Retirement: A New Start to Life!

• 23rd Nov 2021
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You spend a significant amount of your life working - whether you are self-employed or in a 9-5 job. It becomes a part of your personality and your routine - so much so that you often use it to describe yourself while introducing yourself to someone. Since what you do for a living gives meaning to your life and your love for your profession never dies, it becomes challenging to think of a time when you no longer get to continue your work. With no steady flow of income, it becomes critical for you to think about the future and your life after retirement. So, what is retirement going to look like for you is a question you should ask yourself when considering your future life.

Well, after retirement plans look different for everyone. While it may be a relief for some to not have a full-time job, it may be stressful for others to channel all of their productive energy. Therefore, a retirement plan need not necessarily look a certain way, but just a few ideas you have for yourself that you wish to execute.

If you belong to the latter and are looking for ways to lead a stress-free life after retirement, you have landed on the right page! Read ahead about some post retirement plans or options that you can look at.

Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement

After retirement, you might not want to go back to doing something full time necessarily and may want to look at flexible work hours, and there are quite a few things that you can do!

• Post retirement plans can include offering consultancy services. Having worked for years and understanding what goes on in a particular field, you can share the knowledge with those in need of expert advice and make a handsome amount of money.
• Freelance work may also be an interesting prospect for those looking for a retirement plan. Freelancing allows you to plan your days on your terms, as per your capacity. With many organisations allowing senior citizens to volunteer, you can also volunteer with any NGO or social service organisation that engages with a population of your choice.
• With the world going online, post retirement plans can be endless and include blogging about your passion, life, or anything relevant to your field of expertise. Social media today also offers a broad range of options for you to get started with something you wish to do. It could be cooking, sharing recipes, sharing music, dance, or art created by you.

The Right Time to Plan Your Retirement

Retirement need not look the same for everyone. What is retirement for you may not be retirement for someone else, which means that your retirement might be the period in your life when you finally take up that one hobby you always wanted to. It could be to travel to more cities and countries to engage with new people.

Whether you decide to start your own business, work as a freelancer, or just spend time with your family and enjoy each moment, one thing that becomes a necessity is regular income. One of the most popular methods to ensure a steady income flow is creating a corpus years before retiring. Having a financial plan in place when working helps you decide when, how, where, and why you need to invest in a particular plan, empowering you to lead a life that you planned for yourself.

Many post retirement plans such as the National Pension Scheme, an insurance-based retirement plan, or an employment-based retirement plan can all help you create a corpus, but how would you know which one to opt for? Moreover, even if you can select a particular, how will you invest in it after retirement?

Investing in such plans either requires you to make deposits when working, and the corpus keeps growing, and the returns are usually much higher. You need the best retirement benefits, and such investments aim exactly at that. With a well-thought-of plan, you can understand your needs and then invest accordingly to achieve them.

Choosing to be active post-retirement does not mean losing out on retirement benefits. On the contrary, you can avail them through the numerous retirement and pension schemes offered by private and government bodies. Your golden years and how you lead them is completely in your hands. All you need to do is think well, start early, and opt for the right retirement plans!

- A Consumer Education Initiative series by Kotak Life