How to plan your retirement smartly

To have a comfortable and secure life after retirement, one needs to build the financial cushion that will fund it all. Retirement planning is a multistep process that evolves over time.

Money9 Helpline hosted Dilzer Consultants’ Dilshad Billimoria to answer queries on how to get started in planning retirement, what to keep in mind while planning retirement, and where to invest for retirement

Here are some queries:

Tushar Shah, Mumbai: I am 48 years old and I want to start an SIP of Rs 25,000 per month in MFs. I am aiming for a monthly pension of Rs 60,000 at the age of 60 years. What are the investment options that can help me achieve this goal?

Billimoria: I would suggest taking the plunge into equity. You are 18 to 20 years away from your retirement. So you can put your money into mid-cap and small-cap funds provided the time horizon for it is 5 to 10 years. With a good combination of large, flexi, small, index you can start your investments through SIPs.

Arun Singh: Is NPS good for retirement?

Billimoria: Yes, NPS is definitely a good option for the fact that cost structure is the lowest in the industry for retirement planning. You should not park all your money in one plan. For allocation of a share of money in NPS, choose a life cycle strategy.  Try and invest with companies like Kotak and UTI which have shown good performance in the past.