Here are the other factors you should consider before narrowing down on the insurance company:

a) The fund manager’s ability to manage money over the long-term (unlike mutual fund managers who aim to outperform their peers quarter-on-quarter)

b) The frequency of portfolio declaration, which denotes transparency

c) The fact that switches can be made across schemes (from equity to liquid to debt schemes) without any entry or exit loads, and of course, free of short-term capital gains tax.

d) And, the most important factor is selecting a life insurance company – a company that you can trust will outlive you.

A plan for retirement must be made 'NOW', irrespective of your age, profession and lifestyle. If you are working, it does not matter how many years you have to retirement. What's important is you must have a retirement plan in place.

The sooner you plan for retirement, the easier it gets. Mr Sharma, 31, who plans to retire at the age of 65, needs a corpus of Rs 1 crore,  to meet all his goals and expenses on retirement.

He has 34 years for retirement and, because he can expect 10% per annum on his investments, he needs to save Rs 3,000 per month to meet his goal. However, if he was 45 years old and wanted to retire at age 65 with the same needs and goals, he would need to save over four times i.e. Rs.13,200 per month.

(Also read - Your goals, not your age, make asset allocation decisions)

It’s time you planned for the golden years of retirement right away.

The author, Lovaii Navlakhi, is a Certified Financial Planner and the Managing Director of International Money Matters Pvt. Ltd. He can be contacted at lovaii@internationalmoneymatters.com

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