Most of us dream about early retirement. We’ve heard our family and friends talk about it during dinner table conversations and vigorously nodded our head in agreement. We’ve fancied the things we would do – the hobbies we would pursue and the places we would travel – post retirement. Our bucket list for our retired life keeps growing each day as we continue to dream. Isn’t it? 🙂

But let’s get this straight. Early retirement does not mean that we intend to spend the rest of our life doing nothing. It actually means the exact opposite. It refers to that phase of our life when we are no longer dependent on our current job for our financial needs. We are financially free to choose as we deem fit. In fact even those of us who love our current jobs would probably be more comfortable accumulating enough money so as to not worry about working for monetary reasons.

Let me first give you the good news. Our dream can turn into reality. We can retire early. But there’s a caveat. We can retire early provided we start planning for it early. It takes a lot more than just dreaming. It requires dedicated planning.

Most of us assume that earning well would automatically result in early retirement. What we don’t realize is that it is not sufficient to earn enough. In fact there are many people who have a humble income yet go on to live comfortable retirement lives. And then there are those who earn big but fail to lead a peaceful retirement life.

The differentiating factor between these two groups of people is not their income levels but what they do with their income. Their behaviour as reflected in their spending and savings pattern is what makes all the difference.

If we want to retire early, we need to be diligently putting away a part of our monthly savings into suitable investment products that offer good yield and not touch it until we hit retirement. Without undertaking this step, early retirement can never be an option irrespective of how much we earn. In fact, without planning, retiring at any age might not be an option let alone taking early retirement.

So an important take-away is that we cannot lead a comfortable life post retirement, despite earning a respectable salary, if we’ve spent frivolously in our pre-retirement years without taking into account our financial needs post retirement.

Bearing this in mind, at Samasthiti, we created two videos on retirement.

Part I discusses the importance of planning for our retirement and the significance of starting early. The earlier you start planning, the lesser you would have to put away every year for your retirement life. An early start would ensure you reap the full benefits of the power of compounding as well.

Another important take-away from this video is that – we need to stop viewing retirement as an end to our career, aspirations or professional lives. This is a primitive way to think about retirement. Retirement is simply that phase of our life where we are no longer compelled to work for our financial needs. We will have the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time. We will be financially free! If you realise this, then not only will you look forward to your retirement, you will also make sure that you start planning for it right away.

In Part II, we discuss some simple ways to start setting aside money for your retirement. We talk about some simple products to start investing in right away – some do-it-yourself products that do not require the assistance of a financial advisor. However, if you need to carry out a robust retirement planning exercise which we strongly recommend, we do advise you to work with Samasthiti or any other SEBI Registered Investment Advisor (RIA).

At Samasthiti, we consider Retirement as THE most important financial goal. We ensure that all our clients start investing for their retirement immediately so that they are self reliant and financially independent throughout their life. While other financial goals such as children’s education, children’s marriage, buying a house, etc. are important, retirement is one goal that is all about you – a phase of your life when you totally deserve to be free from financial worries after having worked so hard to attain these other goals for the sake of your family.