
With retirement planning and investments, they can steer away from these challenges.
How Can They Engage in Retirement Planning?
The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) is the answer. This government retirement and insurance scheme enables low-income households to save for their retirement. It assures a whole host of benefits including capital appreciation, tax-free interests, life insurance and much more.
But EPF is not accessible to those outside formal employment. So, what can they do? Employers can enrol them on the TankhaPay app and make retirement and insurance benefits available to all their informal employees. Even households and small businesses can enrol their employees into EPF using the TankhaPay app.
Conclusion
Want to build long-term, trusting relationships with your informal employees? Offer them retirement and insurance benefits using the TankhaPay app.
Download the app now.
