Personal Finance/Retirement

Retirement planning is a multidimensional field. Many of us approach retirement planning from only an investment point of view. This perspective is too limited for dealing with the diversified needs that we may have from our retirement plan.

For an effective retirement planning, you should take into account following factors and decide the type of planning to be done:  Employer provided retirement plans Social security measures available Taxation issues Insurance coverage Investments Health care requirements Changes in lifestyle 

Setting aside of funds during the earning span of an individual and channeling the funds in a secure and remunerative manner with a view to achieving the present and future objectives is an important aspect of retirement planning as also in the case of a comprehensive financial planning. It makes sense to create a well balanced portfolio that suites your retirement planning objectives. Strategic Approach to Retirement Planning

The word strategy refers to planned efforts being implemented to reach the predetermined objective. Therefore, the activities are to be prioritized and directions are to be defined with reference to the goal set.

Strategic approach to retirement planning will include:

<ol> <li>Analysis of the available retirement benefits from various sources, such as the State, the employer, etc. to arrive at the additional needs to be met</li> <li>Dependency needs of self and other family members requiring continued income flow</li> <li>Anticipation of possible changes to the employment conditions and the family circumstances which may require transformation and the continued innovations in the field of medicine and microbiology. Require changes to the retirement plan</li> <li>Decision on the savings pattern out of the present income to build the required corpus for the visualized and prioritized needs</li> <li>Proper selection of investment strategies on the basis of defined yield and rate of accumulation</li> <li>Analysis of risk elements arising during the process</li> <li>Building flexibility for reshuffling of investment portfolio in case of a need arises.</li> </ol>