Say goodbye to your tension and hello to your pension!

Why fear retirement when you can ease into it gently with a solid plan for the remainder of your life?

For people who have worked hard for the better part of their lives, retirement should be the next big adventure. Instead, the idea of bidding adieu to their job and a stable income strikes fear in the hearts of so many potential retirees. They fear an impending dependence on their children for daily sustenance and curtailing of their way of life.

But retirement need not be an ominous full stop to one’s life. In fact, it should be a phase of life to celebrate one’s achievements and hard work. It must be a time of peace and harmony after a lifetime spent in providing for the family. But this peace and stability can come only when one is financially prepared for it.

How can one prepare for retirement? One can consider taking a pension plan to ease the financial strain of retirement.

Journeying from income to pension

It is not easy to reconcile oneself to the idea of not having a steady income post-retirement. Especially in today’s times, where even a high salary cannot combat high living costs and inflation, a lack of income can frighten any retiree.

But the key lies in planning well for the impending retirement. The retirement planning must begin when one is in one’s 30s and earning a steady salary. Leaving it for later can often be dangerous: one may not be able to amass a good fund of money to use by the time one retires.

Apart from regular savings every month, every working person must invest in a good pension plan that helps one with a large corpus of money when one retires. This fund can be put to a variety of uses — from funding daily living expenses to medical expenses and even buying a smaller home for retirement.

A pension plan is an insurance-cum-investment product that assures the policy holder of good returns when the plan matures. The premiums paid towards it are pooled together till they reach a certain limit, after which they are invested in high quality securities. Thereafter, the principal investment is left untouched while the plan grows as returns are netted for the investment.

The pension plan provides a monthly (or lump sum, depending on the insurer) pay-out on maturity, just like a pension. The best part is, that one need not be 60 years of age to retire. One may even retire at age 45 to pursue other interests and live in style!