we are in a most awaited long weekend and definitely, you all must have planned leisure holidays in advance. But, will request you all to give yourself some time in this break to think about financial planning with near and dear ones…

Last time, we saw short-term goals planning and the most important questions to be asked before putting money into these goals. Now, let’s move to long-term goals. What are typical Long term goals in any Indian Family?

Buying a new house at a better location and bigger in size than existing

• Children’s education
• Child’s Marriage
• Retirement Planning

Out of these, which should be your Top priority to start with? Of course retirement planning. Let’s see, what are the alternative solutions to the other 3 goals?

You can always, go for a cheaper option and compromise to some extent in location as well as size of the residential property. In the case of children’s education, your son/daughter may turn out to be brilliant and acquire scholarships. It may also happen, that they choose a career, which does not have a very high cost of education. Expenses on Marriages are definitely under your control. Incidentally, most of the upcoming generation does not believe in extravagant ceremonies. I am not saying that every time you should compromise but definitely these financial goals can come next to Retirement Planning. What is the alternative solution to Retirement Planning?

Unfortunately, we don’t know at what age we are going to live. To add to this uncertainty, we also don’t know till what age, we could be working. How much, will we be able to compromise on our standard of living, post-retirement? Do we wish to live a life totally dependent upon our children in our sunset period by becoming a burden on them? Actually, there is no alternative solution to financial planning for retirement at an earning age. The shift from a Joint family structure to a nuclear family has made well-crafted financial plans more important. This plan starts from the first salary day of your life. If not, then from the day, you realize, you need to do it.

The life cycle of earlier generations was:

Birth	Education & Service	Retirement	Goodbye, World
0	25	60	75

The life cycle of the new generation is……..

Birth	Education & Service	Retirement	Goodbye, World
0	30	55	85

So, what has changed?

First, more opportunities in higher education have resulted in an increase in the education period and more time in settling for a job. Now, retirement is no more at 60 only, but with increased stress and uncertainties, everyone wishes to quit as early as possible. Hence, the period when you actually earn and invest has contracted to a great extent.

The life expectancy rate is now much more due to advanced medical facilities. The current life expectancy for India is 70.42 years, which used to be around 62 years in 2000. So, within the next 10 years, it can easily go up to 80 to 85 years with more and more innovations happening in the medical field.

So, how do you wish to live those 20 to 25 years of your age in the last innings of your life? Working till the end or money working for you till the end…