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Live more with great retirement planning starting today.

Are you thinking of retirement now? Do you often imagine how your retirement life is going to be? Well, that’s not bad. In fact we all should work towards making a great retirement life possible for us. Because no matter how much we love our work, one day, our bodies will give in and will become rigid to the responsibilities that our professional lives will demand of us. Not only the bodily wear and tear, the market, the economy, new regulations, stockholder expectations etc may all just crack down upon us.

So, it’s great that you have started thinking of retirement, now. It is wise to plan ahead. So when the idea of retirement pays you a visit the next time, set your expectations right. Many people spend a lot of time trying to figure out the numbers they would love to have on retirement; how much money they will have in their accounts, the amount they will get from provident fund and pensions, the inflation of the market on retirement, various taxes, and return rates. But these are not enough and will just be as ambiguous unless you attach clarity on purpose of the wealth you plan for retirement. For that, a bucket list serves right. So what is this bucket list and how does it help?

A bucket list is your to-do list arranged priority wise leading one to accomplish such goals methodically. A bucket list for retirement may include “Five countries travel plan”, “Continuing to fund children’s education without taking external loans”, “Buying your dream house”, “Going for a pilgrimage” or maybe if you are an adventure spirited, trying out “Bungee-jumping at 60”. It can be just anything. Once you collate your plans, you can then map them to their expenses and generate a spending plan for the actual retirement budget. This exercise will help you ascertain the near actual amount you may need to make your retirement a happy experience.

Story: Like all parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kumar worked hard, saved enough to send their kids abroad for further studies. Once their children had completed their studies, they decided to stay back and not return home. The woman is now two years away from her retirement and the man, a few months only. And on their retirement, both their finances put together will go for rent, their insurances and emergency fund. What they now realize is, if their children are not returning home, their trip to Europe will never happen and in fact they may have to move into an old age home.

They only wish that despite all frailties, their organizations would retain them for a couple of more years. But what did they miss on that resulted into this disappointment? Was considering foreign-education for their children a wrong decision? Definitely not! In fact not considering the requirements of their retirement life now proves to be the challenge. After years of hard work and toil, this is certainly not something that Mr. And Mrs. Kumar deserve. We also do not know what situation their kids may be under. The best analysis is the couple should have been extra prudent in understanding their own expectations from retirement. When we are independent at retirement, our relationships too value us, besides our own finances. This is the story of a couple. Imagine if it were a story of a single parent. So when you gather time to plan out your retirement, sit with it objectively, name out the various things that you would like to achieve either jointly with your spouse or personally. Once you know things you need on retirement, you can or get a professional to draft a financially plausible plan, path to fulfillment and thus an enjoyable retirement.