Financial Instability Tops Retirement Fears Among Metro Residents, Followed By Health Issues, Says Report

Retirement usually connotes a stress-free life, more family time, and relaxing lazy days. The study ‘How India Thinks About Retirement Building The Future Today’ conducted by House of Alpha, an investment advisory firm, and Eleveight, a strategy consultant, shows that 73 per cent of respondents in metro cities consider financial instability their biggest retirement fear, followed by health issues (72 per cent). This data underscores the scope of providing financial and healthcare security to people and building a robust support system for retirees for their financial, social, and emotional needs.

The study was conducted on 1500 respondents across five metro cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata) in India, including 500 pre-retirees and 1000 post-retirees.

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Retirement: Family Time And Stress-Free Life

The findings show that 74 per cent of people link retirement with family time, 68 per cent with stress-free life, and 67 per cent with more relaxation. However, respondents also linked it with loneliness (18 per cent), financial crunch (11 per cent), and dependency (19 per cent).

Perspectives Of Retirees And Pre-Retirees

The study indicates that retirees are more concerned about negative sentiments like loneliness, lack of purpose, etc. 23 per cent of retirees have concerns about dependency compared to 19 per cent of pre-retirees. Similarly, 14 per cent of retirees and 7 per cent of pre-retirees are concerned about a lack of purpose, and 21 per cent of retirees and 18 per cent of pre-retirees about loneliness and social isolation, reveals the study.

It highlights a shift in perspective for retirement, with more people being desirous to ‘stay relevant, personally satisfied, and financially secure’ than just spending time with family and relaxing.

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Early Retirement Planning

17 per cent of respondents share that they have started retirement planning more than 20 years before retirement but regret not starting even earlier.

The trend shows that later starters (retirement planning less than five years before retirement) feel more regret (45 per cent) than those who started earlier.

This is because young people do not think of retirement compared to those close to retirement. Despite 42 per cent of respondents believing that the ideal time to start retirement planning is from 31 to 40 years, only 17 per cent actually act on their beliefs.

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Debt Management

Furthermore, respondents were found to be aware of paying back their debts during working years. Around 70 per cent of the respondents aimed to retire debt-free, while 20 per cent chose to refinance to secure lower interest, and the remaining 10 per cent chose to continue with the minimum payment after retirement.

Retirement Corpus

The data reveals that around 60 per cent of respondents struggle to build their targeted retirement corpus, highlighting the scope of financial advisory to provide necessary guidance in retirement planning.

It underlines the need for a timely start of retirement planning to build sufficient corpus and retire financially, mentally, and emotionally healthy.